The Integrity of the Qur’an: Sunni and Shi‘i Historical Narratives

By Seyfeddin Kara

Series: Edinburgh Studies in Islamic Scripture and Theology

Publisher: Edinburgh University Press

Publication Date: July 31, 2024

ISBN: 9781474462235

Advances the method of isnād-cum-matn analysis for unravelling complex aspects of early Islamic history

• Establishes the earliest dating of the Qurʾanic codex based on the study of hadith
• Contributes to the textual history of the Qur’an
• Examines the claims regarding the integrity of the text of the Qur’an
• Uses case studies of the verses on stoning and breastfeeding, making it relevant to contemporary studies in the field

This book investigates Muslim narratives on Qurʾanic distortion through a meticulous analysis of hadith. Using isnād-cum-matn analysis, Seyfeddin Kara discovers the historical origins of this disputed claim and illuminates the dynamic interplay between Sunni and Shiʿi traditionists. He demonstrates that isnād-cum-matn analysis is not only an important tool for dating hadiths but also crucial for uncovering forgeries. By identifying the individuals responsible, he provides new explanations of forgery culture in early Muslim society. Kara illuminates debates over the textual integrity and evolution of the written Qurʾanic text, offering insights into the enigmatic early history of Islam. By pushing the boundaries of isnād-cum-matn analysis, this book makes methodological advancements in the study of early Islamic history and contributes to its reconstruction on the question of the canonized Qur’an’s integrity.

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• ʿĀʾisha’s Legal Debate on the Scope of Breastfeeding
• The Litigation of the Two Men According to ‘The Book of God’
• The Prophet, the Jews and the Stoning Penalty
• CaliphʿUmar’s Sermon About the ‘Missing Stoning Verse’
• Transition of the Distortion Narrative into Shiʿi Reports
• Distorting the Book of God
• The Return of the Avenger (Al-Mahdī) and Teaching the Correct Quran
• Conclusion

About the Author

Seyfeddin Kara is an Assistant Professor of Islamic Origins at University of Groningen. He is also a Marie Sklodawski Curie Global Fellow at Lund University and the University of Toronto. He holds a PhD in Islamic Studies from the University of Durham. Dr Kara’s academic journey includes a prestigious Marie Sklodowska-Curie Global Fellowship, with research terms at the University of Toronto, the University of Lund, and the University of Göttingen. He has received grants from the European Union, Canada’s Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, and other funding bodies. Dr Kara has also taught at the University of Durham, UK, and served as an Assistant Professor at Hartford International University, US. His scholarly work encompasses research articles in journals such as the Journal of Near Eastern Studies, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, the Muslim World, and Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs. Kara authored In Search of Ali ibn Abi Talib’s Codex: History and Traditions of the Earliest Copy of the Qurʾan (2018).

Source: Edinburgh University Press

Journal of Ahl al-Bayt (as) Teachings

Vol. 1, Issue 3, Winter 2024

Editor in Chief: Dr. Mohammad Reza Aram

Publisher: Imam Mobin Research Center

Frequency: Semi-annual

ISSN: 2981-1309

Imam Mobin International Research Center has launched the Journal of Ahl al-Bayt (as) Teachings in English, suitable for the international audience, and in order to spread the teachings, culture and lifestyle of the Ahl al-Bayt (as), deepen the teachings of the infallible imams (as), and develop the sciences of the Qur’an and the Ahl al-Bayt (as). This journal follows the COPE guidelines in terms of ethics.

Third issue of the Journal has been released. The titles of the articles published in this issue are as follows:

1. Various Forms of Specific Designation (Tanṣīṣ) of Amīr al-Muʾminīn Imam ʿAlī (as) in the Words of the Prophet (pbuh)

2. Allah’s Days from a Religious Perspective of Qur’ān and Ḥadīth (Indicators and Examples) and its Role in Giving Meaning of Human Life

3. Qur’an on Mahdiism

4. Principles and Methods of Education From the Perspective of Qur’an and Ahl al-Bayt (as)

5. Analytical Study of the Concept of Imamate in Verse 124 of Surah Bagharah

6. Role of Prayer in Establishing Family Foundations and Dealing with Social Disasters, Based on the Teachings of the Ahl al-Bayt (as)

Download the journal for free HERE.

More information on: Journal of Ahl al-Bayt (as) Teachings

This volume focuses on Islamic philosophy of religion with a range of contributions from analytic perspectives. It opens with methodological discussions on the relationship between the history of Islamic philosophy and contemporary analytic philosophy. The book then offers a philosophical examination of some specific Islamic beliefs as well as some approaches to general beliefs that Islam shares with other religions. The chapters address a variety of topics from the existence and attributes of God through to debates on science and religion. The authors are predominantly scholars from Muslim backgrounds who tackle philosophical issues concerning Islam as their own living religion, representing internal perspectives that have never been vocal in analytic philosophy of religion so far. This is valuable reading for scholars and students of philosophy, theology, and religious studies.

