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The article discusses the nature and current understanding by Sunni Muslims of Islamic exegeses, i.e., Muslim Arabic literature about the end of the world or Doomsday. The author refers to the expectation of an end of the world as millennialism, and describes its prevalence within the context of Sunni Islam.

This article examines the attitudes of the Quranic mushrikūn to the resurrection and the afterlife, focusing on those who doubted or denied the reality of both. The first part of the article, published in a previous issue of BSOAS, argued that the doubters and deniers had grown up in a monotheist environment familiar with both concepts and that it was from within the monotheist tradition that they rejected them. This second part relates their thought to intellectual currents in Arabia and the Near East in general, arguing that the role of their pagan heritage in their denial is less direct than normally assumed. It is also noted that mutakallims such as Abū 'Īsā al-Warrāq and al-Māturīdī anticipated the main conclusions reached in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper commences with an analysis of Qur'an 17:1, the Prophet's alleged night journey from Mecca to Jerusalem, which it interprets as an allegory of Islamic ritual prayer. By way of this interpretation, the paper subsequently reviews Islam as a particularly spatially oriented religion and proposes a spatial reading of the word ‘Islam’ itself. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Context plays a major role in indicating the meaning of words and grammatical structures. This is especially true for terms to which the Qur'an designated new meanings. Furthermore, over the passing of time meanings change, for example from the general to the specific or vice versa. On this basis the author attempts to apply the theory of semantic fields to specific terms in al-Ṭabrisī's Majmaʿ al-bayān. He then highlights the usefulness of this theory in composing in comprehensive dictionaries which include semantic fields as applied in other tafāsīr. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The jizya verse has been the basis of a huge amount of writing by Muslims in Islamic law and Qur'anic exegesis, and by non-Muslim scholars writing about Islam. It continues to be used by some academics, the media and anti-Islamic propagandists to denigrate Islam and its treatment of non-Muslims, especially the 'People of the Book'. This article aims to examine the verse afresh, using close linguistic analysis and paying due regard to the linguistic and historical contexts of the verse and all its elements, as well as the style of the Qur'an, and what it says outside the confines of this verse. Such analysis will demonstrate that the picture that has been made of this verse, based on various historical contingencies, both by Muslim exegetes and jurists and non-Muslim writers, is far removed from the actual picture as given in the Qur'an itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Muslims regard the Qur'an as divine speech; therefore, the scope of human intervention in shaping and interpreting it is often downplayed. One hitherto neglected aspect of the history of the Qur'an and the redaction of its text is the introduction of waqf categories which dictate where a Qur'an reciter must, should or cannot pause while reading the Qur'an and how this affects its meaning. This paper deals with the history of the introduction of these waqf categories: how and on what basis they were determined by Muslim scholars, and what these scholars sought to accomplish by introducing them. It also discusses how this subject is significant to the understanding of the Qur'an by demonstrating how pausing at certain points affects the meaning of the text. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes the relationship between gender hierarchy and spiritual hierarchy in the writings of three Fāṭimid Ismāʿīlī authors: al-Qāḍī al-Nuʿmān (d. 363/974), Jaʿfar b. Manṣūr al-Yaman (d. 380/990) and al-Muʾayyad fī'l-Dīn al-Shīrāzī (d. 470/1078). These authors interpreted references to males and females in the Qur'an as references to spiritual teachers and their students: verses that on the outward ( ẓāhir) level speak of the gender hierarchy refer, on the inner ( bāṭin) level, to the spiritual hierarchy. We show that, for them, physical gender matters in the physical realm, and a worldly gender hierarchy exists, but physical gender is not always a defining factor in spiritual rankings. We shed light on the way in which these prominent Fāṭimid Ismāʿīlī thinkers view the base physical realm as a symbolic reference to higher spiritual truths, and give examples of the ways in which specific Qur'anic stories, such as that of Adam and Eve, or Joseph and Zulaykha, are interpreted as referring to the male/teacher and female/student relationship in the spiritual hierarchy. We then compare these writings to the specific defence of a female spiritual leader put forth in the Ghayāt al-mawālīd by a slightly later author, al-Khaṭṭāb (d. 533/1138-9). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents abstracts on topics related to the Qur'an, including the interpretation of the Qur'an, the relationship between gender hierarchy and spiritual hierarchy in writings of Islamic authors, and the inclusion of Islamic legends in coins.

