Review of
The Qur'an and the Aramaic Gospel Traditions:
http://membr.uwm.edu/review.php?id=137In this work, El-Badawi has made a detailed comparison between the text of passages of the Qur'an and the corresponding passages of the Aramaic Gospels. He does this in order to prove his assertion that the Qur'an as a text was produced within a milieu that was dominated by what he terms the Aramaic Gospel Tradition. El-Badawi is careful to avoid the use of the term “influence,” due to its negative connotation in light of previous theories regarding the origins of Islam. He states, “This study will demonstrate how the Qur'an …, selectively challenged or re-appropriated, and therefore took up the ‘dogmatic re-articulation’ of language and imagery coming from the Aramaic Gospel Traditions, in order to fit the idiom and the religious temperament of a heterogeneous, sectarian Arabian audience” (p. 5). By dogmatic, he means here a more indefinite sense of belief rather than a definition of the word connected to any particular religious institution. The system of belief studied in this work is that which will eventually become Islam, but that is described by El-Badawi as originally “anti-Trinitarian, post-Rabbinic and apocalyptic,” what he terms “strict monotheism” (p. 5).
In El-Badawi’s opening chapter, “Sources and Method,” he discusses the historical context of the Qur'an and the Aramaic Gospel Tradition, his thesis and definition of terminology, an extended section on secondary studies of the Qur'an, his methodology, and the organization of the book. It is in this chapter that he discusses certain aspects of the work that might be questionable for some scholars. He recognizes that the sources that relate the historical context of the origins and compilation of the Qur'an, most notably the sira works, are problematic, and yet notes that he accepts them for the purposes of this study. He follows Fred Donner’s notion of the “historical kernel” in the Islamic source material, but does not really indicate how he determines which aspects of Muhammad’s life story he accepts and which aspects he rejects. In addition, he utilizes the canonical versions of both the Qur'an and the Aramaic Gospels, but does discuss the non-canonical sources that could impact his analysis of these texts.
El-Badawi’s methodology is clearly laid out, detailed, and extremely well organized. He states that he chooses texts within both the Qur'an and the Aramaic Gospels “if general linguistic relationships are outwardly apparent” (p. 49). The text of the Qur'an is then read within the context of the surrounding verses. Then, it is compared to earlier works (“Biblical, Rabbinic, Apocryphal, Pseudepigraphal, homiletic, historical, and epigraphic literature”) to ensure that the text is not connected to a source other than the Aramaic Gospel Traditions. Once a firm connection between the Qur'an and the Aramaic Gospels is established, he states that he will then consult the Islamic literary works and secondary sources. Only after all of these steps have been completed will he “formulate a hypothesis” about the relationship between the scriptural passages in question.
El-Badawi’s second chapter, “Prophetic Tradition in the Late Antique Near East,” spells out the context within which the works studied, especially the Qur'an, were developed. He terms this historical context “prophetic tradition,” and defines it as follows: “Prophetic tradition may designate a religion, faith, denomination, sect, school, or group of adherents which tends to be monotheistic in a general sense. More explicitly, it is the social lifestyle of abiding by the teachings, ethics and law of a divinely inspired or sanctioned leader…. Their teachings are (1) dogmatic in nature…, and (2) passed down from one generation to the next” (p. 51). He describes the Judaeo-Christian and Zoroastrian background for the Aramaic Gospels — the product of a Syriac church desperate to survive in the face of religious sectarianism — and the Arabian background, both of which will serve as source material for the text of the Qur'an and the religion of Islam. It is here that El-Badawi engages in his first comparison of the two languages involved. He states that the “Syriac speaking Christian groups and the tribal and urban centers of Arabia… submitted to the ethics, laws, and teachings of Syriac Christian literature…. This act of submission was called in Syriac ašlem” (p. 59). This term is then connected to the Arabic islām with a similar correspondent meaning. However, El-Badawi is careful to point out that the Islam of Muhammad was only one of many such movements (what he terms islāms) in Arabia during the sixth and seventh centuries, all of whom were informed by the continued presence of the Aramaic Gospel Traditions due to the continued presence of Christian communities and individuals with whom the Arabians would have been familiar.
