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

310 Sidney GriffithInterreligious controversy in the Qur' an: hermeneuticalassumptionsWhile in instances of interreligious controversy the name al-na~ara is usedteen times in the Qur'an as a community designation, like the name Jews,which it always occurs, or the name Sabians, or the Majus, it is not the onlynation for Christians in such controversial contexts in the IslamicPerhaps even more frequently the Qur'an criticizes Christian doctrine orby addressing them as "Scripture People" (ahl al-kitab), a phrase thatfifty-nine times all told, or some more general phrase, such as, "They havelieved who say ... "(e.g., al-Ma 'ida [5] 72, 73), and one then identifies thelievers or the intended particular, errant "Scripture People" by what thecriticizes about them. In the Qur'an, al-na~ara is simply the generalname for those who in other contemporary texts in other languages, likeGreek, are normally called "Christians." So one wonders, why thisnames on the Qur'an's part? And to propose an answer to the question onefirst engage in some reflection on one's hermeneutical assumptions.From the hermeneutical perspective, there are, broadly speaking, twotories along which interpreters customarily approach the Qur'an. Theymutually exclusive. One approach, most common in Western, non-Muslimarship, might be described as operating according to a diachronic,method. 26 It typically looks for origins, sources and influences; it askslike, from where did the Qur' an get this term, this usage, this narrative, thission? Can one isolate portions of the text and discern a pre-Islamic milieu init may have functioned before it was taken up into the Qur' an? Anothermost common among Muslim commentators over the cen-turies, butfrom Western, non-Muslim scholarship, takes the Arabic scripture as ancanonical composition and searches for its meanings in the text as wetaken integrally, but not without reference to circum-ambient, historicalTraditionally, Muslim scholars have searched for the so-called asbab at-nu;rnt;the occasions in the life of Mul:mmmad on which a given passage wasAlternatively, a scholar might look for the circumstances attendant uponpassages ofthe canonical Qur'an in its own most likely cultural milieu,the socio-historical background against which its usages and literary str~1te~~iestheir immediate pertinence. The latter is the approach adopted in theinquiry; one might call it a synchronic, contextual method ofQur'an ;·. •h••-rm·t~tinthat nevertheless does not eschew what can be learned from historical "u""'o1.11•This contextual method is not without its presuppositions. In theinstance, in regard to the Qur'an's reaction to the Christians in its milieu,presumption is that the Islamic scripture's posture is one of apologeticpolemical critique of the doctrines and practices of Christians who are26 See the very interestingcollectionofessays on this theme in D. Hartwig eta!. (eels), "Jm val/ender Geschichte ": Die Wissenschafi des Judentums und die Anfonge der kritischen Km·an!'Ors,~!tunEx Oriente Lza: 8; WUrzburg: Ergon, 2008.Al-Na~ii.ra in the Qur 'an: a hermeneutical reflection 311and that it features literary and discursive strategies suitable to itswith them. On this view, the Qur'an, whatever its origins, includingthat in its integral form it may well be rightly seen to include earlier,,...,__..:_.,__ compositions, is actually criticizing both the behavior and theof the Christians and other "People ofthe Book" within its immediate ken. take issue with its teachings. The evidence for this assumption is, first of all,. sense of the pertinent passages, beginning with those in which theal-na~ara appears, which we have already reviewed. Secondly, in otherthat obviously reprove Christian beliefs or practice, e.g. al-Nisa' (4) 171'ida (5) 77, one finds obvious polemical admonitions: "0 Scripturedo not exceed the bounds in your religion, nor say about God aught but the(al-Nisa' [4] 171); or: "Say, 0 Scripture People, do not exce.ed the boundsreligion untruthfully, and do not follow the fancies of a people who wentin the past and led others astray and strayed from the even pat4" (al-Ma 'idaEven more obviously polemical are the passages that declare "They havewho say God is the Messiah, son of Mary," (al-Ma 'ida [5] 72), andhave disbelieved who say God is thalithu thalathatin." (al-Ma 'ida [5] 73)ernlen.eu1:1C~Llly speaking, an important corollary of the recognition of theintention polemically to criticize Christian belief and practice is therecognition that in the service ofthis purpose the Qur'an rhetorically doesreport or repeat what Christians say; it reproves what they say, correctsr_~;,lu""'u''"" it. For example, Christians in the Qur'an's time did not normally"God is the Messiah, son of Mary" (al-Ma'ida [5] 72). They did affirmMessiah, son of Mary, is the son of God and God in person. The Qur'an'smisstatement, rhetorically speaking, should therefore not be thought tobut rather a polemically inspired caricature, the purpose of which is., ., ,._,_. in Islamic terms the absurdity, and therefore the wrongness, of thebelief, from an-Islamic perspective.further presumption of the contextual method of interpreting the Qur'an'sof Christians and Christianity is that the Qur' an actually knows how themostly Arabic-speaking (and Syriac-speaking) Christians in its milieuthe confessional formulae with which the Qur'an disagrees. What isthe Islamic scripture actually provides its own evidence of its familiaritywith the scriptural narratives of the Scripture People, i.e. Jews and Chrisinparticular, a familiarity often documented by scholars, but also of much ofnon-scriptural religious lore. Here the Qur' an typically does not simplythese narratives; it comments on them, alludes to them, adds different readandinterpretations, and even corrects them from its own point ofview. 27 Inpresent writer has attempted to display this aspect of the Qur'lin's approach to earlier Christianin two instances: S.H. Griffith, "Syriacisms in the Arabic-Qur'an: Who were 'those who saidis third of three,"' according to al-Mii 'ida 73?" in M.M. Bar-Asher eta!. (eds), A Ward Fitlyin Mediaeval Exegesis of the Hebrew Bible and the Qur 'iin; presented to Haggai Ben-. Jerusalem: The Ben-Zvi Institnte, 2007, 83-110; and idem, "Christian Lore and the Arabic, Qur'an: the 'Companions of the Cave' in al-Kahfand in Syriac Christian Tradition," QHC, 109-38.