This paper seeks to explore the wide range of interpretations resulting from the ḥurūf al-muqaṭṭaʿa or 'the disconnected letters' of the Qur'an. Typically considered a paradigmatic case of the mutashābih in the Qur'an, exegetes have expended much time and energy speculating over the meaning(s) of these enigmatic graphemes. From the earliest exegetes to the later tradition, a chorus of possibilities and theories are encountered. The traditions of interpretations themselves are a testament to the Qur'an's interpretive plurality throughout the centuries. This paper looks at the long tradition of broadly Sunnī Muslim interpretation in regards to the disconnected letters to uncover the historic expansiveness of Qur'anic hermeneutics. Linguistic, mystical and encyclopaedic approaches are especially highlighted for the sake of emphasising diversity. The paper concludes with an exploration of the 'limits' of interpretation as determined by the exegetes in response to the disconnected letters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we present a simple mining technique named the Quran Mining Technique (QMT) in an attempt to automatically classify the Suras (i.e. chapters) of the Quran based on predefined set of 10 themes. QMT is composed mainly of two phases: a preprocessing phase and a classification phase. In the first phase, we manually label a set of representative words for ten predefined themes. In the second phase we use the QMT on a set of 14 Suras (the total number of Suras is 30) using a scoring function (SF) to identify their themes. The results of QMT are compared with the results obtained from expert scholars in the field of Quranic studies, which we used as a benchmark. The average accuracy of the QMT classifier shows a result close to 79%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an excerpt of an exegetical treatise written by Persian vizier and historian Rashīd al-Dīn Fadl Allāh al-Hamadhānī of the 108th sura of the Qur'ān, known as the "Sūrat al-Kawthar."

Al-Ghazzālī criticized Muslim philosophers in general and Ibn Sīnā in particular in a number of matters notwithstanding, he was deeply influenced by philosophy and Ibn Sīnā's views as to some issues. Of the contexts in which al-Ghazzālī is under the clear influence of Ibn Sīnā are the interpretations of some Qur'ānīc chapters and verses which are related to the demonstration of the existence of God and the explanation of some divine attributes and names. In many of his works, al-Ghazzālī reproduces Ibn Sīnā's interpretation of the verses in harmony with the ontological proof. One can observe Ibn Sīnā's influence on al-Ghazzālī in relation with the hierarchy of beings, too. However, the context in which Ibn Sīnā's influence is most obvious is the interpretation of the 35th verse of the Sūrah Nūr. Ibn Sīnā's interpretation of the terms occurring in this verse as symbols of the human faculties exercised a profound impact on the thought of al-Ghazzālī, which manifests itself in his interpretation of the verse in Mishkāt al-Anwār. Another of such contexts is the topic of human psychology and the interpretations of the verses related wherewith. Immensely influenced by the psychological views of Ibn Sīnā, al-Ghazzālī adopted Ibn Sīnā's notion of the simultaneous creation of soul and body, interpreting some Qur'ānic verses in harmony with this notion. This article is intended to illustrate that al-Ghazzālī, who is opposed to the blind imitation of any school of thought, did not make a wholesale denouncement of the views of philosophers; on the contrary, he made an extensive use of Ibn Sīnā's ideas in conformity with his general attitude of benefiting from all schools of thought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines an Arabic sentence type, which is very common in poetry and prose, namely the objecting (mu'tarada) sentence. It investigates its conceptual framework, various types and different usages. The objecting sentences that used in philological sources, Qur'anic exegesis and grammatical analyses of the Qur'anic sentences namely 'iraab al-Qur'an works are gathered and classified. After that the occurrence of the objecting sentence in the Qur'an is considered and the purpose of its usage is determined. As can be expected from the nature of the subject, several examples along with their original texts are given, while describing the issue of the objecting sentence in the Arabic language and trying to determine the usage purposes in the Quran. While giving examples from Qur'anic verses, only the opinions of Qur'anic commentators with a philological approach are considered. The disagreement between Tafseer scholars in determining the objecting sentences or its usage purposes is not taken into consideration as not to draw out the subject. