Pub Date : 2023-01-02DOI: 10.1080/09596410.2023.2176024
Sayed Hassan Akhlaq
thorough methodology and clear writing style make the handbook accessible to a broader audience without undermining its scholarly contribution. It will stimulate discussion that will be of interest to those studying and following Islamic sects, Islamic political thought and Islamic movements. The material demonstrates the dynamism and diversity of Islam while largely avoiding oversimplification or essentialism. In addition, the chapters make several contributions to the current literature on secularization, modernism, anti-colonialism and reactionism in current Islam through consideration of their historical background. Upal and Cuzack offer a timely work, and the volume is likely to become the standard primer on the subject. It will serve as a gateway to readers new to the fields of Islamic sects and movements, including militant groups such as ISIS, or to the history of the Sunni and Shi’a traditions, and will appeal to those interested in the variety of influential cultural and political currents in Islam around the world.
{"title":"Freedom: Christian and Muslim Perspectives: A Record of the Eighteenth Building Bridges Seminar","authors":"Sayed Hassan Akhlaq","doi":"10.1080/09596410.2023.2176024","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09596410.2023.2176024","url":null,"abstract":"thorough methodology and clear writing style make the handbook accessible to a broader audience without undermining its scholarly contribution. It will stimulate discussion that will be of interest to those studying and following Islamic sects, Islamic political thought and Islamic movements. The material demonstrates the dynamism and diversity of Islam while largely avoiding oversimplification or essentialism. In addition, the chapters make several contributions to the current literature on secularization, modernism, anti-colonialism and reactionism in current Islam through consideration of their historical background. Upal and Cuzack offer a timely work, and the volume is likely to become the standard primer on the subject. It will serve as a gateway to readers new to the fields of Islamic sects and movements, including militant groups such as ISIS, or to the history of the Sunni and Shi’a traditions, and will appeal to those interested in the variety of influential cultural and political currents in Islam around the world.","PeriodicalId":45172,"journal":{"name":"Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations","volume":"23 1","pages":"103 - 105"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2023-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87402129","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}
Pub Date : 2023-01-02DOI: 10.1080/09596410.2023.2190249
C. Tieszen
{"title":"In Search of the True Religion: Monk Jurjī and Muslim Jurists Debating Faith and Practice","authors":"C. Tieszen","doi":"10.1080/09596410.2023.2190249","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09596410.2023.2190249","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45172,"journal":{"name":"Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations","volume":"3 1","pages":"108 - 109"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2023-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88748456","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}
Pub Date : 2023-01-02DOI: 10.1080/09596410.2023.2192857
Abdessamad Belhaj
light the ways in which this genre of literature functioned for Arabicand Syriac-speaking Christian communities, but they also serve to frame the text of Jurjī’s debate as the intellectual legacy of these earliermajlis texts. For Jurjī’s debate, besides purporting to be an account of an authentic conversation, incorporates nearly all of the main points of theological discussion germane to disputation literature. This makes the account of that debate a kind of encyclopaedia of topics debated between Christians and Muslims and demonstration of the ways in which a Christian monk handled them. It makes sense, in this light, that the text of Jurjī’s debate would be copied and circulated widely because it could serve to reassure Christian readers of the assuredness of their faith in contexts of competing religious claims. All of these details make Ibrahim’s and Hackenburg’s introduction a suitable overview of many of the main points of Christian–Muslim theological discussion, so it will be beneficial for students and scholars who are new to this area of study or genre of literature, and scholars well acquainted with the literature now have a fine edition of the work that is suitable for research.
