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The Ascetic Qur’an and Its Kharijite Readers
Series: - Texts and Studies on the Qurʾān, Volume: 24
Author:
Research on Islamic asceticism frequently highlights practices and ideas described in premodern Islamic literature on renunciation (
zuhd). This study redirects our attention to the Qur’an’s ascetic dimension and its reception in the poems and sermons of the Kharijites, an early Islamic group known for extreme piety. It sheds light on the Qur’an’s engagement with late antique ascetic ideas, notably regarding scriptural reading and recitation. In their reception of the Qur’an, the Kharijites developed practices of reading and recitation characterized by the interiorization and enactment of scripture. This book offers a new view of the religious culture of the first and early second centuries of Islam through the lens of an understudied group and its attempts to put the Qur’an into practice.
Nora K. Schmid (Ph.D. Freie Universität Berlin, 2018), is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Tübingen. She has previously held research and teaching positions at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Freie Universität Berlin, the University of Hamburg, and the University of Oxford. Her research focuses on the Qur’an, Islamic asceticism, Islamic religious literature, and Islamic law.
Acknowledgments
List of Figures
Note on Translation, Transliteration, and other Formal Conventions
Introduction
1 The Qur’an in Light of Kharijite Poetry and Kharijite Poetry in Light of the Qur’an: Articulations of Asceticism
2 Defining Asceticism—or Not: An Intercultural and Interreligious Phenomenon of Late Antiquity
3 Tracing Asceticism in Islamic Thought and Literature in Arabic
4 Asceticism in the Qur’an
5 Asceticism among the Kharijites
6 Ascetic Reading/Recitation and the Internalization of Scripture
7 Chapter Overview
1 Asceticized Arabia
1 Cenobitic and Anchoritic Asceticism on the Arabian Peninsula and Beyond
2 Arabs Encountering Ascetics in Late Antique Biographical and Hagiographical Literature
3 Glimpses of Asceticism in Pre-Islamic Poetry
4 Conclusion
2 Competing Recitational Paradigms in the Qur’an
1 Pre-Islamic Mantic Speech and Qur’anic Oaths
2 Fear of God and the Subversion of Existing Recitational Paradigms
3 The Origin and Mediation of Poetic and Prophetic Knowledge
4 Conclusion
3 Ascetic Dimensions of Reading/Recitation in the Meccan Suras
1 Reading/Reciting Scripture
2 Reading/Reciting Natural Creation
3 Reading across the Divide between Scripture and Creation: The Opening Letters
4 Reading/Recitation at Night: Vigils
5 Reading/Recitation during the Day: Unceasing Prayer as a Virtue of the God-Fearing
6 Conclusion
4 Internalizing and Enacting God’s Word: Ascetic Striving in Late Meccan and Medinan Suras
1 Jihād of the Tongue in Q al-Furqān 25 and Ethical Striving in Late Meccan Suras
2 Devotional Jihād, Martial Jihād/ Qitāl, and Ascetic Striving ( Athlon, Agōn): Q al-Ḥajj 22 and the “Battle Block” in Q al-Nisāʾ 4:71–104
3 A Spiritual Economy of Delayed Gratification: Q al-Tawba 9
4 Bearing the Qur’an ( Ḥaml al-Qurʾān): Q al-Ṣaff 61, Q al-Jumuʿa 62, and Post-Qur’anic Theory
5 Conclusion
5 Kharijite Origins between Myth, History, and Poetry
1 Outside of Religion? The Kharijites as a Paradigm of Sedition
2 Kharijites and Christians in Late Antique Iraq
3 Poetry and Early Islamic Religious Culture
4 Conclusion
6 Internalization of Scripture and Kharijite Identity Formation
1 Khurūj and Anachōrēsis
2 What’s in a Name? The Kharijites and Qur’anic Khurūj
3 The Shurāt and the Qur’anic Eschatological Barter
4 Kharijite Rallying Cries and Qur’anic Hermeneutics at Ṣiffīn
5 The Kharijites as Qur’an Readers/Reciters and Poets
6 Conclusion
7 Scriptural Reading/Recitation and Enactment of the Qur’an in Early Kharijite Poetry
1 Iconic Scenes of Scriptural Reading/Recitation and Prayer
2 Poets Enacting God’s Word
3 Reading the Bodies of the Slain and Commemorating them in Recitation
4 Conclusion
8 Scriptural Reading/Recitation and Enactment of the Qur’an in Sermons of Kharijites and Renunciants
1 Sufrite, Azraqite, Ibadite, and Renunciant Orators and their Sermons
