By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | Revised. The Qur’an, the scripture Muslims believe was received by the the Prophet Muhammad (d. 632) by divine inspiration, has a number of passages that mention Mary and the virgin birth of Jesus. The Chapter of Mary, 19:16, says (my interpretation): And mention in the Book Mary, when […]
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Qur'an
Lady Zeinab: A British Aristocrat embraces Islam in the Shadow of European War
Middlebury, Vt. (Special to Informed Comment) – In 1934, Lady Evelyn Cobbold, a Scottish aristocrat and traveler, wrote that with the tightening of Nazi rule over Germany, many in England sensed that a European War was looming. Among the British elites ‘rumors of war’ were discouraged; the trauma and losses of the 1914-18 World War, […]
Is it an accident that Iran and the US, two Theocracies, are Coronavirus Basket Cases?
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The coronavirus statistics in both Iran and the United States are horrible. The US has the worst record on dealing with the pandemic in the industrialized world. One clue to why the two countries are doing so badly with regard to basic public health strategy may lie in the importance […]
Peace and pro-Christian themes in Muhammad and the Qur’an
Juan Cole is interviewed below by Professor Adnan Husain, Queens University (co-editor of A Faithful Sea: The Religious Cultures of the Mediterranean, 1200-1700) on themes of peace and warmth toward Christians in the Qur’an. The event was sponsored by the Muslim Societies Global Perspectives initiative at Queens University. My remarks are drawn in large part […]
On how there are no “Infidels” in the Qur’an, and how Christians and Jews are never Called That
My new article is out in The Journal of the American Oriental Society about the meaning of the root k-f-r in the Qur’an, the Muslim scripture. We’ve all grown up hearing about the Qur’an’s condemnation of “infidels” or “unbelievers,” but I think that this is for the most part a mistranslation. I argue that the […]
As Humanity faces Sea-Level Rise, Revisit the Noah Story in the Bible and Qur’an
Jack Miles | Emir-Stein Center “Cultures are often revealed through the stories they hand down through generations. Every civilization has foundational ones. Among the stories many cultures tell, we find tales of a great flood, but the story of Noah’s flood captured the imagination of three great traditions: Jewish, Christian, and Muslim. The Jewish and […]
The Empires of Faith and the Making of the Prophet of Islam
What can modern historians know about the historical figure of the prophet Muhammad? Can modern historians and their critical methods add anything new or, at the very least, be more certain about aspects of his life than generations past? In 1968, the French orientalist Maxime Rodinson began his influential biography of Muhammad with a dour […]
What we can Learn from the Qur’an about valuing People of all Races and Colors
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Qur’an (sometimes spelled Koran), is one of great books in world history. Only a handful of works have been nearly so influential and widely read. The Bible, Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, the Analects of Confucius, and the Buddha’s Sutras are among the few books that rival it in that […]
What Christians can Learn from Islam about Easter: The Qur’an denied Jews were Responsible for the Cross
Revised Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – That the Qur’an recognizes the virgin birth, the death, and the resurrection of Jesus is something worth remembering on Easter. In a nativity scene about Jesus’s supernatural precociousness, the Qur’an has him speak in the cradle, saying, (Mary 19:33): “So peace be upon me, the day I was born, […]
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