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The question of using synonyms in translating the Quran is a thorny issue that led to both different interpretations and different translations of the holy text. No matter how accurate or professional a translator attempts to be, Quranic translation has always been fraught with inaccuracies and the skewing of sensitive theological, cultural and historical connotations owing to the peculiar mechanism of stress, semantico-syntactic ambiguity, prosodic and acoustic features, the mesh of special rhetorical texture and culture-bound references. Consequently, in most of the English interpretations of the Quran, cases of non-equivalence and untranslatability will be more frequent with plenty of scope for ambiguities, obscurities and fuzzy boundaries.The trend has been to accept exegetical translation based on commentary and explanation of the Quranic discourse. Since there is no uniform book of exegesis, translations are considered to be glosses or approximates for non-Arabic speaking Muslims. This study is mainly concerned with assessing the criteria and strategies used by different Quran translators in selecting synonyms to render Quranicpolysemous words. The linguistic- cultural context of the original polysemous ST word will be analyzed and compared with its TT near-synonyms.The study argues that in translating religious texts where synonyms are usually used to convey implicated meanings of ST polysemous words and where we seek to have the same effect on the Target Language receiver as that of the original, the use of functional ideational equivalence is given primacy over formal equivalence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the Kashshāf, the Quran commentary of the Mu'tazilite al-Zamakhsharī (d. 538/1144). This involves: (1) the continuous reading of the commentary on two sūras; (2) the study of al-Zamakhsharī's commentary in the Kashshāf on Quranic passages used by him or his teacher Ibn al-Malāḥimī (d. 536/1141) in their theological treatises; and (3) an analysis of a report claiming that al-Zamakhsharī had begun his commentary with the blatantly Mu'tazilite statement: “Praise be to God who created the Quran”. The conclusion is that the results of the study of the commentary on the two sūras reflect the overall theological content of the Kashshāf and that to consider the Kashshāf to be a Mu'tazilite Quran commentary amounts more to looking at the theological school of its author and to accepting medieval hearsay than it does to drawing conclusions based on a detailed examination of the relevant sources. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The subject of this article is to introduce Abu'l-Fath Abdussamed b. Mahmud b. Yunus el-Ghaznavi who lived in 5th century AH and his tafsir entitled "Tafsir al Quran al-Azim" which he wrote in 487/1094 and it is intented to determine the resources and works which his work impressed. Thus, the resources which Ab-dussamed Al-Ghaznavi used while creating his work are searc-hed and it is determined how the writer benefited from these re-sorces by comparing his work and resources. Besides, the effect of tafsir on later period and scholar people is examined so, Ab-dussamad al-Ghaznavi's contribution to Islamic sciences in general and the lore of tafsir specifically. Eventually the origina-lity of "Tafsir al-Quran al-Azim" which came to our day as ma-nuscript is determined in proportion to the compiling period and the place and significance of work in tafsir history from the point of Quran tafsir is emphasized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study entitled "Interpreting Quran by Quran Itself" and will evaluate whether approaches is right that accept Commentary of the Qur'an with Qur'an is objectionable. General tendency among the scholars on this issue will be discussed. Furthermore, with movement from the fact that scholars applying the method, this study will try to provide a method to understand the Quran in its entirety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For over 14 centuries, Muslim men have misinterpreted a verse of the Quran (4:34) to allow themselves to beat their wives. The Sublime Quran, the first critical English translation of the Quran by a woman, corrects this error and shows how it has created a contradiction not inherent in the Quran itself. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Copyright of Dinbilimleri Journal is the property of Dinbilimleri Journal and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Dinbilimleri Journal is the property of Dinbilimleri Journal and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The Pakistani scholar Faziur Rahman disagreed with the German philosopher Hans-Georg Gadamer on elements of philosophical hermeneutics as they bear upon interpretation of texts - in this case, the interpretation of the Qur'ān. Rahman proposed a "double-movement" theory of Qur'ānic interpretation through which he hoped for the revival and reform of Islamic intellectualism in its encounter with Western modernity, but also with difference from Islamic orthodoxy's conceptualization of ijtihād. In this paper, I examine Rahman's concerns as they relate to Gadamer's general approach to understanding history and textual interpretation. Rahman argued that if Gadamer's thesis concerning the fore- structure of human understanding is correct, then Rahman's theory has no meaning at all. I conclude that there is reason to see Rahman's theory as consistent with Gadamer's philosophical hermeneutics, albeit with some modification given Rahman's focus on psychologism and objectivity as part of his approach to Qur'ānic interpretation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reputation of Abd Allāh b. Abbās as the greatest early exegete of the Qurān began as a product of Abbasid propaganda. Even his biography is suspect. To focus exclusively on the issue of authenticity, however, is to neglect the cultural memory he represents within Sunni Muslim tafsīr. Within the matns of the thousands of hadīths attributed to him, he is the mythic embodiment, the cultural memory, of the acceptable range of diversity that 're-collects' and helps unify the (Sunni) Muslim community. The Isnāds also preserve an independent cultural memory. In them, Ibn Abbās is the embodiment of an ideal: he stands