Qur'anic Studies

Tulisan ini mengkaji tentang buku Interpreting the Qur'an Towards A Contemporary Approach karya Abdullah Saeed yang menawarkan sebuah metodologi interpretasi konteksual, yang dia sebut sebagai contextual approach, secara lebih rinci dibandingkan para pengkaji Qur'an kontemporer lainnya. Dalam buku tersebut, dia menawarkan sebuah hierarki nilai dalam rangka memahami ayat-ayat ethico-legal. Penulis merasa adanya kebutuhan mendesak untuk mengenal lebih jauh tentang interpretasi kontekstual Abdullah Saeed sebagai counter atas maraknya interpretasi tekstual yang mewabah di kalangan umat Islam dewasa ini. Untuk itu, artikel ini akan mengkaji metodologi interpretasi kontekstual yang digagas oleh Abdullah Saeed secara umum, dan konsep hierarki nilai yang dia tawarkan secara khusus. Penulis melihat bahwa konsep hierarki nilai yang dia perkenalkan sebenarnya adalah kelanjutan dari 'general principles' yang digagas oleh Fazlur Rahman. This writing is study about book by title : Interpreting the Qur'an Towards A Contemporary Approach whose was written by Abdullah Saeed. He offers a methodology of contextsual interpretation, clearly he mentioned as contextual approach, specifically he made it in more detail than other. In his book, he present the hierarchy values in understanding ethical-legal verses. I assume that this method of is as counterpart of textual interpretation which popular in fundamentalist. This paper focus on method of contextual interpretation which contents of hierarchy values where I think it is continuity from ideas of Fazlur Rahman as general principles.

The Qur’an makes reference to Biblical prophecies that supposedly predict the coming of the Prophet Muḥammad. One such reference is found in Sūrah al-aʿrāf v.157, where the coming of an “ummiyy” prophet is said to have been prophesied in the Hebrew Bible. The Qur’an states that this prophet, who is Prophet Muhammad, is found “written with them” (ie. with the Jews) in the Torah. There is good cause to argue that the Qur'an is referencing Deutero-Isaiah here, and that this mention of an ummiyy Prophet is found in the first of the "servant songs" of the aforementioned biblical text.

According to most classical Muslim commentators the Quran teaches that Jesus did not die. On the day of the crucifixion another person – whether his disciple or his betrayer – was miraculously transformed and assumed the appearance of Jesus. He was taken away, crucified, and killed, while Jesus was assumed body and soul into heaven. Most critical scholars accept that this is indeed the Quran's teaching, even if the Quran states explicitly only that the Jews did not kill Jesus. In the present paper I contend that the Quran rather accepts that Jesus died, and indeed alludes to his role as a witness against his murderers in the apocalypse. The paper begins with an analysis of the Quran's references to the death of Jesus, continues with a description of classical Muslim exegesis of those references, and concludes with a presentation of the Quran's conversation with Jewish and Christian tradition on the matter of Jesus' death.

The past few decades have witnessed a proliferation of theories on the origins of Islam which have called into question long-held scholarly axioms. One such axiom is the traditional date of 632 CE for the death of the prophet Muhammad, which some scholars have now sought to redate to after the beginning of the Muslim conquests on the basis of the evidence of non-Muslim sources. The present contribution aims to demonstrate that the prima facie disharmony between these sources and Muslim accounts of Muhammad’s life and the conquests is a product of the reading imposed on both sets of data, which primarily has to do with the fact that, more often than not, modern scholarship unsuspectingly operates within the rigid framework of the classical periodisation of early Islamic history. Therefore, a revision of either the traditional date of Muhammad’s death or the starting date of the conquests based on this evidence is uncalled for.

Almost 75 years after the initial publication of Theodor Nöldeke's Geschichte des Qorâns, Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Zanjānī (1892–1941), an Iranian religious scholar, made a brief reference in the final chapter of his Tārīkh al-Qurʾān to an edition of Nöldeke's work revised by Schwally, Bergsträsser and Pretzl. He described Nöldeke as a great scholar and his Geschichte des Qorâns as a valuable contribution. Al-Zanjānī’s work also included an outline of Nöldeke's discussion on the order of the revelation of the suras. It is probably safe to say that al-Zanjānī’s book is the first independent work on the history of the Qur'an by a Muslim scholar. This fact leads one to wonder about the apparent lack of previous interest in the historiography of the Qur'an among Islamic scholarship. The present paper seeks to address this question and offer an overview of historiographical scholarship on the Qur'an contributed by Muslim writers both before and following Nöldeke

Keywords. Historiography of the Qur'an, Qur'anic historiography, Qur'an in the Muslim World, Theodore Noldeke, Noldeke, Nöldeke, Abū Àbd Allāh al-Zanjānī, Geschichte des Qorâns