The work is then organized into four chapters that each dwells on a specific theme. There are far too many sub themes in each chapter to discuss in detail here, and so I have limited my discussion to those that I find most intriguing. The first of these, “Prophets and their Righteous Entourage,” discusses Jesus’ place among the Hebrew prophets in the Aramaic Gospel Tradition and then the place of these same prophets in the Qur’an. The chapter then goes on to discuss the “alienated, oppressed and disenfranchised members of society” (p. 78) who would become members of a prophet’s entourage. The following chapter, “The Evils of the Clergy,” compares the negative dictates by both Jesus and Muhammad about the clergy of their day, and includes themes of persecution by and the materialism of the clergy, as well as discussing the issue of hypocrisy, themes prevalent in both the Aramaic Gospel Tradition and the Qur’an. The next chapter, “The Divine Realm,” includes discussions of the themes of God’s majesty, light, the Word, and God’s mercy. El-Badawi points out in this chapter that the Qur’an replaces Jesus with God in many passages in order to maintain the “strict monotheism” necessary in Islam (pp. 160, 162). The final thematic chapter, “Divine Judgment and the Apocalypse,” reveals important differences between the Aramaic Gospel Tradition and the Qur’an, including an especially fascinating section that covers the idea of death and judgment. In the former, followers are promised that they “will never see death” (p. 168), while in the latter, followers are told in no uncertain terms that “every soul will taste death” (p. 169). Again, Jesus’ role in the Biblical texts is removed when re-articulated in the Qur’an’s depiction of the Final Judgment, as El-Badawi points out the use of passive verbs in Qur’an39 to replace any possible Trinitarian interpretation. In the sections in this chapter on Hell and Paradise, El-Badawi deftly brings the depiction of both the “Righteous Entourage” and the evil clergy full circle, as these groups switch places — with the clergy in Hell and the faithful followers of Muhammad and Jesus in Paradise, enjoying the material benefits denied them in life.
The final chapter of the work serves as El-Badawi’s conclusion. He includes a discussion of typology, and explains that he has limited his study to those passages that lend themselves most obviously to comparison, but then points out that the number of passages that could be compared on, for example, a rhetorical basis, are statistically small enough to warrant their exclusion. He notes that the Qur’an was very much aware of Gospel texts, but that it did not, as some scholars have claimed, have origins “as a purely Syriac lectionary…, or, alternately, as a Christian scripture for the Arabs” (pp. 213-214). He notes that the Qur’an “may be appreciated as both a collection of divine revelations as well as a product of religious cross-pollination. Therefore, it is not the finality of an individual prophetic tradition nor its written legacy — scripture — but rather the continuity of prophetic tradition and scripture that bestows upon us the broadest perspective from which to appreciate them both” (p. 219).
Overall, El-Badawi’s work is an important addition to our understanding of the Qur’an within its historical and religious milieu. His detailed analysis is supported by a number of appendices that reflect the passages of the various Gospel texts and their corresponding passages in the Qur’an, as well as the typology involved in their comparison. He also provides a number of tables throughout the text that are fairly useful. El-Badawi’s acceptance of the story of the Qur’an’s origins and composition is problematic, despite his nod to the issues with the source material, because so much of his analysis rests upon the story they tell, especially in those sections dealing with Muhammad and his historical milieu. The work is unfortunately marred by a number of typographical errors that are quite distracting, especially in the beginning sections of the book. That being said, this remains a very important work that will hopefully serve to further our understanding of the Qur’an and its relationship to the belief systems and scriptures among which it originated and with whom it continues to interact.
Topic: Tafsir is not Qur’an (Iqlid blog)