Le Coran et l’éthique du décentrement

By Dr. Selami Varlik*

Selami Varlik is a researcher who recently defended his thesis on Qur’anic hermeneutics (“Qur’anic Hermeneutics and Objectivity of Meaning: The Philosophical Critique of Fazlur Rahman in Contemporary Turkey”). He is currently a member of the “fond Ricoeur” in Paris and recently taught philosophy at Istanbul 29 Mayis University. In this article, he examines how contemporary Muslim thinkers have attempted to read legal and moral dispositions in the Qur’an in a new way, and how their readings have missed the potential meanings of the text.

***

Nous poserons la question de la forme que pourrait avoir aujourd’hui une morale d’inspiration islamique à travers une réflexion sur l’effort mené par plusieurs réformistes modernes pour voir dans le Coran la primauté du moral sur le juridique. Ils jugent en effet le normatif trop présent, voire oppressant, dans la façon actuelle de comprendre et de vivre l’islam ; et proposent de poser la question de l’intention morale de Dieu, qui serait en accord avec le monde moderne. Toutefois cette approche pose un certain nombre de difficultés que nous allons évoquons dans un deuxième temps, après l’avoir préalablement décrite. Nous aurons ainsi l’occasion de nous demander en quoi, contre la lecture conservatrice qui enferme le texte dans le passé, cette lecture l’enferme dans le présent en réduisant son potentiel de signification. Nous verrons dès lors comment le fait de voir le texte plus comme une question que comme une réponse peut permettre de penser une éthique du décentrement.

(virginiawestern.edu)

(virginiawestern.edu)

La lecture intentionnaliste du texte

Ces intellectuels, parmi lesquels nous pouvons inscrire l’indo-pakistanais Fazlur Rahman (m. 1988), l’egyptien Nasr Hamid Abou Zeid (m. 2010) ainsi que le tunisien Mohamed Talbi, proposent de lire le Coran de façon intentionnaliste, ou finaliste, afin que ce que Dieu avait voulu dire prime sur ce qu’il a dit en révélant sa Parole. Ils considèrent que l’intention divine transcende le contexte historique de révélation du Coran. Il faut donc se demander ce que le Coran voudrait changer dans la vie des hommes. Il propose ainsi davantage une dynamique d’action plutôt qu’un modèle de société qui serait clos. Dans ‘Plaidoyer pour un islam moderne’, Mohamed Talbi a ainsi recours à la métaphore du « vecteur orienté », qu’il met en relation avec les finalités (maqāid) de la loi. « Comme un mathématicien », l’historien doit déterminer les points permettant de tracer un vecteur. Dès lors, une bonne exégèse doit aller dans le sens de ce vecteur afin d’aller dans le sens même voulu par Dieu.

Cette approche nécessite la prise en compte de l’évolution historique de la société qui reçut la révélation, en tenant notamment compte de ce qu’elle était avant et de ce qu’elle devint après. Dans son herméneutique du double mouvement, Fazlur Rahman propose que l’interprète aille à la période de la révélation pour, à partir des circonstances particulières, comprendre les finalités objectives du texte qui sont morales et non juridiques. Dans un deuxième temps, il revient à la période contemporaine pour se demander comment appliquer aujourd’hui ces finalités morales. De même, pour Talbi, la lecture historique est « une étape épistémologique et méthodologique pour pénétrer le sens du texte, dans son point de départ et son but, ce qui permet de mettre en évidence les solutions et de définir la route à suivre ».

Abou Zeid établit une dichotomie entre le sens historique (ma‘na) et son « importance » actuelle (maghza), c’est-à-dire la signification. Le sens désigne « l’interprétation immédiate des textes résultant de l’analyse des structures linguistiques telles qu’elles fonctionnent dans une culture donnée », c’est-à-dire ce que les premiers récepteurs  destinataires comprirent immédiatement et qu’il faut comprendre en tenant compte du contexte linguistique et historique. Tandis que la signification a une dimension contemporaine. Le sens est stable alors que la signification est mobile, car elle varie en fonction des horizons de la lecture et de ses paramètres. Ce sont ces significations qui représentent les intentions réelles de la Révélation. Elles sont le fruit de l’interaction entre le sens historique et le contexte du lecteur. En plus de la contextualisation historique, l’approche intentionnaliste propose également de lire le Coran à travers une lecture globale, faisant intervenir la dialectique entre le tout du texte et ses parties. La certitude ne peut jamais appartenir à des parties précises du Coran, mais seulement au tout du système moral qu’il met en place, soit sa finalité. Les parties doivent être comprises à partir du tout, qui permet de comprendre l’esprit du texte et qui lui-même doit être compris par le biais des parties. Pour Rahman, c’est précisément la lecture atomiste qui a privilégié le juridique à l’éthique en aboutissant à des prescriptions normatives à partir de versets qui ne l’étaient absolument pas.

