Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- PART I QURʾĀNIC COMMENTARY AND COMMENTATORS
- PART II QURʾĀNIC COMMENDATION OF CHRISTIANS
- 3 Nazarenes of faith and action
- 4 Followers of the Qurʾānic Jesus
- 5 Steadfast and submissive
- 6 The promised bounty of piety
- 7 The praiseworthy amity of Christians
- 8 Christians as pre-Qurʾānic Muslims
- 9 Compassion, mercy, and monasticism
- Conclusion
- Works cited
- Index of Qurʾānic verses
- Index of names and subjects
5 - Steadfast and submissive
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 February 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- PART I QURʾĀNIC COMMENTARY AND COMMENTATORS
- PART II QURʾĀNIC COMMENDATION OF CHRISTIANS
- 3 Nazarenes of faith and action
- 4 Followers of the Qurʾānic Jesus
- 5 Steadfast and submissive
- 6 The promised bounty of piety
- 7 The praiseworthy amity of Christians
- 8 Christians as pre-Qurʾānic Muslims
- 9 Compassion, mercy, and monasticism
- Conclusion
- Works cited
- Index of Qurʾānic verses
- Index of names and subjects
Summary
Another shift of philological taxonomy occurs in this, the third verse that presents itself for consideration. While sūrat at-baqarah (2):62 made unequivocal reference to the Christians, the allusion was somewhat less direct in sūrah Āl ʿImrān (3): 5 5 with its mention of those who follow Jesus. In the verse to be discussed now the classificatory phrase is yet more amorphous and partitive. A critical phrase is people of the book (ahl al-kitāb), a designation whose range of signification is not constant within either the domain of Qurʾānic tafsīr or the Islamic religious sciences generally. Identification in this context with those known as Christians is less a function of direct verbal apprehension than of recourse to the exegetical tradition on the verse. The verse itself is the penultimate entry in the same sūrah from which the one treated in the previous chapter was drawn. A possible translation of sūrah Āl ʿImrān (3): 199 would be:
Truly among the people of the book are those who believe in God and what was sent down to you and what was sent down to them, submissive before God. They do not sell the verses of God for a small price. For them is their reward near their Lord. Surely God is quick to reckon.
OPTING FOR INCLUSIVITY
Muslim commentators have discerned a multiplicity of issues within these few brief lines, but the preeminent consideration has clearly been that of ascertaining what circumstances occasioned this revelation, a hermeneutical procedure called sabab al-nuzūl. Once again al-Ṭabarī charts the course along which many of the later commentators travel.
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- Qur'anic ChristiansAn Analysis of Classical and Modern Exegesis, pp. 160 - 179Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1991