Water stands as one of the most symbolically significant images in most of the world’s religious communities. Yet Islam’s intellectual, contemplative, and popular traditions accord distinctive and variegated meaning to this image, uniquely influenced by pre-Islamic Arabic literary convention, the text of the Qur’ān, Muslim rituals, Islamic literature, and the cultural context within which Islam blossomed. It is difficult to say that there is an image of water in Islam at all, but one can discern an accumulation of images and connotations that contribute to a concept of water as indefinite as it is rich. While, broadly speaking, that “image” relays life, knowledge, and purity, this work assumes that studying particular, illustrative instances of the meaning of water will yield a picture more indicative of Islam’s unique symbolic heritage.

In a recent study dealing with the historical setting and the literary development of ancient narratives on a concrete subject, John van Seters has rightly made the point that "[t]oo often a social and historical context is put forward, and then the narrative sources are made to fit this context, and finally the fit is used to confirm the reality of the historical context-a complete circularity of argument". 1 Accordingly, he writes, "[a]ny search for a controlling for narrative sources or background must establish a sufficient level of confidence outside this hermeneutical circle to be effective." 2 Perhaps there is no other field of study in which such circularity of argument has by and large prevailed in past and present scholarship as that of the rise and early development of the Islamic faith and its scriptural (both religious and historiographical) corpus. Regardless of the very late date of the earliest Muslim writings and in spite of the lack of other textual sources that could validate them, they are usually taken to describe with a certain measure of accuracy the hypothetical-in fact not at all clear-events they depict, which, in 1 Seters, J. van.

This paper provides updated digital images of four Qurʾān fragments from Chicago's Oriental Institute Museum (OIM) that appeared in Nabia Abbott’s Rise of the North Arabic Script, and calls attention to features of their paleography and vocalization which are not apparent from her original black-and-white plates. In doing so, it demonstrates that these four fragments all belong to the same copy of the Qurʾān, which is also the same Qurʾān as nineteen leaves in Paris’ Bibliothèque Nationale de France (BNF) and two leaves in Doha’s Museum of Islamic Art (MIA). All twenty-five folios of this Qurʾān contain a unique vocalization system that represents /a/ and /u/ with miniature red forms of alif and wāw. This system of “letter-form” vocalization signs is unattested in other Qurʾān manuscripts and corresponds with a type of vocalization which medieval sources describe as shakl al-shiʿr: “the marking of poetry.” The subsequent discussion analyzes the features of this shakl al-shiʿr system and contextualizes it within the history of both this Qurʾān manuscript and Arabic writing as a whole.

Article is open access with full manuscript images available on the JNES site here: https://doi.org/10.1086/712876

This short article critically reviews the history and development of the three modes of “abrogation”. It focuses on two of them, textual and textual-legal, which are based on Ḥadīth narratives that indicate that not all of the revelation of the Qur’an has been preserved.

يحاول هذا الكتاب استبطان التاريخ الحضاري للأمة والعوامل المؤثرة في مسيرتها والأبعاد الغائية في حركتها من أجل تفسير أسباب العجز ‏والتصور في بناء مشروع الإصلاح. و قد توصل الكتاب إلى نتائج هامة من وراء تلك الأسباب، و منها غياب الطفل و ما يتعلق به في ‏الفكر العلمي التربوي في منظور سلم الأولويات، و انحصار الخطاب الإسلامي في الدائرة الوعظة والمعرفية للبالغين الذين يستعصون على ‏التغيير و الاستجابة الوجدانية لمتطلبات الإصلاح... وحدد الكتاب أهم وجوه التشوه الثقافي الذي انتهى بالأمة إلى التمزق والتدهور ‏وضمور العقلية العلمية وقتل الإبداع. كما حدد وجوه التحديات التي تواجه الأمة وسبل مواجهتها.‏

This thesis (1999) delves into Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd's hermeneutics of the Qur'an, which was, at that time, not yet systematically formulated. It tries to reconstruct his theories of text and interpretation based on his works, and gives some examples in which he implemented his hermeneutics, such as the issues of  evil forces (jinn, shayâtîn, sihr and hasad), ribâ and interest, slavery,  polygamy, and women's Inheritance. Abu Zayd's contribution to Qur'anic hermeneutics is important in developing critical Qur'anic scholarship.

The study of Jesus in the Qur'an might profitably begin with the fact that there he is called not the expected Arabic Yasu' but rather the unaccountable 'Isa. From there the reader of the Qur'an may wonder to what extent the writer of the materials on Jesus was familiar with the canonical Gospel accounts that had circulated widely and extensively in the Middle East during the six centuries preceding the emergence of Islam. The Qur'anic portrait of Jesus is full of mysteries, lacunae, and intriguing questions.