Parmi les principales valeurs que permet de justifier cette approche figurent la justice, la liberté ainsi que l’égalité, entre tous les hommes (à travers la question du refus de l’esclavage par exemple) ainsi qu’entre l’homme et la femme (à travers, entre autres, la critique de la polygamie ou des règles d’héritage). Selon Fazlur Rahman, l’intention de Dieu que contient le Coran, soit la finalité même du message de l’islam, est moral : constituer une société juste et égalitaire. Il donne un fondement théologique à ce point de vue puisque c’est précisément parce que Dieu est Un et au-dessus de toutes les créatures, que celles-ci ne peuvent être qu’égales entre elles. Ainsi, si dans une société où la femme était avant tout un bien, un objet de droit, le Coran en fait une personne, un sujet ayant des droits, le Coran est vu comme tout à fait en accord avec le discours contemporain défendant les droits de la femme, y compris ceux dont ne parle pas le Coran. De même pour ce qui est de l’esclavage qui est plus toléré qu’accepté dans le Coran. Étant donné toutes les directives quant au fait de bien traiter les esclaves et toutes les incitations à les libérer, il est clair, pense Talbi, qu’à terme, Dieu voudrait d’une société sans esclaves ; conclusion à laquelle arrive également Fazlur Rahman. L’approche d’Abou Zeid est sur ce point assez proche des deux auteurs précédents. A propos du fait que, selon le Coran, la femme hérite de la moitié de l’homme, il rappelle que dans le contexte culturel de la révélation, « c’est un progrès par rapport à la situation antérieure, où les femmes n’héritaient pas ». L’islam est donc « par excellence la religion de l’égalité », puisqu’un pas décisif a été franchi dans le sens de son émancipation totale et de son accès à une entière égalité avec l’homme. Le Coran fait preuve de « gradation », à l’image de l’interdiction de l’alcool en trois étapes, pour proposer un modèle de justice sociale où l’homme comme la femme seraient libres.

La violence des bonnes réponses

Bien que cette approche soit  légitime et riche en perspectives, notamment dans un contexte où le normatif est incontestablement trop (et mal) présent, il n’en demeure pas moins qu’elle soulève un certain nombre de difficultés. Légitime et riche en perspectives, cette approche puisse-t-elle être, notamment dans un contexte où le normatif est incontestablement trop (et mal) présent, il n’en demeure pas moins qu’elle soulève un certain nombre de difficultés. L’intention divine est-elle si facilement connaissable ? Comment le lecteur moderne, lui-même historiquement déterminé, situé dans un contexte socio-politique ayant des enjeux et des stratégies propres de lecture, peut-il prétendre connaitre avec une totale objectivité quel a toujours été le message moral du Coran. Autrement dit, le problème ici ne touche pas le fait de penser que le vouloir-dire de l’auteur dépasse le dire du texte, mais de prétendre connaitre avec certitude et une fois pour toute en quoi consisterait cette intention. D’autant que, même s’il ne fait aucun doute que l’intention de ces penseurs est bonne, ce terme même d’« intention » nous invite à questionner les finalités mêmes du modèle de lecture qu’ils proposent. Dans un contexte tendu où l’on se demande si l’islam est compatible avec ceci ou cela (démocratie, droits de la femme, République, tolérance, égalité, Occident…), la réponse qui semblait la meilleure aux yeux de ces intellectuels était de répondre de façon affirmative – ce qui est légitime – en réduisant le Coran à un discours de confirmation, d’approbation – ce qui l’est moins… Le désir de construction d’un islam moderne risque alors de faire du Coran un réservoir de solutions venant systématiquement accréditer des conclusions obtenues ailleurs. La lecture scientifique du texte sacré fonctionne de la même façon. On lit toujours le texte de façon pour a y trouver la confirmation a posteriori de quelque chose.

