The Qur ’ an Seminar Commentary Le Qur ’ an Seminar Mehdi Azaiez, Gabriel S. Reynolds, Tommaso Tesei, Hamza M. Zafer The Qur ’ an Seminar Commentary Le Qur ’ an Seminar A Collaborative Study of 50 Qur ’ anic Passages Commentaire collaboratif de 50 passages coraniques ISBN 978-3-11-021808-4 e-ISBN (PDF) 978-3-11-021809-1 e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-3-11-021806-2 ISSN 0179-0986 e-ISSN 0179-3256 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 License, as of February 23, 2017. For details go to http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A CIP catalog record for this book has been applied for at the Library of Congress. Bibliografische Information der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek verzeichnet diese Publikation in der Deutschen Nationalbibliogra- fie; detaillierte bibliografische Daten sind im Internet über http://dnb.dnb.de abrufbar. © 2016 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston Druck und Bindung: Duck & Co., Ortsname ♾ Gedruckt auf säurefreiem Papier An electronic version of this book is freely available, thanks to the support of libra- ries working with Knowledge Unlatched. KU is a collaborative initiative designed to make high quality books Open Access. More information about the initiative can be found at www.knowledgeunlatched.org ISBN 978-3-11-021808-4 e-ISBN (PDF) 978-3-11-021809-1 e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-3-11-021806-2 ISSN 0179-0986 e-ISSN 0179-3256 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 License, as of February 23, 2017. For details go to http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A CIP catalog record for this book has been applied for at the Library of Congress. Bibliografische Information der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek verzeichnet diese Publikation in der Deutschen Nationalbibliogra- fie; detaillierte bibliografische Daten sind im Internet über http://dnb.dnb.de abrufbar. © 2016 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston Druck und Bindung: Duck & Co., Ortsname ♾ Gedruckt auf säurefreiem Papier Printed in Germany www.degruyter.com found at www.knowledgeunlatched.org ISBN 978-3-11-044479-7 e-ISBN (PDF) 978-3-11-044590-9 e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-3-11-044545-9 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A CIP catalog record for this book has been applied for at the Library of Congress. Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available in the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de. © 2016 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston Printing and binding: CPI books GmbH, Leck Printed on acid-free paper Printed in Germany www.degruyter.com Dedicated to the Memory of Patricia Crone (1945 – 2015) Contents Commentary Sections by Scholar XIII Acknowledgements XV List of Abbreviations XVII Introduction 1 Research Statements 13 QS 1 Q 1:1 – 7 47 QS 2 Q 2:30 – 39 58 QS 3 Q 2:178 – 179 68 QS 4 Q 2:255 – 256 72 QS 5 Q 3:1 – 7 80 QS 6 Q 3:33 – 63 88 QS 7 Q 4:1 – 28 98 QS 8 Q 5:32 107 QS 9 Q 5:109 – 120 111 QS 10 Q 6:74 – 83 118 QS 11 Q 8:1 – 19 124 QS 12 Q 9:29 – 32 133 QS 13 Q 9:111 – 118 142 QS 14 Q 11:25 – 99 151 QS 15 Q 12 169 QS 16 Q 13:1 – 17 189 QS 17 Q 13:27 – 43 196 QS 18 Q 17:22 – 39 203 QS 19 Q 17:85 208 QS 20 Q 18:9 – 26 213 QS 21 Q 20:9 – 99 221 QS 22 Q 23 233 QS 23 Q 24:1 – 17 247 QS 24 Q 24:35 252 QS 25 Q 25:1 – 10 256 QS 26 Q 26:105 – 122 263 QS 27 Q 27:15 – 44 268 QS 28 Q 29 277 QS 29 Q 30:1 – 7 288 QS 30 Q 33:40 293 QS 31 Q 36:13 – 27 296 QS 32 Q 37:6 – 11 305 QS 33 Q 37:149 – 182 318 QS 34 Q 38:17 – 26 326 QS 35 Q 43:81 – 83 333 QS 36 Q 44:43 – 57 338 QS 37 Q 46:7 – 12 344 X Contents QS 38 Q 48 352 QS 39 Q 53 360 QS 40 Q 55 377 QS 41 Q 72 385 QS 42 Q 75 399 QS 43 Q 85 405 QS 44 Q 90 412 QS 45 Q 96 419 QS 46 Q 97 426 QS 47 Q 105 432 QS 48 Q 106 438 QS 49 Q 108 443 QS 50 Q 112 450 A Note on Qur ʾ ā n Seminar Sessions 457 Bibliography 460 Index 479 Contents XI Commentary Sections by Scholar 1. Mehdi Azaiez: QS 1 – 2, 4 – 5, 10, 12, 16, 21 – 22, 24 – 27, 31, 34, 36 – 37, 39, 41 – 42, 48 2. Patricia Crone: QS 32, 35, 39, 41 3. Michel Cuypers: QS 1, 8 – 9, 43, 45 – 49 4. Guillaume Dye: QS 1 – 6, 