The Language of God: Understanding the Qur'an

The commonly accepted reading of the Qur'ān assumes that God is the sole author of a word that the prophet meekly repeats. However, as this article strives to show, the text allows for a parallel reading, where the speaker of the word is Muhammad and not Allah. From this perspective, the Qur'ān is not God's instruction to his messenger, but a soliloquy that Muhammad pursues with himself and in which he gives Allah the main role. This way of understanding the text should not be exclusive of the traditional interpretation, but complementary to it. The double reading offered by the Qur’ān articulates the two fundamental movements that underlie the experience of revelation. The primary reading marks the coming of God and the prevenance of his grace, while the alternative reading exposes the sustained activity of meditation, deliberation and supplication that Muhammad sustains in order to raise himself to his most solemn vocation. The rhetorical duality means that revelation – which has to do with immediate and unconditioned illumination – occurs only as a counterpoint to the prophet's most sustained effort. Taking rhetorical complexity into account will allow for a renewed and deeper interpretation of the Qur’ān, an interpretation in which the disorder of the text acquires hermeneutic relevance and becomes a source of signification.

BASA Journal of Language & Literature

This study aims to analyze the impact of the language used in the Quran on Islamic discourse, using qualitative research methods and content analysis of Quranic verses and scholarly literature. The study finds that the Quranic language's unique literary style and linguistic features contribute to its authority and persuasiveness, shaping Islamic discourse over time. Rhetorical devices, such as repetition and parallelism, add to the text's effectiveness. The study highlights the importance of understanding the Quranic language and its impact on Islamic theology, jurisprudence, and ethics, emphasizing the need for interdisciplinary research. By analyzing the linguistic and literary features of the Quran, scholars can gain a deeper understanding of the text's meaning and message and appreciate its continued relevance in contemporary times. This study contributes to the broader understanding of the role of language in shaping religious discourse and interpretation.

Muslim World, 2018

The book under review, The Qur'an (Norton Critical Editions), hereafter referred to as The Norton Qur'an, marks a new highwater mark in efforts to explore Qur'anic scholarship, and to offer fresh insight into the levels of meaning of the Qur'an itself. The author, Jane McAuliffe, is one of the leading North American authorities on all branches of Qur'anic interpretation, as evidenced by her editorial work on The Encyclopaedia of the Qur'an (Leiden: 2001-6), and Cambridge Companion to the Qur'an (Cambridge: 2006). The centerpiece of The Norton Qur'an is a revised, updated version of the 1930 rendition by Marmaduke Pickthall: The Meaning of the Glorious Koran, regarded by many as the best available English translation of the Qur'an, despite its several competitors, to be discussed below. But what exceptionalizes The Norton Qur'an is the cornucopia of original essays-at once provocative and productive-that are included as the template within which to consult McAuliffe's revised rendition of Pickthall. They are arrayed as four supplements. Supplement 1 explores Origins in two subsets: Muhammad and the narrative matrix of the Qur'an. Supplement 2 offers Interpretations and Analysis, in five subsets: classical and modern commentary, intellectual amplification, the spectrum of contemporary scholarship, literary studies, and finally Qur'an and Bible. Even more far reaching is Supplement 3, where the reader is challenged to absorb Sounds, Sights, and Remedies within a Qur'anic worldview marked by 3 subsets: learning, reciting, and memorizing; pharmacology and fortune-telling; manuscripts, monuments and material culture. The final, and shortest, Supplement 4 looks at The Qur'an in America, from two perspectives, a 19 th century slave account and a recent book on Thomas Jefferson's Qur'an, the 18 th century rendition of Englishman George Sale, The Koran (1764). The myriad details, and acute analysis, of these several essays should not distract the reader from their underlying, and guiding, principle: in the long history of Qur'an interpretation, spanning centuries, continents and languages, there have emerged two paral

Review of “The Qur’ān: What Everyone Needs to Know®”, 2021

This is an Accepted Manuscript (AM) of an article published by Taylor & Francis in the Journal of Religious & Theological Information on March 31, 202, available online: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10477845.2021.1904371

