ISSA J. BOULLATA, ED., Literary Structures of Religious Meaning in the Qurءan, Curzon Studies [in the Qurءan] (Richmond, Surrey, U.K.: Curzon Press, 2000). Pp. 405. £60.00 cloth.

Extract

Now we're getting somewhere. This collection of fifteen studies on the general topic indicated in the carefully worded title is one of the more enjoyable reading experiences in Qurءanic studies of recent memory. A wide variety of problems and subjects are treated in the key of deep and engaged appreciation for the powerful artistry of the Qurءan. The articles are divided into three major groups. The first comprises studies of specific or peculiar modes of “religious meaning.” Sells discusses here again the relationship uniting spirit, gender, and aurality as a vehicle of meaning; Zahniser addresses the problem of the unity of the sura by examining what he takes to be transitional passages in two longer chapters; McAuliffe revisits Q.3:7 but this time tries to connect implications of the earliest tafsīr of this verse with some recent developments in literary criticism; Welch explicates commonalities among various punishment narratives; Rippin succinctly meditates on the implications of wajh Allāh, for individual responsibility (it may be helpful here to read for the prepositional, rather than nominal, content of “face of God”—namely, “direction of God”); and Shahid attempts, in novel terms, to unravel the secret of the mysterious disconnected letters.