Or, ces lectures ne voient pas à quel point elles sont elles-mêmes historiques et dans quelle mesure le contenu qu’elles donnent au message moral du Coran est tributaire d’un contexte bien spécifique. Lisant le passé à travers les grilles de lecture du présent (à l’inverse du littéraliste qui fait la même erreur dans l’autre sens), elles ne voient le texte que comme un moyen de justifier un certain nombre de valeurs morales, dont la légitimité et la primauté ne pose d’ailleurs, bien évidemment, absolument pas question. Ici, encore le texte est enfermé dans une période, sauf que celle-ci a la particularité d’être celle dans laquelle nous vivons, et non celle dans laquelle vivaient les musulmans il y a plus de dix quatorze siècles. Il ne s’agit donc ni de dire que le Coran n’a pas de message moral dépassant la dimension juridique, ni de refuser que ce message moral soit en accord avec une morale universelle, mais de pointer le risque de réduire cette dernière à une éthique particulière propre à un temps donné en restant déterminer par des stratégies inconscientes de lecture. Le danger est dès lors de stopper le potentiel de signification éthique du texte, sous prétexte que le véritable message moral du Coran, parfaitement en accord avec le monde dans lequel nous vivons, a enfin été trouvé une bonne fois pour toute. Ainsi, la réduction du texte à un simple « oui » au monde ne pose pas moins de difficultés que sa réduction à un « non », propre au discours conservateur et réactionnaire. Il s’agit là de deux attitudes extrêmes où le religieux sert de faire-valoir au politique et où le texte est considéré comme un stock de réponses aux questions qu’on lui pose. Dès lors, le Coran est vu comme ayant enfin apporté les bonnes réponses aux questions qu’on lui avait posées.

Alors que le texte lui-même devrait poser question, et préserver, par ce biais, autant son sens de l’approbation que sa capacité à la contestation. Mais cette contestation peut tout toucher, y compris le croyant dans ses certitudes les plus solides. Autrement dit, le texte sacré questionne, bouscule, décentre le lecteur en l’invitant sans cesse à voir les choses autrement. A travers ce décentrement, décrit par Paul Ricœur, le sujet « échange le moi, maître de lui-même, contre le soi, disciple du texte ». Et, le geste éthique fondamental du Coran se trouve précisément dans ce décentrement de soi, qui libère un espace dans lequel l’autre lecteur peut trouver une place. Car la violence de l’interprétation ne se situe pas uniquement dans le fait de parler de violence ou de la prôner, mais également dans l’arrogance d’une lecture qui, aussi légitime et pertinente puisse-t-elle être dans son contenu, se présente comme la meilleure et la dernière. Tandis que l’éthique du décentrement, nourrie par une dialectique entre le oui et le non au monde, enseigne la remise en question du soi narcissique, grâce à laquelle l’autre peut enfin pleinement exister. Il trouve en effet une place dans l’espace qui s’ouvre dans un soi qui se distancie de ses certitudes, permettant l’émergence d’une véritable éthique de l’altérité.

*This blog post is a slightly revised version of Dr. Selami Varlik’s essay from the website http://www.legaic.org/article.php3?id_article=264

© International Qur’anic Studies Association, 2013. All rights reserved.

Integrated Encyclopedia of the Qur’an

 
Press Release
April 13, 2013
Integrated Encyclopedia of the Qur’an

Edited by Muzaffar Iqbal et al

Volume 1 (A—Bea)

• January 2013 • 408 pages • 30 illustrations • HC • $295.00

ISBN 978-1-926620-00-8

ISBN for the 7-Volume Set: 978-1-926620-06-0

eiq

The Center for Islamic Sciences (http://www.cis-ca.org) announces publication of the first volume of the Integrated Encyclopedia of the Qur’an (IEQ). Based entirely on primary sources and held to a high standard of academic rigor, IEQ draws on a wide range of traditional Muslim sources, including exegeses, Hadith collections and commentaries, classical lexicons, biographical dictionaries, universal histories, works of jurisprudence, Prophetic biographies, and treatises on spiritual and moral psychology—some of which have never before been presented in any encyclopedic work in a Western language. IEQ integrates source material at several levels: its conceptual structure presents an integrated view of the overall message of the Qur’an; it incorporates and integrates various strands of Islamic scholarly tradition on the Divine text; and it presents a cohesive, cross-referenced text that is at once contemporary and classical.