Table of Contents

PART I: Methodology

1. What Can Contemporary Analytic Philosophy Do for the Historians of Islamic Philosophy?
2. What Can the History of Islamic Philosophy Do for Contemporary Analytic Philosophers?

PART II: Existence and Uniqueness of God

3. Kalām and Cognition
4. God’s Existence and the Uniqueness Claim

PART III: Attributes of God

5. Divine Power and Divine Knowledge
6. The Doctrine of Divine Simplicity Considered in Light of Averroes’s Conception of Divine Knowledge

PART IV: Miracles

7. The Metaphysics of Miracles: Avicenna on Natures and Prophetic Powers
8. Of Miracle of Miracles: An Introduction to the Qur’anic View of Miracle

PART V: Faith and Its Obstacles

9. Faith, Knowledge, and Certainty: An Islamic Philosophy Perspective
10. Islam and The Problem of Divine Hiddenness
11. An Analysis of Some Problems of Evil from an Islamic Perspective

PART VI: Ethics and Morality

12. Islamic Philosophers’ Idea of Heaven: A Moral Analysis
13. Towards Epistemic Justice in Islam

PART VII: Science and Religion

14. Adam, Eve, and Human Evolution: Is There a Conflict?
15. Islamic Occasionalism within the context of Modern Religion and Science Debate

About the Editor

Mohammad Saleh Zarepour is a lecturer in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Manchester, UK. His research interests include medieval Islamic philosophy, philosophy of religion, philosophy of language, philosophy of mathematics, and philosophy of logic.

Source: Routledge

Qur’ān Translation as a Modern Phenomenon

By El-Hussein A.Y. Aly

Series: Texts and Studies on the Qurʾān, Vol. 21

Publisher: Brill

Publication Date: September 28, 2023

It is a well-established fact nowadays that modernity impacts Islam, but there has not been much focus on how modernity impacts the Qur’ān, the foundational text of Islam and the verbatim word of God. This book argues that the early Muslim Qur’ān translations into English are attempts to reconcile the Qur’ān with modernity by producing translations that encompass modern concepts and interpretations of the Qur’ān. Are these modern concepts and interpretations valid or they alter the word of God? This is the main question that the book attempts to answer, particularly that these early translations have affected and still affect Qur’ān translation.

About the Author

El-Hussein Aly was Professor of Translation Studies at Helwan University, Egypt and a teacher of Arabic at Indiana University, USA. He had a Ph.D. in Translation Studies in 2007 from Helwan University, Egypt, and a Ph.D. in Near Eastern Languages and Cultures from Indiana University in 2023. His publications include “Women in Qur’an English Translations: Critical Intertextual, Intratextual, and Contextual Analyses”, Journal of Islamic and Muslim Studies 3.1 (2018).