9 – 10, 12 – 16, 18 – 20, 22, 24 – 25, 27 – 32, 34, 36 – 50 5. Emran El-Badawi: QS 4, 6 – 7, 9, 31 – 33, 35 – 40, 42, 44, 46 6. Reuven Firestone: QS 8, 14 – 15 7. Marcin Grodzki: QS 2 – 4, 6 – 7, 11 – 17, 20 – 22, 24 – 26, 28, 31 – 34, 36, 43 – 44, 47 8. Gerald Hawting: QS 26 – 32, 34, 37, 41, 43 – 50 9. Asma Hilali: QS 1 – 2, 4 – 5, 12 – 13, 24, 37, 42 – 43, 45 10. Frédéric Imbert: QS 1 – 2, 4, 6, 14 – 15, 29, 45, 50 11. Nejmeddine Khalfallah: QS 17, 22 – 28, 31, 33 – 35, 37, 39, 41, 45, 47 – 50 12. Manfred Kropp: QS 1, 11 – 12, 15, 17, 19, 29, 43, 47, 49 – 50 13. Daniel Madigan: QS 1 – 2, 5, 15, 17, 31, 33 – 34 14. Michael Pregill: QS 1 – 14, 16, 18, 20 – 23, 25 – 27, 29 – 30, 32 – 34, 36 – 38, 40 – 48, 50 15. Gabriel Said Reynolds: QS 2, 5 – 10, 13 – 16, 19 – 22, 24 – 26, 32 – 33, 36 – 37, 40 – 42, 45 – 46, 50 16. Andrew Rippin: QS 1, 4 – 5, 7, 10 – 15, 17, 19 – 21, 26, 31 – 39, 41 – 45, 47, 49 17. Mun ’ im Sirry: QS 1 – 2, 4, 6, 12 – 15, 17, 19, 33, 35, 37, 39 18. Emmanuelle Stefanidis: QS 1 – 3, 5, 11 – 13, 18, 21 – 23, 27, 30 – 31, 35, 41, 43 – 44, 46, 49 19. Devin Stewart: QS 11 – 20 20. Esma Hind Tengour: QS 5, 21, 25 – 28, 31 – 33, 41, 43 – 44, 46, 48 – 50 21. Tommaso Tesei: QS 1 – 2, 4, 9, 14, 19 – 20, 22, 29, 32 – 33, 36, 39, 40 – 41, 47, 50 22. Shawkat M. Toorawa: QS 1, 4 – 6, 11 – 21, 23 – 25 23. Abraham Winitzer: QS 1 – 3, 12, 14 – 15, 24, 27, 30 24. Munther Younes: QS 1 – 2, 4, 6 – 7, 9 – 11, 13 – 18, 20 – 23, 25, 28, 31 – 32, 37, 40, 42 – 45, 48 25. Holger Zellentin: QS 1 – 15, 18 – 20, 31, 34 – 38, 40 – 41, 44 – 45, 49 – 50 Acknowledgements The Qur ’ ā n Seminar project at the University of Notre Dame in 2012 – 13 was funded by a Mellon Foundation Sawyer Seminar grant. The Qur ’ ā n Seminar was a unique and original academic endeavor, and therefore we are especially appreciative that the Mellon Foundation was willing to support it. We are also grateful to the College of Arts and Letters at Notre Dame for invaluable assistance with the building of an online forum and the coordination of the five Qur ’ ā n Seminar conferences. Special thanks are due as well to Prof. John Cavadini of Notre Dame, who generously sup- ported part of the Qur ’ ā n Seminar team during 2012 – 13. The Qur ’ ā n seminar team, which organized conferences and edited the written commentaries produced by the project, included Mun ’ im Sirry, Tommaso Tesei, and Hamza Zafer. We also had the pleasure of being joined by Marcin Grodzki, who spent 2012 – 13 at Notre Dame as a Fulbright Scholar. The year that we spent to- gether as a team at Notre Dame was special not only because of the intense intellec- tual exchanges but also because of the friendships that developed. Mun ’ im, Tomma- so, Hamza, and Marcin are talented scholars and it was an honor to work together with them on this project. We would also like to express our gratitude to all of the scholars who participat- ed in this project, whether that participation involved attending one or more confer- ences at Notre Dame, posting commentaries to our collective forum, and/or contribu- ting to the present Commentary. In many ways this project was experimental. Those who participated agreed to work with our selection of 50 passages for our project (even if on occasion they pointed to ways in which we could improve that selection). They also agreed to gather in a round-table format for discussions, and to follow a “ Qur ’ ā nist ” approach to the text, an approach which involves setting aside the cat- egories of later exegesis for a direct encounter with the Qur ’ ā n. In all of these ways the Qur ’ ā n Seminar participants showed enormous trust in us, and we do not take that trust for granted. We would like to express our gratitude also to Breanna Nickel and Andrew O ’ Connor for their extraordinary work with the editing of this manuscript. We are grateful as well to the two anonymous reviewers of this work (whose insights helped improve the manuscript substantially) and to De Gruyter Press for coordinating the editing and publication of the final manuscript. Special thanks are due to Alissa Jones Nelson, for her support of our proposal to produce a book with De Gruyter and to Sophie Wagenhofer, who oversaw the rather complicated