The Qur'an's Contribution to Biblical Criticism

Abstract

The Islamic science of Biblical Criticism is one of the earliest to emerge from the study of the Qur'an. It was developed by Muslim scholars specialising in the history of religions and reached its peak with the contributions of Ibn Ḥazm al-Andalūsī in the fifth/twelfth century. This ‘traditional’ Islamic science has more recently been complemented by the incorporation of Western Biblical Criticism Theory in the works of Raḥmat Allah al-Hindī, Ismāʿīl al-Fārūqī, Muḥammad Khalīfa Ḥasan, and others. This study will seek to determine the role of the Qur'an in the establishment of the Islamic science of Biblical Criticism and its centrality as a source for this discipline, through the elaboration of certain principles, such as the moderating position of the Qur'an between the Tanakh and Christian Bible, and the moderating position of Islam between Judaism and Christianity. Among these principles are the Qur'an's critical awareness and theories of taḥrīf and tabdīl, for example. The objectivity of the Qur'an is shown in the way it accepts previous revealed texts, and acknowledges them as a matter of belief, while seeking at the same time to conclusively clarify the revelation. In conclusion, this paper urges the usefulness of the Qur'an as a source of Biblical Criticism and Jewish and Christian interpretation and exegesis of the Tanakh and the Christian Bible.