Human Contention and Divine Argument: Faith and Truth in the Qur’anic Story of Abraham

Abstract

For Jewish and Christian scholars, the conflict between traditional exegesis and modern, historical-critical study has been largely an intra-communal affair, conducted by scholars who were at least nominal members of the Jewish and Christian communities. In Islam, however, this conflict has been driven by a very different dynamic. When it implies a human rather than divine origin for the Qur’an, historical-critical study of the Qur’an is difficult to reconcile with the foundational principles of Islamic faith. This study has therefore been conducted almost exclusively by scholars outside the Islamic community-and often with polemical as well as academic aims. Islam’s intra-communal debate has focused, instead, on the legitimacy of various hermeneutical approaches to the Qur’an. Should Muslims today, for example, be able to reinterpret the Qur’an according to the social, philosophical, moral imperatives of contemporary times, or must they rely exclusively upon traditional, medieval commentaries on the text? And if contemporary readings and interpretations are allowed, then who has the authority and the right to engage in such endeavors?