COMING SOON…the Journal of the International Qur’anic Studies Association, Volume 1 (2016). See pricing and details below. Members will receive FREE online access to JIQSA.
© International Qur’anic Studies Association, 2016. All rights reserved.
Edited by Werner Kelber and Paula A. Sanders, this volume is the proceedings of an April 2008 conference convened at Rice University that brought together experts in the three monotheistic religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The papers discussed at the conference are presented here, revised and updated. The thirteen contributions comprise the keynote address by John Miles Foley; three essays on Judaism and the Hebrew Bible; three on the New Testament; three on the Qur’an; and two summarizing pieces, by the Africanist Ruth Finnegan and the Islamicist William Graham respectively.
The central thesis of the book states that sacred Scripture was experienced by the three faiths less as a text contained between two covers and a literary genre, and far more as an oral phenomenon. In developing the performative, recitative aspects of the three religions, the authors directly or by implication challenge their distinctly textual identities. Instead of viewing the three faiths as quintessential religions of the book, these writers argue that the religions have been and continue to be appropriated not only as written but also very much as oral authorities, with the two media interpenetrating and mutually influencing each other in myriad ways.
Oral-Scribal Dimensions of Scripture, Piety, and Practice has been published by Wipf and Stock Publishers and is available for purchase from their website.
Edited by Elisabeth Kendall, Ahmad Khan
Recent events in the Islamic world have demonstrated the endurance, neglect and careful 
reshaping of the classical Islamic heritage. A range of modern Islamic movements and intellectuals has sought to reclaim certain concepts, ideas, persons and trends from the Islamic tradition. Reclaiming Islamic Tradition: Modern Interpretations of the Classical Heritage profiles some of the fundamental debates that have defined the conversation between the past and the present in the Islamic world. Qur’anic exegesis, Islamic law, gender, violence and eschatology are just some of the key themes in this study of the Islamic tradition’s vitality in the modern Islamic world. This book will allow readers to situate modern developments in the Islamic world within the longue durée of Islamic history and thought.
Table of contents
Acknowledgements
Notes on Contributors
Introduction, Elisabeth Kendall & Ahmad Khan
1. Modern Shiʿite Legal Theory and the Classical Tradition, Robert Gleave
2. Muḥammad Nāṣīr al-Dīn al-Albānī and Traditional Hadith Criticism, Christopher Melchert
3. Islamic Tradition in an Age of Print: Editing, Printing, and Publishing the Classical Tradition, Ahmad Khan
4. Reaching into the Obscure Past: The Islamic Legal Heritage and Reform in the Modern Period, Jonathan A. C. Brown
5. Reading Sūrat al-Anʿām with Muḥammad Rashīd Riḍā and Sayyid Quṭb, Nicolai Sinai
6. Contemporary Iranian Interpretations of the Qur’an and Tradition on Women’s Testimony, Karen Bauer
7. Ibn Taymiyya between Moderation and Radicalism, Jon Hoover
8. The Impact of a Sixteenth-Century Jihad Treatise on Colonial and Modern India, Carole Hillenbrand
9. Jihadist Propaganda and Its Exploitation of the Arab Poetic Tradition, Elisabeth Kendall
10. Contemporary Salafi Literature on Paradise and Hell: The Case of ʿUmar Sulaymān al-Ashqar, Christian Lange
Index
Edited by Annabel Keeler and Sajjad H. Rizvi, this volume is the first to focus specifically on esoteric interpretation as a phenomenon in the field of Qur’anic exegesis and to show the plurality of ways it has been manifested in different Muslim traditions. Concern with the inner, spiritual implications of the Qur’an has usually been associated with mystical and Sufi trends in Islam. However, there have also been exegetes among the Shi’a, as well as among philosophers, who sought to supplement their understanding of the Qur’an’s apparent meaning by eliciting deeper significations through contemplation of the verses.
The Spirit and the Letter examines the multiplicity of these esoteric approaches, covering a period that extends from the third/ninth century to the present. It includes chapters on philosophical and Shi’i exegetes, such as Ibn Sīnā (d. 428/1037) and Mullā Ṣadrā (d. 1045/1635-6), in addition to studies of a range of Sufi perspectives, from al-Sulamī (d. 412/1021) and al-Qushayrī (d. 465/1072) to Rūzbihān Baqlī (d. 606/1209), as well as representatives of the Ibn ‘Arabī and Kubrāwī schools. Considered together, the range of studies in this volume enable us to see what these approaches have in common and how they differ, and how the hermeneutics and content of exegesis are affected by doctrinal and ideological perspectives of various traditions and periods. Furthermore, they deepen our understanding of what actually constitutes esoteric interpretation and the need to look beyond the letter to the spirit of the Qur’anic word.
