Review of Qur’anic Research, Vol. 4 no. 5 (2018)

Review of Qur’anic Research, Vol. 4 no. 5 (2018)

In the latest installment of the Review of Qur’anic Research (Vol. 4, no.5), Zohar Hadromi-Allouche (University of Aberdeen) reviews Shahab Ahmed’s Before Orthodoxy: The Satanic Verses in Early Islam (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2017).

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In her review, Hadromi-Allouche writes… “Through discussions of fifty early reports about the satanic verses, the current volume strives to emphasize the broad acceptance in early Islam of this story. It presents the foundational historical data concerning the story and discusses how Muslims treated this story during these first two hundred years of Islam. The later conceptual change towards this story is not discussed, as Ahmed meant to treat it in later volumes. Since this story represents the ways in which the early Muslim community perceived Muḥammad’s prophethood and divine revelation, the author regards it as a good example of how orthodoxy is created and a truth claim becomes exclusive…”

 

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Before Orthodoxy: The Satanic Verses in Early Islam

“One of the most controversial episodes in the life of the Prophet Muhammad concerns an incident in which he allegedly mistook words suggested by Satan as divine revelation. Known as the Satanic verses, these praises to the pagan deities contradict the Islamic belief that Allah is one and absolute. Muslims today—of all sects—deny that the incident of the Satanic verses took place. But as Shahab Ahmed explains, Muslims did not always hold this view.

Before Orthodoxy

Before Orthodoxy wrestles with the question of how religions establish truth—especially religions such as Islam that lack a centralized authority to codify beliefs. Taking the now universally rejected incident of the Satanic verses as a case study in the formation of Islamic orthodoxy, Ahmed shows that early Muslims, circa 632 to 800 CE, held the exact opposite belief. For them, the Satanic verses were an established fact in the history of the Prophet. Ahmed offers a detailed account of the attitudes of Muslims to the Satanic verses in the first two centuries of Islam and traces the chains of transmission in the historical reports known as riwāyah.

Touching directly on the nature of Muhammad’s prophetic visions, the interpretation of the Satanic verses incident is a question of profound importance in Islam, one that plays a role in defining the limits of what Muslims may legitimately say and do—issues crucial to understanding the contemporary Islamic world.“

Harvard University Press
$49.95 • £39.95 • €45.00
ISBN 9780674047426
Publication: April 2017

Disclaimer: This content is courtesy of Harvard University Press.

Before Orthodoxy: The Satanic Verses in Early Islam

“One of the most controversial episodes in the life of the Prophet Muhammad concerns an incident in which he allegedly mistook words suggested by Satan as divine revelation. Known as the Satanic verses, these praises to the pagan deities contradict the Islamic belief that Allah is one and absolute. Muslims today—of all sects—deny that the incident of the Satanic verses took place. But as Shahab Ahmed explains, Muslims did not always hold this view.

Before Orthodoxy

Before Orthodoxy wrestles with the question of how religions establish truth—especially religions such as Islam that lack a centralized authority to codify beliefs. Taking the now universally rejected incident of the Satanic verses as a case study in the formation of Islamic orthodoxy, Ahmed shows that early Muslims, circa 632 to 800 CE, held the exact opposite belief. For them, the Satanic verses were an established fact in the history of the Prophet. Ahmed offers a detailed account of the attitudes of Muslims to the Satanic verses in the first two centuries of Islam and traces the chains of transmission in the historical reports known as riwāyah.

Touching directly on the nature of Muhammad’s prophetic visions, the interpretation of the Satanic verses incident is a question of profound importance in Islam, one that plays a role in defining the limits of what Muslims may legitimately say and do—issues crucial to understanding the contemporary Islamic world.”

Harvard University Press
$49.95 • £39.95 • €45.00
ISBN 9780674047426
Publication: April 2017

Disclaimer: This content is courtesy of Harvard University Press.