Bajramowa modlitwa w czasach koronawirusa (s. 2). Fot. Krzysztof Frejus. Zdjęcia: Krzysztof Edem Mucharski. 95 LAT DZIAŁALNOŚCI MUZUŁMAŃSKIEGO ZWIĄZKU RELIGIJNEGO W RP 95. ROCZNICA POWSTANIA ZWIĄZKU KULTURALNO-OŚWIATOWEGO TATARÓW RP SZANOWNI PAŃSTWO,

Title in English: "Studies on the the historical and doctrinal genesis of Islam - Bruno Bonnet-Eymard and the French school of scholarly skepticism"

ENG. The article presents briefly the scholarly theory on the historical and dogmatic origins of Islam by the modern French researcher Bruno Bonnet-Eymard, with an attempt to classify its place in the modern field of Islamic studies. The result of over thirty years of Bonnet-Eymard’s work is his translation of the first five Qur’anic suras into French, with their comprehensive critical edition, prepared on the basis of his own philological, historical and theological exegesis. Bonnet-Eymard, belonging to the Islamicist skeptical school, attempts to read the Arabic Qur’anic text also from the perspective of other Semitic languages - mainly Hebrew and Syriac. Regardless of the flaws and merits of Bonnet-Eymard’s exegesis it surely is a valuable source of scholarly insights, conclusions and linguistic remarks that cannot be overestimated for modern critical studies of the Qur’anic text.

PL. Artykuł przedstawia pokrótce teorię naukową współczesnego francuskiego badacza Bruno Bonnet-Eymard dotyczącą historyczno-dogmatycznej genezy islamu, wraz z jej miejscem we współczesnej islamistyce. Owocem trzydziestu lat jego pracy jest tłumaczenie kilku pierwszych sur Koranu na język francuski, wraz z ich obszernym wydaniem krytycznym, opracowanym na podstawie własnej egzegezy filologicznej, historycznej i teologicznej. Bonnet-Eymard, należący do szkoły islamistów-sceptyków, odczytuje arabski tekst koraniczny również przez pryzmat innych języków semickich – głównie hebrajskiego i syryjskiego. Niezależnie od meritum wysnutych wniosków, egzegeza Bonnet-Eymard stanowi kopalnię wartościowych spostrzeżeń, wniosków i skojarzeń językowych nie do przecenienia dla krytyczno-naukowych studiów nad tekstem koranicznym.

Enhancing the educational corporations is truly challenging mission due to the highly competitive nature of the business. Currently, there is emerging development within organizations to capitalize on their internal resources. This paper is taking data mining approach to strategize marketing for postgraduate studies by means of cluster analysis. The experiments were carried out using Oracle Data Miner tool, results are analyzed and discussed.

Muslims are experiencing problems because revelation was eclipsed by tradition. Moreover, its knowledge was tainted by faulty “explanations.” These explanations are problematic because they assume that tradition explains revelation better than reason. This methodology entailed a rejection of reason and its replacement by folklore in interpretation. Yet even knowledge of folklore requires the application of reason. The turn from reason to tradition in understanding revelation produced a “crisis in the Muslim mind.” The Muslim community is still recovering from this crisis. For tradition is ill-suited to explain revelation, but rather itself requires explanation. Exegesis was tainted by problematic assumptions. For exegesis subjugated revelation to tradition. Exegesis approached revelation on the basis of assumptions that flout the teaching of revelation. These assumptions encompass disparagement of reason, the designation of tradition as revelation, and the subordination of revelation to tradition. The disparagement of reason found its expression in the perception that the utilization of reason in exegesis is kufr. The perception that tradition is revelation was justified by the assertion that tradition is “concealed” (batin) revelation. The subordination of revelation to tradition was justified by the assertion that “tradition judges revelation” and that “revelation needs tradition more than tradition needs revelation.” The latter two assertions are particularly problematic as they raise the authority of tradition above revelation. The application of these assumptions produced a problematic rendition of Islam, better known as “traditional” and “political” Islam, respectively. This Islam was tainted by tribalism. For the purpose of renewal, it is necessary to rediscover the true meaning and teaching of Islam that was eclipsed by problematic exegeses. For there is the risk that if this does not take place, there will be further emigration from Islam due to the unwarranted accretions that burden it and make it appear “unjust” and even “extreme.” What is required, in different words, is a restoration of revelation to its pre-eminence vis-à-vis tradition. With unsullied knowledge of revelation, Muslims should be better guided. Revelation requires restoration to its pre-eminence. For its place appears to have been taken by tradition, which was elevated to a fetish. The restoration and the rehabilitation of revelation may be attained with the assistance of reason. (30 pages)