{"title":"Hétérodoxes et non musulmans dans la pensée d’Abū Ḥāmid al-Ġazālī","authors":"Abdessamad Belhaj","doi":"10.1080/09596410.2023.2192857","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09596410.2023.2192857","url":null,"abstract":"light the ways in which this genre of literature functioned for Arabicand Syriac-speaking Christian communities, but they also serve to frame the text of Jurjī’s debate as the intellectual legacy of these earliermajlis texts. For Jurjī’s debate, besides purporting to be an account of an authentic conversation, incorporates nearly all of the main points of theological discussion germane to disputation literature. This makes the account of that debate a kind of encyclopaedia of topics debated between Christians and Muslims and demonstration of the ways in which a Christian monk handled them. It makes sense, in this light, that the text of Jurjī’s debate would be copied and circulated widely because it could serve to reassure Christian readers of the assuredness of their faith in contexts of competing religious claims. All of these details make Ibrahim’s and Hackenburg’s introduction a suitable overview of many of the main points of Christian–Muslim theological discussion, so it will be beneficial for students and scholars who are new to this area of study or genre of literature, and scholars well acquainted with the literature now have a fine edition of the work that is suitable for research.","PeriodicalId":45172,"journal":{"name":"Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations","volume":"139 2 1","pages":"109 - 111"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2023-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89883439","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}
Pub Date : 2023-01-02DOI: 10.1080/09596410.2023.2167357
Sayed Hassan Akhlaq
at a mortuary installation where it cannot be determined if the carving was made at the time of burial or later (51). There are times when Al-Jallad’s refusal to draw connections between the Safaitic inscriptions and other religious traditions and topoi seems perhaps overly cautious. He engages in a lengthy discussion of the most frequently named deity, the goddess Allat, placing her within multiple pre-Islamic cosmoi, including Chaldaea, Syria, Rome and Nabataea, but does not move beyond this into tracing connections to the Qur’an or the Islamic era, despite the clear linguistic connections to terms used in the Qur’an to describe relations between humans and the Divine, such as ʿbd (slave) or sḍq (righteous one or devotee) or themes such as deities enacting justice or vengeance (62–4). One unanswered question in this work pertains to gender. The overwhelming majority of inscriptions are made by, for and about men and their feelings and deeds; women appear only occasionally, either as objects of longing (a sister) or as initiators (a daughter accomplishing a rite for someone ‘on account of her property’, followed by an invocation to ‘favor her and aid her’ (8)). While it would likely be prudent not to draw broad conclusions from such brief mentions, the apparent connection between wealth and favour seems intended to justify this particular woman’s accomplishment of a rite that seemingly was otherwise the prerogative of men. It further raises the question of what kinds of religious practices were engaged in by women and why certain practices seem to have been favoured by and/or were exclusive to men, particularly in light of the apparent lack of priests and institutions. Along the same lines, it is disappointing that Al-Jallad comments upon the prominent featuring of female figures in pre-Islamic Arabian rock art, mostly as dancing and singing girls playing instruments, often in the context of battle, but offers no discussion of this important presence. The chapter on figurative representations was disappointingly brief at a mere two pages, suggesting that the artistic representations of rock art were less interesting to the author than the inscriptions, despite the gender disparity. Even at times when Al-Jallad raises questions about which themes are covered (droughts, migrations, warfare and pasturing) and which are not (births of children, marriage, abundant rain) in prayers (89), he does not interrogate the relationship between these themes and the potential gender dynamics of the society. Overall, this work offers solid new evidence of pre-Islamic religious practices in Northern Arabia, adding to the knowledge base, even as some questions remain unanswered.
{"title":"The Routledge Companion to the Qur’an","authors":"Sayed Hassan Akhlaq","doi":"10.1080/09596410.2023.2167357","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09596410.2023.2167357","url":null,"abstract":"at a mortuary installation where it cannot be determined if the carving was made at the time of burial or later (51). There are times when Al-Jallad’s refusal to draw connections between the Safaitic inscriptions and other religious traditions and topoi seems perhaps overly cautious. He engages in a lengthy discussion of the most frequently named deity, the goddess Allat, placing her within multiple pre-Islamic cosmoi, including Chaldaea, Syria, Rome and Nabataea, but does not move beyond this into tracing connections to the Qur’an or the Islamic era, despite the clear linguistic connections to terms used in the Qur’an to describe relations between humans and the Divine, such as ʿbd (slave) or sḍq (righteous one or devotee) or themes such as deities enacting justice or vengeance (62–4). One unanswered question in this work pertains to gender. The overwhelming majority of inscriptions are made by, for and about men and their feelings and deeds; women appear only occasionally, either as objects of longing (a