Abstract
The Qur’an often compares its own inspiration and revelation with previous scriptures to its audience. However, the Jews and Christians in Late Antiquity had manifold understandings of the inspiration and revelation of scripture. The rabbinic tradition posits various degrees of inspiration behind canonical scriptures: the Torah was dictated by God to Moses, while other prophets had lesser degrees of divine inspiration. Many Christian churches typically held a dual authorship concept, where the human author wrote under the inspiration of a divine author. Many Muslim traditions held various understandings of the agency, or lack thereof, of Muḥammad in the utterances of the Qur’an. Nonetheless, the Qur’an claims that its own inspiration is no different from some biblical books. Since the rabbinic and Christian views differ, it is imperative to understand the Qur’anic concept of itself on inspiration and revelation (waḥy and tanzīl), especially since it compares itself with other scriptures. Additionally, it is argued that the Qur’an’s self-referentiality as a “kitāb” that descends does not necessarily denote a “book” (neither heavenly nor earthly), but an order or commandment, which is more loyal to the root definition.
Highlights
According to Muslim tradition, Muh.ammad was dissatisfied with his society’s belief system and distanced himself from much of their rites, making him part of a group that tradition calls the H. anıfıyyah, a group of people who allegedly remained loyal to the type of monotheism believed to have been handed down by Abraham.1 Muslim tradition claims that Muh.ammad received the inspiration of the Qur’an while isolating himself alone in a cave.2 Isolation to seek some form of a mystical experience has always been very common across different cultures and traditions throughout human history and covering various geographies
Since the rabbinic and Christian views differ, it is imperative to understand the Qur’anic concept of itself on inspiration and revelation, especially since it compares itself with other scriptures
The practice is likely of psychological origin rather than social or anthropological, though some societies can encourage this practice in some of its members. It is not necessarily a human instinct to isolate oneself to seek inspiration, but perhaps those who are more prone to altered states of consciousness during isolation, referred to as highly sensitive persons in modern psychology, use such methods to achieve what they might interpret as a mystical experience (Jonsson et al 2014)
Summary
According to Muslim tradition, Muh.ammad was dissatisfied with his society’s belief system and distanced himself from much of their rites, making him part of a group that tradition calls the H. During Late Antiquity, rabbis considered the Pentateuch to have been divinely dictated to Moses, while the Prophets and Hagiographa, which constitute the remainder of the Hebrew Bible, are inspired but not dictated This background is important to understand what the Qur’an might have understood about the mechanism of revelation and inspiration when it compares itself with the Torah. An understanding of the Jewish and Christian background during Late Antiquity is essential to better grasp the context of the Qur’an’s claim of its own revelation and inspiration, as it compares itself to other scriptures. The article attempts to scrutinize the Qur’anic concept of “kitāb”, further to the current scholarly debate The purpose of this investigation is to understand, from a Qur’anic perspective, what may be acknowledged about how the Qur’an views its revelation and inspiration relative to previous scriptures, especially as the Qur’an makes such comparison explicit. It appears that the Qur’an does not view itself either in its descent (tanzıl) or revelation and inspiration (wah.y) any differently from previous scriptures
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