Table of contents
Notes on Contributors
Introduction Annabel Keeler and Sajjad Rizvi
Part I: Comparative Hermeneutics
1: The Countless Faces of Understanding: On Istinbāṭ, Mystical Listening and Sufi Exegesis, Sara Sviri
2: The Interpretation of the Arabic Letters in Early Sufism: Sulamī’s Sharḥ ma‘ānī al-ḥurūf, Gerhard Böwering
3: Towards a Prophetology of Love: The Figure of Jacob in Sufi Commentaries on Sūrat Yūsuf, Annabel Keeler
4: Making it Plain: Sufi Commentaries in English in the Twentieth Century, Kristin Zahra Sands
Part II: Commentators and Texts in Focus
5: Outlines of Early Ismaili-Fatimid Qur’an Exegesis, Meir M. Bar-Asher
6: Ibn Sīnā’s Qur’anic Hermeneutics, Peter Heath
7: Qushayrī’s Exegetical Encounter with the Mi‘rāj, Martin Nguyen
8: Shahrastānī’s Mafātīḥ al-Asrār: A Medieval Ismaili System of Hermeneutics?, Toby Mayer
9: Qūnawī’s Scriptural Hermeneutics, Richard Todd
10: Eschatology and Hermeneutics in Kāshānī’s Ta’wīlāt al-Qur’ān, Pierre Lory
11: Simnānī and Hermeneutics, Paul Ballanfat
12: Speech, Book, and Healing Knowledge: The Qur’anic Hermeneutics of Mullā Ṣadrā, Janis Esots
13: Aspects of Mystical Hermeneutics and the Theory of the Oneness of Being (waḥdat al-wujūd) in the work of ‘Abd al-Ghanī al-Nābulusī (d. 1143/1731), Bakri Aladdin
14: The Sufi Hermeneutics of Ibn ‘Ajība (d. 1224/1809): A Study of Some Eschatological Verses of the Qur’an, Mahmut Ay
15: Beyond the Letter: Explanation (tafsīr) versus Adaptation (taṭbīq) in Ṭabāṭabā’ī s al-Mīzān, Amin Ehteshami and Sajjad Rizvi
‚
Spätantike‘ ist nicht nur ein hochgradig ambivalenter Begriff in der europäischen Wissenschaftsgeschichte. Lange Zeit bezeichnete er eine Epoche, die durch den Niedergang einer ehemals blühenden antiken Hochkultur geprägt war. In den letzten drei Jahrzehnten ist die Spätantike zunehmend zu einem internationalen und interdisziplinären Forschungsprojekt geworden, und ein Durchbruch zu einer inklusiveren Sicht zeichnet sich ab.
Die Autoren dieses Bandes setzen sich aus ihrer jeweiligen Fachperspektive heraus mit spätantiken Wissensformen und -beständen in der formativen Phase des Islams auseinander und führen den Lesern auf diese Weise unterschiedliche Reflexionen von Antiken im unmittelbaren und weiteren Umfeld des Korans vor Augen. Soziale Praktiken, Textkulturen und Materialitäten rücken dabei gleichermaßen in den Blick; historiografische Modelle werden hinterfragt und neu perspektiviert.
Statt ‚Spätantike‘ als eine Epoche zu fassen, die mit der Verkündigung des Korans ihr Ende findet, wird diese neu als ein ‚Denkraum‘ konturiert, in dem Religionen, Sprachen, Institutionen und soziale Praktiken in vielfältigen Beziehungen stehen. In einem so aufgespannten epistemischen Raum vollzieht sich Wissenswandel innerhalb komplexer Netzwerke. Die frühislamischen Wissensbestände werden so, anders als die Forschung zum Koran und den frühislamischen Wissenschaften lange postulierte, als Teil des spätantiken Denkraums erkennbar.
By Mehdy Shaddel*
Modern scholarship on the Qur’an has, since long, pointed out three problems with the 
traditional interpretation of Q Isrāʾ 17:1 as a scriptural testimonium for Muḥammad’s ‘ascension’ story. The first is that there is nothing in the verse, and not even in the whole pericope, to suggest that the ‘servant’ (ʿabd) mentioned therein must be identified with Muḥammad – although there is nothing against this identification either.[i] Secondly, the verse does not even allude to an ascension; it only speaks of a ‘nocturnal journey’ (isrāʾ).[ii] The third, and most worrying, problem of the ‘miʿrāj verse’ is in its seeming incongruity with the rest of the pericope. This apparent incongruity is so obvious that it has led some scholars to propose that the verse has been interpolated into the text in an attempt to produce a prooftext for Muḥammad’s ascension story.[iii] However, this has been shown to be untenable because of the textual cross-references between the verse and the rest of the pericope.[iv]
Apparently under the influence of the view that the verse stands out from the rest of the sūrah, almost no scholar has so far attempted to read Q 17:1 against the verses immediately following it (vv. 2-8) or vice versa. Some scholars, nevertheless, have granted that v. 1 may be a reference to a miraculous experience of its ʿabd (who they take the liberty of identifying with Muḥammad).[v] Such a miraculous journey, as Uri Rubin observes, is well-known in the Judaeo-Christian apocalyptic tradition.
On the other hand, vv. 4-7 retail a familiar story. It is the account of the destruction of the First Temple in Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylonian invasion of the Kingdom of Judah and the final destruction of the rebuilt Temple by the Romans in 70 CE, two cataclysmic events that for centuries continued to hold sway over the imaginaire of the Jews.[vi] These two events were, accordingly, retold, in the guise of ‘prophecies’, in many Jewish, and occasionally also Christian, apocalypses from the late first century CE onwards.[vii] One wonders, then, whether Q 17:1-8 is not a retelling of one such apocalypse, with v. 1 (the so-called ‘miʿrāj verse’) being the description of its seer’s initiatory experience?
What is more, there could be little doubt that in v. 4 the Qur’an is alluding to an apocalypse. The verse asserts that God had beforehand determined those events to happen “in the book”.[viii] In other words, the Qur’an here is speaking of a book containing ‘prophecies’ of events – historical events – to come. This kind of already-fulfilled (or ex eventu) ‘prophecies’ are amply found in apocalyptic writings.