sister) or as initiators (a daughter accomplishing a rite for someone ‘on account of her property’, followed by an invocation to ‘favor her and aid her’ (8)). While it would likely be prudent not to draw broad conclusions from such brief mentions, the apparent connection between wealth and favour seems intended to justify this particular woman’s accomplishment of a rite that seemingly was otherwise the prerogative of men. It further raises the question of what kinds of religious practices were engaged in by women and why certain practices seem to have been favoured by and/or were exclusive to men, particularly in light of the apparent lack of priests and institutions. Along the same lines, it is disappointing that Al-Jallad comments upon the prominent featuring of female figures in pre-Islamic Arabian rock art, mostly as dancing and singing girls playing instruments, often in the context of battle, but offers no discussion of this important presence. The chapter on figurative representations was disappointingly brief at a mere two pages, suggesting that the artistic representations of rock art were less interesting to the author than the inscriptions, despite the gender disparity. Even at times when Al-Jallad raises questions about which themes are covered (droughts, migrations, warfare and pasturing) and which are not (births of children, marriage, abundant rain) in prayers (89), he does not interrogate the relationship between these themes and the potential gender dynamics of the society. Overall, this work offers solid new evidence of pre-Islamic religious practices in Northern Arabia, adding to the knowledge base, even as some questions remain unanswered.","PeriodicalId":45172,"journal":{"name":"Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations","volume":"32 1","pages":"96 - 99"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2023-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80792999","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}
Pub Date : 2023-01-02DOI: 10.1080/09596410.2022.2157562
M. Whittingham
book itself is quite accessible to a broader readership, which is aided by the decision to publish it as open access. Creating the Qur’an is also significant for seeking to untangle the details surrounding this enigmatic text’s history and development. In this, Shoemaker’s breadth and depth of engagement helpfully advance the discussion. Negatively, Shoemaker’s critical engagement with Günter Lüling is minimal, while he entirely passes over the work of the pseudonymous Christoph Luxenberg. The direct relevance of their arguments to Shoemaker’s subject makes this omission unfortunate. Finally, this work has important implications for Christian–Muslim dialogue. There is a widespread belief among Muslims that, unlike the Qur’an, the Bible’s textual history has rendered it corrupted, which has prompted a detailed response. Shoemaker’s thesis that the Qur’an is a ‘composite and composed text’ (256) shows that both ‘holy books have a history’. Fred Donner rightly announced Creating the Qur’an to be ‘a milestone in Qur’anic studies’. It deserves to be read widely.
{"title":"The Gospel According to Sayyid Ahmad Khan (1817–1898): An Annotated Translation of Tabyīn al-kalām (Part 3)","authors":"M. Whittingham","doi":"10.1080/09596410.2022.2157562","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09596410.2022.2157562","url":null,"abstract":"book itself is quite accessible to a broader readership, which is aided by the decision to publish it as open access. Creating the Qur’an is also significant for seeking to untangle the details surrounding this enigmatic text’s history and development. In this, Shoemaker’s breadth and depth of engagement helpfully advance the discussion. Negatively, Shoemaker’s critical engagement with Günter Lüling is minimal, while he entirely passes over the work of the pseudonymous Christoph Luxenberg. The direct relevance of their arguments to Shoemaker’s subject makes this omission unfortunate. Finally, this work has important implications for Christian–Muslim dialogue. There is a widespread belief among Muslims that, unlike the Qur’an, the Bible’s textual history has rendered it corrupted, which has prompted a detailed response. Shoemaker’s thesis that the Qur’an is a ‘composite and composed text’ (256) shows that both ‘holy books have a history’. Fred Donner rightly announced Creating the Qur’an to be ‘a milestone in Qur’anic studies’. It deserves to be read widely.","PeriodicalId":45172,"journal":{"name":"Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations","volume":"53 1","pages":"91 - 94"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2023-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78029826","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}
Pub Date : 2023-01-02DOI: 10.1080/09596410.2023.2193498
D. Garaev
ABSTRACT This article offers a view of the process of the formation of post-Soviet Islam in Russia as a result of the post-secular interaction between academic and religious areas – the boundaries between which are shown to be significantly blurred. It argues that, in the study of post-Soviet Islam, insufficient attention has been paid to the complex interactions between Islam and the Russian academic field. The article aims to fill this gap by providing examples of how, on the one hand, secular scholars become Muslim actors – bringing their secular, most often Soviet intellectual baggage to the Muslim sphere – and, on the other, how members of the Muslim clergy seek to influence the Russian academic community by claiming a role in the production of academic knowledge about Islam and Muslims as equal actors. Despite the post-secular nature of this interaction, it is the secular academic side that dominates.