"A number of Islamic associations have put a quick end to their collaboration with a professor -- and trainer of people who are supposed to teach Islam in German high schools -- who has expressed his doubt that Muhammad ever lived. Islam scholar Michael Marx spoke with SPIEGEL ONLINE about what lies behind the debate and the historical person of the Prophet. "

يمثل القرآن الكريم بالنسبة للأمة المسلمة الشريعة والمنهاج والقسطاس ‏المستقيم، لكافة شؤونها العقدية والفكرية والسياسية والشريعة والإجتماعية. كما ‏أنه خلاصة ونهاية ما أنزله ربّ العالمين من الأحكام والنظم، منذ بدء الخليقة الى ‏يوم البعث. ولقد ربط الله تعالى ربطاً وثيقاً بين الخلق والانسان من جهة والقرآن ‏من جهة أخرى، كما يدلّ عليه قوله تعالى: (الرَّحْمَنُ* عَلَّمَ الْقُرْآنَ* خَلَقَ الْإِنسَانَ* ‏عَلَّمَهُ الْبَيَانَ) (الرحمن: 1-4).‏
وليس تستقيم الحياة الانسانية شرعاً وعقلاً ومنطقاً إلاّ بإتباع هذه الشريعة ‏التي هي شريعة لا شرقية ولا غربية، وإنما حنيفية سمحة بيضاء، لا مجال فيها ‏للتحاكم الى الطّاغوت والهوى وما يميله النفس جهلاً أو تجاهلاً (ثُمَّ جَعَلْنَاكَ عَلَى ‏شَرِيعَةٍ مِّنَ الْأَمْرِ فَاتَّبِعْهَا وَلَا تَتَّبِعْ أَهْوَاء الَّذِينَ لَا يَعْلَمُونَ) (الجاثية: 18).‏
والقرآن الكريم بحدّ ذاته غني عن التعريف بالبيان أو التقريب للأذهان ‏نظراً لأنه كلّية الشريعة وجوهر الرسالة ومحور الفهم والتفكير الإسلامي، وهو ‏العروة الوثقى التي إجتمعت وتجتمع عليها كلمة المسلمين شرقاً وغرباً رغم ‏إختلاف مذاهبهم وأفكارهم وأعراقهم، ولهذا كان التركيز على القرآن والعودة ‏والإحتكام إليه في حالات الأزمات الفكرية والمنهجية والسياسية التي تمرّ بها ‏الأمة، من أهم الوسائل والآليات الضرورية واللازمة لعملية الإنبعاث الحضاري ‏والثقافي في العصر الجديد، حيث تبحث البشرية عن منظومة حضارية بديلة ونظام ‏معرفيّ متكامل.‏
ولا شك أن الدعوة الى المنهجيّة القرآنية في التعامل مع مفردات الفكر ‏الانساني وأزمات العقل البشري هي من صميم أولويات الفكر الإسلامي المعاصر ‏بكافة مجالاته الحيّة والحاضرة، من عقيدة وفكر وسياسة وتربية وإقتصاد وأجتماع ‏وفن وآداب، الأمر الذي مافتئ المعهد العالمي للفكر الإسلامي يؤسس ويدعو ‏له بالتأصيل والتجديد، وبالممارسة العملية، منذ بدايات تأسيسه والى اليوم.‏
ولا يخفى أن هذه الشجرة المعرفيّة قد آتت أكلها كل حين بإذن ربّها، إذ ‏اجتمع في ظلالها لفيف من العلماء والمفكرين الأفذاذ، أثروا روافد الفكر ‏الإسلامي بنتاجاتهم ومؤلفاتهم وإسهاماتهم العميقة والمؤثرة في شتى الميادين.‏
وكان للأستاذ الدكتور الشيخ طه جابر العلواني قدم راسخة في هذا ‏المضمار لما يمثله هو من أصالة فكرية ومنهجية ومعايشة للواقع الفكري ‏والحضاري، فقدّم دراسات وبحوثاً غاية في الدقة والعمق والثراء، كانت بمثابة ‏خارطة طريق لمعالجة الأزمة الفكرية، التي تعاني منها الأمة منذ أمد ليس بقريب.‏
وقد كان لهذا الحضور المؤثر دور بالغ في تنمية الإحساس بالواقع والإلحاح ‏في معالجته لدى كثير من أبناء الصحوة.‏
ولم يكن هذا الدور وليداً للصدفة أو بحكم الضرورة، بقدر ماكان ‏مستلهماً من المنهج القرآني القائم على الفطرة والعقل السليم، والوجدان الحيّ ‏وبقدر ماكان مواكباً للتطور المعرفي الحاصل في منظومة الأفكار والقيم الانسانية.‏
فإنطلاقاً من هذه الحقائق وإيماناً بضرورة التواصل مع الشيخ الدكتور ‏العلواني وهو الآن في قمة عطائه الفكري والمعرفي، بما لديه من خبرة وتراث ‏ومنهجية واضحة، قام الأخ الصحفي (هاوذين عمر) بمحاورته، حواراً فكرياً ‏ومعرفياً هادئاً وهادفاً بعيداً عن ضوضاء الإعلام والصحافة، فجاء هذا الكتاب ‏ثمرة لهذا الحوار الذي يتركز على المنهج القرآني ومعالمه في معالجة مايجب ويمكن ‏معالجته من أمور الفكر والمعرفة وما يتصل بها في حياة الفرد المسلم والمجتمع ‏المسلم بل والانسانية جمعاء.‏
وقد إرتأينا أن نقدّم هذا الحوار كنموذج للتواصل الحي بين المنهج ‏والواقع، النظرية والتطبيق، وكيما نعايش المنهج القرآني في حياتنا الفكرية ‏والمعرفية معايشة حيّة نابضة بالتقدم والسموّ.‏
فما أحوج المسلمين الى مثل هذه الحوارات الحية مع الأساتذة والمفكرين ‏والعلماء، الذين جمعوا بين أصالة المنهل وحداثة الأسلوب، بين التأصيل الشرعي ‏المحكم ومعرفة الواقع الإجتماعي المتطور والمتنامي.‏
وكلّنا أمل أن يكون هذا الكتاب خطوة بالإتجاه الصحيح، ونحن في طريقنا ‏الى غدٍ أكثر إشراقاً وأكثر عطاءاً لأمتنا الإسلامية التي وصفها ربّ العزّة بأنها ‏خير أمة أخرجت للناس.‏
وبارك الله في حياة الشيخ وأمدّه بالصحّة والعافية وسدّد خطاه في جهوده ‏الفكرية والأكاديمية المستمرة. كما أثمن هذه المحاولة الصحفية المبتكرة والواعدة ‏للأخ (هاوذين عمر) وأرجو له من الله تعالى كلّ التوفيق والسداد في حياته ‏الفكرية والصحفية.‏
‏(وَقُلِ اعْمَلُواْ فَسَيَرَى اللّهُ عَمَلَكُمْ وَرَسُولُهُ وَالْمُؤْمِنُونَ..).‏

