{"title":"Refiguring Abraham: On the Prophetological Reframing of the Biblical Patriarch in Sūrat al-Anbiyāʾ","authors":"Jake Kildoo","doi":"10.1080/09596410.2022.2157560","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This essay illustrates the Qur’an’s theologically creative conversation with Late Antique literature through an analysis of the text’s depiction of Abraham in Sura 21. After a short overview of modern scholarly engagement with the Qur’an’s ‘biblical subtext’ and some subsequent methodological remarks, I examine the ancient and Late Antique Jewish background to the qur’anic story of Abraham in Terah’s idol shop. Here, I elucidate the theological and exegetical concerns prompting these haggadic speculations about the patriarch’s life. In a word, Jewish exegetes employed this story as a way of demonstrating the distinct righteousness of Israel’s lineal forebear. Then, through comparative analysis, I show that the Qur’an takes up and redeploys this motif in the service of articulating its own prophetology, thereby subverting the earlier genealogical framing of this story. Notably, this repackaging of the Abraham-Terah narrative serves a polemical goal. In the last resort, the Qur’an is keen to show that its own followers – not Jews or Christians – are the true heirs of Abraham.","PeriodicalId":45172,"journal":{"name":"Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations","volume":"40 1","pages":"355 - 375"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4000,"publicationDate":"2022-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09596410.2022.2157560","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"RELIGION","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
ABSTRACT This essay illustrates the Qur’an’s theologically creative conversation with Late Antique literature through an analysis of the text’s depiction of Abraham in Sura 21. After a short overview of modern scholarly engagement with the Qur’an’s ‘biblical subtext’ and some subsequent methodological remarks, I examine the ancient and Late Antique Jewish background to the qur’anic story of Abraham in Terah’s idol shop. Here, I elucidate the theological and exegetical concerns prompting these haggadic speculations about the patriarch’s life. In a word, Jewish exegetes employed this story as a way of demonstrating the distinct righteousness of Israel’s lineal forebear. Then, through comparative analysis, I show that the Qur’an takes up and redeploys this motif in the service of articulating its own prophetology, thereby subverting the earlier genealogical framing of this story. Notably, this repackaging of the Abraham-Terah narrative serves a polemical goal. In the last resort, the Qur’an is keen to show that its own followers – not Jews or Christians – are the true heirs of Abraham.
期刊介绍:
Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations (ICMR) provides a forum for the academic exploration and discussion of the religious tradition of Islam, and of relations between Islam and other religions. It is edited by members of the Department of Theology and Religion, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom. The editors welcome articles on all aspects of Islam, and particularly on: •the religion and culture of Islam, historical and contemporary •Islam and its relations with other faiths and ideologies •Christian-Muslim relations. Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations is a refereed, academic journal. It publishes articles, documentation and reviews.