2018

Qurʾanic Hermeneutics argues for the importance of understanding the polysemous nature of the words in the Qurʾan and outlines a new method of Qurʾanic exegesis called intertextual polysemy. By interweaving science, history, and religious studies, Abdulla Galadari introduces a linguistic approach which draws on neuropsychology. This book features examples of intertextual polysemy within the Qurʾan, as well as between the Qurʾan and the Bible. It provides examples that intimately engage with Christological concepts of the Gospels, in addition to examples of allegorical interpretation through inner-Qurʾanic allusions. Galadari reveals how new creative insights are possible, and argues that the Qurʾan did not come to denounce the Gospel – which is one of the stumbling blocks between Islam and Christianity – but only to interpret it in its own words. There is a debate among academic and religious scholars alike on the reliability of classical Qurʾanic exegesis for interpretation. This book proposes a new and innovative method of Qurʾanic exegesis called intertextual polysemy, using provocative examples. It breaks away the shackles of classical exegesis and tries to demystify the concept of Muhammad’s revelation and allegories by adopting concepts of neuropsychology. It introduces Psychological Qurʾanic Criticism as a field, similar to that found in Biblical Studies. The book proposes a method that argues the importance of understanding the polysemous nature of the words in the Qurʾan and uses intertextuality between the Qurʾan and itself, as well as between the Qurʾan and the Bible to identify how words and their various morphologies are used. It also gives insightful but controversial examples using this methodology. To argue in favour of such a method, the book touches very crucial and sometimes controversial subjects. An example of such, contrary to recent scholarly debates, the book argues that “taḥrīf,” according to the Qurʾan, perhaps means turning away (inḥirāf) from Scriptures, and not necessarily changing either the words or their meanings. This is a diverging thought from existing literature that did not look at this as a possible definition of the term. The book also presents few working examples of intertextual polysemy for Qurʾanic hermeneutics. It gives examples for intertextualizing the Qurʾan with itself, as well as between the Qurʾan and the Bible. Many of the stumbling blocks between Christianity and Islam when it comes to Christology and the theology are completely reinterpreted showing that in fact the Qurʾan did not come to denounce the Gospel, but only interpret it in its own words. With those examples, it shows how new creative insights on understanding possible deeper meanings to the Qurʾan along with its Biblical subtext. As examples adopted in the book, it shows how the term Ibn Allah in the Qurʾan is defining the Temple of God, not actually the Son. It also mentions how the concept that God neither begets nor is begotten in the Qurʾan is an attempt to interpret the Logos in the Gospel of John and not denying it, as it is currently assumed by both academic and religious scholars. This book is very different than existing literature in Qurʾanic studies in that it proposes and argues in favour of a new method of Qurʾanic hermeneutics using a linguistic approach that is not found in any other books in the field, stemming from a possible neuropsychological basis.

The Islamic World, 2008

That Dr. Andrew Rippin would invite me to co-author an article on the Qur'an for the collection of articles he solicited and edited (Routledge 2008) is a sign of his generosity and ability to work with others from a wide range of personal beliefs. This essay is a bit of a handoff of valuable perspectives on a difficult topic, and has been foundational in my teaching and writing on the Qur'an culminating recently in the publication of my book, The Quran with Christian commentary, amazon.com/dp/0310534720

A brief history of the development of the modern Islamic concept of the eternality of the Qur'an in light of tawhid and its development from Mu'tazilite and Ash'arite theology. A defense of the Christian view of the Bible as the eternal Word of God in light of the trinity.

It is a known fact that the first addressees of the Qur'anic revelation was Arab society so it's not surprising that the Qur'anic text reflects the elements, expressions and styles of the oral culture of that society. This article has an aim to clarify that there are great differences in understanding of the Qur'an before and after it was turned into a scripture. In this context, the Qur'an, revealed in Arabic, reflects the cultural and linguistic characteristics of its age. Regarding this fact, it is not surprising to witness several "oral" elements in the Qur'anic "Text".

For Muslims, the Qur’an is the word of God, preserved on a well-guarded tablet and revealed, through the angel Gabriel (Jibril), to the Prophet Muhammad in 611 CE. The miraculous event first occurred when Muhammad, aged 40, was meditating in a cave on Mount Hira’, three miles from Mecca, on the night of al-Qadr (the Night of Power), which is 23 Ramadan. The revelation was intermittent and lasted between twenty and twenty-five years. This revelation later became the Islamic Scripture i.e. the Quran. This holy Quran is the bedrock of Islamic faith and philosophy and praxis. This seminar explicitly deals with The Holy Qur’an.

Proceedings of the International Conference on Qur'an and Hadith Studies (ICQHS 2017), 2018

The semantics of the Qur'an is the promising method which obtaining more accurate Qur'an interpretation. It can be a complement to Fazlur Rahman's double movement theory. It can restore the concepts in the Qur'an to its original states. The mainstreaming of this method will provide a solid foundation for the objectification of Qur'anic concepts, namely the effort to derive the abstract concepts of the Qur'an into the concrete level.

Journal of the American Oriental Society

The Qur’an: A Historical-Critical Introduction. By Nicolai Sinai. The New Edinburgh Islamic Surveys. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2017. Pp. viii + 242. £90 (cloth); £24.99 (paper).

Religion and the Arts, 2011