process of copyedit- ing and preparing the work for publication. Finally we would both like to express our deepest gratitude to our families, for their patience with us, and for their love. Mehdi Azaiez Gabriel Said Reynolds September 2015 List of Abbreviations AJT American Journal of Theology Al-Kitâb De Smet, Daniel, Callatay, Godefroid, & van Reeth, Jan M. F., eds. 2004. Al-Kitâb. La sacralité du texte dans le monde de l ’ Islam. Leuven: Belgian Society of Oriental Stud- ies ( AOB , Subsidia 3). AOB Acta Orientalia Belgica BSOAS Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies. CoC Segovia, Carlos A., & Lourié, Basil, eds., 2012. The Coming of the Comforter: When, Where, and to Whom? Studies on the Rise of Islam and Various Other Topics in Mem- ory of John Wansbrough. Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press. CSCO Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium. EI 2 The Encyclopedia of Islam , Second Edition. Leiden: Brill, 1954-Present. EQ McAuliffe, Jane, 2001 – 6. The Encyclopedia of the Qur ʾ ā n. Leiden: Brill. FBI Dye, Guillaume, & Nobilio, Fabien, eds. 2011. Figures bibliques en islam. Bruxelles- Fernelmont: EME. GdQ 2 Nöldeke, Theodor & Schwally Friedrich Zacharias. 1909, 1919, 1938. Geschichte des Qorans , 2 nd edition. Leipzig: Dieterich ’ sche Verlagsbuchhandlung. IJMES International Journal of Middle East Studies JA Journal asiatique JAOS Journal of the American Oriental Society. JNES Journal of Near Eastern Studies. JQS Journal of Qur ʾ ā nic Studies JSAI Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam. JSJ Journal for the Study of Judaism JSS Journal of Semitic Studies. MW The Muslim World OJC Orientalia Judaica Christiana PSAS Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies QC Neuwirth, Angelika, Sinai, Nicolai & Marx, Michael, eds. 2010. The Qur ʾ ā n in Context. Historical and Literary Investigations into the Qur ʾ ā nic Milieu . Leiden: Brill. QHC Reynolds, Gabriel Said, ed. 2008. The Qur ʾ ā n in Its Historical Context. London: Rout- ledge. QHC 2 Reynolds, Gabriel Said, ed. 2011. New Perspectives on the Qur ʾ ā n The Qur ʾ ā n in Its Historical Context 2. London: Routledge. RMM Revue du Monde musulman et de la Méditerranée Schlaglichter Gro β , Markus, & Ohlig, Karl-Heinz, eds. 2008. Schlaglichter. Die beiden ersten islam- ischen Jahrhunderte. Berlin: Verlag Hans Schiler. Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Abbreviations Gen Genesis Eccl (or Qoh) Ecclesiastes (or Qohelet) Exod Exodus Song (or Cant) Song of Songs (or Canticles) Lev Leviticus Isa Isaiah Num Numbers Jer Jeremiah Deut Deuteronomy Lam Lamentations Josh Joshua Ezek Ezekiel Judg Judges Dan Daniel Ruth Ruth Hos Hosea Sam Samuel Joel Joel Sam Samuel Amos Amos Kgs Kings Obad Obadiah Kgs Kings Jonah Jonah Chr Chronicles Mic Micah Chr Chronicles Nah Nahum Ezra Ezra Hab Habakkuk Neh Nehemiah Zeph Zephaniah Esth Esther Hag Haggai Job Job Zech Zechariah Ps/Pss Psalms Mal Malachi Prov Proverbs New Testament Abbreviations Matt Matthew Tim Timothy Mark Mark Tim Timothy Luke Luke Titus Titus John John Phlm Philemon Acts Acts Heb Hebrews Rom Romans Jas James Cor Corinthians Pet Peter Cor Corinthians Pet Peter Gal Galatians John John Eph Ephesians John John Phil Philippians John John Col Colossians Jude Jude Thess Thessalonians Rev Revelation Thess Thessalonians XVIII List of Abbreviations Transliteration of Arabic Consonants ء ب ت ث ج ح خ د ذ ر ز س ش ص ض ط ظ ع غ ف ق ك ل م ن ه و ى ʾ b t ṯ ǧ ḥ ḫ d ḏ r z s š ṣ ḍ ṭ ẓ ʿ ġ f q k l m n h w y Vowels ا ي و ◌ َ ◌ ِ ◌ ُ ā ī ū a i u * These and other elements of transliteration follow the guidelines for Arabica: Journal of Arabic and Islamic Studies References to “ QS [Number] ” The abbreviation QS followed by a number is a reference to one of the fifty Qur ʾ ā nic passages examined in this volume. Qur ʾ ā n Translations English Qur ʾ ā n translations of the QS passages are taken from: Khalidi, Tarif. 2008. The Qur ʾ ā n: A New Translation. London: Penguin Classics. French Qur ʾ ā n translations of the QS passages are taken from: Hamidullah, Mu ḥ ammad. 1989. Le noble Coran et la traduction en langue française. Medina: Complexe Roi Fahd pour l ’ impression du Noble Coran. Transliteration of Arabic XIX