The term jihad is perhaps the most contentious Arabic word to enter the Englishlanguage in recent decades. In public discourse it has become shorthandfor “holy war” and synonymous with violent Muslim extremism. This scholarlyexamination of jihad and martyrdom by Asma Afsaruddin, a professorof Islamic studies at Indiana University, carefully disentangles their multivalentmeanings within Islamic scholarship...Read More

In Chapter 1, “Canonical Prayer and Supplication, Development, andRules,” Katz traces the etymology of the term’s linguistic origin, historic significance,and pre-Islamic meaning. She quotes Q. 31:17 to show that it wasnot used exclusively in reference to monotheism or the Abrahamic faiths. Șalātis explained both in terms of the prayer’s religious content and physical postures.Its validity...Read More

In the introduction to her Understanding the Qur’anic Miracle Stories in theModern Age, Isra Yazicioglu writes about the dilemma of how readers are tounderstand such stories. She poses the question that if both the Qur’an andscholars of Islamic thought argue that Muhammad’s message is his miracle(p. 5) and that natural phenomena contain miracles, then why...Read More

The polyvalent Qur’anic text lends itself to multiple interpretations, dependingupon one’s presuppositions and premises. In fact, Q. 3:7 distinguishesbetween muḥkam (explicit, categorical) and mutashābih (metaphorical, allegorical,symbolic) verses. As such, this device provides a way for reinterpretingverses that outwardly appear to be problematic – be it in the area ofgender equality, minority rights, religious freedom, or...Read More