Assumed Contradictions in the Qurʾān: An Analysis on Al-Alūsī’s Disputation of Al-Kindī in “The Apology of Al-Kindī”
Abstract
Abstract Views: 0
The priest, ꜥAbd al-Masīḥ al-Kindī wrote an apology in response to Hashimi's invitation to convert to Islam. The apology included various criticisms he had made against Islam, including regarding the Qurʾān, the Prophet Muḥammad (PBUH), Shariah and so on. A decade later, in the 19th century, Nuꜥmān Khayr al-Dīn, the son of Abū Thanāʾ al-Alūsī penned his book entitled al-Jawāb al-Fasīḥ li Mā Laffaqahu ꜥAbd al-Masīḥ as a response to the criticisms made by ꜥAbd al-Masīḥ Kindī who claimed that the Qurʾān contained contradictory verses. This study aims to evaluate al-Alūsī’s arguments on the claims of al-Kindi. Two literatures, namely “The Apology of al-Kindī” and “Al-Jawāb al-Fasīḥ li-mā Laffaqahu ꜥAbd al-Masīḥ”, serve as the primary references for this study. The current research concludes that Alūsī's reconciliation of the assumed contradictory verses takes four forms: (1) to refer to occasions of revelation (asbāb al-nuzūl); (2) to consider the context of the verse (siyāq); (3) to provide the correct interpretation of the verse; and (4) to resort to abrogation (naskh).
Downloads
References
ꜥAbd Allāh, Zaid Umar. “Al-Siyāq al-Qurānī wa Atharuhu fi al-Kashf 'an al-Ma'ānī.” Majallāh Jāmi'ah al-Malik Saud, al-'Ulūm al-Tarbawiyyah wa al-Dirāsāt al-Islāmiyyah, (2003): 837-877.
Adnan Mohamed Yusoff, Muhammad Arif Musa, and Ahmad Sanusi Azmi. “Khawas Al-Quran as a Complementary Element in Quranic Translation: A Study on The Wisdom of ‘Tafsir Al-Rawi’.” Maʿālim Al-Qurʾān Wa Al-Sunnah. 18, no. 1 (2022):133-53. https://doi.org/10.33102/jmqs.v18i1.354.
Adnan Moh’d Abdullah Shalash. 2019. Refutation of The Orientalists’ Assumptions Related to Traditional School of Quranic Exegesis: Ignaz Goldziher as a Model”. Maʿālim Al-Qurʾān Wa Al-Sunnah 15 no. 2 (2019): 215-40. https://doi.org/10.33102/jmqs.v15i2.209.
Aḥmad, al-Qāḍī ꜥAbd al-Jabbar. Tanzih al-Qurʾān min al-Mata'in. Beirut: Dar al-Nahdah al-Hādīthah. n.d.
Al-Alūsi, Nu'mān ibn Mahmūd. al-Jawāb al-Fasīḥ li Man Baddala Dīn al-Masīh. Edited by Aḥmad Hijazi al-Saqa. Cairo: Dār al-Bayān al-'Arabi, 1987.
Al-Athari, Muḥammad Bahjah. A'lam al-Iraq. Cairo: al-Matba'ah al-Salafiyyah wa Maktabatuha, 1345AH.
Ali, Mohar. The Qurʾān and the Orientalist: An Examination of their Theories and Assumptions. Ipswich: Jam'iyat il-Ihyaa Minhaaj al-Sunnah, 2004.
Al-Baghawi, Muḥammad al-Husain. 1997. Ma'ālim al-Tanzīl fī Tafsīr al-Qurʾān. Riyadh: Dar Tayyibah.
Basha, Aḥmad Taimur. A'lam al-Fikr al-Islami fi al-'Asr al-Hādīth. Cairo: Dar al-Afaq al-Arabiyyah, 2003.
Beaumont, Mark Ivor. "Early Christian Interpretation of the Qurʾān." Transformation 22 no 4 (2005):195-203.