The possibility that the Qur’an might exhibit knowledge of apocryphal literature and, in particular, apocalypses is almost indisputable. Elsewhere in the Qur’an, we hear of ṣuḥuf (sing.ṣaḥīfah), a term used to describe “ancient compositions” (al-ṣuḥuf al-ūlā) attributed to Abraham and Moses, which, in all likelihood, is an Arabic calque on the Hebrew gilāyōn and the Syriac gelyānā, ‘scroll, apocalypse’.[ix] More to the point, emphasis on the role of divine providence in the unfolding of history is part and parcel of apocalyptic historiography. In apocalyptic historiography, the providential determination of history is to be seen in the phenomenon of translatio imperii according to a preconceived divinely-ordained scheme which, however, is usually said to be a chastisement for human sinfulness – presumably to shed any possible doubts as to the justness of the Almighty.[x] The same themes are evidently present in the qur’anic passage under discussion: a supra-historical view of the Israelite past and future that sees both God’s hand and human action behind all of their turns of fortune. The Qur’an, however, does not deploy this theology of history to convince its audience of the imminence of the eschaton or the inevitability of human suffering, but, rather, of the quickness of divine retribution. Thus the pericope seems to exhibit all formal features of the genre ‘apocalypse’.[xi]
Open questions
Scholars have identified two pseudepigraphic compositions as the apocalypse behind this pericope, the Apocalypse of Abraham, proposed by Geneviève Gobillot,[xii] and Testamentum Mosis (also known as Assumptio Mosis), put forward by Heribert Busse. Of these two, the Apocalypse of Abraham does contain a reference to the Roman sack of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple, but it could hardly be “the book” cited by our pericope, for the allusion to “the book granted to Moses” in v. 2, which is presumably the referent of “the book” of v. 4, renders Abraham an impossible candidate for the ʿabd of v. 1.
Busse fails to connect v. 1 with the rest of the pericope himself and, thus, does not identify its ʿabd with the apocalyptic visionary. But, in the light of the foregoing, the identification of theTestamentum Mosis as the apocalyptic composition quoted here by the Qur’an entails that Moses is the to be identified with the ʿabd. This, however, cannot be maintained either, for although theTestamentum contains references to two desecrations of the Temple, its visionary does not embark on an otherworldly journey. Moreover, Moses’ association with al-masjid al-ḥarām, wherever it was, is not self-evident in the light of the qur’anic data. On the other hand, Abraham seems a suitable candidate in this respect, as, contrary to Moses, he is particularly associated with al-masjid al-ḥarām in the Qur’an and is even said to be its founder. As may be seen, there is evidence for and against both candidates in the text, and, thus, the issue remains open.
What about the location of the two mosques mentioned? Van Ess, Neuwirth, and Rubin have compellingly argued for the identification of al-masjid al-aqṣā with the Jerusalem Temple on the basis of the verse’s description of it as being contained in a blessed environment, a description used elsewhere in the Qur’an of the Holy Land.[xiii] The identity of al-masjid al-ḥarām still remains elusive, but it would not be hard to imagine that the Qur’an is indeed referring to its messenger’s hometown here, in keeping with its project of nativising biblical Heilsgeschichte.[xiv]
* Mehdy Shaddel is a scholar of Islamic history specialising in the political history of the early caliphate (AD 632-836), the Arabic historiographical tradition, the historical Muḥammad, the Qurʾān, and late-ancient religion. He has written several articles on such topics as the Second Muslim Civil War, ethno-religious identities in the Qur’an, and Islamic eschatology.
[i] Josef Horovitz, “Muhammeds Himmelfahrt”, Der Islam 9 (1919), 159-183, at 160; A.A. Bevan, “Mohammed’s Ascension to Heaven”, in Karl Marti (ed.), Studien zur semitischen Philologie und Religionsgeschichte: Julius Wellhausen zum Siebzigsten Geburtstag (Giessen: Alfred Töpelmann, 1914), 51-61, at 54; followed by John Wansbrough, Quranic Studies: Sources and Methods of Scriptural Interpretation (Amherst: Prometheus, 2004), 67-9, who sees a better candidate in Moses, apparently in the context of the exodus of the Israelites (adducing, inter alia, Q al-Dukhān 44:23 as a potential parallel).
[ii] For the significance of this term, see Rubin, “Muḥammad’s Night Journey (isrāʾ) to al-Masjid al-Aqṣā: Aspects of the Earliest Origins of the Islamic Sanctity of Jerusalem”, al-Qantara 29 (2008), 151.
[iii] Theodor Nöldeke and Friedrich Schwally, Geschichte des Qorāns, vol. i: Über den Ursprung des Qorāns (Leipzig: Weicher, 1909), 136 (translated into English as The History of the Qurʾān. ed. and trans. Wolfgang Behn [Leiden: Brill, 2013], 111-2); Horovitz, “Muhammeds Himmelfahrt”, 160; more explicitly so in Bevan, “Mohammed’s Ascension”, 53; more recently in Angelika Neuwirth,Studien zur Komposition der mekkanischen Suren (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2007; originally published in 1981), 101, based on stylistic grounds. Neuwirth has since backtracked on her earlier position by contriving a redactional history of the verse in the context of the whole sūrah which integrates it back into the original corpus of the Qur’an; see her “From the Sacred Mosque to the Remote Temple: Sūrat al-Isrāʾ (Q. 17), between Text and Commentary”, in eadem, Scripture, Poetry and the Making of a Community: Reading the Qur’an as a Literary Text (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014), 216-52, at 225-7 (originally published in J.D. McAuliffe, B. Walfish, and J. Goering [eds], With Reverence for the Word: Medieval Scriptural Exegesis in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam [Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003], 376-407).
