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Journal of Qur'anic Studies

these narratives with great confidence, since they are 'the early Muslim
representation and appropriation of the Prophetic revelation' tamaththul al-qudm
li-marhalat al-wahy9). While there may be an element of historical truth in these
narratives, it would be almost impossible to discern this from the bulk of material we
have. For one thing, the form in which the material survives is riddled with problems
- traces of modification and invention are evident. Moreover, the form in which we
have received the Qur'an (i.e. the mushaf) does not correspond to the nature of a
living discourse (al-khitb al-hayy) which the text once was. According to al-Jamal,
the only possible way to detect if these narratives qualify as historical is a critical
analysis of all the narratives associated with a single aya that examines whether the
narrative makes sense in light of a /7 century Arabian context. With this
approach, instead of reading the Qur'an through the lens of the asbb al-nuzl
literature, the asbb al-nuzl literature will be read through the lens of the Qur'an.
Throughout his book, the author appropriately differentiates between the term
Qur*n, which denotes a living discourse and communication, and the term mushaf,
which denotes a rather more closed corpus (see his discussion on pp. 307-11). He
observes that what scholars have been hitherto mostly interested in is the mushaf,
rather than the Qur'an itself. However, we should be cautious about making a sharp
distinction between the Qur'an and the mushaf For one thing, writing definitely was
an essential element in the composition of the Qur'an, the living discourse. And
secondly, the mushaf conceived of as a chirographic text, certainly allowed for more
fluidity than the typographical text we are accustomed to today.
On the whole, Bassm al-Jamal's contribution is significant. It offers an interesting
discussion about an important phase of the reception of the Qur'anic text and the
gradual formation of extra and secondary literature that came to complement it.
Further studies on the asbb al-nuzl genre or any other related genre will refer to
this valuable study, which will, this reviewer is sure, find its way into the
contemporary Western library of Qur'anic studies.
ISLAM DAYEH

The Teleological Ethics of Fakhr al-Dn al-Rz. By Ayman Shihadeh. Leiden and
Boston: E.J. Brill, 2006. Pp. 287. 124.00.
Involving, as it does, one of the most perplexing intellects in the history of Islamic
thought and one of the most perplexing areas of philosophy, ethics, Shihadeh's book
is doubly demanding. Derived from his doctoral thesis, the volume amounts to a
strong contribution to the emerging picture of Fakhr al-Dn al-Rz in current
scholarship. It has four basic components: analyses of the thinker's philosophy of
action, of his theory of moral value, of his concept of human virtue and

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117

perfectibility, and finally, Shihadeh's commentary on the epistle Dhamm ladhdht

al-duny, one of al-Rz's final statements. A critical edition of the same text is
included as an appendix. The edition seems solidly dependable and uses three out of
seven manuscripts listed.
A great strength of this study is its sensitivity to shifts in al-Rz's views and in
general to the chronological development of his thought - a concern which marks a
definite maturation in our understanding of any such figure. Through this, the
seeming inconsistency of the man notoriously dubbed the 'chief sceptic' (imam almushakkikn), is countered. Al-Rz, in the wake of al-Ghazl and the spread of
Avicennism, is a central figure in the story of philosophy's interaction with Ashcari
theology. The son of a prominent Ashcari (and Shfic), al-Rz's earliest treatises
such as the Usui al-dln and his al-Ishrafi Him al-kalm are strongly representative
of the Ashcar school both methodologically and doctrinally. The picture, however,
is of an intensifying independence of thought, despite al-Rz's lifelong association
with Ashcarism. This shift begins in his Nihyat al-cuql, in which Aristotelian
syllogistic makes its entry into al-Rz's kalm. And by the time we reach the much
later Taf sir and the Matlib the more idiosyncratic al-Rz is in full bloom.
Shihadeh's volume, which makes liberal use of classifications and terms from
modern ethics, requires close attention and careful digestion. However, the overall
picture of al-Rz's independence - the qualification and enrichment of his
Ashcarism, largely under the influence of Avicennan philosophy - is clear. In the
first of the four mentioned aspects of the book ('Chapter One: Al-Rz's Theory of
Action') we see that, though our thinker was consistently necessitarian in his causal
theory (with him even embracing the pejorative term jabr (pp. 37-8)), he however
did not uphold traditional Ashcari occasionalism, with its concept of God's exclusive
agency. His theory is closer to Avicennan determinism, with its universe of elaborate
causal chains - all of which are strictly ordained and sustained by God. He speaks
evocatively of the 'chain of God's decree and predestination' (silsilat qad Allah
wa-qadrihi) (p. 43, quoting the Matlib). The theory in part rests on Qur'anic texts
such as [God] sent down rain from the heavens and brought forth therewith (faakhraja bihi) fruits for your sustenance (Q. 2:22) (quoted from the Tafsr on pp. 4 1 2). In the case of human action al-Rz in the end affirms preconditions such as
power and motivation, through whose intermediation God brings about the act. That
the theory remains necessitarian is clear when in his Matlib al-Rz refutes the
Muctazil argument from hesitation (taraddud). According to him, this is not
evidence of free choice (ikhtiyr), but is instead due to the complexity of the process
of action from moment to moment (pp. 28-9). That said, the attenuation here of the
Ashcari concept is obvious. The extent of the impact of philosophy on his final
theory of divine causation is especially clear in al-Rz's treatment of God's attribute
of will. A notorious feature of Ibn Sn's determinist system is that the Necessary

