Abstract
The article advocates a new approach to the Qur’an: To look at the text as a transcript of the earliest community’s intervention into major debates of its time. Rather than earlier textual traditions (“reception history”), particular burning theological questions that were en vogue in the epistemic space of Late Antiquity are identified as the essential trigger of particular Qur’anic proclamations. Thus, the new—Late Antique—perception of evil (epistemic troubles experienced in the innermost selves of individuals—which cropped up during the sectarian strife in Middle Mecca) is etiologically explained through the primordial rebellion of Diabolos/Iblīs. This figure is portrayed in the Qur’an as a daring “dissenter in heaven”—a dignity that he had proven in various Biblical contexts (Book of Job, Gospels, etc.) before. His main characteristic is his eloquence and logical reasoning, which has earned him the epithet of the “inventor of qiyās/syllogism” in later Islamic tradition. His Qur’anic development is projected against the backdrop of rabbinic, patristic, and poetic exegeses, which together attest the vitality of a most diversified “epistemic space of Late Antiquity”.
Highlights
The article advocates a new approach to the Qur’an: To look at the text as a transcript of the earliest community’s intervention into major debates of its time
Though the story is disinterested in the explanation of the emergence of the demonic realm, it is worth to be quoted here to illuminate the epistemic space into which the non‐biblical figure of Diabolos intervenes—as an upright figure in the midst of idolatrous angels
Riyyatuhum, are set into the limelight. They are portrayed in pre‐existence being sworn into the keeping of strict monotheism: sūrat al‐A rāf, Q 7, the last Meccan sura to deal with Iblīs, entails a prediction—a vaticinatio ex eventu—about Adam’s dhurriyya, which culminates in their acceptance of monotheism
Summary
There are a number of biblical stories that in post‐biblical times have been extended,. The Life is the oldest narrative representation, it is the least biased one: It does not stand in the service of any particular theology, Jewish or Christian.[11] It deserves to be conceded a special status, to belong to the “Bible of the Folk” (Utley 1945). CE)[12 ], where the protological events are interpreted in blatantly Christological terms, culminating in a kind of apotheose of Adam Though this lengthy and somewhat loquacious version has come to enjoy much attention among recent scholars, even occasionally regarded as a possible source for some Qur’anic features It was to play a momentous role in the Qur’an
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