[iv] Ibid.
[v] Rubin, “Muḥammad’s Night Journey”, 152-3; Neuwirth, “From the Sacred Mosque”, passim.
[vi] This identification, which is also advocated by the tradition, has been challenged by Busse, “Destruction of the Temple”, 2-3, on the basis of his own identification of Testamentum Mosis as the ‘source’ of the verse.
[vii] Many such texts are discussed in Kenneth R. Jones, Jewish Reactions to the Destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70: Apocalypses and Related Pseudepigrapha (Leiden: Brill, 2011).
[viii] Cf. Busse, “Destruction of the Temple”, 3, who suggests the Testamentum Mosis as a likely candidate.
[ix] Q al-Aʿlā 87:18-9; al-Najm 53:36-7; and Ṭāhā 20:133. Haggai Ben-Shammai, “Ṣuḥuf in the Qurʾān – A Loan Translation for ‘Apocalypses’”, in idem, S. Shaked, and S. Stroumsa (eds), Exchange and Transmission across Cultural Boundaries: Philosophy, Mysticism and Science in the Mediterranean World (Jerusalem: The Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, 2013), 1-15.
[x] On the function of ex eventu prophecies in apocalyptic literature, see Christopher Rowland, The Open Heaven: A Study of Apocalyptic in Judaism and Early Christianity (London 1982), 136-55; andnow Lorenzo DiTommaso, “Pseudonymity and the Revelation of John”, in J. Ashton (ed.), Revealed Wisdom: Studies in Apocalyptic in Honour of Christopher Rowland (Leiden 2014), 305-315.
[xi] The classic definition of the genre is to be found in John J. Collins, “Introduction: Towards the Morphology of a Genre”, in idem (ed.), Apocalypse: The Morphology of a Genre (special issue ofSemeia 14 [1979]), 1-20.
[xii] Geneviève Gobillot, “Apocryphes de l’Ancien et du Nouveau Testament”, in Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi (ed.), Dictionnaire du Coran (Paris: Bouquins, 2007), 57-63.
[xiii] Josef van Ess, “Vision and Ascension: Sūrat al-Najm and Its Relationship with Muḥammad’s miʿrāj”, Journal of Qur’anic Studies 1 (1999), 47-62, at 48; Rubin, “Muḥammad’s Night Journey”, 152; also alluded to in Neuwirth, “From the Sacred Mosque”, 225 and 234.
[xiv] For further examples of the Qur’an’s appropriation of Judaeo-Christian folk stories and their situation in an ‘Arabian’ milieu, see Joseph Witztum, “The Foundation of the House (Q 2:127)”,BSOAS 72 (2009), 25-40; and Mehdy Shaddel, “Studia onomastica coranica: al-raqīm, caput Nabataeae”, forthcoming in Journal of Semitic Studies 62 (2017).
By Emran El-Badawi
Contrary to popular belief there is not merely one reception of the Qur’an. In other words, there is no single method of reading, understanding and interpreting Islamic scripture, but rather many. Islamic civilization today has over 1 billion adherents, a rich medieval scholarly-cultural tradition spanning over 1 millennium, and a growing number of new (Muslim and non-Muslim) confessional as well as reformist movements reading the text for a modern world. Demonstrating the complex layers of this diversity was the subject of an conference I convened on Communities of the Qur’an: Modern and Classical Interpretations of Islamic Scripture.
Communities of the Qur’an was dedicated to intellectual inquiry as well as religious dialogue. At its heart this project asks the question, what is the dialectical relationship between the Qur’an and its “communities of interpretation?” How is the relationship between community and scripture mediated? Can a better understanding of each community’s reception, hermeneutics and cultural assumptions bring about a better understanding of the Qur’an for the 21st century? This project also seeks to revive the “ethics of disagreement” found in Classical Islam. The Qur’an interpreters, jurists and theologians of medieval Baghdad, Cairo and Cordoba serve as examples of peaceful coexistence and tolerance in the face of vehement disagreement. On numerous occasions the historical record shows that Muslims from different legal schools or denominations, as well as Christians, Jews, Zoroastrians and others, agreed to disagree.
There is little disagreement about the authenticity of the Qur’an text we possess today.
However, given Islam’s long history, several confessional, scholastic and reformist
communities developed in the shadow of scripture, and arrived at sometimes diverging interpretations of its key passages. These communities include Shia, Sunni, Ahmadi, Feminist and other interpretive traditions. When the text commands, “ask the people of remembrance if you know not” (Q 16:43; 21:7), is it referring to the guided Imams of the prophet Muhammad’s house, to Jews and Christians or another group? Similarly, are there modern re-interpretations of Q 4:34 which states, “men are greater than women” on account of their wealth? Does the text’s identification of its own narratives as the “Sunnah of God” (Q 33:38, 62; 40:23) and His “Hadith” (Q 45:6; 56:81; 77:50) facilitate or forbid the development of a new prophetic Hadith and Sunnah? These are some of the questions and key passages around which have gathered the Communities of the Qur’an.
