RQR | Review of Qur’anic Research Shari Lowin, Editor [email protected] www.iqsaweb.org Review of Qur’anic Research, vol. 7, no. 4 (2021) Gabriel Said REYNOLDS Allah: God in the Qur’an New Haven: Yale University Press, 2020 Pp. x + 327 Hardcover $30. ISBN 978-0-300-24658-2 Gabriel Said Reynolds’ most recent book, Allah: God in the Qur’an, explores Allah’s characterization in the Qurʾān through His relationship with creation. Reynolds frames his discussion around the dichotomy of divine mercy and justice (or vengeance) in the Qurʾān; but the book is more than an analysis of the Qur’ān’s presentation of these characteristics. Rather, the book offers a wide-ranging introduction to theological debates framed by the Qurʾān, with a methodological intervention by Reynolds as to how to reconcile these dichotomous elements and the contentious debates they engender. In the book’s introduction, Reynolds begins by presenting modern contexts for the debate surrounding the question of the predominance of Allah’s mercy or His justice. Reynolds frames the debate with discussions of what constitutes Allah’s primary quality—here, whether RQR | Review of Qur’anic Research Shari Lowin, Editor [email protected] www.iqsaweb.org mercy, justice, or even vengeance—and, by extension, the primary quality of Islam as a religion. Reynolds presents not only the scholarly discomfort with and debates around these contradictory characteristics of Allah in the Qurʾān, but also the implications of these characteristics for political players, activists, reformists, and “Islamists.” After detailing various methods through which scholars deal (or do not deal) with these apparent contradictions, Reynolds presents his intervention: “The goal of this book is to uncover the theology of the Qur’an, to explore the Qur’an’s presentation of a God who is both merciful and wrathful” (16). Reynolds does a thorough job presenting the stakes of the argument, and the ways in which various players have clashed when trying to reconcile their differing views of Allah. Readers never lose track of the fact that the arguments of the book are not academic only but play out in larger socio-political circles. Following the introduction, the book is split into four parts, further divided into chapters. Each chapter opens with a quote, followed by an anecdote that introduces the chapter’s topic. The rest of the chapter is divided into thematic subtopics that range from specific issues regarding Allah’s characteristics, His actions in the Qurʾān, and the attempts of scholars, both those working with the exegetical tradition and those whose primary focus is elsewhere, to interpret some of the thorny paradoxical issues therein. Reynolds combines his analysis of the qurʾānic descriptions of Allah with classical debates on these issues, their presence in modern scholarship, and (to some extent) how they are related in the public sphere. Reynolds’ basic arguments are as follows: 1. The Qurʾān assumes a continuity with the Bible in terms of the narratives it uses and some of the tropes and positions it takes. However, it uses these narratives for different ends, primarily for exhortative and homiletic purposes; the Qurʾān encourages obedience to God in all cases, and it warns its audience against failing in this obedience. RQR | Review of Qur’anic Research Shari Lowin, Editor [email protected] www.iqsaweb.org 2. Allah is presented in the Qurʾān as demonstrating the qualities of mercy and justice/retribution (among others). These qualities are not mutually exclusive, nor are they paradoxical; rather, Allah promises mercy and justice in accordance with the character and actions of His creations, His servants. 3. In this way, the character of Allah in the Qurʾān is not detached from humanity; rather, He takes on human characteristics in relation to their actions. He can be angry at them, and He can “trick” (190) and mislead them. The first part, “Allah and His Book,” presents readers with a general introduction to the subject of God’s presence in the Qurʾān, as well as the more general topic of qurʾānic revelation. Chapter 1, “The Qur’an and the Bible” compares the two scriptures in terms of address, style and format, and function. Chapter 2, “God and the Prophets,” focuses on the “character” of Allah in the Qurʾān; that is, here Reynolds analyzes the language of the Qurʾān in regards to Allah, and the way Allah and His actions (in relation to the prophets and their communities) are presented. Chapter 3, “Heaven or Hell,” is primarily descriptive; Reynolds spends most of the chapter explaining the eschatologyl found in the Qurʾān—what happens to the body after death, resurrection, and on the Day of Judgement. This section of the book is the most wide-ranging, providing background on the Qur’ān’s format, cosmological content, and relationship with other Abrahamic faiths, on the assumption that most readers will be