Allah Most High chose the Muslims to be the ummah of mission (risālah), of exemplary good (khayrīyah), of the golden ‎‎mean (wasaṭīyah), and of witnessing to humanity (shahādah). Along with these responsibilities came the capacity for ‎‎renewal, for ijtihad, and for correctly interpreting the Shari'ah. As a result, there is a certain inseparable mutuality between ‎‎the ummah's roles as a median community cum civilizational witness for humanity and its other role as a moral and ethical ‎‎exemplar, and between its capability for ijtihad and effecting reform. In order to facilitate these roles, Allah endowed the ‎‎Qur'an and the Sunnah with the necessary flexibility in every aspect of Islam: its belief system, its methodology, its ‎‎Shari'ah, and its organization. Thus, it was only natural for the early generations of Muslims, both on an individual and a ‎‎community level, to offer a unique picture to the world: the complete liberation of the human mind from all forms of mental ‎‎slavery and idolatry. Further protection against Wing from this exalted position was the provision made for avoiding ‎‎mistakes, deviations, and misinterpretations: only those statements which could be proven by acceptable evidence or ‎‎supported by valid testimony were to be believed. A look at the ijtihad exercised by the Ṣaḥābah, whether they were ‎‎learned qurrā' or common people, will suffice to illustrate the amazing transformation which Islam was able to achieve. ‎‎Why do we not see this situation today? What has happened to the penetrating and enlightened mind inspired by Islam, ‎‎the one which freed our ancestors from their idols and the obstacles blocking their progress? Haw did such a mind return ‎‎to its former prison and fetters, robbed of any chance to renew and reform the ummah through ijtihad? ‎

In the spring of 1518 an Italian cardinal, Egidio da Viterbo, travelled from Rome to Spain on a Papal mission. While the official purpose of the visit was to convince King Charles V to collaborate against the Turks, the Papal legate pursued another, more covert goal. The Cardinal sought to obtain for himself a translation of the Qur’ān. The translation was prepared for the Cardinal by Juan Gabriel, a Muslim convert (Morisco) from Teruel formerly known as Ali Alayzar. Seven years later, this text was corrected by another convert of Spanish origin, the famed Leo Africanus.
This book contains both an edition and study of Egidio da Viterbo’s Qur’ān. The critical edition is based on the two existing manuscripts and is the first published work to include the full text of this Qur’ānic translation. It includes the original translation, the corrections of the text made by Leo Africanus, an appendix with Qur’ānic glosses and a case study devoted to persons involved in the translation. The study serves as an introduction to the Latin text, exploring the context in which Muslim converts to Christianity collaborated with church authorities. It enumerates and analyzes the Morisco translator’s diverse philological tools, which could have been used by the clergymen for polemical purposes. At the same time, it offers further insight into European studies of Arabic during the period.