Table of contents

1. The Early European Qurʾān Translation Project

1.1. Attacking the Holy Book of the Turks

1.2. The Genuine Interest in Understanding Islam

1.3. The Scientific Turn of the Study of the Qurʾān

1.4. The Sacred Books of the East

1.5. European Qurʾān Translation: Assessment in Context

2. Translation as Reform

2.1. Colonization, India, and the Need for Reform

2.2. The Birth of Reform and the Indian Qurʾān Translation Project

3. The Rise of Muslim Translations

3.1. Interpretation of the Qurʾān by the Qurʾān and the Bible

3.2. Chronological Translation

3.3. Collaborative Translation

4. Indian Muslim Translations: An Apex

4.1. Extensive Notes

4.2. Poetic Form

5. Interconnectedness of Qurʾān Translations

5.1. Spirituality in Yūsuf ʿAli’s Translation

5.2. The Spiral of Influence in Qurʾān Translations

6. Toward a Modernist Interpretation of the Qurʾān

6.1. The Pluralist Qurʾān

6.2. Peaceful Jihad

7. Modernism, Traditionalism, and the Social Function of Qurʾān Translation

7.1. Rationality

7.2. Science

7.3. Women

8. Alternative Modernities of Qurʾān Translation

8.1. The Journey of the Indian Qurʾān Translations in Europe and America

8.2. Politics, Religion and Qurʾān Translation in Egypt

8.3. Al-Azhar’s Translation: Al-Montakhab

8.4. State-Sponsored Qurʾān Translation in Saudi Arabia

8.5. Alternative Modernities: Qurʾān Translation Form and Content

Conclusion

1. The Interconnectedness of the Past and the Present: Tradition and Modernity as a Continuum

2. The Relationality of Qurʾān Translations

3. Assessment of Qurʾān Translation in Context

4. Qurʾān Translation, Interpretation, and Adaptation

Source: Brill

Author: Abdul-Azim Ahmed

Published in: Contemporary Islam, Vol. 16, pp 135–154

Publication Date: July 18, 2022

Publisher: Springer

The field of ‘Islamic Studies’, like ‘Religious Studies’, is a broad-church. It includes a number of epistemological and ontological positions associated with a range of disciplines. The diversity inherent in a category such as ‘Islamic Studies’ is challenged by a bifurcation of two predominant approaches found within the field, the textual and the sociological. In this paper, Dr. Abdul-Azim Ahmed seeks to propose a new concept for contemporary Islamic studies, that of Anglophone Islam, which will allow a broader range of scholarship to be contextualized in relation to each other. The concept also opens a new set of questions to be explored by scholars of Islamic studies. It will be of particular interest to scholars involved in contemporary Islamic studies in fields such as American Muslim studies, British Muslim studies and European Muslim studies, but will also have utility to theological, historical and philosophical scholars of Islam working in the English language.

About the Author

Dr Abdul-Azim Ahmed is Assistant Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Wales. He has an academic background in the sociology of religion; His PhD looked at the everyday life of a British mosque and he is currently in the process of writing books on mosques in the UK and Muslims in Wales. He is also Editor of On Religion magazine, a quarterly publication on religion, society and current affairs. He currently works as a researcher on equality issues for a non-governmental organization in Wales.

Download the full article HERE.

Source: Springer

Words of Experience: Translating Islam with Carl W. Ernst

Edited by Ilyse Morgenstein Fuerst

Publisher: Equinox Publishing

Publication Date: March 24, 2021

Carl W. Ernst devoted his academic life to translating Islam, linguistically and culturally, typically within the intellectual context of Religious Studies. His work has focused on how Islamic concepts have travelled across time and space, and his influence on Islamic Studies and Religious Studies is far-reaching. This volume features contributions from long-standing colleagues, scholars whose own work has built on Ernst’s contributions, and former students. It looks at themes in Islamic Studies that Ernst has addressed and expands on his major contributions.

Essays in this volume touch nearly every major element in Islamic Studies – from the Qur’an to Sufism, Islamophobia to South Asian Islam, historical and contemporary praxis, music and more. This collection demonstrates one core tenet of Ernst’s work, specifically the argument that Islam is not rooted in one place, time or language, but is a vast network, routed through myriad places, times and languages.

Source: Equinox Publishing

Master’s Program

We offer several two-year MA programs with either a thesis or a major research paper.

• Master of Arts Religious Studies
• Master of Arts Religious Studies Specialization in Medieval and Renaissance Studies
• Master of Arts Religious Studies Specialization in Women’s Studies

Doctoral Program

Our doctoral programs are designed to give students the methodological skills they need to conduct research and write a thesis.

• Doctorate in Philosophy Religious Studies
• Doctorate in Philosophy Religious Studies Specialization in Canadian Studies

Contacts

Address: Desmarais Building, 10th Floor, 55 Laurier Ave. East, Ottawa ON Canada K1N 6N5

Phone: +1 613-562-5714

Fax: +1 613-562-5991

Email: Secretaire.Etud.anc.Religions-Classics.Religion.Secretary@uOttawa.ca

Website: https://arts.uottawa.ca/cla-srs/en/religious-studies/

Philosophy of religion has garnered great attention among major universities in Iran. Even, polytechnic or technical universities such as Sharif University of Technology and Amirkabir University of Technology are going to establish the field. Some engineering elites chose to continue their major in philosophy of religion. It is quite expected that many books, compiled or translated, have found their way toward publishing press. There are also several periodicals including peer-reviewed journals being published with themes in this regard. It is no exaggeration to say that Philosophy of Religion is one of the most widespread fields of study in this country.  Due to this intense inclination, western Christian attitudes, to some extent, dominate the field, however, Iranian-Islamic tradition is competent enough to carry invaluable researches. In some Islamic countries, there is an irrational approach to religious inquiries which persuade them to work on and translate works of Iranian intellectuals. It is worth noting that a number of western religious scholars are interested to travel to Iran and be aware of Localized version of philosophy of religion. In such a situation, it is necessary to shed a new light on Philosophy of Religion and introduce the world with Islamic philosophy of religion.