The challenges of today’s political climate seem greater than that of our predecessors. The religious, social and cultural diversity of the global Muslim community and the richness of its people’s traditions are under threat by extremist fundamentalism. It is Muslims themselves who have paid the greatest price for the intolerance, violence and ‘sectarianism’ undertaken in the name of religion. Furthermore, the discourse surrounding global terrorism and Islamophobia, which has spread in the wake of the September 11th attacks, 2001 and the Arab uprisings of 2011, has only polarized members on both sides of the debate. As a result, the Qur’an, Islam’s sacred scripture and an integral part of world literature, has become the subject of misuse and misunderstanding. More than ever before, leaders from within and without the global Muslim ummah have the opportunity to protect the diversity of Islamic civilization and promote religious tolerance as well as peaceful coexistence broadly speaking.
The conference was hosted by The Boniuk Institute for the Study and Advancement of Religious Tolerance. It hosted presentations by eight international speakers (in order of presentations: Dr. Ingrid Mattson, Dr. Sajjad Rizvi, Dr. Ali Asani, Dr. Ahmed Subhy Mansour, Dr. Amina Wadud, Councelor Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Dr. Todd Lawson, Dr. Aminah Beverly McCloud), three panel chairs (Dr. Hina Azam, Dr. David Cook and Dr. Emran El-Badawi), welcoming remarks by Boniuk director and Rice University Professor, Dr. Paula Sanders, and parting words by philanthropist, Dr. Milton Boniuk. The conference took place March 10-11, 2016, and will eventually turn into a book. Visitors can access VIDEO to all eight presentations at the official conference website HERE.
© International Qur’anic Studies Association, 2016. All rights reserved.
Cover of Qur’ans: Books of Divine Encounter (Bodleian Library Publishing, 2015)
In the latest installment of the Review of Qur’anic Research 2, no. 4, Yasin Dutton reviews Keith E. Small’s Qurʾāns: Books of Divine Encounter (Oxford: Bodleian Library, Oxford University Press, 2015). In this book, Keith Small presents the Qurʾan collection at the Bodleian Library, Ashmolean Museum, and the David Collection in Copenhagen. The book presents a visual display of the manuscripts in a mainly chronological arrangement. It highlights the theme of the Qurʾan being the point of contact with the Divine. The first two chapters present the earliest manuscripts in the collection. The next two chapters presents the art of manuscript illumination. The final three chapters emphasizes the European encounter with the Qurʾan, global dissemination, and talismanic copies of the Qurʾan.
Full access to the Review of Qur’anic Research (RQR) is available in the members-only area of our IQSA website. Not an IQSA member? Join today to enjoy RQR and additional member benefits!
By Emran El-Badawi
Jésus et l’islam (arte.tv)
Six hours and thirty minutes is the duration of the new seven part documentary series on Jesus and Islam. The film Jésus et l’islam / Jesus und der Islam is presented in three versions (French, German and English) and features twenty six academic specialists from around the world–including several current and former IQSA members. The specialists include historians, philologists, theologians, archeologists, experts on manuscripts and other subjects. The film was directed by Jérôme Prieur and Gérard Mordillat and is a production of Archipel 33, ARTE and in collaboration with the Centre National du Cinema and the Bibliothèque Nationale.
The documentary film was aired the week of December 8 and has been widely acclaimed in the French and German media. The film itself was in production for years, where directors Prieur and Mordillat methodically crafted a documentary exploring the role of Jesus in shaping Islam. The most important text for consideration, therefore, was the Qur’an–Islam’s holiest scripture and oldest historical document. In doing so the directors have asked the experts questions about the distinctly Islamic theological perspective on Christ and how and why it differs from Christianity. As the film demonstrates answering such questions can be complex and even controversial. Therefore, it also introduces viewers to the different academic schools (traditionalist, revisionist or otherwise) and their perspectives on the Qur’an, Jesus and Muhammad.
Jérôme Prieur and Gérard Mordillat (arte.tv)
Each part of Jesus and Islam explores a major theme. The seven themes are:
Jésus selon Mahomet (seiul.com)
The seventh part of the series also inspired a book, Jésus selon Mahomet,in which the directors discuss their own views and perspectives. Prieur and Mordillat are seasoned writers and film directors who, among other things, specialize in documentary films on the history and formation of the Abrahamic religions. Their earlier works include Corpus Christi, L’Origine du Christianisme and L’apocalypse.
There will be an exclusive, members only screening of Jesus and Islam at the next IQSA annual meeting on November 18-21, 2016 in San Antonio, Texas, USA. CLICK HERE to renew your IQSA membership for 2016 NOW!
© International Qur’anic Studies Association, 2015.
Cover of Qur’ans: Books of Divine Encounter (Bodleian Library Publishing, 2015) Keith E. Small
Keith E. Small’s Qur’ans: Books of Divine Encounter (Oxford: Bodleian Library Publishing, 2015) is a unique visual history of the Qur’an told through pictures of manuscripts in the Bodleian’s collection, supplemented by Qur’ans in the Ashmolean Museum’s collection, and an image of a page of the Sanaa palimpsest held in the David Collection in Copenhagen. Francesca Leoni, Youssef Jameel Curator of Islamic Art at the Ashmolean, helped with the captions for their items. As much as possible the story is told through the pictures of the manuscripts and their captions, providing a visual guide. The book also highlights the beginnings of the study of the Qur’an in Western scholarship, Qur’ans from around the world, and personal uses of the Qur’an.