{"title":"Post-Secular Mirasism and Reforming Islam in Russia: From Euro-Islam to Confessional Scholarship","authors":"D. Garaev","doi":"10.1080/09596410.2023.2193498","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09596410.2023.2193498","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article offers a view of the process of the formation of post-Soviet Islam in Russia as a result of the post-secular interaction between academic and religious areas – the boundaries between which are shown to be significantly blurred. It argues that, in the study of post-Soviet Islam, insufficient attention has been paid to the complex interactions between Islam and the Russian academic field. The article aims to fill this gap by providing examples of how, on the one hand, secular scholars become Muslim actors – bringing their secular, most often Soviet intellectual baggage to the Muslim sphere – and, on the other, how members of the Muslim clergy seek to influence the Russian academic community by claiming a role in the production of academic knowledge about Islam and Muslims as equal actors. Despite the post-secular nature of this interaction, it is the secular academic side that dominates.","PeriodicalId":45172,"journal":{"name":"Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations","volume":"74 1","pages":"1 - 29"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2023-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"84932078","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}
Pub Date : 2023-01-02DOI: 10.1080/09596410.2023.2167370
Anna Hager
Hussaini (Akhlaq), Sayed Hassan Hussaini. ‘Rationality in Islamic Peripatetic Enlightenment Philosophies’. Philosophy Emerging from Culture, ed. William Sweet, George F. McLean, Oliva Blanchette, and Wonbin Park, 71–85. Washington, DC: The Council for Research in Values and Philosophy, 2013. Hussaini (Akhlaq), Sayed Hassan. ‘Islamic Philosophy between Theism and Deism’. Revista Portuguesa de Filosofia 72, no. 1 (2016): 65–84.
{"title":"Les lieux de culte de Beyrouth et sa proche banlieue","authors":"Anna Hager","doi":"10.1080/09596410.2023.2167370","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09596410.2023.2167370","url":null,"abstract":"Hussaini (Akhlaq), Sayed Hassan Hussaini. ‘Rationality in Islamic Peripatetic Enlightenment Philosophies’. Philosophy Emerging from Culture, ed. William Sweet, George F. McLean, Oliva Blanchette, and Wonbin Park, 71–85. Washington, DC: The Council for Research in Values and Philosophy, 2013. Hussaini (Akhlaq), Sayed Hassan. ‘Islamic Philosophy between Theism and Deism’. Revista Portuguesa de Filosofia 72, no. 1 (2016): 65–84.","PeriodicalId":45172,"journal":{"name":"Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations","volume":"23 1","pages":"99 - 101"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2023-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89274066","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}
Pub Date : 2023-01-02DOI: 10.1080/09596410.2023.2167346
Natana J. DeLong‐Bas
the commentary (e.g. 265); another is how SAK was ‘genuinely intrigued’ by the Bible (xxi). While the presentation in this volume is generally excellent (with the exception of a number of typos), a word is needed on certain quirks. Footnotes vary between, on the one hand, providing a source and sometimes background information, and on the other giving an ethical exhortation in which it is not entirely clear where SAK’s thought ends and the voice of one of the translators enters. Second, sometimes Hadith and Persian poetic quotations are sourced in footnotes, sometimes not, and the texts of these quotations, though conveniently given at the back of the volume, are listed without sources. This work is a very welcome contribution to the study of Muslim engagement with the Bible. It represents a serious and detailed study of a section of Gospel text by a prominent Muslim writer, and appears for the first time in a language other than Urdu. The translators have performed a much-needed service in making this text available to a wider readership, and anyone interested in South Asian Muslim responses to Christianity, or in Muslim engagement with the Bible will benefit. Readers will also be spurred on to read what is effectively a companion text, Ramsey’s God’s Word, Spoken or Otherwise.
