Here is a fascinating glimpse into the programme of the forthcoming International Qur’anic Studies Association annual meeting. Lots of juicy stuff. Click link below.
Categories: Quran, Scholarship
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Blogging Theology 
I am skeptical of much of the “scholarship” that results from IQSA.
Organizations such as IQSA and JIQSA seem to be intent on applying NT Historical critical methods to the Qur’an in a possible effort to delegitimize it as a divinely revealed book. Many of those who are involved in IQSA are mostly western scholars who have been critical of Islam and Qur’an in the past, or others who hold positions on the Qur’an that disagree with orthodox Muslim views. Such scholarship is oftentimes a return to Orientalism cloaked with a modern lower criticism methodology, which these scholars hope will lead to higher criticism of the Qur’an, which then opens the door to all manner of revisionism.
For instance, such critics have attempted to analyze Surah’s not as a whole, but based on their individual elements according to literary form. This approach seeks to sever the connection between the Qur’an and Muhammad’s biography, which is seem by these scholars as “problematic.” This is important because without the connection between the Qur’an, the Seerah, and other Islamic texts and traditions, the unity and coherence of the Qur’an is lost, and then opened up to wide re-interpretation, revisionism, redaction criticism, etc.
Although IQSA may publish some token good and well-meaning scholarship on the Qur’an, caution is advised as it seems that there is an underlying and overall intent to attack the Qur’an from a scholarly platform.
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