The major theme throughout the book is the theological idea of the Qur’an’s text being a point of contact with the Divine. Additionally, comments have been made concerning the development of the Qur’an’s text and methods for denoting the presence of recitation systems (qirā’āt) in manuscripts.
The history of the development of the Qur’an as a book is told through pictures of manuscripts in the first three chapters. The first chapter “From Preaching to a Divine Book” concentrates on the first three Islamic centuries with the rapid development of grandeur in parchment manuscripts. Chapter two “The Transition from Parchment to Paper” features the development of new scripts and the application of full pointing. Chapter Three “The Majestic Heights of Qur’anic Art” features Qur’ans at the peak of the artistic traditions in their brilliancy of color, spiritual symbolism, and intricacy of execution. Chapter Four “European Renaissance Encounters with the Qur’an” traces the initial encounters from the use of Medieval Latin translations the initial attempts at dispassionate study of the Qur’an on its own terms in 17th century centers of learning as the scholarly interest in ancient and foreign languages was being revived and extended. Chapter Five “Global Dissemination of the Qur’an” presents some of the variety of styles of the Qur’an found internationally. Chapter Six “Personal Manuscripts of the Qur’an” highlights the devotional use of the Qur’an in small books of Qur’an selections with prayers, and also talismanic uses of the Qur’an for protection as seen in miniature Qur’ans, the Qur’an on scroll and a Qur’an Jama (shirt). In all, this is an attempt to present a brief overview the history of the Qur’an as a book through representative pictures of important manuscripts.
The photography is stunning, and the book has been written to be suitable as a gift book, a coffee table book, and also as a text book.
Keith E. Small is an independent manuscript researcher, an Associate Research Fellow of London School of Theology, a Qur’anic Manuscript Consultant at the Bodleian Library at Oxford University. He is the author of Textual Criticism and Qur’an Manuscripts (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2011).
*Book cover from publisher.
By Dr. Ali Mabrouk | للدكتور علي مبروك *
The following is an excerpt from the Introduction to Ali Mabrouk, Nusūs ḥawl al-qur’ān: fī al-sa’y warā’ al-qur’ān al-ḥayy, (Texts about the Qur’an: In Search of the Living Qur’an; 2014). In it, Dr. Mabrouk discusses the clash between mobilizing the Qur’an for political purposes (min ajl al-sulṭān), and a humanistic reading of the text (min ajl al-insān). He finds the former more widespread due to the work of classical Islamic jurists, and especially in the wake of the recent Arab revolutions, and proposes the latter as an alternative. He asserts that not only does this humanistic approach better preserve the rights of people, but it also gives us a better understanding of both the qur’anic text and God. (E. El-Badawi)
Fath ʻAli Shah Qajar with two princes in attendance, receiving Mirza Riza Quli Munshi al-Mamalik. From the Shahanshah namah by Fath ʻAli Khan Saba. Qajar, dated 1225/1810 (BL IO Islamic 3442, f 64v) (http://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk)
من أجل الإنسان
(نبذة من كتاب نصوص حول القرآن في السعي وراء القرآن الحي)
تتأتى ضرورة قولٍ جدَّيٍ في القرآن الآن، من حقيقة أن العالم الواقعي لم يكن، في الأغلب، هو ساحة المعركة التي اندلعت، في الإسلام، حول ما إذا كان الإنسان قادراً وفاعلاً أو أنه محض كيانٍ عاجزٍ، لا قدرة له ولا تأثير. بل إن هذه المعركة قد اتخذت- وللغرابة- ساحاتها الرئيسة على امتداد فضاءات “الميتافيزيقي” والمفارق؛ وأعني من الله والقرآن بالذات. فالذين تصارعوا حول صفات الله، مثلاً؛ وكان منهم من أثبتها “قديمة وزائدة على الذات” في مقابل من نفى عنها أن تكون هكذا، وأثبتها، فقط، بوصفها “اعتبارات في النظر إلى الذات”، كانوا- في الحقيقة- يتخذون من الصفات ساحة يحسمون عليها معركتهم حول الإنسان بالأساس. ويترتب ذلك على حقيقة أن القول في الله بأن صفاته “قديمة وزائدة على ذاته “قد اقترن- وكان ذلك لازماً- بالقول في الإنسان “أنه لا تأثير لقدرته في مقدوره (أو فعله) أصلاً، بل القدرة والمقدور واقعان بقدرة الله تعالى”[1]. ويرتبط ذلك بأن قول هؤلاء بالقيام الأولاني القديم للصفة بالذات[2]، لابد أن يحيل إلى الدور التابع للوعي في مسألة، أو فعل، الوصف؛ وعلى النحو الذي ينتهي إلى تثبيت الحضور التابع أو الخاضع للإنسان، على العموم. ولعل هذا المعنى يتأكد حين يدرك المرء أن من تصوروا الصفات- في المقابل- على أنها اعتباراتٍ في النظر إلى الذات، قد عملوا على تثبيت الحضور الفاعل للإنسان؛ بسبب ما انتهوا إليه من “إن الخلقَ هم الذين يجعلون لله الأسماء والصفات”[3]؛ ويعني بما هي اعتباراتهم في النظر إلى جلال ذاته.
