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The Second Coming of the Book: Rethinking Qur'anic Scripturology and Prophetology

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The Second Coming of the Book: Rethinking Qur'anic Scripturology and Prophetology The Second Coming of the Book: Rethinking Qur’anic Scripturology and Prophetology The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters Citable link http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:40049998 Terms of Use This article was downloaded from Harvard University’s DASH repository, and is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http:// nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of- use#LAA The Second Coming of the Book: Rethinking Qur’anic Scripturology and Prophetology A dissertation presented by Mohsen Goudarzi Taghanaki to The Committee on the Study of Religion in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the subject of The Study of Religion Harvard University Cambridge, Massachusetts March 2018 i © 2018 - Mohsen Goudarzi Taghanaki All rights reserved. ii Dissertation Advisor: William A. Graham Author: Mohsen Goudarzi Taghanaki The Second Coming of the Book: Rethinking Qur’anic Scripturology and Prophetology Abstract This dissertation aims to reassess the character of the Prophet Muhammad’s movement by rethinking major aspects of the qur’anic worldview. Specifically, the dissertation proposes a new interpretation of the Qur’an’s conception of scriptural and prophetic history, which may be called respectively its “scripturology” and “prophetology.” Previous scholarship often considers the Qur’an to espouse a monotonous historical vision in which God sends a series of prophets with essentially identical messages to various human communities. Furthermore, it is often claimed that the Qur’an depicts Muhammad and his scripture as the culmination of this history and thereby as representing a final dispensation destined for humankind. In contrast to this prevailing interpretation, I contend that the Qur’an envisages history primarily in a bi-modal way, i.e. as having two towering moments: the revelation of the Torah to Moses, and the sending down of the Qur’an to Muhammad. This contention is based on a hypothesis that forms the analytical core of the dissertation: I argue that the Qur’an, in its discourse on revelations, uses the term kitāb not as a label for all scriptures but as an exclusive appellation for the Torah and the Qur’an. That the Qur’an applies the term kitāb iii to the Mosaic and Muhammadan scriptures alone, I further argue, reflects its estimation of the Torah and the Qur’an as the only scriptures that embody consummate divine guidance on account of their comprehensive historical and legal instruction. Moreover, I show that the Qur’an ties the revelation of these two kitābs to God’s special regard for the descendants of Abraham: the Torah was sent down for the benefit of Israelites, and the Qur’an is meant primarily for the guidance of Ishmaelites. By recognizing and underlining the Qur’an’s Abrahamic exceptionalism, the dissertation recasts the significance of the Prophet Muhammad’s mission. In the qur’anic view, the mission of Muhammad does not represent the end of a universal history of dispensations so much as it constitutes the realization of the “Abrahamic dream” for Ishmaelites and thus the second major act in the drama of the Abrahamic covenant. The two-kitāb hypothesis and its corollaries enable fresh interpretations of many qur’anic passages, a process that has far-reaching implications for our understanding of the Qur’an. The dissertation’s final chapter outlines some of these implications. For example, I argue that the Qur’an regards not only Jews but also Christians to be Israelites, that it labels both communities as ahl al-kitāb because it considers the Torah definitive to both, and that early Islam gradually lost its genealogical focus on Abraham’s descendants during the Umayyad period. iv Table of Contents Abstract iii Table of Contents v Acknowledgments viii List of Tables xiii Introduction 1 Chapter One: Literature Review 16 Revealed Writings in the Qur’an 16 Muslim Exegetes on Qur’anic Scripturology 19 The importance of being scripture 19 Kitāb as a concrete signifier 20 Kitāb as a generic noun 21 The problem of singularity 22 The previous adherents of the kitāb 23 The heavenly book 26 Theoretical and practical confirmation 33 Partitioning scriptures 38 Abiding uniformity of scripture 47 Modern Academics on Qur’anic Scripturology 49 Early continuity with post-formative exegesis 50 Muir’s biblicization of kitāb 54 Sprenger’s celestialization of kitāb 56 Grimme’s valorization of the heavenly “archetype” 62 Emerging scholarly consensus 65 Pedersen: knowledge (ʿilm), will (ḥukm), and Assyriology 67 Horovitz’s reinforcement of the scholarly consensus 69 Bell: kitāb as a communal document 70 Jeffery’s universalization of kitāb 78 Widengren: “Apostles” as recipients of scripture 83 Madigan’s allegorization of kitāb 85 Conclusion 89 v Chapter Two: The Textual Foundations of the Two Kitāb Hypothesis 96 A:1) Sūrat al-Muʾminūn (23): 23-52 96 A:2) Sūrat al-Baqarah (2): 87-89 98 A:3) Sūrat al-Aḥqāf (46): 29-30 100 A:4-5) Sūrat Āl ʿImrān (3): 184; Sūrat Fāṭir (35): 25 100 A:6) Sūrat al-Nisāʾ (4): 136 110 A:7) Sūrat al-Anʿām (6): 91-92 111 A:8) Sūrat al-Qaṣaṣ (28): 48-49 112 A:9-10) Sūrat Hūd (11): 17; Sūrat al-Aḥqāf (46): 10-12 114 Discussions of the above verses in previous scholarship 120 B:1-2) Q 23:23-52; 2:87-89 120 B:3) Q 46:29-30 120 B:4-5) Q 3:184; 35:25 127 B:6) Q 4:136 134 B:7) Q 6:91-92 141 Taking Stock 151 Chapter Three: Apparent Plurality 157 Appearances of Kutub 158 1-2) Sūrat al-Nisāʾ (4): 136; Sūrat al-Baqarah (2): 285 159 3) Sūrat Yūnus (10): 94 161 4) Sūrat al-Bayyinah (98): 2-3 161 5) Sūrat al-Isrāʾ (17): 4 163 6) Sūrat Sabaʾ (34): 44 164 7) Sūrat al-Taḥrīm (66): 12 166 A kitāb for Every Age? Sūrat al-Raʿd (13): 38-39 174 An Abundance of Kitābs? Sūrat al-Anʿām (6): 83-89 179 A New Kitāb for Jesus? 184 I. Al-bayyināt 188 II. Al-ḥikmah 192 III. Al-kitāb 194 Sūrat Maryam (19): 30 195 IV. Al-injīl 205 Sūrat al-Ḥadīd (57):26-27 206 Sūrat al-Māʾidah (5): 45-47 210 V. Al-kitāb wa-l-ḥikmah wa-l-tawrāh wa-l-injīl 218 Sūrat Āl ʿImrān (3):48; Sūrat al-Māʾidah (5):110 218 The meaning of al-tawrāh 219 vi The meaning of al-ḥikmah 225 Q 3:48 and 5:110 in the commentaries 229 Q 3:48 and 5:110 in modern scholarship 233 A New Kitāb for David? Sūrat Ṣād (38):29 241 Implied Plurality 243 Sūrat al-Anʿām (6): 155-157 243 Sūrat al-Shūrā (42): 15 248 Chapter Four: The Meaning of Kitāb 256 Previous Scholarship on the Meaning of Kitāb 257 Kitāb as legislative scripture 258 Kitāb as covenantal scripture 259 Kitāb as metaphor 261 The Significance of ʿIlm and Ḥukm to Kitāb 271 The Heavenly Book and the Two Kitāb Hypothesis 275 Kitāb as Comprehensive Text 279 Beyond ʿIlm and Ḥukm 282 Kitāb as a source of (historical) knowledge 285 Kitāb as a source of judgments 295 Defining Kitāb 300 Diachronic Reflection 302 I. First Meccan Texts 306 II. Second and Third Meccan Texts 309 III. Medinan Texts 313 Wherefore al-tawrāh and al-injīl? 320 Conclusion 322 Chapter Five (Conclusion): Rethinking Muhammad’s Movement 324 The Shape of History: Cyclical or Bi-modal? 324 Abraham and the (Unequal) Distribution of Guidance 327 The Qur’anic Portrayal of Christians 331 Constricting Ummī: From Gentile to Ishmaelite 335 The Aims and Ambitions of the Qur’an 338 Conquest and Regeneration: From Ishmaelite Believers to Cosmopolitan Muslims 342 Bibliography 351 vii Acknowledgments Doctoral students in the humanities often lead their many years of graduate work under the shadow of an exciting yet daunting task, namely, the writing of a dissertation. The completion of this task therefore brings a sense of relief and contentment. In reaching this station of riḍā, I have benefited from the support and friendship of many teachers and colleagues. First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Professor William Graham, my Doktorvater. That I had a rewarding experience in writing my thesis owes much to Professor Graham’s unflagging support and encouragement. In particular, I am thankful to him for his vital and detailed feedback on multiple drafts of my dissertation. Beyond his invaluable support and advice, I have found Professor Graham to be a veritable uswa ḥasana, an excellent example, for scholarly imitation—in the depth of his philological and comparative erudition, and in the magnanimity and conscientiousness that he brings to teaching and advising. I would also like to thank Professor Roy Mottahedeh, who has graciously supported my various academic and professional ventures. I was fortunate to take Professor Mottahedeh’s History of the Near East courses the last time he taught them, and ever since have appreciated the vast learning and unique sense of humor that he brings to the study of Islamic history. viii One of my best decisions at Harvard was to enroll in Professor Charles Stang’s Early Christian Thought, undoubtedly the most stimulating course I took as a student of humanities and a closet mutakallim. In our very first conversation, Professor Stang encouraged me to learn Syriac, an advice that proved formative for the subsequent direction of my studies. Even though I was not an official advisee of his, Professor Stang has always been most generous with his time and a constant source of academic baraka, the latest of which was his willingness to join my dissertation committee.
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