as the cipher for the exegetical methodology that bases itself on the Qurān and on the Prophet and his Companions. The Ibn Abbās of the Isnāds represents the connection to and communication with these sources of knowledge that the Ibn Abbās of the matns seems to have rarely employed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Classical Islamic scholarship developed two principal theses on the subject of the origin of language (asl al-lugha). The first of these theses, commonly referred to as tawqīf, accentuated the pre-eminent role that divine agency played in the imposition of language; axiomatic within this perspective is the view that words (lafz pl. alfāz) have been assigned their meanings (manā pl. maānī) primordially by God. Presented as something of an antithesis to this position, the second doctrine, labeled istilāh, predicates that language was established and evolved via a process of common convention and agreement: words together with their meanings were assigned by human beings, although both the doctrines of tawqīf and istilāh posit that the actual relationship between words and their assigned meanings remains entirely arbitrary, rejecting any sort of natural link between the two. Although later Islamic scholarship accepted that both theses were plausible, within the course of the 9th/10th centuries opinions on the subject were ostensibly polarized between orthodox and arch-rationalist camps with the former endorsing tawqīf and the latter istilāh. In the quest to achieve a conceptual defense of traditional arguments for tawqīf it was necessary for orthodox theologians to create a connective structure, as articulated through reference to remembrance, continuation, and identity, which enabled them to anchor the construct of tawqīf in a formalized way to the scriptural exegesis and emblems of orthodoxy associated with the pious ancestors. That this was successfully accomplished through references to the past would seem to confirm the role which cultural memory played in the defense of what was deemed an orthodox belief. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Narrative materials in classical Muslim commentaries on the Qurān included stories of the prophet of Islam in confrontation with representatives of other religious communities. In the case of the exegesis of Q 3:64, a verse which has been used in recent years as a call to interfaith dialogue, commentators told two different stories of encounter between Muhammad and Christians. Both stories, in their own ways, developed themes of theological controversy and political conquest. They sought to demonstrate the authority of the prophet of Islam to determine the truth about Jesus and to challenge foreign rulers to 'submit.' The stories also made the case that through the events of the life of the prophet of Islam and the Muslim Conquest, as described in the Muslim historical tradition, God was at work in the world. By telling these stories, exegetes projected a memory of military domination and an assertion of spiritual superiority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the historical process, different methods emerged related to interpretation of Quran. Although beginning of philologic tafsir of Quran, has historical prioriy according to ishari, fiqhi and scientific methods, most of the classic and modern studies about tafsir sciences don't mention about this school and is breaved from classification. We go through this study in order to explicate the possibility of philologic tafsir and to draw attention to this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Qur'ān translation, as of any text, necessarily involves exegetical interventions. Yet there remains a critical distinction between these two modes of textual engagement. This paper explores the relationship between the imitative act of translation and the explicatory act of exegesis. It investigates the extent to which translators graft their exegetical projects onto their translation attempts. The paper first addresses the issue of Qur'ān translatability, recognizes the often uncertain boundaries between translation and exegesis, and then provides an historical overview of Qur'ān translation-cum-exegesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Selective Qur'anic referencing comprises a core element of radical Islamist discourse endorsing militancy. These are often embedded in wider religious deliberations which also cite numerous Hadith and other religious sources to support a given argument. This article seeks to analyse and document the way in which specific verses of the Qur'an are used to legitimise justifications put forward for violence and targeting in a selected corpus of English- language extremist Islamist material. The article concludes that application of the teachings of the Qur'an is altered and tailored in major militant Islamist treatises to match their political narrative, thus violating strict Salafistic demands for literal application of the Qur'an's message. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the Arabic word jihād, and its meaning in the context of Islam. It analyzes the text of the Qur'ān, comparing how the word jihād is used in the book's Makkan and Madinan verses. Islamic traditions known as hadith are also discussed, and various interpretations of the proper meaning or meanings of the term jihād are critiqued. The difficulties of translating the Arabic concept into English are also noted, and an argument is presented that the word jihād is not synonymous with terms such as crusade or holy war.