essentially unfamiliar with Qur’ānic Studies. The second part of the book, titled “Mercy,” focuses on the definition of divine mercy and discusses to whom Allah’s mercy extends. Chapter 4 (“Divine Mercy”) categorizes the types of mercy extended, while Chapter 5 (“Allah and the Fate of Sinners”) and Chapter 6 (“Allah and the Fate of Unbelievers”) cover debates about those who are in an uncertain position regarding this mercy. Chapter 5 discusses Muslims who have sinned. Chapter 6 turns to the question of divine mercy for “infidels.” RQR | Review of Qur’anic Research Shari Lowin, Editor [email protected] www.iqsaweb.org From here the discussion switches from those who might receive Allah’s mercy to those who definitely fall outside the realm of divine compassion and forgiveness. Part 3, “Vengeance,” looks at the other possible response to human sinning—Allah’s judgement and vengeance. Chapter 7, “Divine Wrath,” concerns those upon whom Allah’s vengeance descends; it emphasizes that Allah expresses wrath—explicitly and in clear and unambiguous Arabic—towards those who break their covenant with Him. Chapter 8, “Avenger,” discusses the ways in which Allah interferes in the lives of disbelievers and those who betray His covenant; it focuses not only on the different punishments given to them, but also on qurʾānic descriptions of these betrayers and Allah’s wrath towards them. Importantly, Reynolds recounts the numerous ways Allah seals the wrongdoers off from any type of redemption, including trickery and the hardening of hearts; Allah not only reserves His mercy for believers, but actively opposes and antagonizes disbelievers. These chapters function as a critique of those who wish to emphasize the mercy of Allah and ignore the presence of His vengeance. The fourth section, “A Personal God,” emphasizes the continued duality of these dichotomous characteristics of Allah in order to interrogate the effect of His depiction in the Qurʾān. The God of the Qurʾān is “personal” in that He both takes a personal interest in each of His creations, and that He responds to human actions in a visceral, anthropomorphic way—and this is central to the Qurʾān’s arguments encouraging piety and worship. Chapter 9, “God of the Bible and the Qur’an,” explores the implications of comparing the God of the Qurʾān to the God of the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament,1 and focuses heavily on the duality of mercy and vengeance found in the Jewish and Christian traditions. Reynolds concludes that, while justice and vengeance are present in the Jewish and Christian depictions of God, the Qurʾān 1 There is also a short section on talmudic depictions of God. RQR | Review of Qur’anic Research Shari Lowin, Editor [email protected] www.iqsaweb.org makes these qualities more central in its depiction of the divinity. The reason for this, elucidated in Chapter 10, “Reading the Qur’an,” is that this binary encourages believers to godwariness/godconsciousness (taqwā). The central concern of the Qurʾān, Reynolds argues, is to exhort readers to submit to Allah, and the language of the Qurʾān, its rhetorical devices and use of this binary, encourage this reading. Reynolds concludes his book with an epilogue, “The Qur’an on Peaceful Coexistence,” which discusses the topic of Allah’s mercy and vengeance in reaction to human behavior, and the Qurʾān’s expectations of believers. Just as Reynolds opens his study with the debates that the Qurʾān engenders among scholars and believers, he closes his book with the implications and ramifications of qurʾānic exegesis in the modern world, and how exegesis can be co-opted by ideological concerns and claims to religious authority. Reynolds relates the consequences that accusations of disbelief and blasphemy carry in the Muslim world, before arguing that judgement for transgressions of belief, according to the Qurʾān, is solely Allah’s purview—not that of humans. He ends the book by emphasizing Allah’s sovereignty, and a plea to, per Q al- Baqarah 2:148, “Vie one with another in good works” (263). Reynolds uses a close literary reading of the Qurʾān to establish his argument throughout the book. The Qurʾān is his base text, one that has a cast of characters, a range of purposes, and a variety of rhetorical features. Reynolds explicitly rejects a historically based argument, or one that tries to establish the development of the qurʾānic text or of theological systems in the early Islamic period. Using the current widely accepted text of the Qur’ān,2 he approaches the text as a cohesive whole, one that is in dialogue with pre-existing scriptures. 2 That is, the 1924 Cairo edition. Reynolds does not go into the debates over the variations found in early Qurʾān manuscripts. RQR | Review of Qur’anic Research Shari Lowin, Editor [email protected] www.iqsaweb.org Reynolds employs verses from throughout the Qurʾān as his primary evidence.