Conferences

• International conference “New Philosophical and Theological foundations for Christian-Muslim Dialogue” 13^th June 2019
• 7^th International Conference: Contemporary Philosophy of Religion (2) 10^th September 2018
• Inaugural Conference (International Orthodox Theological Association) 24^th May 2018
• The 19^th Biennial Conference for the International Society for Religion, Literature and Culture 24^th May 2018
• Philosophy and the Spiritual Life 24^th May 2018

Contacts

• Address: #3, Hedayat-e Mizan Institution, Golnar Dead Street, Teymoori Boulevard, Sheyk Fazl Allah Noori Highway, Tehran, Iran.
• Phone: +98 910 8795788
• Email: Philor.org@gmail.com
• Website: http://en.philor.org/

The courses of the department of religious studies focus on the study of Christianity and Judaism in both their historical and contemporary expressions, and on the major non-Western religious traditions

Religious Studies is a broadly interdisciplinary investigation that takes its place among the humanities and social sciences. Majors in Religious Studies enter a wide range of vocations, from the pursuit of graduate work in the study of religion or professional life in the parish ministry/rabbinate, to entering fields as diverse as journalism, law, medicine, and community activism. The department works with students who want to focus on the academic study of religion, and with students who seek courses in religion to help them frame and interrogate issues provoked in other academic areas. Students who double major in religion or choose religion as a minor area of study also benefit from the diversity of Religious Studies course offerings and its faculty.

Course offerings span across American religions in the U.S., including Judaism and Asian-American religion, Buddhism in India, China, and Japan; Christianity from its beginnings through modern Europe and the contemporary period; religions of South and Southeast Asia, feminist and gender studies, critical studies, and textual interpretation.

Course description

• Introduction to Islam: Formation and Expansion

This course charts the formation of Islam and the expansion of Muslim peoples, from the life of the Prophet Muhammad to the Mongol conquest of Baghdad. It will examine Muslim institutions, beliefs, and ritual practices in their historical contexts. In addition to the basics of Muslim practice and belief, the class will introduce students to mystic traditions (Sufism), Islamicate statecraft, and intellectual/legal traditions as well as cultural trends including art, architecture, and literature.

• Islam in America

8 million Muslims in America make up only 3% of the population but represent worlds of culture reflecting the diversity of Muslim societies worldwide. The story of Muslims in America distinguishes, for historical and religious reasons, three groups: Blackamericans (42% of American Muslims), Indo-Pakistanis (29%), Arab/Middle Easterners (12%) from the rest of the American Muslim population.

• Modern Islam

Muslim-majority societies faced daunting social, political, and intellectual challenges after Europe-s military and economic expansion in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

The course will survey the early-modern Muslim empires (Ottoman, Safavid, Mughal), the encounter of Muslim peoples with colonialism, and the major religious and social developments from the eighteenth century to the present.

• Sufism: The Islamic Quest for Intimacy with the Beloved

With attention to both classical texts and contemporary contexts, this course examines the formative development of Islamic mysticism, or Sufism, and its rich legacy of embodied piety and mystical intimacy. Drawing on the teachings of key Muslim mystics, we will explore the sacred sources, unitive doctrines, and metaphysical cosmology of Sufism, as well as its devotional practices, celebrated poetry, and contested ecstatic discourse.

Contacts

• Address: Religious Studies, Old Main, Room 108, Macalester College, 1600 Grand Avenue, Saint Paul, MN 55105, USA
• Phone: +1 651 696 6141
• Email: sdion@macalester.edu
• Website: https://www.macalester.edu/religiousstudies/

Printed Edition of the Special Issue Published in Religions

Publisher: MDPI – Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (October 2018)

(This book is a printed edition of the Special Issue Glocal Religions that was published in Religions)

The globalization of the world’s religions leads to a variety of fusions whereby local elements blend with global religions, leading to hybrid local-global or glocal religious forms. Glocal forms of religion provide a hitherto insufficiently explored research agenda with the potential of further growth in the future.

This volume introduces the basic tenets of this research agenda and offers examples from around the globe. In the volume’s individual chapters, authors explore a diverse tapestry of such forms that cover cases from the Caribbean, Japan, Finland, Eastern Europe, US, Korea, Southeast Asia and Central America. Glocal forms of religious expression exist across diverse religious traditions.

In this volume, religious traditions specifically explored include Buddhism, Hinduism, folk or traditional religions, Eastern Orthodox Christianity & Protestantism. The study of glocal religions involves a trans-disciplinary group of scholars and researchers. In this volume, contributions come from the fields of sociology, archaeology, anthropology, history and religious studies. This collection is an indispensable reader for scholars and students who wish to explore the dynamics of glocal religion in their part of the world.

 Read the book here.

Source: mdpi.com