A01=Daniel Madigan
Abu Bakr
Ahmad ibn Hanbal
Al-Baqara
Anchorite
Asceticism
Author_Daniel Madigan
Battle of Badr
Biblical canon
Book of Ezekiel
Category=QRP
Category=QRVA
Christian
Christian scripture
Creation myth
Dhikr
Elijah
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
Exegesis
Ezekiel
F. F. Bruce
God
God Knows (novel)
Harry Austryn Wolfson
Hermeneutics
Ibn Taymiyyah
Islam
Jews
Judeo-Christian
Kabbalah
Kafir
Kalam
Loanword
Meccan Trade and the Rise of Islam
Messianism
Midrash
Muslim
Muslim world
Naskh (tafsir)
Oral Torah
Oral tradition
Orality
Patricia Crone
Peace be upon him
People of the Book
Predestination
Prophecy
Prophethood (Twelver Shi'i Doctrine)
Prophets and messengers in Islam
Psalms
Quran
Rasm
Recension
Recitation
Religion
Religious text
Salman the Persian
Salvation History
Scholasticism
Self-image
Semantic field
Sharia
Skepticism
Supersessionism
Tafsir
Tanzil
The Opposite Direction
Theology
Ummah
Uri Rubin
Usage
Wahy
Worship
Writing
Zechariah (priest)
Product details
- ISBN 9780691059501
- Weight: 510g
- Dimensions: 152 x 235mm
- Publication Date: 18 Jun 2001
- Publisher: Princeton University Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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Islam is frequently characterized as a "religion of the book," and yet Muslims take an almost entirely oral approach to their scripture. Qur'an means "recitation" and refers to the actual words Muslims believe were revealed to Muhammad by God. Many recite the entire sacred text from memory, and it was some years after the Prophet's death that it was first put in book form. Physical books play no part in Islamic ritual. What does the Qur'an mean, then, when it so often calls itself kitab, a term usually taken both by Muslims and by Western scholars to mean "book"? To answer this question, Daniel Madigan reevaluates this key term kitab in close readings of the Qur'an's own declarations about itself. More than any other canon of scripture the Qur'an is self-aware. It observes and discusses the process of its own revelation and reception; it asserts its own authority and claims its place within the history of revelation.
Here Madigan presents a compelling semantic analysis of its self-awareness, arguing that the Qur'an understands itself not so much as a completed book, but as an ongoing process of divine "writing" and "re-writing," as God's authoritative response to actual people and circumstances. Grasping this dynamic, responsive dimension of the Qur'an is central to understanding Islamic religion and identity. Madigan's book will be invaluable not only to Islamicists but also to scholars who study revelation across religious boundaries.
Daniel Madigan has taught Islamic studies in the United States and Australia. He is currently developing a center for the study of religions at the Jesuits' Gregorian University, Rome.
