{"title":"Approaches to the Investigation of Speech Genres in the Qur'an","authors":"D. Stewart","doi":"10.3366/jqs.2022.0489","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3366/jqs.2022.0489","url":null,"abstract":"This contribution provides a methodological overview of the investigation of speech genres in the Qur’an. Drawing on Biblical form criticism, the ethnography of speech, and Bakhtin's theory of speech genres, as well as recent studies devoted to the form criticism of the Qur’an and earlier Qur’anic studies scholarship on individual genres, it points out the importance of generic conventions for the interpretation of Qur’anic passages, highlights the types of evidence on which investigators ought to focus in the investigation of genres, and identifies oversights and pitfalls that have affected earlier scholarship and should be taken into account in future work. Close attention must be paid to generic labels, meta-generic discourse, repeated elements, conventional features of individual genres such as introductory formulas, concluding formulas, and characteristic words, phrases, and constructions. The discussion highlights the ways in which texts that belong to individual genres are embedded in suras or longer passages within suras and points out that the Qur’an not only draws on pre-existing genres but also modifies and transforms them.","PeriodicalId":43884,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Quranic Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2022-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44031805","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Belal Abu-Alabbas, Michael Dann, and Christopher Melchert (eds), Modern Hadith Studies: Continued Debates and New Approaches","authors":"S. Burge","doi":"10.3366/jqs.2022.0492","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3366/jqs.2022.0492","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":43884,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Quranic Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2022-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47932994","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Amir Rastin Toroghi, Seyyed Mortaza Hosseini Shahrudi, Shima Pooyanejad
{"title":"Do We Go Back to Where We Came From? Mullā Ṣadrā's Philosophical Exegesis on the Paradise of Adam and the Promised Paradise of the Afterlife","authors":"Amir Rastin Toroghi, Seyyed Mortaza Hosseini Shahrudi, Shima Pooyanejad","doi":"10.3366/jqs.2021.0480","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3366/jqs.2021.0480","url":null,"abstract":"The cosmological location and identity of the Paradise in which Adam and Eve dwelled and from which, we are told in Q. 7:22 and 24, they were sent down to earth after giving in to Satan’s temptation and approaching the forbidden tree, has long been a controversial issue among exegetes and theologians. Ṣadr al-Dīn Muḥammad b. Ibrāhīm b. Yaḥyā Qawāmī Shīrāzī Mullā Ṣadrā (d. 1050/1640), a flag-bearer for the philosophical and mystical exegesis of the Qur’an, is one of those who has engaged with this question. The subject is important because it is closely connected with several important anthropological Qur’anic topics: the philosophy of the creation of humankind and their earthly abode; the states of human existence before earthly life on this world, and in the descending journey to it; as well as the connections between these states and those following death and in the ascending journey. An analysis of Ṣadrā’s approach to the issue of Adam’s Paradise has implications for both our appreciation of his philosophical understanding of the Qur’an and his methodology, as well as a clearer understanding of his contribution to Islamic philosophical thought. Mullā Ṣadrā took the view that the location of one Paradise on the descending arc of the circle of being, and a second on the ascending arc of this circle, indicate the stages of human existence before and after this world. He believed that these two Paradises suggest the same reality, though from two different aspects; the first shows the inward and indistinct aspect of the human soul while the second represents its outward and distinct side.","PeriodicalId":43884,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Quranic Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2021-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45318324","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Ibn ʿAjība's ‘Oceanic Exegesis of the Qur'an': Methodology and Features","authors":"Omneya Ayad","doi":"10.3366/jqs.2021.0477","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3366/jqs.2021.0477","url":null,"abstract":"Aḥmad Ibn ʿAjība (d. 1224/1809) was a prominent Sufi mystic who lived in Morocco during the thirteenth/seventeenth century. He stood out as an intellectual theoretician in the field of Qur’anic esoteric hermeneutics as he was one of the few scholars who managed to convey theoretical concepts and esoteric theories of Qur’anic interpretation in a language that is accessible to those who are not well versed in Sufism. In this paper Ibn ʿAjība’s famous Qur’an commentary al-Baḥr al-madīd fī tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-majīd (‘The Oceanic Exegesis of the Qur’an’) will be thoroughly examined, with an emphasis on the key features and the methodological approaches used in the composition of both its exoteric and esoteric aspects. The first section of this paper will examine the historical development of esoteric and Sufi Qur’an exegesis, so as to situate Ibn ʿAjība’s commentary within this genre. A thorough analysis will be given to the key features, guiding principles, and different methodologies adopted by various esoteric Qur’an commentaries. The second section will explore the most influential sources utilised by Ibn ʿAjība to inform the exoteric and esoteric dimensions of al-Baḥr al-madīd. In order to evaluate the extent to which these sources impacted upon the composition of al-Baḥr al-madīd, an analysis of their salient features and the main methodological approaches of these sources will be conducted. It is also important to analyse why Ibn ʿAjība chose certain sources over others, and to clarify the extent to which he depended upon these sources in composing al-Baḥr al-madīd. The third section of this paper will outline the methodology which Ibn ʿAjība adopted when he composed the esoteric dimension of his Qur’an commentary.","PeriodicalId":43884,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Quranic Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2021-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49219484","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A Zaydī Qur’an Commentary from Yemen: An Introduction to Tajrīd al-Kashshāf maʿa ziyādat nukat liṭāf","authors":"Scott C. Lucas","doi":"10.3366/jqs.2021.0478","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3366/jqs.2021.0478","url":null,"abstract":"This article provides an introduction to Tajrīd al-Kashshāf, a Qur’an