{"title":"The Religion and Rituals of the Nomads of Pre-Islamic Arabia: A Reconstruction Based on the Safaitic Inscriptions","authors":"Natana J. DeLong‐Bas","doi":"10.1080/09596410.2023.2167346","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09596410.2023.2167346","url":null,"abstract":"the commentary (e.g. 265); another is how SAK was ‘genuinely intrigued’ by the Bible (xxi). While the presentation in this volume is generally excellent (with the exception of a number of typos), a word is needed on certain quirks. Footnotes vary between, on the one hand, providing a source and sometimes background information, and on the other giving an ethical exhortation in which it is not entirely clear where SAK’s thought ends and the voice of one of the translators enters. Second, sometimes Hadith and Persian poetic quotations are sourced in footnotes, sometimes not, and the texts of these quotations, though conveniently given at the back of the volume, are listed without sources. This work is a very welcome contribution to the study of Muslim engagement with the Bible. It represents a serious and detailed study of a section of Gospel text by a prominent Muslim writer, and appears for the first time in a language other than Urdu. The translators have performed a much-needed service in making this text available to a wider readership, and anyone interested in South Asian Muslim responses to Christianity, or in Muslim engagement with the Bible will benefit. Readers will also be spurred on to read what is effectively a companion text, Ramsey’s God’s Word, Spoken or Otherwise.","PeriodicalId":45172,"journal":{"name":"Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations","volume":"16 1","pages":"94 - 96"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2023-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75198538","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}
Pub Date : 2022-10-19DOI: 10.1080/09596410.2022.2132349
Peter Laffoon
ABSTRACT The aim of this article is to uncover a fuller meaning of the qur’anic word rūḥ through a critical analysis of the classical tafsīr tradition, challenging the prevailing scholarly opinion that rūḥ must be interpreted through the lens of that tradition. I demonstrate that classical Muslim exegetes restricted their interpretations of the word, saying that the rūḥ is either Gabriel, a super angel/metaphysical creature, a created soul or an inspiration from God, or else remaining silent and not offering any interpretation. They gave these interpretations even in cases where they were contradictory or implausible because other interpretations might have raised theological concerns rooted in the fear of conflating the rūḥ or Jesus with God. The rūḥ had to be interpreted as muḥdath (created) not qadīm (eternally existing), lest any implied anthropomorphic overtones might impinge upon God’s transcendence, and to avoid the theological implications of Jesus being rūḥ Allāh. This restriction on interpretation has substantially impacted later exegetes, philologists and Islamic scholars, obscuring the meaning of the qur’anic rūḥ. This article recommends a more critical reading of tafsīr in order uncover a fuller meaning of the qur’anic rūḥ.
{"title":"The Qurʾanic Word Rūḥ and Its Restricted Interpretations: An Analysis of Classical Tafsīr Tradition","authors":"Peter Laffoon","doi":"10.1080/09596410.2022.2132349","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09596410.2022.2132349","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The aim of this article is to uncover a fuller meaning of the qur’anic word rūḥ through a critical analysis of the classical tafsīr tradition, challenging the prevailing scholarly opinion that rūḥ must be interpreted through the lens of that tradition. I demonstrate that classical Muslim exegetes restricted their interpretations of the word, saying that the rūḥ is either Gabriel, a super angel/metaphysical creature, a created soul or an inspiration from God, or else remaining silent and not offering any interpretation. They gave these interpretations even in cases where they were contradictory or implausible because other interpretations might have raised theological concerns rooted in the fear of conflating the rūḥ or Jesus with God. The rūḥ had to be interpreted as muḥdath (created) not qadīm (eternally existing), lest any implied anthropomorphic overtones might impinge upon God’s transcendence, and to avoid the theological implications of Jesus being rūḥ Allāh. This restriction on interpretation has substantially impacted later exegetes, philologists and Islamic scholars, obscuring the meaning of the qur’anic rūḥ. This article recommends a more critical reading of tafsīr in order uncover a fuller meaning of the qur’anic rūḥ.","PeriodicalId":45172,"journal":{"name":"Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations","volume":"46 1","pages":"53 - 88"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2022-10-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"76378294","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}
Pub Date : 2022-10-02DOI: 10.1080/09596410.2022.2143228
Mohammad Amin Mansouri
