reynolds-the-quran-in-its-historical-context-2

308 Sidney Griffithand al-na~ara as allies; 23 they are allies of one another. Whoever of youhimself with them, becomes one of them" (al-Ma 'ida [5] 51). It is also in thisthat we find the following, much commented verses:You will surely find that the most hostile of men to the believers are theand those who ascribe partners to God. And you will surely find that .nearest in amity towards the believers are those who say: "We areand that is because among them are priests and monks, and they do notproud. (83) When they listen to what has been revealed to the Messenge:r,will see their eyes overflowing with tears from the truth they recognize.say: "Our Lord, we believe, so inscribe us among those who witness.Why should we not believe in God and what has come down to ustruth? We yearn for our Lord to lead us in among the righteous cmnn1unity;,'(85) God shall reward them for their speech - gardens beneath whichflow, abiding there forever. This is the reward of the righteous. (86) Butwho blaspheme and cry lies to Our revelations- those are the denizens(al-Ma 'ida [5] 82-86).2 4 ·Finally, there is the statement about the most significant wrong belief ·an indictment of the wrong behavior of those explicitly called al-na~ara.Qur'an says:The Jews say, "Ezra is the son of God," while al~na~ara say, "Thethe son of God." This is what they say, from their very mouths,imitating the parlance of those who disbelieved of yore; may God fighthow deceived they are. (31) They take their rabbis and monks as lordsGod, as well as the Messiah, son of Mary, although they are curlliiJ.amieuworship none but one God. There is no God but He; exalted He is abovethey associate with Him (al-Tawba [9] 30-31).It remains to say a word about the Qur'anic scenarios in which most ofinstances of the name al-na~ara we have mentioned occur. Of the fourteenit appears, seven of them occur in al-Baqara (2), in a scenario thatglimpse into the early Islamic community's process of assuming itscultural and religious identity. Religiously speaking, attaining thatinvolved dealing especially with the Jews and Christians, whose scripturalthe Muslims shared and with whom at the time of the Sura's revelation theyliving in the same space, presumably in Yathrib/Medina. In this milieu, thesuggests that a lively exchange took place between the members of the23 Traditionally, the Arabic term awliyii' has been translated "friends." Here, and in vs.connotations of the English term "ally" seem more apt. This suggestion comes from T.The Qur'iin: A New Translation, New York: Viking, 2008,90.24 The translation is from Khalidi, The Qur 'an, 93-94. For a review of selected Muslimtaries on these verses, see McAuliffe, Qur 'iinic Christians, 204-39.Al-Na:;;ara in the Qur'an: a hermeneutical reflection 309:ommunitites, to judge by the timely prophetic interventions in their communalnteJ:ac1:iOilS that comprise most of the first 157 verses of the Sura. It is clear thata question of defining Islamic identity vis-a-vis that of the Jews and theThe heart ofthe matter is expressed in a remarkable sequence of versesfrom 124 to 141 that address a singularly important theme in the definifIslamic religious identity. Edmund Beck long ago put it this way: "Dasder ganzen Versgruppe kann man mit dem programmatischen Ausdruck· millatzt IbrahTma. Dieses Thema wird durchgegefiihrt 1) positive histor­Vers 118 (124)- 128 (134) und 2) polemisch gegen Juden und Christen in. 129 (135)- 135 (141)." 25respect to the two parts of this distinctive "Versgruppe," one might alsoattention to the fact that the last verse of each part (i.e. vv. 134-41) is identical,the following divine assurance to the Muslims: "That community has, to it belongs what it has acquired and to you belongs what you haveYou will not be asked about what they were doing" (al-Baqara [2] 134). In the context, it is clear that the phrase "that community" (tilka ummatzm)nonc-MuslJiillS includes both Jews and Christians, both of whom according to thewant to claim "Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob and the tribes" as their ownand they argue about God with the "believers" (v. 139), who are instructedreply to those who say, " 'Become Jews or na~ara; you will be rightly' Say, 'Rather, the 'religion (mil/a) of Abraham', a banif, not one of the;,"r,,.u"'''"" (v. 135; c£ also AI 1mran [3] 67). In his study of this group of verses,masterfully shows how they express the culmination of the development ofIslamic concept of the millatzt Ibrahfma as a religious identityagainst the specific challenges of the Jews and the Christians.seven of the occurrences of the name na~ara thus appear in al-Baqaraas we have just seen, five others that we have mentioned occur in al-Ma 'idaonce again reflecting a surrounding, Medinan context of religious critique ofbeliefs and practices of the Jews and Christians. Here too we find two of thepointed of the Qur' an's critiques of Christian faith: "They have disbelievedsay that God is the Messiah, the son of Mary" (al-Ma 'ida [5] 72) and "Theydisbelieved who say ·that God is thalithu thalathatin" (al-Ma 'ida [5] 73); twothat will be discussed below., the Qur'anic scenarios in which the preponderant number of times (12)al-na~ara appears bespeak the sort of apologetic and polemical campaignchliJracterif;tic of interreligious controversy and they feature the distinctive idiom"""'"'""'"self-definition over against the challenges of others, specifically JewsChristians. The question now arises, after listing all the places in the Qur'anit occurs, why does the Islamic scripture use the relatively rare nameto designate Christians, and what does it mean to imply? Whichwas it meant to indicate?Beck, "Die Gestalt des Abraham am Wendepunkt der Entwicklung Muhammeds: Analyse von2, 118 (124)-135 (141)," Le fvfuseon 65, 1952, (73-94) 73.