The article discusses the interpretation of sharī'ah, or Islamic law. It focuses on the views of the Iranian theologian Hujjat al-Islām Muhammad Mujtahid Shabistarī, who is said to favor the idea of a dynamic hermeneutical process. The importance of understanding Islamic traditions such as the hadith, and the text of the Koran are noted, and the variety of interpretations which various Islamic jurists have promulgated over the centuries is discussed. Shabistarī's views on these and related issues are described.

This paper analyses the genre of contemporary tafsīr, focussing on the attitude of modern Sunnite exegetes towards Jews and Christians, on the role of different strands of tradition and of ideological bias for their interpretion of the Qur'ān, and on the similarities and differences between Qur'ānic commentaries from different regions of the Muslim word. It is based on the study of seventeen Qur'ānic commentaries from the Arab World, Indonesia and Turkey that have been published since 1967. The analysis of the authors' background reveals that in recent times, Qur'ānic commentaries tend to be written by professional male 'ulamā' from a provincial background, usually holding a faculty position in Islamic theology. As most exegetes' aim is to stress the timeless relevance of the Qur'ān, few of the commentaries make direct reference to contemporary events. Still, many of them are, in a very modern way, more concerned with providing religious guidance than with explaining the Qur'ān's meaning. However, the “traditional” explanatory approach is still alive, predominantly in commentators who are affiliated with Egypt's Azhar University. Besides the tradition of premodern Sunnite tafsīr, which all commentaries build on to a certain extent, Salafī exegesis is clearly influential in the way in which several commentaries strive at disassociating themselves from Christians and Jews and at building up a dichotomy between “us” and “them” in their exegesis of Q 5:51, which contains an interdiction against taking Christians and Jews as awliyā' (a term that is variably understood as meaning friends, allies, intimates, confidants, helpers, or leaders). It is striking that Arab commentators, for the most part, show a much more hostile attitude towards Christians and Jews than their Indonesian and Turkish counterparts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the scope of interpretation in the contemporary exegesis of the Qur'ān and the underlying trends in modern Islam that influence this exegesis. It focuses on one Qur'ānic verse—Q 54:1—and investigates the differences and similarities between the contemporary exegesis of this verse and the classical exegetical tradition as well as the possible influence of an author's regional, professional and confessional background on his interpretation. In classical exegesis, Q 54:1 (iqtarabati l-sā'atu wa-nshaqqa l-qamaru) is mostly interpreted as referring to the splitting of the moon, a miracle allegedly granted to Muhammad, but usually the classical exegetes also discuss the—equally possible—eschatological and metaphorical readings of the verse. In contrast, modern exegetes mostly confine themselves to discussing only one interpretation, but they differ radically in their conclusions and thus add a number of new—and sometimes rather bizarre—interpretations to those known from the classical tradition. While some exegetes try to minimize the miraculous aspect of the verse and offer alternative readings—historical, eschatological, metaphorical, or symbolical—others explicitly defend a miraculous reading of the text and try to adduce new arguments for this interpretation. The article draws attention to regional and confessional differences in the interpretation and shows the importance of non-scholarly exegetes and the Internet in assessing how verses from the Qur'ān are understood by Muslims today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Muslims were seriously interested in translation of The Quran in addition to reciting it. As the Islamic conquest expansion, Masses accepting Islam were curious about not only reciting of The Quran but also translation of it. So the translation and interpretation of The Quran began. But these translations are not word for word translation. These translations have a feature of interpretation. Because the Quran does not recognize the possibility that. We have obviously seen that in the verse dealt with. In this work we have studied the 55th verse of The Qamer sura in aspect of word-to-word translation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the oldest debates in Islamic history of thought regarding the understanding and interpretation of the Qur'an is the existence of allegory in its text. The debate is origionally related to the scope of allegorical meanings in Arabic language, and if it exists in the language whether it would be relevent to the Qur'an. The approval or rejection of allegory in language took place mostly within linguistic questions, however, Qur'anic discussions were rather connected to the theological aspects of the problem. Metaphysical