The carefully chosen lemmata reflect the thematic structure of the Qur’an itself, while the rich bibliography at the end of each entry provides a valuable resource for serious researchers. IEQ’s seven volumes constitute an in-depth reference work, serving as an authoritative contribution to Muslim scholarship on the Qur’an. Conceived as a seven-volume authoritative contribution to and an in-depth reference work about Muslim scholarship on the Qur’an, This landmark publication presents a trove of knowledge about the Qur’an and its exegetical tradition as an indispensable tool for specialists, as well as the engaged general reader. The seventh volume is devoted to indices and supplementary material, including a thematic cross-referencing index of the entries in the preceding volumes.

Following practices of respect and priority normative to the Islamic scholarly tradition, the first volume of IEQ begins with the entry on the Supreme Name, “Allah,” followed by “Ahmad,” the second of the Prophet’s two proper names in the Qur’an, and proceeds thereafter in alphabetical order. The volume ends with the entry on the “Beautiful Names of Allah.” Thus bounded by entries on the Divine, this inaugural volume of the seven-volume IEQ brings to an English readership a wealth of scholarly material not found in any other reference work on the Qur’an. The first volume also includes a contextual introduction, situating the project in the broader history of discourse on the Qur’an. The forty-seven entries of this volume provide extensive original translations of source material and tap into a vast range of resources in order to present comprehensive and authoritative articles on concepts, persons, events, things, and places mentioned in the Qur’an and its commentary tradition.

Ordering information:

Order online at http://www.iequran.com

Mail orders; add shipping costs to the price ($295.00): $20.00 for Canada • $30.00 for USA • $45.00 for all other countries. Please make cheques payable to Center for Islamic Sciences and send to the address below.

Center for Islamic Sciences

349-52252 Range Road 215

Sherwood Park, AB T8E 1B7 Canada

Email: sales@cis-ca.org

© International Qur’anic Studies Association, 2013. All rights reserved.

Understanding Meaning in the Sound of the Recited Qur’an

By Lauren Osborne

The following is a brief synopsis of my recent work on the recitation of the Qur’an. The topic of my dissertation is central to the Qur’an’s self-presentation as an oral text and to its role in the lives of believers, yet one that has for the most part been overlooked by scholarship. The vast majority of Muslims cultivate an experience of the Qur’an that is based less on the text as a written object than on the sound and practice of its recitation. Indeed, native and non-native speakers of Arabic devote considerable time and energy to learning to recite and to appreciate the Qur’an’s recitation. Learning to recite the Qur’an is the foundation of Islamic education worldwide, making the sound and experience of the sacred text the first point of contact for most believers. Popular reciters have also attained worldwide fame, as their recordings have circulated via nearly every form of audio media. Today, a simple search online will return innumerable sites devoted to discussion of recitation and to circulation of audio files. Yet despite the significant role played by the sound and practice of Qur’an recitation, scholarship does not have a vocabulary or way of understanding the oral form of the text in relation to its literary or discursive meanings.

 While a purely aesthetic experience of the sound of the Qur’an has devotional and experiential value in itself—as shown by the popularity of the practice of recitation and the spread of recordings among Muslims who do not understand Arabic—the Arabic words still bear their meanings even when they exist as sound. It is possible that the sound of recitation may reflect the meanings of the words in different ways; at other times, the sound of the words and their discursive meanings may simply be coexisting. The meaning and the aesthetics are always interrelated, but they may interact in a variety of ways.

(dv247.com)

(dv247.com)

In order to address the diversity in these modes of meaning that characterize the recitation of the Qur’an, I propose that the practice may be described according to the following four-part scheme. First, the Qur’an presents its own textual meaning and literary features: vocabulary, subject matter, modes of perspective and address, and literary form on the level of units of verses or Suras. Second, the sound of the text is often characterized by systematic rhyme and rhythm. Sometimes this is in conversation with or resembles the Arabic literary tradition of prose characterized by rhyme and rhythm (saj`). Furthermore, the sounds of the words themselves generate certain affective charges through repetition and assonance. Third, the sound of the text is shaped by pitch and melody, often characterized by the modal system of Arab music, the maqām. The melodic aspect of reciting is a skill studied specifically by individuals working to become professional reciters, and participants in competitions are judged in this aspect of their performance. Finally, the feelings of the listener may be characterized by affective experience: emotional states that may or may not be directly tied to the discursive understanding of the text, or these other aspects of its sound.

