This book presents an anthropological study of the Qur’an, offering an unprecedented challenge to some of the epistemological and metaphysical assumptions of the taw idic discourses.
This book presents an anthropological study of the Qur’an, offering an unprecedented challenge to some of the epistemological and metaphysical assumptions of the taw idic discourses. Combining primary textual materials and anthropological analysis, this book examines transcendence as a core principle of the Qur’an, uniquely signified in the divine name al-Quddus (the Holy). It shows how the taw idic representations of Allah constitute an inversion of this attribute; examines how this inversion has been conceived, authorized, and maintained; and demonstrates how it has affected Islamic thinking and practices, especially as relates to authority. This book also explores how a return to the Qur’anic primacy of God’s otherness as al-Quddus can influence Islamic thinking and practices moving forward. Therefore, it will be highly useful to scholars of Islamic Studies, philosophical theology, Qur’anic studies, political science, ethics, anthropology, and religious studies.
Part 1
1. Religion, the Holy and the Sacred: An Anthropological
Perspective
2. Al-Qudds (The Holy) and Transcendental Écart in the Qurn 3
Ontological Distinction of the Holy and the Sacred in the Qurn
4.
Transcendence and Divine Freedom in the Qurn 5 Tawd, God, the Qurn, and
Being 6 Al-Qudds and Divine Otherness 7 Tawdic Authorizing Discourses and
the Inversion of al-Qudds 8 The Qurn and the Tawdic Sublimation of the
Sunna 9 The Qurn, Muammad, and the Disclosure of the Holy; 10 The Qurn,
the Sunna, and Authority in Modern Islam Part 2 11 Gender: The Tawdic
Sexual Morality 12 ILM: The Forgotten Ethics of Islam 13 The Qurn and
Islamic Art 14 Rib (Usury): Economic Excess and Excessive Morality
Ahmed Achrati holds an LL.B from the University of Oran, Algeria, an LL.M from New York University School of Law, and a Ph.D. in international relations from the University of Pennsylvania. He continues to do research in anthropology and prehistoric rock art. Currently, he teaches courses on the Quran and Modern Society and Prehistoric Rock Art at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute in the Washington, DC, area.