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Journal of Qur'anic Studies

Being is essentially, not accidentally, creative - i.e., that It is without will in the
familiar sense of this word. Shihadeh brings to our attention the fact that in the
Matlib al-Rz declares it to be 'inconceivable to affirm the notions of will and
aversion' in God (p. 35).
The next aspect of the book ('Chapter Two: Al-Rz on the Ethics of Action')
presents a concept of moral value which is again at odds with simple Ashcar theory.
The latter is called 'voluntarism' in the sense that in it, good and bad are held to be
known unqualifiedly through religious legislation - wholly contingent on divine
will. Moral value is here a pure function of divinely ordained rules, and cannot be
known independently of revelation by human beings. In contrast, the mature al-Rz
acknowledges that humans may indeed know the moral value of certain acts
irrespective of revelation. Intriguingly, he yet remains opposed to the Muctazil
claim that humans may know this value on the basis of reason. Rather than grasping
it rationally, al-Rz develops al-Ghazl's 'emotivist' position which bases
knowledge of moral value on human intuition. Notwithstanding his opposition to
Muctazilism here, his critical stance on earlier Ashcari teaching is also clear. Al-Rz
explicitly challenges that teaching on the grounds of its circularity. The intent to
avoid divine sanctions cannot itself be grounded in divine sanctions (p. 67). It is the
patent absurdity, if you will, of accepting a list of rules, rule number one of which
states: 'do not argue with the rules'. Clearly, compliance with legislation must
initially be founded on some understanding outside the scope of the legislation itself.
Al-Rz thus dispenses with Ashcan voluntarism in his teaching on moral value.
In the next aspect of the book ('Chapter Three: Al-Rz's Perfectionist Theory of
Virtue'), the compromise of Ashcar norms is particularly clear. Al-Rz's deep
assimilation of Avicennan psychological concepts is very apparent in his idea of
human virtue. The 'perfectionism' in question involves a strictly intellectual view of
human fulfillment and perfectibility. Salvation is ultimately framed in terms very
close to Ibn Sn's intellectual eudaemonia. We glimpse a startling convergence with
the Avicennan perspective in this premier Ashcar thinker, in a manner which
Shihadeh - had he sought scholarly sensation - could have stressed more. Notably,
an implication of this Avicennan type of theory is a spiritualistic (rhm), as
opposed to a corporeal (jisman), understanding of resurrection and the afterlife. And
al-Rz indeed appears in places to endorse this very doctrine, such that the soul at
death 'departs from the physical world, where it is in a state of estrangement
(ghurba), and it returns to its primordial realm (watan asl)' (p. 117).
Finally then, the trend of Dhamm ladhdht al-duny follows this palpably Platonic
view of the corporeal world and our sensorial life within it. Al-Rz's message is
ascetic and pessimistic, focusing on the limitation, pain and transience of material
existence. This might well imply a simple advocacy of the life of the mind for alRz and yet, it is clear from what Shihadeh presents, and in fact from al-Rz's

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entire oeuvre, that he harboured intense scepticism on the utility of the mind in the
conventional sense of reason. The path of the ratiocinative faculty (tarqat al-na^ar
wa'1-istidll), as such, does not, for Fakhr al-Dn, lead to truth or salvation. This fits
perfectly, not only with the scepticism, but also with the nominalism for which this
thinker is well known. What he commends to us in the end is instead a Sufi
methodology, a path of knowledge based on inner purification and spiritual
discipline (tarqat al-tasfiyya wa'l-riydd). Certainty is in the end only attainable
through direct contact with supramundane realities by way of the cathartic and
meditative practices of the Sufi path - a kind of mystical empiricism (p. 200). It is
surely to be pondered carefully that two of the superlative minds of medieval
Sunnism - al-Ghazl and al-Rz - both ended by indicating this path as the
conclusion of their extraordinary intellectual endeavours. The author of this volume
deserves our humble thanks for his exertions in very considerably clarifying alRz's evolving views on ethics and related inquiries. In so doing, Ayman Shihadeh
has brought into significantly sharper focus the true character of this most
challenging, often infuriatingly uncandid, intellectual genius.
TOBY MAYER

Le Festin: Une lecture de la sourate al-M'ida. By Michel Cuypers. Rhtorique

smitique. Paris: Lethielleux, 2007. Pp. 453. 23.00.
In Le Festin, Michel Cuypers of the Institut Dominicain d'tudes Orientales in
Cairo, gives a clear demonstration of the potential usefulness for Qur'anic textual
studies of 'rhetorical analysis', a method which uses relations of symmetry at
different levels of a given text to reveal the logic on which it is constructed. In this
case, that logic obeys the rules of a 'Semitic rhetoric' that differs from 'Greek
rhetoric', and which seems to structure many texts of the ancient Near East (the New
and Old Testaments of the Bible, some Akkadian texts and some hadths). The
'Semitic' rhetorical method was first used in the field of Biblical studies, and its
principal theorists include Roland Meynet who, along with others, has also applied it
to the Sunna. Michel Cuypers here employs this paradigm in an analysis of Srat alMDida, attempting - on the basis of its rediscovery of the 'Semitic' structure of the
text through relations of symmetry and rules of rhetoric peculiar to ancient Near
Eastern texts - to answer the question: 'Are the different fragments which make up
[the text] brought together according to a specific logic which would supply the text
with coherence and unity?' (p. 13).
Rhetorical analysis involves decomposing the text into units from its lowest levels
up, on the basis of various kinds of symmetry (be they on a lexical, morphologic,
syntactic, rhythmic or discursive level, whether parallel or in opposition). In order to

^ s
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