terms and expressions that were used in these debates had a major impact on this development. The debates occurred in a quiet atmosphere in the early periods, but during the time of the prominent Salafi scholar Ibn Taymiyya it flared up in a direction towards totally theological dimension. In the following periods the it continued in the line of Ibn Taymiyya's scholarly contributions. In this article I will explore the content and arguments of this question and analyse the views of both sides regarding the debate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses Western attitudes to the style of the Koran from the sixteenth to the late eighteenth century. The subject is of particular interest because the question of the Koran's aesthetic value is ultimately linked with the Islamic belief that the inimitable beauty of Muhammad's revelation is the very proof of its divine origin (i'jāz al-Qur'ān). Given the apologetic function of this doctrine in Islamic theology, many early modern European orientalists, from Theodor Bibliander to Ludovico Marracci, criticised the style. Some of the arguments presented were remarkably persistent and can be followed up to the present day. This article also shows, however, that since the end of the seventeenth century scholars such as Andreas Acoluthus, George Sale and Claude-Etienne Savary had developed a more favourable attitude to the Koranic style, while, at the end of the eighteenth century, the Prophet Muhammad was seen as an inspired genius and the Koran as an example of 'divine poetry'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A considerable part of who discuss the method of understanding of the Qur'an don't critique the data impartially and they put the conclusion forward to which they like to achieve. The most important cause is that they move in the influence of different factors from the historical concern. Some social and individual expectations for the Qur'an designate our image and understanding thesis of Qur'an. Different expectations also cause alternative Qur'an images come out. It is a null claim to achieve the essential character/true image of the Qur'an and to accept it as a criterion about the Qur'an understanding process. We need to be aware of this and to channel our academic studies about the Qur'an and tafseer imaginations of Muslims. Thus we can obtain a common ground on which we will outcome the results from historical data about whether the Qur'an understanding tradition has got a method in the past or not. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Turkbilig/Turkoloji Arastirmalari Dergisi is the property of Turkbilig/Turkoloji Arastirmalari Dergisi and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Martyrdom in Iran and the Middle East is a phenomenon that has been subject to a plethora of religious exegesis. However, scholars, often not having prescribed to the Aristotelian notion of poetics, have not only ignored the literary aspects of this phenomenon in the Middle East but have also failed to realize the poetics that exist within the parameters of religious and Koranic exigencies of martyrdom. This article summarizes and creates reference points for the morphology of a contemporary phenomenon, which finds its prototype not only in the tragic events of Karbala but also in literary occasions that long preceded it in Iran. This paradigm is found to be quite sufficient when dealing with martyrdom in Iran, which with the onslaught of the Safavids was provided with the proverbial "trigger" for its already long-standing literary canons. The importance of a lover-beloved relationship in accordance with a martyr's view of self as pertains to his or her actions in the face of God, country, and man under the rubric of some historical and literary events and productions throughout Iranian history is also epmhasized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the use of the term sharīʿa in the Qurʾan to show that it should be understood to have a much broader meaning than “way” or “path”, which is the way it is usually understood. The term sharīʿa occurs only once in the text of the Qurʾan. A close reading of the passage in which it occurs demonstrates first, that sharīʿa is being used interchangeably with the word kitab and can thus be thought of as synonymous with qurʾan, and second, that the context in which the term sharīʿa is used is in opposition to other communities - in particular banī israʾīl, which it is argued includes Jews and Christians. This context has significant resonance for Muslims, as well as others, living in contemporary Western societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to investigate the translation of syntactic pause as an under-researched linguistic observable feature from Arabic into English, with particular reference to Qur’anic examples. Due to the lack of studies in this area, and because the phenomenon has not been treated sufficiently in Qur’anic and non-Qur’anic discourses, Qur’anic verses illustrating the point are sampled, analyzed and discussed so as to uncover the difficulties and to suggest