2 Iqtibās al-Qurʾān in Sermons
3 Scriptural Enactment and Reading/Recitation in Kharijite Sermons
4 Martial Effort, Striving, and Eschatological Barter in Kharijite and Renunciant Sermons
5 Conclusion
Conclusion: Asceticism in the Qur’an and Kharijite Compositions
1 Ascetic Projects with Family Resemblances
2 A Set of Propositions Based on Qur’anic and Kharijite Asceticism
3 Permeable Ascetic Projects and the Wider Framework of Piety
Appendix 1: A Tentative Classification of Late Antique Asceticism
Appendix 2: Select Sermons
Bibliography
Index
List of Figures
Note on Translation, Transliteration, and other Formal Conventions
Introduction
1 The Qur’an in Light of Kharijite Poetry and Kharijite Poetry in Light of the Qur’an: Articulations of Asceticism
2 Defining Asceticism—or Not: An Intercultural and Interreligious Phenomenon of Late Antiquity
3 Tracing Asceticism in Islamic Thought and Literature in Arabic
4 Asceticism in the Qur’an
5 Asceticism among the Kharijites
6 Ascetic Reading/Recitation and the Internalization of Scripture
7 Chapter Overview
Part 1 Ascetic Reading/Recitation in the Qur’an
1 Asceticized Arabia
1 Cenobitic and Anchoritic Asceticism on the Arabian Peninsula and Beyond
2 Arabs Encountering Ascetics in Late Antique Biographical and Hagiographical Literature
3 Glimpses of Asceticism in Pre-Islamic Poetry
4 Conclusion
2 Competing Recitational Paradigms in the Qur’an
1 Pre-Islamic Mantic Speech and Qur’anic Oaths
2 Fear of God and the Subversion of Existing Recitational Paradigms
3 The Origin and Mediation of Poetic and Prophetic Knowledge
4 Conclusion
3 Ascetic Dimensions of Reading/Recitation in the Meccan Suras
1 Reading/Reciting Scripture
2 Reading/Reciting Natural Creation
3 Reading across the Divide between Scripture and Creation: The Opening Letters
4 Reading/Recitation at Night: Vigils
5 Reading/Recitation during the Day: Unceasing Prayer as a Virtue of the God-Fearing
6 Conclusion
4 Internalizing and Enacting God’s Word: Ascetic Striving in Late Meccan and Medinan Suras
1 Jihād of the Tongue in Q al-Furqān 25 and Ethical Striving in Late Meccan Suras
2 Devotional Jihād, Martial Jihād/ Qitāl, and Ascetic Striving ( Athlon, Agōn): Q al-Ḥajj 22 and the “Battle Block” in Q al-Nisāʾ 4:71–104
3 A Spiritual Economy of Delayed Gratification: Q al-Tawba 9
4 Bearing the Qur’an ( Ḥaml al-Qurʾān): Q al-Ṣaff 61, Q al-Jumuʿa 62, and Post-Qur’anic Theory
5 Conclusion
Part 2 The Kharijites Reading/Reciting the Qur’an
5 Kharijite Origins between Myth, History, and Poetry
1 Outside of Religion? The Kharijites as a Paradigm of Sedition
2 Kharijites and Christians in Late Antique Iraq
3 Poetry and Early Islamic Religious Culture
4 Conclusion
6 Internalization of Scripture and Kharijite Identity Formation
1 Khurūj and Anachōrēsis
2 What’s in a Name? The Kharijites and Qur’anic Khurūj
3 The Shurāt and the Qur’anic Eschatological Barter
4 Kharijite Rallying Cries and Qur’anic Hermeneutics at Ṣiffīn
5 The Kharijites as Qur’an Readers/Reciters and Poets
6 Conclusion
7 Scriptural Reading/Recitation and Enactment of the Qur’an in Early Kharijite Poetry
1 Iconic Scenes of Scriptural Reading/Recitation and Prayer
2 Poets Enacting God’s Word
3 Reading the Bodies of the Slain and Commemorating them in Recitation
4 Conclusion
8 Scriptural Reading/Recitation and Enactment of the Qur’an in Sermons of Kharijites and Renunciants
1 Sufrite, Azraqite, Ibadite, and Renunciant Orators and their Sermons
2 Iqtibās al-Qurʾān in Sermons
3 Scriptural Enactment and Reading/Recitation in Kharijite Sermons
4 Martial Effort, Striving, and Eschatological Barter in Kharijite and Renunciant Sermons
5 Conclusion
Conclusion: Asceticism in the Qur’an and Kharijite Compositions
1 Ascetic Projects with Family Resemblances
2 A Set of Propositions Based on Qur’anic and Kharijite Asceticism
3 Permeable Ascetic Projects and the Wider Framework of Piety
Appendix 1: A Tentative Classification of Late Antique Asceticism
Appendix 2: Select Sermons
Bibliography
Index
Researchers and specialists in Arabic Studies, Islamic Studies, Near/Middle Eastern Studies, Religious Studies, Islamic Theology (and institutes and faculties), post-graduate students in these fields.