Using this descriptive framework, in my dissertation I seek to bring these modes of meaning into conversation with one another. With reference to specific recordings, performances, or data collected through fieldwork, I note when I hear any particular aspect of the sound either corresponding with the meaning of the text (or other aspects of the sound, or perceived meaning on the part of the listener) or when these things seem to be simply coexisting. Just as multiple modes of meaning exist on a range from text to sound to perception, I argue that a range of relationships between these modes is also possible. At times the discursive meaning of the text may align with the poetic or melodic meaning, and at times any of these modes may simply coexist but have no direct relationship.

Most recently, I have been working with recordings from Sheikh Mishari Rashid Alafasy, an imam of the Grand Mosque in Kuwait City and an extremely popular reciter of the Qur’an today. His personal website provides not only basic information about his life and career, but also a wealth of media material: photographs, videos, and sound material ranging from anāshīd (religious songs) to hadith to Qur’an.  At the moment I’m working with two recordings of Surat al-Furqan, and using these examples to raise questions on how the meanings in words and sound may or may not relate to one another. I do this through analysis of the literary shape and features of the Sura itself—how it conveys its meanings to us in language; discussion of its use of rhyme; and finally, Alafasy’s use of the maqām and other sound-related aspects, such as vocal register or vocal quality. The first of these recordings is available on Sheikh Alafasy’s personal website, listed as being recorded in California in 1430 A.H. (2008 Gregorian); the second was available on his previous site, but can still be found through archive.org. While the overall moods of the recordings are extremely different, they also show us a range of possibilities for shaping the sound of a single text, and even further, the different ways in which the sound and the words may or may not relate to one another.

© International Qur’anic Studies Association, 2013. All rights reserved.

Our International Meeting in St. Andrews, Scotland

By Emran El-Badawi and Gabriel Reynolds

The International Qur’anic Studies Association is happy to announce its first international meeting, taking place in St. Andrews, Scotland, from July 8-10, 2013. IQSA will be co-sponsoring a number of panels on the Qur’an with the Society of Biblical Literature, as well as a public lecture by Dr. Alain George. Please consult the schedule below for panel details. All meeting room assignments are currently TBD. Further details will be forthcoming here.

You are also strongly encouraged to subscribe to our blog in order to receive weekly news updates or informed posts on various dimensions of Qur’anic Studies today. On behalf of the co-directors, steering committee and partners we thank you for your enthusiasm and support for IQSA. We look forward to seeing you in St. Andrews!

St. Andrews (standrewsfreshers.com)

St. Andrews (standrewsfreshers.com)


Qur’an and Islamic Tradition in Comparative Perspective

July 8, 2013
9:00 AM to 12:00 PM

Theme: Islam and Interfaith Studies in Scottish Universities

Zohar Hadromi-Allouche, University of Aberdeen, Presiding

Hugh Goddard, University of Edinburgh
Islam and Interfaith Relations in Scotland (20 min)

Fiona McCallum, University of St. Andrews
‘Same Old’? Muslim-Christian Relations and the Arab Uprisings (20 min)

Discussion (35 min)

Break (30 min)

Johan Rasanayagam, University of Aberdeen
From an Anthropology of Islam to an Anthropology through Islam (20 min)

Saeko Yazaki, University of Glasgow
Dialogues between Islam and Judaism in Ethics and Spirituality: The Andalusi landscape and Zionism (20 min)

Discussion (35 min)


Qur’an and Islamic Tradition in Comparative Perspective
Joint Session With: Qur’an and Islamic Tradition in Comparative Perspective, International Qur’anic Studies Association
July 8, 2013
3:00 PM to 6:00 PM

Theme: Prophets and Prophethood between Bible and Qur’an

Zohar Hadromi-Allouche, University of Aberdeen, Presiding

Emran El-Badawi, University of Houston, Introduction (7 min)

Gabriel Said Reynolds, University of Notre Dame, Introduction (7 min)

Anne-Laure Zwilling, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and Anne-Sylvie Boisliveau, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen
Moses and the Burning Bush: A Two-Voice Analysis (20 min)

David Kiltz, Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften
“Ebionism” and the Qur’an Revisited (20 min)

Discussion (16 min)

Break (30 min)

Mehdi Azaiez, IREMAM / CNRS
Prophetical Polemics in the Bible and the Qur’an: The Case of Counter-Discourse (20 min)