Abstract: The first known work on tajwīd is written by Abu Muhammad Musa b. Ubeydillâh al-Khaqani (d. 325/937). Afterwards, the distinct authority in Qur’an recitation Ibn al-Jazarī (d. 833/1429) emerged with his work al-Muqaddimah. After Ibn al-Jazarī, we see the poetic work called Tuḥfat al-Aṭfâl by Sulaymān al-Jamzūrī (d. ?) which is widely studied for Qur’anic education (tajwīd) especially in the Arabian geography. This article deals with Tuḥfat al-Aṭfâl, a work despite authored in the 12th century, still holds its importance today. It was a poetical textbook regarding the education of the Qur’an in the Arab world and was memorized by students. The aim of this study is to examine this poetical text and also the commentary (Fath al-Aqfal) written by the author himself.

Summary: Arabic letters as well as their articulation-places and features have been explored and examined by the Arab philologists and the scholars of the Qirāah.  In consequence, before the tajwīd evolved into an independent Qur’ānic discipline, some topics of the tajwīd had taken their place in the literature of Arabic grammar and the Qirāah. The tajwīd evolved into an independent Qur’ānic discipline through the works composed by the Qur’ānic scholars who lived in the second half of the third century and the first half of the fourth century after Hijrah. A cursory glance at the tajwīd literature shows that some of these books were written in verse. The fact that the literature in verse helped the students study and even memorize the subjects of the tajwīd played an important role in composing such works in verse in the field.

The earliest work produced in the field of the tajwīd is an in-verse book known as al-Qaṣidah al- Khāqāniyyah by Abū Muzāḥim Mūsā bin ‘Ubaydillāh al-Khāqānī (d. 325/937).  Again, al-Muqaddimah, which was composed by one of the most authoritative scholars of the Qirāah, Ibn al-Jazarī (d. 833/1429), and has been one of the most frequently studied textbooks by the students of the tajwīd, is also a tajwīd textbook written in verse. As a continuation of such works, al-al-Jamzūrī’s Tuḥfat al-Aṭfāl, which was composed in the twelveth century after Hijrah and has been one of the most studied texts by the students in the Arab countries in modern times, is also important. This article is intended to examine the Tuḥfat al-Aṭfāl through the Fatḥ al-Aqfāl, a work that al-Jamzūrī himself composed as a commentary upon the former, investigating the significance and distinguishing features of the work.

We do not have much biographical information about al-Jamzūrī, who was born in 1160 after Hijrah in Jamzūr, a town located four miles away from Ṭanṭa, Egypt. The exact date of his death is not known. However, in consideration of the Tuḥfat al-Aṭfāl’s date of composition 1198 after Hijrah, one can say that he passed away after that time. As a follower of the Shāfi‘ī school, al-Jamzūrī studied with a number of scholars, the most famous of whom is ‘Alī bin Aḥmad al-Mīhī, whose mention occurs in the Tuḥfat al-Aṭfāl. This scolar in turn studied with thousands of great scholars in Ṭanṭa.

The following are some of al-Jamzūrī’s works which have come down to us and have been considered one of reference books in the field:

Tuḥfat al-Aṭfāl bi Tajwīd al-Qur’ān: Al-Jamzūrī composed this book in verse in order to teach the children the subjects of the tajwīd that he studied with his teacher al-Mīhī.
Fetḥ al-Aqfāl bi Sharḥi Tuḥfat al-Aṭfāl: This is his commentary on his own in-verse Tuḥfat al-Aṭfāl.
Al-Fatḥ al-Raḥmānī Sharḥu Kanz al-Ma‘ānī bi Taḥrīri Ḥirz al-Amānī fī al-Qirāah. This is an annotation by our author on Kanz al-Ma‘ānī, which is a commentary by Jābarī (d. 732/1332) on the Ḥirz al-Amānī, known also as Lāmiyyah, a work in verse by Shāṭibī (d. 590/1194).
Manẓūma fī Qirāati Warsh: This work analyzes the Azraq version of the Warsh narration, and is registered in the Cairo Dār al-Kutub al-Miṣriyyah Library, no 615.
The first printed edition of the Tuḥfat al-Aṭfāl was done by Maṭba‘at al-Sharaf in 1308 after Hijra, in Egypt. The work, including its prologue and epilogue, consists of 10 chapters and 61 verses in totality.