Bin Muhammad Yusoff, Muhammad Fawwaz. Tracing the Tracts of Qaṣaṣ: Towards a Theory of Narrative Pedagogy in Islamic Education. Religions 14, no. 10 (2023):1299. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14101299
Bin Muhammad Yusoff, Muhammad Fawwaz. Travels and Cities of the Ḥadīth Studies: An Analysis of Buldān in the Islamic Intellectual History. Al-Bayan: Journal of Qur'an and Hadith Studies 21, 3 (2023): 315-334, doi: https://doi.org/10.1163/22321969-20230137
Denffer, Aḥmad Von. An Introduction to the Sciences of the Qur’ān. United Kingdom: The Islamic Foundation, 2011.
Al-Fadi, ꜥꜥAbd Allāh. Is the Qurʾān Infallible. Austria: Light of Life, 1995.
Al-Ghaznawi, Maḥmūd bin Abi al-Husain. Bahir al-Burhan fi Mushkilat al-Qurʾān. Makkah: Universiti Umm al-Qura, 1998.
Griffith, Sydney H. “The Qurʾān in Arab Christian Text: The Development of an Apologetical Argument: Abū Qurrah in the Maglis of al-Ma'mun.” Parole de L'Orient vol 24 (Parole) (1999): 203-233.
Al-Ḥajjāj, Muslim. Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim. Ed. Muḥammad Fuꜥād ꜥAbd al-Bāqī. Cairo: Maṭbaꜥat ꜥĪsā al-Bābī al-Ḥalabī wa Sharikah, 1374H-1955.
Muir, William. The Apology of al-Kindī written at the court of al-Mamun (AH 215; AD 830) in Defence of Christianity against Islam. London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1887.
Raghib al-Asfahani, al-Hussain bin Muḥammad. al-Mufradāt fi Ghārib al-Qur'ān. Beirut: Dar al-Qalam Dar al-Shāmiah, 1412H.
Al-Shāṭibī, Ibrāhīm bin Mūsā. al-Muwāfaqāt fi Usūl al-Syarī'ah. Cairo: Dār Ibn 'Affān, 1997.
Sulaim bin 'Iid al-Hilali, Mūsā bin Nasr Āl Nasr. al-Istī'āb fī Bayān al-Asbāb. Arab Saudi: Dar Ibn al-Jauzi, 1425H.
Suyūthi, Jalāl al-Dīn ꜥAbd al-Rahmān bin Abī Bakr. 1974. al-Itqān fī ‘Ulūm al-Qur’ān. Egypt: al-Hai’ah al’Āmmah al-Misriyyah li al-Kitāb, 1974.
Al-Ṭabarī, Muḥammad Abū Jaʿfar Ibn Jarīr. Jāmiʿ al-Bayān Fī Taʾwīl Āy al-Qurʾān. Edited by ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Muḥsin al-Turkī. (Cairo: Hajar li al-Ṭibāʿah wa al-Nashr wa al-Tawzīʿ, 2001).
Al-Tantawi, Muḥammad Sayyid. Al-Tafsīr al-Wasit li al-Qurʾān al-Karim. Kaherah: Dar al-Nahdhah, 1997.
Syed Abdul Majid Ghouri. “The Excellence of Surah Al-Kahf and Its Characteristics in Light of the Authentic Ahadith: An Analytical Study.” Maʿālim Al-Qurʾān Wa Al-Sunnah 19, no. 2 (December 1, 2023):342-65. https://doi.org/10.33102/jmqs.v19i2.443.
Thomas, David. "Foreword". In D. Thomas (ed.), Christian Muslim Relations Online I, (Brill, 2010) doi: https://doi.org/10.1163/1877-8054_cmri_COM_24334
Ulwan, ꜥAbd Allāh Nasih. Hurriyyah al-I'tiqād fi al-Syarī'ah al-Islamiyyah. Egypt: Dar al-Salam, 2004.
Van Koningsveld, P. S. "The Apology of Al-Kindî". In Religious Polemics in Context. Leiden: Brill, 2005.
Zaid, Mustafa. 1987. al-Naskh fi al-Qurʾān. Cairo: Dar al-Wafa.
Copyright (c) 2024 Muhammad Arif Musa, Muhammad Fawwaz Muhammad Yusoff, Abd Muhaimin Ahmad
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work’s authorship and initial publication in this journal.
.png){kind=icon}