Michael Pregill, Elon University
Intertextual Complications: The Qur’anic Cain and Abel Reconsidered (20 min)

Tommaso Tesei, University of Notre Dame
Apocalyptic Prophecies in the Qur’an and in Seventh Century Extrabiblical Literature (20 min)

Discussion (20 min)


Qur’an and Islamic Tradition in Comparative Perspective
Joint Session With: Qur’an and Islamic Tradition in Comparative Perspective, International Qur’anic Studies Association
July 9, 2013
9:00 AM to 12:00 PM

Theme: Rhetoric and the Qur’an: Structure, Composition, Argumentation

Orhan Elmaz, University of St. Andrews, Presiding

Michel Cuypers, IDEO
Semitic Rhetoric in Sura 81 (Al-Takwir) and Chapter 10 of the Testament of Moses (20 min)

Ulrika Mårtensson, Norwegian University of Science and Technology
Al-Tabari’s Rhetorical Concept of the Qur’an: Implications for Historical and Contemporary Research (20 min)

Discussion (35 min)

Break (30 min)

Mustansir Mir, Youngstown State University
Hamid al-Din al-Farahi on Qur’anic balaghah (20 min)

Gabriel Said Reynolds, University of Notre Dame, Respondent (20 min)

Discussion (35 min)

 

Qur’an and Islamic Tradition in Comparative Perspective
Joint Session With: International Qur’anic Studies Association, Qur’an and Islamic Tradition in Comparative Perspective
July 9, 2013
3:00 PM to 4:15 PM

Gabriel Said Reynolds, University of Notre Dame, Presiding

Alain George, University of Edinburgh
On an early Qur’anic palimpsest and its stratigraphy: Cambridge Or. 1287 (45 min)

Break (5 min)

Discussion (25 min)


Qur’an and Islamic Tradition in Comparative Perspective
Joint Session With: Qur’an and Islamic Tradition in Comparative Perspective, International Qur’anic Studies Association
July 10, 2013
9:00 AM to 12:00 PM

Theme: Qur’anic and Biblical Discourses in Comparative Perspective

Andreas Görke, University of Edinburgh, Presiding

Keren Abbou Hershkovits, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
Idris, Enoch, and Celestial Knowledge: Astronomical Knowledge Given (or Taken?) from Heaven (20 min)

Nadjet Zouggar, Louvain-la-Neuve University
The Biblical Prophets’ Place in the Elaboration of Sunni Prophetology (20 min)

Abdulla Galadari, University of Aberdeen
The Qiblah: A Qur’anic Allusion to the Shema (20 min)

Discussion (15 min)

Break (30 min)

Roy Michael McCoy III, University of Oxford
An Arabian Trudgman in Nazareth: The Gospel Narrative of al-Biqa’i’s Nazm al-durar fi tanasub al-ayat wa’l-suwar (20 min)

Orkhan Mir-Kasimov, The Institute of Ismaili Studies
Messianism and the Idea of Universal Exegesis in Islam: The Parallel Interpretation of the Qur’an and the Bible in the Jawidan-nama of Fadlallah Astarabadi (d. 796/1394) (20 min)

Discussion (35 min)

© International Qur’anic Studies Association, 2013. All rights reserved.

Planning begins for Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān: Supplement

By Jane McAuliffe

When the discussions surrounding the Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān commenced in 1993 the scholarly world was a different place from the one we find ourselves in today.  It hardly needs to be stated that public attention to the Islamic world has increased considerably over the past two decades, and publishing houses have responded with a flood of popular and academic tomes.  The Qurʾān and Qurʾānic studies have enjoyed (and at times suffered from) a central role in this changing context.  The timing of the publication of EQ over the period of 2001 to 2006 was fortuitous and welcomed by readers around the world.  In the years since its publication its value has been revealed in many ways, as witnessed by its consistent citation in scholarly and general books.  Still, the intervening time from the original planning until today shows that there is much more that could be accomplished.  A new generation of scholars devoted to the Qurʾān and its interpretation has emerged.  The broader field of Islamic Studies has generated topics of both academic and popular interest for which the Qurʾān and its scholarship is an important source.  And new forms of publication, particularly electronic and online, allow completed work, such as a multi-volume encyclopedia, to be reimagined as a more flexible and continually refreshed reference source, one that can keep pace with a field of study as it changes and push its boundaries.