وإذا كان الله قد تبدى، هكذا، كساحة للتصارع حول الإنسان، فإنه لن يكون غريباً أن يستحيل القرآن، بدوره، إلى ساحة لنفس هذا الصراع أيضاً؛ وأعني من حيث ما ينطوي عليه من إغراء التعالي به إلى عالم الميتافيزيقي والمفارق. وهكذا فإن من تصوروا القرآن “صفة قديمة لله”، كانوا مشغولين بتثبيت وضعٍ بعينه للإنسان، يكون فيه مُستلباً وعاجزاً، وذلك بمثل ما إن من سيتصورونه- في المقابل- “خطاباً يخص الإنسان” كانوا مشغولين بتثبيت تصورٍ للإنسان يكون فيه قادراً على الفعل في العالم.
وإذ يبدو، هكذا، أن الخطاب النافي للإنسان يعلق نفسه على قولٍ في الصفات والقرآن، لا يرى إليهما إلا في تعلقهما بالله فحسب، بل ويلح على طمس حقيقة دخول الإنسان والعالم في بنائهما؛ فإنه يلزم التأكيد على أن كلاً من الله والقرآن إنما يحضران، وفقط، كمحض قناعين لمن يُراد إخفاءه وراءهما (وهو السلطان)؛ وبصرف النظر عما تؤدي إليه هذه الممارسة من التشويش على جلال الله وفاعلية القرآن. وبالطبع فإن ذلك يعني أن الأمر يتعلق، في العمق، بمواجهة بين “الإنسان” و”السلطان”؛ وفقط فإن “السلطان”- أو بالأحرى فقهاؤه- يستدعون “الله”، ومعه القرآن، ليكسبون به معركتهم، على نحو حاسم. فالسلطان حاضرٌ حضوراً جوهرياً في قلب “القول في الصفات”، وإلى حد استحالته إلى “أصلٍ” يجري القياس عليه في تأويل بعض الصفات التي يصف الله بها نفسه في نص التنزيل؛ وكان ذلك إلى الحد الذي مضى معه الغزالي إلى أن “الحضرة الإلهية لا تُفهم إلا بالتمثيل إلى الحضرة السلطانية”[4]. وبالمثل فإنه حاضرٌ في ما يمكن القول أنه فعل التعالي بالقرآن من “خطابٍ يخص الإنسان” إلى كونه “صفة قديمة من صفات الله”؛ حيث إن ما سيقوم به السلطان، من خلال فقهائه، من وضع نفسه موازياً أو مكمِّلاً للقرآن، (وذلك من خلال المأثور المعروف “إن الله يزع بالسلطان ما لا يزع بالقرآن”)، كان لابد أن ينعكس عليه تعالياً بسلطته إلى الوضع الذي تكون فيه مطلقة، وخارج أي إمكانية للسيطرة عليها. وإذن فإن كلاً من الله والقرآن إنما يجري استدعاءهما للدخول في المواجهة مع الإنسان، من أجل مجرد التعالي بالسلطان. وإذا كانت هذه المواجهة قد انتهت إلى الانتقاص من جلال الله[5]، ومن فاعلية وحيوية القرآن، فإن السعي إلى تحريرهما من قبضة السلطان- الذي يمسك بهما بوساطة خدمه من الفقهاء- لن يكون فقط من أجل الإنسان.
وبالطبع، فإنه لا يمكن تصور أن تكون هذه الممارسة- التي يمكن اختزالها في “الأطلقة”- هي محض تاريخٍ فات وانقضى، وبات مدفوناً في تراث القدماء. إذ الحق أنها كانت هناك؛ حاضرةً وفاعلةً طوال الوقت. وفقط، فإنها إذا كانت قد تخفَّت على مدى عقودٍ ماضية (تحت برقع الحداثة الذي ظل يشفُّ- رغم ثقله- عن كل ما يرقد تحته من البنيات البالية العتيقة)، فإنها- ومع احتلال تيارات الإسلام السياسي لصدارة المشهد في دول الربيع العربي- قد عادت للاشتغال الصريح، من دون أي تخفٍّ أو مواربة[6]. وإذ عادت للاشتغال، فإنها راحت تضع أمام الأعين حقيقة “أن ما يتهدد الإنسان، إنما يتهدد- بالمثل- الله والقرآن”. وللآن، فإن تعرية هذه الحقيقة يبدو وكأنه الإنجاز الأوحد لثورات العرب الأخيرة؛ وهو من نوع الإنجاز الثمين، على أي حال. إذ هو القادر- لا سواه- على البلوغ بخطاب “الأطلقة” السلطوي- الذي يجعل الله والقرآن محض قناعين يشتغل بهما- إلى نهايته؛ وبما يفتح الباب أمام إنضاج شروط نمطٍ من التطور مغايرٍ لذلك النمط المشوَّه الذي عرفته مصر، والعالم العربي. ولعل ذلك يحيل إلى أن خطاب “الأطلقة”- وليس الله أو القرآن أو الدين على العموم- هو ما يتهدد مسار التحول الديمقراطي في العالم العربي؛ وبما يعنيه ذلك من خطورة اختزال التحول الديمقراطي في مجرد العملية السياسية فحسب. بل إنه يبدو أن اكتمال هذا المسار مشروطٌ ببناء خطابٍ للأنسنة؛ يتحرر فيه الله والقرآن من التصورات التي تجعلهما يحضران كمجرد قناعين لسلطة مستبدة. إذ الحق أن متانة الارتباط بين الله والقرآن والإنسان تبلغ حداً من الجوهرية يكون معه تحرير التصور الخاص بالواحد منها شرطاً في تحرير التصور المتعلق بالحدين الأخرين. ومن هنا إمكان اعتبار السعي وراء القرآن الحي- في هذا الكتاب- بمثابة خطوة على طريق استكمال الشروط التي تجعل من الميسور إنجاز التحول الديمقراطي المأمول.