translation solutions. A handful of authentic and authoritative Qur’anic exegeses are consulted, in addition to three translations of the Qur’an, in an attempt to explore the role such interpretations can play in rendering the possible syntactic meanings into English. This makes it possible to provide a solid syntactic-translational ground for assigning syntactic-semantic value to the pause in the selected examples. This also allows the author to point out the problematic aspect of this linguistic phenomenon, where two acceptable readings of one syntactic structure can emerge. This study demonstrates that syntactic pause in the Qur’an presents certain challenges for the translator and requires great effort to render faithfully in the target language. The study also suggests how immediate and broader contexts can guide the translator in prioritizing one interpretation over another [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article surveys the textual, lexical and hermeneutical aspects of ‘killing’ in the Qur'an in the context of the discourse of the imperative, considered to be of paramount importance in the fields of ʿilm al-maʿānī wa'l-balāgha and Islamic jurisprudence. To this end the study adopts three different analytical paradigms. It first utilises a textual approach to survey occurrences of the verb q-t-l in the Qur'an in the context of the imperative. Then a lexical and pragmatic paradigm is applied in order to cast light on the meanings of ‘killing’. The third approach taken is hermeneutic, examining the works of mufassirūn and their analyses and interpretations of the verb, again in the context of the discourse of the imperative. These approaches are also informed by the concepts and tools of modern linguistics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the terminology of al-taṣwīr (‘imagery’), al-tamthīl (‘representations’) and al-takhyīl (‘imagination’) in al-Zamakhsharī’s al-Kashshāf. It first explores the meanings of the terms themselves, and then moves on to discuss their roles in elucidating the underlying signification of the Qur'anic text. Al-Zamakhsharī regards taṣwīr, tamthīl and takhyīl as indispensable exegetical tools, the primary function of which is clarification and explanation. After analysing the meaning of these three terms, this article also considers al-Zamakhsharī’s commentary on the Qur'anic text. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the changing character of Islamic martyrdom during early 21st century conflicts such as the Iraq War. The characterization of jihad, or self-defense, in the Arabic language and the Koran is described. The conceptions of the Kalipha, or caliphate, taken from the Koran and the Ottoman empire by Muslims including Osama Bin Laden is described. The distinction between nationalist and Muslim activism in the political formulations of the radicals Abd al-Salam Faraj, Abdullah Assam and Sayyid Qutb is explored. The relationship between suicide, martyrdom, and self-sacrifice in the political formulations of Islamists is described.

We discuss the special place of the Qur'an in the Muslim discourse in general and on science in particular. The Qur'an has an unparalleled influence on the Muslim mind, and understanding the Islamic treatise on science and religion must start from this realization. We explore the concept of science in the Islamic culture and to what extent it can be related to the Qur'an. Reviewing various Islamic discourses on science, we show how a simplistic understanding of the plan to adopt modern science within an Islamic revival program has been corrupted in the form of the theory of “scientific miraculousness of the Qur'an.” We assess and dismiss this theory but use it to show how a serious misunderstanding of the nature of modern science and a narrow view of the Qur'an has led to that embarrassingly popular yet misguided theory. We conclude by promoting a multiplicity of readings of the Qur'an and show that this allows for an enlightenment of one's interpretation of Qur'anic verses, using various tools at one's disposal, including scientific knowledge. We uphold Averroes's principle of “no possible conflict,” which can be used to persuade the Muslim public of a given idea not by proving that it can be found in the Qur'an but rather by showing that at least some readings of it are fully consistent with the given scientific theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractA ?contextualist? reading of the Quran is becoming increasingly popular, particularly among those Muslims referred to as ?progressive-ijtihadis?. One of the primary concerns of this reading is that in order to understand and interpret the ethico-legal content of the Quran and relate that content to the changing needs and circumstances of Muslims today, it is important to approach the text at different levels, giving a high degree of emphasis to the socio-historical context of the text. In the classical tafs?rthis emphasis on socio-historical context was not considered important, particularly in the interpretation of the ethico-legal texts, despite the frequent