Talking with Prophets: Applying Socio-Rhetorical Interpretation to Prophetic Dialogue in the Qur'an Public
benShea, Adam (2016)
Published
Abstract
In response to the long held view that the Qur'anic narrative is disjointed, this study supports the assertion that the Qur'an is a unified literary work. This dissertation aims to illustrate that the recurring prophetic stories and characters weave the Qur'anic text together.Along with prophecy, the central topics of the Qur'an are monotheism, Day of Judgment, and the covenant. However, prophecy is more crucial for understanding and unifying the Qur'an because the text uses the topic of prophecy both to introduce and to explain the other central topics. An understanding of prophecy in the Qur'an requires a study of prophetic dialogue because dialogue, rather than narration, develops the unified prophetic character and demarcates the distinct prophetic personalities. Due to the manner in which instances of prophetic dialogue are scattered across Qur'anic surahs, this dissertation uses socio-rhetorical interpretative analysis as a means to fuse together the central prophetic claims which are expressed repeatedly by the speaking prophets. Rather than assuming that recurring material in the Qur'an creates disparate textual units that divide the narrative, this dissertation looks at the way in which repetition texture creates a tension that unifies and progresses central narrative claims. This synthetic approach to the Qur'an shows uniformity in the prophetic role, consistency in the Qur'anic narrative, and the subtle but significant differences between individual prophets. Along with including an overview of the speaking prophets and their instances of dialogue, this dissertation includes close analyses of units of prophetic speech from Noah, Solomon, and Moses. In addition, detailed innertextual and intertextual analyses of the Qur'anic dialogue of Noah and Solomon show the development of these prophets inside of the Qur'an and between sacred texts. By documenting the instances of dialogue there is a framework for the uniform prophetic character and by focusing on specific moments of dialogue there is a window on the way in which the distinct prophetic personalities voice central textual assertions.
Table of Contents
Introduction 9
Overview of Qur'anic Studies 10
Scholarship on Qur'anic Prophets 17
Qur'an as Literature 25
Socio-Rhetorical Interpretation and the Utility of Repetition 31
Intertextual Analysis 48
A Unified Text 53
Chapter One: The Conflation of time and the unification of the narrative 61
Chapter Two: The Prophet and the Messenger of the Qur'an 82
General Prophetic Function 96
The Covenant and the Prophet 102
The Prophet as Hero 117
The Holy Prophet on the Periphery and in Society 126
Chapter Three: The Prophet as Personality 132
The Utility of Dialogue 135
Qur'anic Dialogue Types 138
Moses 152
Closes Analysis of a Prophetic Unit 167
Abraham 173
Jesus 190
Joseph 196
Lot 198
David 200
Jacob 201
Aaron 202
Zacharias 204
Job 205
Jonah 206
Ishmael 207
Adam 214
Chapter Four: Noah and Dialogue 215
General Overview of Noah in the Qur'an 216
Noah in Genesis and the Qur'an 217
Talking with Noah 235
Talking with Noah: Concluding Remarks 258
Chapter Five: Solomon and Dialogue 259
General Overview of Solomon in the Qur'an 260
Solomon between Sacred Texts 260
Talking with Solomon 268
Talking with Solomon: Concluding Remarks 286
Conclusion: Concluding Remarks on Prophetic Dialogue 287
Potential for Further Research 291
Bibliography 294
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