Encyclopedia of the Qur'an (brill.com)

Encyclopedia of the Qur’an (brill.com)

The Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān, the first such work in western languages, was designed to define the field of Qur’ānic studies and to capture the state of scholarship as it stood at the time of its publication.  This it did quite successfully.  The structure of the Encyclopaedia, as outlined in the Preface, which combined entries of varying length with longer, synoptic essays, was intended to summarize past academic work and to set an agenda for the future.  The very success of the Encyclopaedia in advancing the field has resulted, perhaps inevitably, in the suggestion that a way be found to expand, improve, and update it. The revolution of electronic publication and online access now permits the realization of that suggestion.

Discussions have thus been initiated between Brill and an editorial team under the direction of Jane McAuliffe to issue regular supplements to the Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān.  The goal is not to replace published entries—the original edition will remain intact—but to expand the existing base of articles with freshly commissioned ones on the same, related and new topics.  These will serve to complement, supplement, elaborate on, and provide additional perspectives on the current print and online edition.  Future supplements will provide entries and longer essays under new headings, reflecting work currently being undertaken and recently published in the scholarly arena. The editors will also commission additional entries dealing with the exegetical tradition, filling in information about authors and works that are referenced throughout the published Encyclopaedia but not treated independently or expansively within its pages.

With this expansion of the online edition, the basic editorial approach of EQ will remain the same. Entries will be found primarily under English keywords.  The perspective of the work will continue to be thoroughly academic and rigorous, incorporating a plurality of perspectives and presuppositions, as the Preface to the original Encyclopaedia expressed it.  The editorial team continues to uphold the notion that “[s]cholarly perspective can no longer be neatly pinned to religious identification and good scholarship is flourishing in this richly plural environment” and will strive to ensure that it is in this spirit that the Encyclopaedia continues to expand.

Now that this opportunity to create a supplement is available to those of us who work in this field, the editorial team would welcome suggestions of topics that users of the Encyclopaedia feel should be included or expanded upon. While proposing a topic does not guarantee its inclusion, surfacing as many good suggestions as possible will certainly launch this project in a productive direction.  Following the contemporary process of “crowdsourcing,” the collective input of the scholarly community and other interested individuals will ensure that the coverage of the Encyclopaedia continues to evolve with the field of Qur’ānic Studies itself and to be as comprehensive as possible.

Please send all suggestions and correspondence to any of the individual email addresses below or to: eqsupplement@gmail.com

Editorial Board

Jane McAuliffe, general editor (jdm@brynmawr.edu and eqsupplement@gmail.com)

William Graham, associate editor (wgraham@fas.harvard.edu)

Daniel Madigan, associate editor (dam76@georgetown.edu)

Andrew Rippin, associate editor (arippin@uvic.ca)

Mona Siddiqui, associate editor (Mona.Siddiqui@ed.ac.uk)

© International Qur’anic Studies Association, 2013. All rights reserved.

IQSA at SECSOR 2013: Roundtable Discussion on Carl Ernst, How to Read the Qur’an

By Michael Pregill

IQSA co-sponsored a panel at the recent meeting of the Southeastern Commission for the Study of Religion (SECSOR), a regional affiliate of the American Academy of Religion, the Society of Biblical Literature, and the American Schools of Oriental Research. The panel, held on March 17, was a roundtable dedicated to a discussion of Carl Ernst’s new book, How to Read the Qur’an: A New Guide, with Select Translations (UNC Press, 2011). Brief comments on Ernst’s book were given by Gordon Newby (Emory University), Youshaa Patel (University of Tennessee Knoxville), and Michael Pregill (Elon University), followed by a response from Ernst himself.

Round Table Discussion featuring, from left to right: Gordon Newby (Emory University), Carll Ernst (University of North Carolina), Youshaa Patel (University of Tennessee Knoxville), and Michael Pregill (Elon University)

Round Table Discussion featuring, from left to right: Gordon Newby (Emory University), Carll Ernst (University of North Carolina), Youshaa Patel (University of Tennessee Knoxville), and Michael Pregill (Elon University)

In his book, Ernst adopts a literary method of analysis of the Qur’an, emphasizing the evolution of the Qur’anic Suras as moments in a long process of development of revelation to a new religious community. He thus deliberately avoids the thematic treatment of the Qur’an that is all too common in introductory works on the scripture, since this approach places too much emphasis upon the completed, canonical Qur’an as a source of law and theology and often elides the diverse viewpoints and even contradictions manifest in the Qur’an’s message. Utilizing the approach adopted by Neuwirth and others of following the modified chronological scheme proposed by Noldeke in the nineteenth century, Ernst divides his work between Early Meccan, Middle and Late Meccan, and Medinan compositions, paying close attention to the intertextual allusions both to older literature and previous Suras found in each stage of the Qur’an’s development.

