Papers by Gibril Fouad Haddad
Journal of Qur'anic Studies, 2019
This is the first study in a European language on Ibn ʿĀshūr’s theory of tafsīr in his 130-page t... more This is the first study in a European language on Ibn ʿĀshūr’s theory of tafsīr in his 130-page ten prolegomena (al-Muqaddimāt al-ʿashr) to al-Taḥrīr wal-tanwīr, which sum up his approach to Quranic hermeneutics.
ʿAbd al-Ghanī al-Nābulusī's (1050-1143/1641-1731) "Perfecting the Qualities: On Keeping to Homes... more ʿAbd al-Ghanī al-Nābulusī's (1050-1143/1641-1731) "Perfecting the Qualities: On Keeping to Homes" is a 39-folio treatise that epitomizes eight centuries of Islamic works on the theme of social reclusion (ʿuzla) away from latter-day strifes (fitan) and has received two editions 21 years apart, the latter of which I received from and read with its editor, the Ḥumṣī grammarian and exegete Munīr al-Ḥāyik, from beginning to end in Beirut. ʿUzla built upon the Qurʾānic and Hadith texts enjoining social withdrawal and political quietism for the sake of preserving one's religion and safety, practicing repentance (tawba), keeping to simple living (zuhd) and sparing others one's own harm. The author begins by quoting scholarly poetry then about 60 hadiths related to reclusion, which he follows up with a lament on the dissolution of morals in his time as well as previous times. As did his predecessors, he demarcates reclusion from un-Islamic practices such as monasticism and clears it from any suggestion of divisiveness. He concludes his work with examples of past authorities who all practiced one form or another of qualified asociality. This article situates his work within the literature of ʿuzla in the Sunni tradition and its development of the sub-themes of safeguarding one's faith, social disengagement and informal eremitism, the refocus on personal priorities, pacifism in the face of intra-Muslim strife, misanthropy and the struggle against egotism.
This review, "Enduring Myths of Orientalism", a critique of the Orientalist perspective on the wr... more This review, "Enduring Myths of Orientalism", a critique of the Orientalist perspective on the writing of Hadith and its early history revolving around a recent work on the subject, was published in The Muslim World Book Review 27 no. 4 (Summer 2007), pp. 24-29.
This paper gives a short biography of the Afghan-born Meccan Hanafi polymath Ali al-Qari with a d... more This paper gives a short biography of the Afghan-born Meccan Hanafi polymath Ali al-Qari with a descriptive list of his teachers and students followed by an itemized discussion of 109 of his works. Although he was principally a specialist of Quranic readings al-Qari touched on most of the Islamic sciences including of course Hadith, and was considered by some to be among the "renewers" of the Ummah.
Book Reviews by Gibril Fouad Haddad
The Muslim World Book Review, 2010
This is an important work for students of the Quran in the non-Muslim world by Ziad Elmarsafy, pl... more This is an important work for students of the Quran in the non-Muslim world by Ziad Elmarsafy, placing Catholic and Protestant versions of the Qur'ān at the heart of the European Enlightenment covering, among other topics, translators and translations, Sale, Marracci and the representation of Islam, "translating Christ and Christianity," Voltaire's Islamophilia vs. his Judaiphobia; Rousseau, Savary, Napoleon, Egypt and Goethe.
Journal of Islamic Studies, 2023
The Quran Beheld is a worshipful (or, per its style, humbly adoring) interpretation that resists ... more The Quran Beheld is a worshipful (or, per its style, humbly adoring) interpretation that resists the assumption that a modern language can be on a par with the original text. Its grounding in established athar and glosses makes it a must-have vade mecum for the studious reader, who can now peruse an engaging paraphrase doubling as a close mirror of the tafsīr tradition of trusted orthodoxy—the agreed-upon golden-middle way of Quranic commentary sine qua non.
The Muslim World Book Review 28 no. 4 (Summer) 34-36., 2008
Muslim World Book Review 27 no. 4 (Summer) 29-36., 2007
Journal of Islamic Studies 22 no. 2 (May) 234-237., 2011
Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Ḥayy al-Kattānī. Tarīkh al-maktabāt al-islāmiyya wa-man allafa fīlkutub (History... more Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Ḥayy al-Kattānī. Tarīkh al-maktabāt al-islāmiyya wa-man allafa fīlkutub (History of Islamic Libraries and Bibliographers). Ed. Aḥmad Shawqī Binbīn and ʿAbd al-Qādir Saʿūd. Rabat: Markaz al-Dirāsāt wal-Abḥāth wal-Turāth, 1434/2013. Hardback. 615 pp. RDMK (Arabic ISBN): 978-9954-542-05-7.
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Papers by Gibril Fouad Haddad
Book Reviews by Gibril Fouad Haddad