Understanding Sacred Texts
Living God’s Names : Deciphering the Symbolic Cosmology of Islam
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session William Rory Dickson, Meena Sharify Funk
The relationship between names and what they name, between signifiers and signified, has a rich history of discussion in a variety of religious and philosophical traditions. Within the Islamic tradition, names play a role the significance of which is hard to overestimate. In particular, the 99 Beautiful Names of God or asma’ al-husna remain a foundational, if understudied element of Islam. Islamic theology, philosophy, and mysticism are premised on the Names of God found in the Qur’an, which communicate something of God’s qualities in human language. For the famous Sufi master and metaphysician Muhyi al-Din Ibn al-‘Arabi (d. 1240), who’s influence on the later Islamic tradition is paramount, the names of God take ‘center stage’ in his voluminous works. This paper will explore how Ibn al-‘Arabi understands the Names of God in relation to his overall cosmology, underscoring how the Names are understood to correspond with and shape the various elements of space and time that make up our world.
A Structural Analysis of Qur’an 56: Whose Assessment is it Anyway?
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Zakyi Ibrahim
Muslim experts of Arabic literature generally believe that structurally, the Qur’an is a beautiful edifice, full of captivating and attractive eloquence. Sources show that, Al-Walid ibn al-Mughira, a non-Muslim contemporary of the Prophet, allegedly praised the Qur’an for its beauty. However, some modern non-Muslims are of different opinions altogether. Thomas Carlyle’s 1840 lecture on Prophet Muhammad and the Qur’an, though uniquely meant to dismiss and deflect the contemporary negative and harsh criticisms of both, nonetheless, painted a far less than flattery picture of the Qur’an. “It is a toilsome reading…wearisome confused jumble, crude, incondite; endless iteration, long-windedness, entanglement; most crude, incondite – insupportable stupidity, in short!” Carlyle insisted. (Carlyle, 198). This paper—without engaging in apologetics or attempting to come down on other side of the question of the Qur’an’s aesthetic qualities—will focus on the stylistics of chapter 56 (al-Waqi‘at) and analyze its internal structural consistencies. By recourse to contemporary theories of writing, I will show that Q. 56 is, in structure and form, an excellent example of “internal coherence,” consisting of a succinct preamble, a detailed elaboration with supporting elements, and finally, a summary and specific conclusion. Reference will of course be made to the work of Neuwirth (2007) and Cuypers (2009, 2011).
Mystical Theology as an Answer to Transreligious Identity Problems in the Letter to the Galatians of Paul, the Jew
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Witkamp Theo
The famous dictum, "It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me" (Gal. 2:20), can be found in a highly polemical section of Paul’s Letter to the Galatians. The context is one in which religious boundaries between Jews and non-Jews are transgressed at the common meal. This resulted in heated discussions about Jewish loyalty and identity. Paul, a Jew and an apostle of Christ, took a firm stance in these matters and advanced a prolific argument in favor of his transreligious position. It is the purpose of my paper to discuss the intersection of Paul’s mysticism and the communal life in early nascent Christianity. I contend that the way he deals with the problems he encountered in his days transcends the constraints of history and can be inspirational in a modern context.
