CONTESTING THE QURʾĀN’S LINGUISTIC INIMITABILITY: THE THEORY OF ṢARFA IN MEDIEVAL ISLAMIC THEOLOGY
Creators: name: Toriq, Toha
Publisher: name: Arts
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: Islam
subject: Qur'an
subject: Islamic theology
subject: sarfa
subject: linguistic inimitability
subject: heresy
subject: orthodoxy
subject: sharif al-Murtada
subject: I'jaz
subject: miracle
subject: fazari
subject: ibadi theology
subject: shi'ite theology
subject: mu'tazila
subject: buyid dynasty
subject: Arabic language
subject: secularity
subject: discursive tradition
subject: proof of prophecy
subject: persian
subject: Education--History of
subject: Education--Language and Literature
subject: Education--Philosophy of
subject: Education--Religious
subject: Education--Sociology of
subject: Literature--Asian
subject: Literature--Middle Eastern
subject: Religion
subject: Economics--History

description: Although the Qurʾān’s linguistic inimitability is currently considered a sacrosanct miraculous feature of the Qurʾān, and indicative of the veracity of the prophet Muhammad, it remained a site of sectarian contestation in medieval Islamic theology for a long period. In this work, I embark on an investigation of the theory of ṣarfa and the development of the theological arguments concerning it, which aimed at locating the Qurʾānic inimitability outside of the Qurʾān instead of the Qurʾānic language. To that end, my study demonstrates that the trend of locating the inimitability outside of the Qurʾān emerged in Islamic theology alongside the Qurʾān’s linguistic inimitability argument in the middle of the second century of Islam as a part of debate between rationalists and traditionalists over the issue of discerning true prophet and revelation from a false one. Starting from examining the context of the rise of Qurʾānic inimitability argument, it suggests that although arguments supporting ṣarfa mainly flourished within Jahmite and Muʿtazilite schools through underscoring the inappropriacy of the Qurʾān as a proof of prophecy, another important argument of ṣarfa, that is the inability (ʿajz) of human to compose something like the Qurʾān shows its inimitability, cut across the boundary of different sects and outlived former line of argument in later works that otherwise impugned ṣarfa as a valid aspect of Qurʾānic inimitability. To delve into the analysis of the arguments of ṣarfa, I devoted special attention to the famous Shiʿite Sharīf al-Murtaḍā’s treatise concerning this topic named Mūḍiḥ fī Jihat Iʿjāz al-Qurʾān and its intellectual context. In his book, through addressing the critical response of freethinkers in his time concerning religion, prophecy, and scriptures, Murtaḍā argued exclusively for the theory of ṣarfa and negated the possibility of relying on the Qurʾānic language to substantiate the veracity of the prophet. Although ṣarfa enunciated by Murtaḍā exhibits rational sophistication and critical rigor, through examining the discursive process of making orthodoxy and heresy in Islam in light of ṣarfa, I proposed that the creation of its subsequent heretical image and popularity of the notion of Qurʾānic linguistic inimitability was influenced by the shift in Muslim theological discourse from rationalistic inquiry to linguistic philosophical paradigm. In this context, ṣārfa as a vestige of the antiquated model threatened the nucleus of the newly adopted paradigm, in which Qurʾānic linguistic excellence stood as an epitome of Muslim civilization, knowledge, and Arabic language— and thereby it was jettisoned as heretical in the changed intellectual scene. In this vein, I also brought to attention that in addition to the secular political authority, other non-religious elements, such as pride in the Arabic language and Arab ancestry in this case, may determine the making of heresy/orthodoxy in Islamic thought, which shows more spontaneity in this mechanism than usually assumed.