use of asb?b al-nuz?lliterature. In this paper, I will explore how progressive-ijtihadis are adopting a contextualist reading of ethico-legal texts of the Quran. To illustrate this, I will use one or two such texts (verses) and their interpretations by the progressive-ijtihadis and will seek to demonstrate the contours of this approach, and highlight some of the challenges this approach is facing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Monotheistic traditions of the Abrahamic variety have commonly conceived of the Divine interacting with this world through the Divine Word. No surprise, then, that the Qur'an refers to the Jews, Christians, and Muslims as "People of the Book" (Ahl al-Kitab). Yet the task of seeking and finding God is not as simple as opening a book, even the Book. Reading religious words necessitates some self-awareness about the revelation's context, the history of interpretations that stands between us and the text, and our own situatedness. What follows is a series of musings on these principles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Death is a central element in the Qur'an. In this discursive essay, the importance of death and the afterlife is discussed and highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using contemporary ideas of intertextuality, this study investigates the Qur'anic story of Talut (2:246-51), the first Israelite monarch, as it is set against the background of the Biblical account. A verse-by-verse analysis yields the Qur'anic sequence of events, which includes Talut's nomination, the Ark's appearance, crossing the river, Goliath's defeat, and David's succession. The Biblical counterparts, located within the books of Joshua, Judges, and I Samuel, feature such characters as Joshua, Gideon, Samuel, and Saul. The Qur'an is thereby reading the books of Joshua, Judges 6-8, I Samuel 1-7, and I Samuel 8-31 synoptically, and the Talut story is a harmonized account of these narratives. Reading between the two texts enhances the Qur'anic story, showing how it functions as a blueprint for the synoptic reading, in addition to furthering our understanding of Talut, who provides a typological prefiguration for Muhammad. However, the synoptic reading also enhances the Biblical story, showing the skill with which the multiple consecutive narratives implicitly argue for judgeship as opposed to kingship in the post-exilic context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, it has been aimed displaying forms of vocative phenomenon. indispensable style in Arabic literature, and its Rhetoric tact in the Quran. So, it has been studied firstly grammatical structure of vocative and eloquence features. Then the vocative phenomenon in the Quran has been dealt with in respect of technique and practical. It has been researched technically vocative particles used in the Quran, vocative and eliding of vocative particles and vocative. On the other hand, categorical differentiation of vocative forms and their adding semantic tact have been appeared practically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kasım al-Rassî, who is one of the most important scholars in Zaydiyya the nearest madhab to the Ahl al-Sunnah, was the imam of Zaydiyya in his period. ıt is accepted that he has systmatized Zaydis theology. ın this study, we have explained the life of al-Rassî and acquainted with his books particularly his tafseer books. We examined his tafseer method in three chapters. ınitially we studied his approach about verses (âyât) according to al-tafseer al-riwâyah. Second, we pointed out the importance of his use of Arabic language, poetry and rational exegesis in âyât interpretation based on al-tafseer al-dirâyah. Finally we have revealed his opinions about Ulum al-Qur'an in our text. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the aftermath of September 11, 2001, Islam has generally been represented in the media as a political ideology and some academics have over-emphasized this political image of Islam. These are not baseless speculations; there are several political Islamic groups worldwide. However, there are also many apolitical Islamic groups. This article analyzes one of the most influential apolitical Islamic movements in the world, the Nurcus, and its founder, Bediüzzaman Said Nursi. Nursi, the author of the Risale-i Nur collection, emphasized the ascetic aspect of Islam: 'Ninety-nine percent of Islam is about ethics, worship, the hereafter, and virtue. Only one percent is about politics; leave that to the rulers.' He also added, 'I seek refuge in God from Satan and [party] politics.' Through the analysis of Nursi's thought and activism, the article will try to answer the following questions: Was Nursi a Sufi? What are the theological and structural bases of Nursi's apolitical interpretation of Islam? What is the impact of the secular state in Turkey on the development of Nursi's apolitical outlook and activism? What does his apolitical understanding of Islam say to non-Turkish Muslims who do not live in a secular state? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]