THE QUR'ÂN'S SELF-IMAGE

Islam is frequently characterized as a religion of the book, and yet Muslims take an almost entirely oral approach to their scripture. Qurân means recitation and refers to the actual words Muslims believe were revealed to Muhammad by God. Many recite the entire sacred text from memory, and it was some years after the Prophets death that it was first put in book form. Physical books play no part in Islamic ritual. What does the Qurân mean, then, when it so often calls itself kitâb, a term usually taken both by Muslims and by Western scholars to mean book? To answer this question, Daniel Madigan reevaluates this key term kitâb in close readings of the Qurâns own declarations about itself. More than any other canon of scripture the Qurân is self-aware. It observes and discusses the process of its own revelation and reception; it asserts its own authority and claims its place within the history of revelation. Here Madigan presents a compelling semantic analysis of its self-awareness, arguing that the Qurân understands itself not so much as a completed book, but as an ongoing process of divine writing and re-writing, as Gods authoritative response to actual people and circumstances. Grasping this dynamic, responsive dimension of the Qurân is central to understanding Islamic religion and identity. Madigans book will be invaluable not only to Islamicists but also to scholars who study revelation across religious boundaries.