Our considerations about this work in verse by Sulaymān al-Jamzūrī are as the following:

After saying the praise of God (ḥamdalah) and evoking mercy and peace upon the Prophet Muḥammad (ṣalwalah) in the epilogue, the book speaks briefly of its contents, which are in order: al-tanwīn or al-nūn al-sākinah, the states of al-mīm al-sākinah, “aliflām” and “lām al-fi‘l”, idghām al-mithlayn, idghām al-mutajānisayn, idghām al-mutaqāribayn, types and rulings of al-madd. On the other hand, the book does not include a discussion of the articulation-places and features of the letters. One may explain this as because the book targets as its readers the new beginner students of the Qur’ān and thus aims at providing a brief explanation of the tajwīd topics. The tajwīd literature gives priority to such topics as the definiton and importance of the tajwīd, merits of the recitation of the Qur’ān, and the articulation-places and features of the letters. This order is most likely to be formed in accordance with the systematic he took from his teacher whom he mentions at the beginning of the prologue.

One may observe that the Tuḥfat al-Aṭfāl is an essential textbook for the new beginners of the Qur’ān studies in the contemporary Arab world. Again in this context, this book is important in that it is one of the books written in verse that have been studied and memorized with certification and authorization by the students of the Tajwīd and the Qirāah. Of similar books in verse, one can mention in order al-Shāṭibiyyah, Ṭayyibat al-Nashr, Muqaddimat al-Jazarī, and Tuḥfat al-Aṭfāl. What is interesting in this context is the fact that some of the commentaries on the Tuḥfat al-Aṭfāl are considered together with the Muqaddimat al-Jazarī, which has been studied more by the advanced students of the Qirāah. This shows the fact that both works in verse are quite important in the education of the Qur’ān.

One can say that the Tuḥfat al-Aṭfāl adopts a brief, clear and easy-going style in explaning the topics, a fact which contributed to the easily memorization of the text. As a result, this text is widely studied and memorized in the Arab countries. One should state that the work is successful in terms of language, style and rhyme. This adds a phonetical beauty to the work. In conclusion, this is an important work in the in-verse literature of the tajwīd in that it briefly and clearly discusses an important part, if not all, of the subjects of the tajwīd.

This document has been developed for a course on Christian-Muslim theological encounter in response to student interest in understanding the extent of similiarity/connections between the main figures of Jewish-Christian-Muslim traditions.

Please note this document is work in progress with the list of names initially derived from the Wikipedia article `List of people in both the Bible and the Quran' <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_in_both_the_Bible_and_the_Quran>

Abstract: Islam is the speedily rising religion in the first world and other parts despite unpleasant propaganda by the Zionist media. While Christian clergy is failing to stop the spread of Islam in the West, they have demonstrated their hostility with Qur’an by burning it. People from all walks of life continue to enter into the fold of Islam. They encounter rejection, resistance, hostility from their families, friends, and employers, but it does not discourage them in following Islam, the religion of peace and justice.

بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّحِيمِ (1) الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ (2) الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّحِيمِ (3) مَالِكِ يَوْمِ الدِّينِ (4) إِيَّاكَ نَعْبُدُ وَإِيَّاكَ نَسْتَعِينُ (5) اهْدِنَا الصِّرَاطَ الْمُسْتَقِيمَ (6) صِرَاطَ الَّذِينَ أَنْعَمْتَ عَلَيْهِمْ غَيْرِ الْمَغْضُوبِ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا الضَّالِّينَ (7)
بسم الله الذي باسمه تبدأ الأعمال، و منه تأتي الأحوال و إليه التحويل و المآل، لأنه السبب و المسبب؛ و بحمده تنجو الأعمال من البتر و عدم الكمال و تنال بركة الديان؛ ثم الصلاة على النبي العدنان، سيدنا و مولانا محمد الصادق الأمين، و على آله و صحبه أجمعين.
لك الحمد سيدي و مولاي بأن جعلتنا من خير أمة أخرجت للناس، نأمر بالمعروف و ننهى عن المنكر و نؤمن بك ربا و إلها؛ و لك الحمد أن عرفتنا بك و زدتنا فضلا على فضل؛ و لك الحمد في كل آن و حين، حمدا يجازي نعمك و يوافي مزيدك.
أما بعد.
لا يستطيع المسلم أن يتعامل مع القرآن بدون من أن يتعاطى معه من خيره، ففي القرآن بيان و هدى و نور و رحمة و فرقان و شفاء؛ و لكن كل هذه المعطيات لا تكون إلا بشرط الله تعالى، وذلك من أول كتابه؛ فهاهو رب العزة يقول لنا: (ذَلِكَ الْكِتَابُ لَا رَيْبَ فِيهِ هُدًى لِلْمُتَّقِينَ) (البقرة/2)؛ فالشرط هو التقوى.
للمتقين صفات، و بها يحصلون على الهدى المراد بالآية، فعلى قدر كمية الصفات و نوعيتها يكون تحصيل أنواع الهدى. و هذه نصيحتي لإخواني، لأن القرآن و علوم الدين ليسا فقط مجالات بحث دنيوي و لكن أخروي كذلك، فبها يصل العبد إلى أعلى المراتب، و يكفي من ذلك مرتبة ما بينه الحق تعالى في قوله: (شَهِدَ اللَّهُ أَنَّهُ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا هُوَ وَالْمَلَائِكَةُ وَأُولُو الْعِلْمِ قَائِمًا بِالْقِسْطِ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا هُوَ الْعَزِيزُ الْحَكِيمُ) (آل عمران/18)؛ فأولو العلم هم الرسل و الأنبياء و من يلونهم من أهل العلم؛ هذا مع تحقيق شرط الله في الآية الكريمة، في قوله "أولو"، أي أصحاب، و كما هو معلوم فكل صاحب شيء يقوم به و عليه كما يجب، لهذا أضيفت هذه الفضلة لزيادة بيان و ربما لشرط؛ و كذلك في قول من قال، و لم أجد هذا المعنى إلا في تفسير المنار، بأن قائما بالقسط، كذلك، حال لأولي العلم؛ هذا مع اعتبار أن قائما قد تكون صفة لإله أو حالا مؤكدة لهو. و المعنى أن أولي العلم القائمين بالقسط يبينون بهذه الشهادة الوحدانية للإله الذي لا إله إلا هو؛ و عدم قيامهم بالقسط طعن في هذه الشهادة.

The scholarship of reading has been supposed to be the superlative one among the Islamic sciences due to its investigation of the Koran's wording. The fact that the changes, come into existence in the wordings because of reading differences, cause meaning differences has made the scholarship of reading an indispensable reference guide for the Islamic sciences. Great importance has been given to this scholarship since the era of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH). Besides the fersh subjects by which the whole angles are investigated one by one in interpretation, hadith, and fiqh from Islamic sciences as well as the scholarship of reading, there are method subjects which will help to investigate these subjects. ABSTRACT In general, istiᶜaza, basmalah, and idgham take place in the first three subjects among the subjects in the books compiled in concern with the aforementioned method subjects. The reason based on during the formation of this ordering is the orderings of verses in Koran. Therefore, it's obvious that istiazah and basmalah will take place in the first plan. The subject of idgam is the third subject by the reason of the expression "مَالِكِ الرَّحِيمِ" which is taken place in the second verse of Surah al-Fâtihâ being the first surah by ordering. This study is devoted to examining these three subjects by taking into consideration it's being discussed in different science branches.

JBL 137.3 (2018): 555-79.

The postmodern turn in the humanities is now at a point that requires response and revision to some deconstructionist trends. As a case study, this article examines the inversion principle formulated by Claude Lévi-Strauss against Yair Zakovitch’s analysis of mirror narratives through three examples. In the first example, the mirror narratives of two destructions in Genesis are shown to be better explained by the inversion principle. The second example considers aspects of the Mesopotamian flood hero Utnapishtim that have been divided in subsequent Jewish traditions between Enoch and Noah. The third example considers the transformation of the myth of the sacrificial son in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. These three examples lead to the following conclusions: (1) that other myths, particularly in Genesis, should be reconsidered in light of the inversion principle; (2) that this principle is crucial for the reception history of biblical narratives, as seen in the development of the figure of the flood hero in Second Temple Judaism; and (3) that intentional adaptations are equally susceptible to the subconscious structural changes that occur in the intercultural journeys of myth, as described by Lévi-Strauss.

لقد كرّست اهتمامي في السنين الأخيرة لمطالعة وتصحيح تفسير الوزير المغربي المسمّى بـ: المصابيح في تفسير القرآن، وكتبت بعض المقالات في هذا الخصوص، وقد تطرّقت في مقالتي هذه إلى وصف النسخ الثلاث الموجودة منه، ومناقشة الأخطاء والنواقص التي وردت في تصحيح نسخ هذا الكتاب والتي جاءت في إطار رسالة الدكتوراه المقدّمة من قبل الدكتور عبدالكريم بن صالح الزهراني والتي تمّ الدفاع عنها في جامعة أمِّ القرى في مكّة المكرّمة سنة (2000 ميلادي)، علماً بأنّ هذه الرسالة موجودة على صفحات الشبكة المعلوماتية (الإنترنيت) بالرغم من أنّه لم يتمّ نشرها رسميّاً ولم تطبع بعد.