Materials Presented at CARA Sessions

CARA Plenary Session on Teaching Islam and Medieval Middle East after 9/11
Medieval Academy Annual Meeting 2004

Teaching the Qur'an
Adnan A. Husain
New York University

After 9/11 the Qur'an became an immediate bestseller as copies of the various English translations flew off the shelves. Given the religious ideology motivating the hijackers, people turned to the Qur'an, Muslim scripture, as they struggled to understand and explain the devastating attacks of that day. While a natural impulse, such an approach telescopes, even invalidates, history and promotes a narrow, exclusively ideological prism of analysis if not complemented with a more comprehensive picture. It would be similar, perhaps, to seeking explanations of the Christian Identity movement or understanding of the motivations of Timothy McVeigh and Eric Rudolph (the Atlanta Olympics bomber) principally or exclusively in the Bible. More precisely, reading and teaching the Qur'an in translation poses real challenges that can even contribute to misunderstandings. Some difficulties are endemic to any pre-modern religious text, especially when presented in a "great books" format. Problems of reading and interpreting the Qur'an are exacerbated by its unique features and the general lack of familiarity with Islam. The following outline (along with a short bibliography) addresses some of these issues for teaching the Qur'an, while a separate document (Islam: A Practical, Historical and Doctrinal Overview) provides some basic information about Islam.

Points of Emphasis

Qur'anic scripture, structurally and literarily: non-narrative, voiced as speech of God via Gabriel to Muhammad, and the word "Qur'an" means the "recitation", a dominant mode in which it is experienced devotionally and liturgically; the text describes itself as a "clear, Arabic Qur'an/recitation"; the language of the Qur'an is regarded by Muslims as paragon of eloquence and beauty, an idea related to the theological view of the text as "miraculously inimitable" and exceeding human powers of invention.

Revealed in parts, over time in context of Muhammad's career as prophet (22-3 years): Meccan period (13 years) defined by themes of God's oneness against idolatry and polytheism or "associating partners with God", recognition of God and his bounties in the world, eschatology and judgment grounding the call for an individual to cultivate a moral, ethical and social conscience. Theological issues: opposition between shukr and kufr (thankfulness versus ingratitude/infidelity to God); defining ghani, an exclusive attribute of God, as not only wealthy but independent or self-sufficient/self-subsisting; this serves as a critique of the wealthy pagan leaders of the Quraysh tribes of Mecca who pridefully regard themselves as "ghani". During this period the small collection of followers were isolated and oppressed by the Meccan tribes controlling the Meccan shrine and the pilgrimage income; Medinan period (10 years) characterized by the establishment of an independent Muslim community (ummah) and corresponding social guidance and regulation in the Qur'an for this community and the initial basis for Islamic law, the conflict with the Meccan Quraysh tribes, and creation of a "pax Islamica" or confederation recognizing the religious and political authority of Muhammad as God's messenger among tribes in the Arabian peninsula.

Relationship to Biblical scripture: although full of references to biblical patriarchs and prophets, especially Abraham, Moses and Jesus, Qur'anic chapters do not repeat biblical narratives; chapter on Joseph is the most like a narrative. Instead references are scattered throughout the Qur'an, which seem to assume knowledge of the general outlines of biblical narrations. These verses can be read in part as commentary and "correction". As commentary, the Qur'anic verses on biblical subjects often emphasize the theme of God generously and mercifully sending prophets as messengers to humanity for their guidance; the messengers have faithfully and patiently fulfilled their mission to call their people to righteousness. Some of these people, the impious, rejected guidance, disbelieved and oppressed the prophets, while others the "God-conscious" and sincere believers were guided and adhered to the message. As a "correction", the Qur'an and subsequent Muslim doctrine explains the need for a new revelation and religious dispensation through the suggestion that the transmission of previous scripture had been tampered with. Islam, then, is meant to restore the pure monotheistic religion of Abraham and the balanced, simple commandments of God's religious law from the corruptions introduced by the "People of the Book," the Jews and Christians.

Importance of exegetical and interpretive tradition: known as tafsir, in which dense commentaries developed for every verse, including historical information locating the revelation of verses in Muhammad's life, a genre called asbab al-nuzul, "the occasions/reasons of revelation". Other related "sciences" to aid reading and study of the Qur'an also developed: philological, lexical and grammatical study of Qur'an's language, the collection of reports of Muhammad and his companions' statements about Qur'anic verses, and the incorporation of biblical and popular extrascriptural Jewish and Christian traditions of the Near Eastern communities. One example: Qur'anic story of creation and of Adam and Eve does not indicate Eve's creation from Adam or the notion of a Fall . However, the exegetical tradition comes to include reports about Eve's creation from Adam's rib. Consequently, interpretations and emphases within the growing tradition of exegesis varied and changed over history. One feature of modernist and radical movements of the late 19th and 20th centuries is the rejection of the classical and medieval scholarly and intellectual tradition in favor of new, literal and/or unmediated readings.

Bibliographic Suggestions

Kur'an, article in Encyclopaedia of Islam, version 2
Encyclopaedia of the Qur'an, 3v., further volumes forthcoming

Michael Sells, Approaching the Qur'an: the Early Revelations (1999), introduction and translation of selections of the Qur'an

Helmut Gatje, The Qur'an and its Exegesis: Selected Texts with Classical and Modern Muslim Interpretations (1997), excerpts of the Qur'an with examples of commentary

Neal Robinson, Discovering the Qur'an: a Contemporary Approach to a Veiled Text (1996)

Sirah: The Life of Muhammad: a Translation of Ishaq's Sirat rasul allah, intro. and notes by translator Alfred Guillaume (1955), the first "biography" of Muhammad and a very interesting and illuminating source.

Translations

There are numerous English translations, all with various weaknesses. Popular translations without facing page Arabic text are:

A.J. Arberry, The Koran interpreted: a translation

N.J. Dawood, The Koran, translated with notes