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xviContributorsCompanion to the Qur 'an (2006), Defining Islam (2007), and The IslamicWorld (2008). He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2006.Gabriel Said Reynolds is Associate Professor oflslamic Studies and Theology atthe University of Notre Dame (USA). He is the author of The Qur 'an and ItsBiblical Subtext (Routledge 2010), the editor of The Qur 'an ~nIts HistoricalContext (Routledge 2008), and the translator of' Abd al-Jabbiir's A Critique ofChristian Origins (Brigham Young University 201 0).Adam Silverstein is University Research Lecturer in Oriental Studies at theUniversity of Oxford and a Fellow ofThe Queen's College. He is the author ofPostal Systems in the Pre-Modern Islamic World (Cambridge University Press·2007) and !~Iamie History: A Ve1y Short Introduction (Oxford UniversityPress 2010) as well as (with P. Crone) "The Ancient Near-East and Islam: TheCase of Lot-Casting," Journal of Semitic Studies 55 (2010), 423-50.Abdolkarim Sorousb is a former professor of the University of Tehran andan expert on Islamic philosophy, poeey, political theory, and hermeneutics.Prof. Soroush, has been a visiting professor at Yale, Princeton, Harvard, andthe Wissenschaftskolleg in Berlin.Devin J. Stewart is Associate Professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies at EmoryUniversity (Atlanta, USA), His publications include "Qur' anic Saj': Prosodyand Structure," Journal of Arabic Literature 21 (1990), 101-39; and "PoeticLicense in the Qur' an: Ibn al-Sii' igh al-I;Ianafi's lbkiim al-riiy fi abkiim al-iiy,"Journal of Qur 'anic Studies 11 (2009), 1-56.Sbawkat M. Toorawa is Associate Professor of Arabic Literature at CornellUniversity. His most recent Qur'an-related publication is "Hapless Hapaxesand Luckless Rhymes," Religion and Literature 41 (2009), 221-27. An articleon Q 19 (Mmyam), including a rhyming translation, is forthcoming in theJournal ofQur 'anic Studies.Clare Wilde is moving to the University of Auckland after six years at GeorgetownUniversity. Recent projects include "The Qur'an: Kaliim Alliih or Wordsof Man? A Case of tafsir Transcending Muslim-Christian Communal Borders,"Parole de !'Orient 32 (2007), 1-17; and with Kirill Dmitriev, The Handbookof Christian-Muslim Relations (Brill, forthcoming).Joseph Witztum is a doctoral candidate in Near Eastern Studies at PrincetonUniversity. His publications include: "The Foundations of the House (Q 2:127)," Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 72 (2009), 25-40,and "Q 4:24 Revisited," Islamic Law and Society 16 (2009), 1-33.Muntber Younes is Reis Senior Lecturer in Arabic Language and Linguistics atCornell University. His publications include: "Charging Steeds or MaidensDoing Good Deeds: A Re-Interpretation ofQur'iin 100 (a!- 'Adiyiit)," Arabica55 (2008), 362-86, and "Ingrate or Honorable: A Reexamination of the Wordkaniidin Qur'an 100," Arabica 56 (2009), 274-85.ForewordI was given the opportunity to address the scholarly conference on "The Qur'iin inIts Historical Context" at the University of Notre Dame as a guest speaker, and tocontribute a rejoinder and a postscript to Dr Nasr Abu Zayd's opening speech. Hespoke about the possibility of a Qur'iinic worldview. I highlighted the fact thatambiguity is intrinsic to language, including the language of the Qur'iin, and saidthat there is a need for constantly ridding the Qur'iinic worldview of itsambiguities.Over the course of the three-day conference, the speakers, who were all seniorresearchers in their own fields, opened up before us the record ofQur'iinic studiesto date and placed the Qur'iin "in its historical context." There was a discussionabout the way in which "a" or "aleph" was written in the earliest manuscripts ofthe Qur'iin (nearly 1,200 years ago)'and the problems that this creates in readingsome of the Verses (e.g., Iii uqsimu ["I do not swear"] versus la-uqsimu ["I doswear"], and Iii a 'bad ["I do not worship"] versus la-a 'bad ["I do worship"]). TheQur'iin's similarities and dissimilarities with the Torah and the Gospel in terms ofdiscourse, the narration of stories, and the way in which they chastise disbelieverswere also discussed, as was the importance of diacritics, opening letters of someSfiras, and the dots above and below various letters that would lead to new readings(follqwing LUling, the German scholar).Some of the conference participants were Muslims, like myself; such as NasrAbU Zayd, Munther Younes, Suleiman Mourad, Hani Hayajneh, Waleed Ahmed,Ernran Bedawi and Shawkat Toorawa. I thought to myself what a shame it is thatconferences of this kind are not held in Islamic countries, and are unlikely to be forthe foreseeable future, because they would not be welcomed by Muslims. I recalleda seminar that I attended many years ago in Istanbul, Turkey, which was convenedto examine the ideas and works of Professor Fazlur Rahman, the Pakistani Islamologistwho taught at the University of Chicago. The seminar's director highlighteda noteworthy point: that it would be impossible to hold a seminar of this kind in anyIslamic country other than Turkey. And this is despite the fact that Fazlur Rahmanhad not said anything particularly "blasphemous" about the Qur'iin. It occurred tome at the time that not even one of his books had been translated into Persian. ButI did not lose hope, because some of Dr Nasr Abu Zayd' s works have been translatedand published in Persian. As I reflected on the causes (or reasons) for this, I