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Three Ramadan Nights with Harvard Scholars, Qur’anic Topics, MIT, April 17-19, 2023 (Ramadan 1444)
Lecture 2:
In 2010, Fred Donner published Muhammad and the Believers: At the Origins of Islam, a follow up to his 2003 article, “From Believers to Muslims: Confessional Self-Identity in the Early Islamic Community.” In these works, Donner argues that the Prophet Muhammad’s followers were actually called Believers (muʾminūn) as opposed to Muslims (muslimūn). Moreover, the early Believers’ movement, as he calls it, was “ecumenical” and consisted of Jews, Christians, and (potentially) other monotheists. Initial reactions to his theory were mixed, but the concept of a Believers’ movement (as opposed to a reified Islamic religion in the lifetime of the Prophet Muḥammad) has resonated widely with scholars. I argue in this study that although Donner was broadly correct in his thesis, he made a basic mistake, which has been subsequently reproduced by numerous scholars since.
The mistake Donner made was to accidentally swap the terms muʿmin and muslim. My close reading of the Qurʾān, as I will expound herein, reveals that the term muʿmin (as well as alladhīna āmanū) refers to a Believer in the Prophet Muhammad and in the Qurʾān (i.e. a follower of Qurʾānic law). As such, it is actually the narrower term, referring to what we today think of as a Muslim. Meanwhile, the term muslim in the Qurʾān itself refers to a Submitter — or, more specifically, a Submitting Monotheist — and encompasses not just muʿminūn (composed mostly but not exclusively of Arabian pagan converts) but also Jews and Christians. As such, muslim is the wider term. The umma muslima (the Submitting community) of the Prophet Muhammad thus consisted of Believers as well as Jews and Christians.
#quran
#quranic
#islam
#islamic
#islamichistory
#muslim
#christian
#jewish
#prophetmuhammad
Three Ramadan Nights with Harvard Scholars, Qur’anic Topics, MIT, April 17-19, 2023 (Ramadan 1444)
Lecture 2:
In 2010, Fred Donner published Muhammad and the Believers: At the Origins of Islam, a follow up to his 2003 article, “From Believers to Muslims: Confessional Self-Identity in the Early Islamic Community.” In these works, Donner argues that the Prophet Muhammad’s followers were actually called Believers (muʾminūn) as opposed to Muslims (muslimūn). Moreover, the early Believers’ movement, as he calls it, was “ecumenical” and consisted of Jews, Christians, and (potentially) other monotheists. Initial reactions to his theory were mixed, but the concept of a Believers’ movement (as opposed to a reified Islamic religion in the lifetime of the Prophet Muḥammad) has resonated widely with scholars. I argue in this study that although Donner was broadly correct in his thesis, he made a basic mistake, which has been subsequently reproduced by numerous scholars since.
The mistake Donner made was to accidentally swap the terms muʿmin and muslim. My close reading of the Qurʾān, as I will expound herein, reveals that the term muʿmin (as well as alladhīna āmanū) refers to a Believer in the Prophet Muhammad and in the Qurʾān (i.e. a follower of Qurʾānic law). As such, it is actually the narrower term, referring to what we today think of as a Muslim. Meanwhile, the term muslim in the Qurʾān itself refers to a Submitter — or, more specifically, a Submitting Monotheist — and encompasses not just muʿminūn (composed mostly but not exclusively of Arabian pagan converts) but also Jews and Christians. As such, muslim is the wider term. The umma muslima (the Submitting community) of the Prophet Muhammad thus consisted of Believers as well as Jews and Christians.
#quran
#quranic
#islam
#islamic
#islamichistory
#muslim
#christian
#jewish
#prophetmuhammad
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degrees in Arabic & Islamic Studies from UC Berkeley and Harvard, respectively. Currently, he is completing his doctoral dissertation on the topic of jihad in the Quran and during the lifetime of the historical Mu?ammad.
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What is Muslim?One of the major religions of the world, Islam literally translates to "submission," as a follower of Islam (Muslims) devotes their life to that of their God. The religion began with the teachings of Muhammad in the 7th century. The theology of Islam
is based on the Qur'an, which was given to Muhammad by God. Some of the major fundamental principles of Islam include the Five Pillars, which hope to unite all Muslims into a community. Two different factions of Muslims exist - the majority are known as Sunni, with a small percentage known as Shi'a - both predominantly reside throughout the Middle East.
Muhammad died in 632 AD and the religion of Islam formally started after his death. The Quran was formally compiled and finalised in 650 AD, prior to which it was 'memorised' and written across many parchments.
What is Jews?Judaism encompasses the religion, philosophy, culture and way of life of the Jewish people. Judaism is a monotheistic religion, with the Torah as its foundational text (part of the larger text known as the Tanakh or Hebrew Bible), and supplemental
oral tradition represented by later texts such as the Midrash and the Talmud. Judaism is considered by religious Jews to be the expression of the covenantal relationship that God established with the Children of Israel.
Judaism includes a wide corpus of texts, practices, theological positions, and forms of organization. Within Judaism there are a variety of movements, most of which emerged from Rabbinic Judaism, which holds that God revealed his laws and commandments to Moses on Mount Sinai in the form of both the Written and Oral Torah.
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