commentary written by the Yemeni Zaydī scholar Ibn Abī’l-Qāsim (d. 837/1433–1434) that remains unpublished. Despite his reputation as a partisan Zaydī, Ibn Abī’l-Qāsim’s Qur’an commentary draws exclusively upon Sunni tafsīr works, especially al-Zamakhsharī’s al-Kashshāf, al-Wāḥidī’s al-Wasīṭ, and Ibn al-Jawzī’s Zād al-masīr. Through a careful analysis of his commentary on the Sūrat al-Najm (Q. 53) and Q. 5:55, this article illuminates Ibn Abī’l-Qāsim’s sources and exegetical techniques. It contains a critical edition of Ibn Abī’l-Qāsim’s commentary on Sūrat al-Najm and highlights the intimate relationship between Zaydī and Sunni Qur’anic exegesis.","PeriodicalId":43884,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Quranic Studies","volume":"18 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2021-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41289510","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Islamic Mary: Between Prophecy and Orthodoxy","authors":"Younus Y. Mirza","doi":"10.3366/jqs.2021.0479","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3366/jqs.2021.0479","url":null,"abstract":"This article traces the medieval debate over the potential prophecy of the Islamic Mary (or Maryam). The debate is initiated by the Andalusian exegete and scholar Ibn Ḥazm (d. 456/1064) who argues that women, most importantly Mary, could be prophets because they were spoken to directly by God or His messengers. The argument is continued by al-Qurṭūbī (d. 671/1273), who makes a special case for Mary’s prophecy because the angel Gabriel is believed to have come close to her and ‘breathed’ his spirit into her. Mary is, furthermore, he asserts, one of the greatest prophets because she accepted God’s will without any question or scepticism. However, the argument that Mary was a prophet was refuted by the Damascene exegete Ibn Kathīr (d. 774/1373), who argued that Mary was not a prophet but rather truthful and righteous ( ṣiddīqa) according to the Qur’an. He bases his position on the fact that the Qur’an does not term any woman a prophet, and that she did not follow the path of those named as prophets, who called their people to a particular mission and cause. Ibn Kathīr’s argument eventually won the day as his tafsīr has become, in modern times, the most widespread and popular of all Qur’an commentaries.","PeriodicalId":43884,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Quranic Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2021-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46212989","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Understanding the Qur'an Through Sura Structure: Reading Q. 86 and Q. 88","authors":"M.A.S. Abdel Haleem","doi":"10.3366/jqs.2021.0482","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3366/jqs.2021.0482","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":43884,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Quranic Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2021-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47896226","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Abraham Gazed upon the Stars and Said ‘innī saqīm’: The Influence of a ṣaḥīḥ ḥadīth on the Interpretation of Q. 37:88–89, and a Thematic and Structural Reading of Abraham's Story in the Qur'an","authors":"Nadeen Alsulaimi","doi":"10.3366/jqs.2021.0472","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3366/jqs.2021.0472","url":null,"abstract":"Historically mufassirs have disagreed on the meaning of the words innī saqīm spoken by Abraham as he gazed upon the stars in Q. 37:88–89. This lack of consensus can be traced back to the existence of a ṣaḥīḥ ḥadīth concerning the three lies that Abraham is said to have spoken in his lifetime. Some exegetes have attempted to reconcile the Qur'anic verses with this ḥadīth by emphasising Abraham's integrity and truthfulness and his use of white lies ( al-maʿārīḍ), while others have ignored the ḥadīth and instead rely on a contextual reading. This article analyses the meaning of Q. 37:88–89, and also explores the other suras that reference this narrative (Q. 6, Q. 21, and Q. 26). To do this it will utilise ring theory ( naẓariyyat al-tanāẓur) and exegesis of the Qur'an by the Qur'an ( tafsīr al-Qurʾān bi'l-Qurʾān), as well as the concept of the interconnectedness of Q. 37 and Q. 38 (inasmuch as these two consecutive suras both elaborate on the attributes of Abraham), so as to explore how this approach influences our understanding of this narrative. It will posit that the reference to ‘gazing upon the stars’ in Q. 37 is not synonymous with the reference to ‘looking at the planets’ in Q. 6, and that Abraham's people were well aware of his belief in God, and consequently did not correlate his gazing at the stars with belief in them. The study concludes that a contextual reading of the sura indicates that first, the phrase innī saqīm in Q. 37:88 connotes ‘contemplation’; second, the ‘sickness’ mentioned in Q. 37:89 denotes sickness of the body and mind, and that Q. 21 and Q. 26 affirm that Abraham's people understood it as such; and finally, that Q. 38 confirms the strength of Abraham's argument.","PeriodicalId":43884,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Quranic Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2021-07-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48795434","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Representation of Animals in the Qur'an and the Mufaḍḍaliyyāt","authors":"Nicolas Payen","doi":"10.3366/jqs.2021.0467","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3366/jqs.2021.0467","url":null,"abstract":"The position that the Qur'an allocates to animals has been studied either according to the principles of internal criticism, or within the framework of theologians’ reception of the Qur'an. Departing from these two options, this paper will draw a comparison with the Mufaḍḍaliyyāt, an anthology gathering poems relatively near to the Qur'an in space and time. It will be shown that neither poetry nor the Qur'an possess a word that refers to animals as a class, but the latter sketches a cursory categorisation system of the living world. In contrast to widespread opinion, the poets are not more meaningfully interested in animals, with the noticeable exception of mounts, than the sacred book. Furthermore, network modelling enables us to discover that both documents depict sharply contrasting bestiaries. We should therefore revise the generally accepted idea that the Qur'an appeared in a Bedouin society similar to that of the poets. However, close textual comparison between the representation of animals in the Qur'an and the poems in the Mufaḍḍaliyyāt gives us a better understanding of Q. 22:27, which would not be possible without recourse to poetry.","PeriodicalId":43884,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Quranic Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2021-07-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48593938","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}