Q 5.51 and its prohibition against friendship with Christians and Jews. Considine places this revelation in context, showing that it was meant to reflect the early skirmishes Muhammad had with Qurayshites and their Christian allies at the Battle of Badr (71). Difficult passages such as this can best be understood in historical context as opposed to generically applying them to all contexts and communities in all times and places. There is a subtle irony here: Considine is keen to contextualize and problematize qur’anic passages when it suits him but is entirely uninterested in doing so with other sources when such analysis could weaken or obscure his argument. But all of this continues to fit his goal, which is to help non-Muslim readers, especially Christian ones, to move beyond a narrative in which Christians and Muslims are endlessly opposed to one another. This is an understandable goal, though Considine would have done well to include more details about scholarly debate in footnotes so that interested readers, or those aware of some disagreement on a particular reading of history, might have a good, peer-reviewed, and authoritative source to which they could look for more details. For example, Considine might have suggested to readers that what we know about the encounter between Muhammad and the Christian monk Baḥīrā (7–10) is entirely based on hagiographical sources, originating over a wide span of time, and coming from a variety of Christian and Muslim authors, most of whom use the story for very different purposes. Such a caveat could appear in a footnote without any danger of making his readers suspect the veracity of the encounter or doubt that Muhammad was in contact with and influenced in various ways by Christians. The book’s final two chapters contain more evidence coming from later periods of Muhammad’s life and leadership. Here, Considine attempts to underline what Christians and Muslims share and how tolerance was the predominant theme during the time when the Qur’an and the wider Muslim community was taking shape. In the end, interested readers will have to look to other literature for more scholarly treatments of Muhammad’s life and his contacts with Christian communities. Not much from this literature is flagged by Considine, either in the body of the text or in the notes, but readers may very well be convinced by Considine that the connections between Islam and Christianity are much closer and intertwined than they might otherwise have been led to believe. In this sense, Considine’s book is a helpful one and a suitable starting point for those who want to begin to learn more about Muhammad and his encounters with Christians.
{"title":"The Essence of Reality: A Defense of Philosophical Sufism","authors":"Mohammad Amin Mansouri","doi":"10.1080/09596410.2022.2143228","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09596410.2022.2143228","url":null,"abstract":"Q 5.51 and its prohibition against friendship with Christians and Jews. Considine places this revelation in context, showing that it was meant to reflect the early skirmishes Muhammad had with Qurayshites and their Christian allies at the Battle of Badr (71). Difficult passages such as this can best be understood in historical context as opposed to generically applying them to all contexts and communities in all times and places. There is a subtle irony here: Considine is keen to contextualize and problematize qur’anic passages when it suits him but is entirely uninterested in doing so with other sources when such analysis could weaken or obscure his argument. But all of this continues to fit his goal, which is to help non-Muslim readers, especially Christian ones, to move beyond a narrative in which Christians and Muslims are endlessly opposed to one another. This is an understandable goal, though Considine would have done well to include more details about scholarly debate in footnotes so that interested readers, or those aware of some disagreement on a particular reading of history, might have a good, peer-reviewed, and authoritative source to which they could look for more details. For example, Considine might have suggested to readers that what we know about the encounter between Muhammad and the Christian monk Baḥīrā (7–10) is entirely based on hagiographical sources, originating over a wide span of time, and coming from a variety of Christian and Muslim authors, most of whom use the story for very different purposes. Such a caveat could appear in a footnote without any danger of making his readers suspect the veracity of the encounter or doubt that Muhammad was in contact with and influenced in various ways by Christians. The book’s final two chapters contain more evidence coming from later periods of Muhammad’s life and leadership. Here, Considine attempts to underline what Christians and Muslims share and how tolerance was the predominant theme during the time when the Qur’an and the wider Muslim community was taking shape. In the end, interested readers will have to look to other literature for more scholarly treatments of Muhammad’s life and his contacts with Christian communities. Not much from this literature is flagged by Considine, either in the body of the text or in the notes, but readers may very well be convinced by Considine that the connections between Islam and Christianity are much closer and intertwined than they might otherwise have been led to believe. In this sense, Considine’s book is a helpful one and a suitable starting point for those who want to begin to learn more about Muhammad and his encounters with Christians.","PeriodicalId":45172,"journal":{"name":"Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations","volume":"49 1","pages":"413 - 415"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2022-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85343792","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}
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