The Qur'an in its historical context (pdf - Islam and Christian-Muslim ...

RECONSTRUCTING THE QUR’AN
possible links of the Qur’an with the Elchasites, Mandeans and Manicheans. As
a result of his studies, the Sabians, who are cited in the Qur’an, can no longer be
understood, as previously assumed, to be identical with the Mandeans, 41 but in all
likelihood refer to a Manichean community that existed in Mecca or Medina. 42
Following the studies of Schaeder, 43 de Blois also established a more precise
notion of Jewish Christians for the term Nasara in the Qur’an. 44 In the same
article he also analyzed the frequently studied term hanif 45 and charted its development
from the pre-Islamic Christian use for pagan to the Qur’anic meaning of
true follower of Abraham and to the post-Qur’anic interpretations of authentic
Muslim. 46 J. M. F. Van Reeth addressed the possibility that the Diatessaron could
be the underlying source for the Qur’anic use of the term injil (in the singular)
for the gospel of Jesus. 47 A. Neuwirth wrote a variety of articles on Qur’anic
rhetoric and literary structure, drew attention to the audiences addressed by
Muhammad and showed the complexity of the problems of possible dependence
on biblical materials. 48 H. Motzki examined the collection of the Qur’an in the
light of data culled from the relevant Hadith materials. 49
Concluding remarks
Reviewing these recent studies on the Qur’an, mainly published during the last
decade, it is clear that, despite the clamor in the press, no major breakthrough in
constructing the Qur’an has been achieved. The ambitious projects of Lüling and
Luxenberg lack decisive evidence and can reach no further than the realm of
possibility and plausibility. They have made it clear, however, that an exclusively
philological approach is insufficient to break new ground concerning the origins
of the Qur’an. A critical historical inquiry into source accounts of the Jewish-
Christian legacy underlying the Qur’an is a necessary complement to the
philological probings. These fragmentary accounts have to be discovered, in
the first place, in the traditions of those religious communities to which the
Qur’an makes reference. These religious communities were disparate and heterogeneous.
The Qur’an refers to them in general terms, such as “the children of
Israel” (banu Isra’il, cited forty times in the Qur’an), a reference mainly to Jews
but occasionally also Christians, “the possessors of (previous) revelations” (ahl
al-dhikr, Q 15:43; 21:7), and “the people of the Book” (ahl al-kitab, cited 54 times
in the Qur’an), including both Jews and Christians invariably. 50 There are
also specific inner-Qur’anic references to Jews (occurring eight times in the
plural as yahud, Q 2:113 twice, 2:120; 5:18, 51, 64, 82; 9:30, three times as
hud, Q 2:111, 135, 140, and once in the singular, yahudi, Q 3:67). Then there are
fourteen references to “the Nazarenes” (Nasara), and one to “the people of the
Gospel” (ahl al-injil, Q 5:47). Other religious groups cited are the Sabians
(Q 2:62, 5:69, and 22:17), probably Manicheans, and the Magians (Q 22:17),
that is, Zoroastrians. In addition, there are references to “those who profess
Judaism” (alladhina hadu, mentioned ten times in the Qur’an) and “those who
have associated” (mushrikun). 51 Furthermore, there are all those instances in
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