Gordon Newby began the conversation by noting that he teaches the Qur’an in three different courses, and that Ernst’s approach well complements his own. In his remarks, Newby observed that Ernst’s emphasis on the Qur’anic Suras as an evolving discourse, a “developmental model,” fits well with his pedagogical focus on the multivocality of the Qur’an—its varied, complex, and often maddeningly indeterminate approaches to its subject matter. Cultivating an appreciation for scriptural indeterminacy in students who urgently want to know what the Qur’an “really means” can be challenging, but Ernst’s work potentially offers us substantial assistance in this task.

In turn, Patel focused on the questions of both the Qur’an’s audience as imagined by Ernst—likely more plural and ambiguous than later Muslim tradition might have us believe—and the audience of Ernst’s book itself, since the work implicitly seems to be aimed at non-Muslim readers. The Qur’an’s evident familiarity with the ideas and practices of older monotheist communities inevitably provokes the question of the real makeup and presuppositions of its late antique audience. Patel also interrogated Ernst’s attempt to dispel the claim frequently made by Western readers of the Qur’an that the scripture is incoherent and illogical, suggesting that instead of dismissing the idea of the Qur’an’s incoherence, we might rather embrace its use of non-linear argument and presentation of its ideas. He linked this to the experiential reality of the Qur’an as an oral and aural text, which seems like a necessary complement to Ernst’s emphasis on encountering the Qur’an as a written text.

Pregill’s remarks focused on Ernst’s methodological dependence on the sira or biography of Muhammad as the ultimate source used by the tradition to establish the chronology of revelation of the Suras. Reiterating the well-established “revisionist” critique of the sira, Pregill speculated that adopting a “Qur’anist” approach to the Suras—which abandons any presuppositions about their developmental sequence—often yields interesting insights; however, without any external basis for proposing an alternative chronology, all such hypotheses must necessarily remain speculative. He also noted that Ernst’s work not only succinctly summarizes the major insights yielded by recent investigation into the Qur’an’s structural reliance on so-called “ring composition” but also convincingly models the use of this technique in an original way, demonstrating for readers how they themselves might use it to execute their own close readings of Qur’anic passages.

In his response to the panelists’ observations, Ernst noted that he was inspired to write this book after being approached by a publisher interested in commissioning him to translate the Qur’an. Ernst decided instead to write an introductory guide to the literary analysis of the Qur’an, which seemed to him to be a more pressing need. Ernst felt that most readers unaccustomed to the “raw” Qur’an approached in the canonical order probably find the text forbidding and incomprehensible, and so an introduction to the Qur’an that demonstrates for the reader how the text emerged organically in its revelatory context, as well as how its message gradually changed over time, would be infinitely more valuable. (At the same time, in offering new translations of large parts of the Qur’an, Ernst has attempted to overcome the common reliance on antiquated language by most translators, opting instead for language that is more direct and contemporary, and thus hopefully truer to the Qur’an’s rhetorical and poetic style.)

Ernst’s interest in analysis based on ring composition was driven by the method’s capacity to preserve tensions within Suras. Understanding how the Qur’an deliberately seeks to build a creative tension between historical particulars and moral absolutes by positioning the former at the outer edges of Sura and the latter at the center allows us to recognize contradictions within the text—even, and especially, within individual Suras—as an indispensable aspect of Qur’anic rhetoric. This perspective encourages us to embrace such contradictions instead of dismissing them through the use of abrogation and other interpretive strategies that aim to produce a monolithic, univocal scriptural text.

Thanks are owed to all of the panelists for contributing their time and effort to this event; Alfons Teipen, who kindly agreed to moderate the panel; Dave Damrel and Rizwan Zamir, chairs of the SECSOR Study of Islam program unit, who first came up with the idea for the panel; and to all of the attendees. Special thanks are also owed to Erin Palmer (Elon University CAS ’13) for her invaluable assistance as rapporteur for this session.

© International Qur’anic Studies Association, 2013. All rights reserved.