وإذن فالأمر- في الختام- لا يتعلق بأي سعيٍ إلى طرد الدين من واقع الناس- بحسب ما قد يتقوَّل البعض عن عمدٍ وسوء قصد- بقدر ما يتعلق بالسعي إلى تحرير الدين، نفسه، من قبضة خطابٍ لا يكتفي بالحط من شأن “الإنسان”، بل ويضطر- في سعيه إلى تثبيت هذا الحط- إلى التنقيص من جلال الله، وضرب أسوار الجمود والصمت حول القرآن. ومن هنا إمكان القول بأن ما يكون من أجل الإنسان، إنما هو- أيضاً- من أجل الله والقرآن، والعكس.
[1] – الرازي: محصل أفكار المتقدمين والمتأخرين، تحقيق: طه عبد الرؤوف سعد (مكتبة الكليات الأزهرية) القاهرة، دون تاريخ، ص 194.
[2] – فالصفة- حسب هؤلاء- هي “الشيئ الذي يوجد بالموصوف أو يكون له، ويكسبه الوصف الذي هو النعت…وهذا الوصف (هو) غير الصفة القائمة بالله تعالى”. أنظر: الباقلاني: التمهيد في الرد على الملحدة والمعطِلة والرافضة والخوارج والمعتزلة، تحقيق: يوسف مكارثي (المكتبة الشرقية) بيروت 1957، ص 213- 214.
[3] – المصدر السابق، ص 217.
[4] – الغزالي: إلجام العوام عن علم الكلام، تحقيق: محمد المعتصم بالله البغدادي (دار الكتاب العربي) بيروت، ط 1، 1985، ص 52، وراجع أيضاً: الرازي: أساس التقديس في علم الكلام (شركة مكتبة ومطبعة مصطفى البابي الحلبي وأولاده بمصر) القاهرة، 1935، ص 82- 131.
[5] – فقد اضطر هذا الخطاب، من أجل تثبيت وضع “العاجز” غير الفاعل للإنسان، إلى أن ينسب إلى الله أفعالاً يستحيل إلا أن تكون من فعل الإنسان؛ بسبب ما تنطوي عليه من المثالب والنواقص. وبالرغم من أنها تكون- والحال كذلك- من قبيل الأفعال التي يأنف حتى الإنسان من نسبتها إلى نفسه؛ من مثل الاحتكار وغلاء الأسعار والغصب وغيرها، فإن الخطاب قد نسبها إلى الله لكي يجرد الإنسان من أي قدرة على الفعل، غير عابئٍ بما تؤدي إليه هذه النسبة إلى الله من التنقيص من جلاله سبحانه. وبالطبع فإن ذلك مما يؤكد على حقيقة أن كليَّة القدرة الإلهية لم تكن هي القصد من وراء نفي الحضور الفاعل للإنسان، بقدر ما هو الحرص على التعالي بالسلطان؛ على النحو الذي تنتفي معه مسؤوليته عن أفعال بطشه (كالاحتكار والسلب والغصب والقتل وغيرها)، وذلك عبر نسبتها إلى الله باعتباره الفاعل الأوحد. ومن هنا ما قاله أحدهم للحسن البصري عن ملوك بني أمية: “يا أبا سعيد: هؤلاء الملوك يسفكون دماء المسلمين ويأكلون أموالهم، ويقولون: إنما أعمالنا تجري على قَدَرِ الله”؛ كاشفاً عن الحقيقة المتخفية وراء نسبة أفعال البشر إلى الله. أنظر: علي مبروك: النبوة؛ من علم العقائد إلى فلسفة التاريخ (دار التنوير للطباعة والنشر)، بيروت، ط 1، 1993، ص 178- 180.
[6] – حين يصف أحدهم المتمردين على سلطة رئيسه المصري (الإسلاموي)، بأنهم يكررون فعل إبليس عندما تمرد وعصى أمر الله، فإنه ينسى أنه يرتفع برئيسه- والحال كذلك- إلى مقام “الله”. فإذ يجعل من المتمرد “إبليساً”، فإنه يجعل ممن يتمرد عليه هؤلاء الناس/الأبالسة “إلهاً”.
© International Qur’anic Studies Association, 2014. All rights reserved.
The success of IQSA’s annual meetings in San Diego, CA (2014) and Baltimore, MD (2013) have contributed positively to the tremendous work done every year by both the Society of Biblical Literature (SBL) as well as the American Academy of Religion (AAR). For more information, please see the excerpts below from two articles in Publishers Weekly.
Topics being buzzed about by the religion academy included Islam, once again at the top of the list. The International Qur’anic Studies Association, which meets in conjunction with AAR/SBL and was established in 2012 as a group related to SBL, earlier this year became an independent learned society and has grown to 450 members. (2014)
One of the most significant developments at this year’s AAR/SBL conference was the debut of the International Quranic Studies Association, which had its inaugural gathering as an affiliate scholars group and is co-directed by Emran El-Badawi, director of Arab studies at the University of Houston, and Gabriel Said Reynolds, professor of Islamic studies and theology at the University of Notre Dame. It’s an idea whose time clearly has come, and publishing about Islam LINK in general continues to flourish. (2013)
© International Qur’anic Studies Association, 2013. All rights reserved.