The Cosmogonic Word in al-Shahrastānī’s Exegesis of Sūrat al-Baqara
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 22318978 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Toby Mayer (Institute of Ismaili Studies, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2014 |
| Volume | 16 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 1-41 |
| Publication date | 2014-06-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Qur'anic Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1465-3591 • E-ISSN: 1755-1730 |
| Publisher | Edinburgh University Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.3366/jqs.2014.0147 |
| OpenAlex | W2156582973 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 9 |
The higher thought of al-Shahrastānī (d. 548/1153) is revealed in all its idiosyncrasy and richness in his last work, the incomplete Qur'an commentary, Mafātīḥ al-asrār. Despite his fame as a neo-Ashʿarī thinker, his commentary's interpretive system strongly incorporates Ismāʿīlī features, along with vital Ashʿarī and Avicennan influences. This article focuses on discussions within his commentary on Sūrat al-Baqara, which are related to the theme of God's Command (al-amr) – simultaneously the author's cosmological and epistemological linchpin. Initially, his response to the key questions in the ‘theology of the Qur'an’ is presented, namely, (1) how might the scripture's inimitability for human beings be established, thus its transcendental origin, and (2) what is the scripture's precise relation with that transcendental origin, i.e., the problem of ‘inlibration’, and whether the Qur'anic text is to be viewed as a historical entity or as above time? It emerges that, notwithstanding his keen interest in historical inquiries into the text's canonisation and language, he takes it to be a substantial portal to the entire Realm of the Command (ʿālam al-amr), which is a kind of ‘pre-geometry’ for the cosmos (ʿālam al-khalq). With this premise, al-Shahrastānī invokes a highly systematic ‘lettric’ cosmogonic theory. In this theory, the instrument by which the universe enters existence is taken to be a kind of hyper-language, thought of on the model of the 28 Arabic letters. The details of this system are demonstrably Ismāʿīlī, such as its allusion to a heptadic paradigm of hiero-history. Lastly, the vital cosmological function of translating the graphemic and verbal realities of the Realm of the Command into creational entities and events is attributed to the angelic hierarchies
Archaeology · Art · Epistemology · Exegesis · Literature · Premise · Realm · Theology · Transcendental number · Computer Science · History · Islamic Studies and History · Islamic Thought and Society Studies · Medieval and Classical Philosophy · Philosophy
| Highly cited | No |
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