Divine Logos and Translation among Iberian Muslims: From Ibn Ḥazm (d. 456H/1064CE) to Aḥmad al-Ḥanafī (d. 1049H/1650CE)

Like other religious traditions, Islam has accommodated notions of the divine logos. The actual elaboration of these notions has been heavily dependent on how the translation of God’s word and commandments to humans were understood as an object of intra-community debate, as well as in polemics with non-Muslims (inter-community debate). These two debates converged in the Muslim critique of the translation, transmission, and interpretation of the divine logos by Jews and Christians in their scriptures, although such convergence took different forms in different historical settings. The present contribution focuses on several examples of the engagement of Muslims with the Bible in the medieval Iberian Peninsula and in exile. The choice of authors and works ranges from the 11th-century Andalusī scholar Ibn Ḥazm to the exile Aḥmad al-Ḥanafī (d. 1049H/1650CE). It is nevertheless not intended as a comprehensive overview of Muslim approaches from the Western Mediterranean region. The objective is rather to discuss several aspects associated with the translation of the divine logos in polemics as a tool of identity that is intimately related to Muslim practices of exegesis and transmission of the Jewish and Christian writings. Particular attention is directed toward the broader issue of how notions of the translation of God’s word have been informed by language practices within contexts of inter-religious contact and competition (either between existing social bodies or as references to a relatively recent past). A preliminary look at Muslim modes of scriptural interpretation suggests that translation and exegesis, as well as the ways in which Muslims understood these practices as performed by non-Muslims, were part of a tradition that took final form and meaning, and that was subject to change when re-enacted in specific contexts. Any understanding of the subject must be read against the backdrop of Muslim configurations of knowledge within the local communities, as combined with tradition.

The Islamic Mary: Between Prophecy and Orthodoxy

This article traces the medieval debate over the potential prophecy of the Islamic Mary (or Maryam). The debate is initiated by the Andalusian exegete and scholar Ibn Ḥazm (d. 456/1064) who argues that women, most importantly Mary, could be prophets because they were spoken to directly by God or His messengers. The argument is continued by al-Qurṭūbī (d. 671/1273), who makes a special case for Mary’s prophecy because the angel Gabriel is believed to have come close to her and ‘breathed’ his spirit into her. Mary is, furthermore, he asserts, one of the greatest prophets because she accepted God’s will without any question or scepticism. However, the argument that Mary was a prophet was refuted by the Damascene exegete Ibn Kathīr (d. 774/1373), who argued that Mary was not a prophet but rather truthful and righteous ( ṣiddīqa) according to the Qur’an. He bases his position on the fact that the Qur’an does not term any woman a prophet, and that she did not follow the path of those named as prophets, who called their people to a particular mission and cause. Ibn Kathīr’s argument eventually won the day as his tafsīr has become, in modern times, the most widespread and popular of all Qur’an commentaries.

RENEWAL OF THE ARABIC GRAMMAR AT IBN ROSHD

This Paper aims to analyse and discuss one of the issues that have preoccupied Muslim philosophers, chief among them Ibn Rashid, who has devoted particular attention to the grammatical lesson. It is meant to be common to all tongues and to achieve the most scientific and objective, and Ibn Rashid wanted to make it a welcome space to legalize and arrange language according to scientific criteria, which would make it easier to treat it as a science that transcends all differences and geographical boundaries. How did Ibn Roshd find the grammatical lesson before him? And what are the details of his regenerative project? In order to deal with this problem, we first followed the features of the grammatical lesson in Andalusia and all the changes that he had learned. We then turned to the efforts of Ibn Hazm Al-Zahiri and Ibn Madhaa in resurrecting and reviving this lesson. "Necessary in the grammar" as combining his two arguments with the new vision adopted by the philosopher of Córdoba for the development of this science and its openness to other cognitive fields.

Los comienzos de la teología racional en al-Andalus: Ibn Masarra y su Refutación de Sobre la Filosofía primera de al-Kindī

La fuente principal antes de 1972 para conocer el pensamiento de Ibn Masarra era una breve descripción que Ibn Ḥazm hizo de algunos elementos fundamentales de su teología. En 1972, Muḥammad Kamāl Ibrāhīm Ŷaʿfar atribuyó a Ibn Masarra dos obras, Risālat al-Iʿtibār and Kitāb Jawāṣṣ al-ḥurūf, que se encuentran en un manuscrito de la Chester Beatty Library. El contenido de estas dos obras difiere de las descripciones que hacen las fuentes primarias del pensamiento de Ibn Masarra, pues en estas últimas se le considera de manera mayoritaria un teólogo con creencias de corte qadarī, como al-waʿd wa-l-waʿīd e istiṭāʿa. A la vista de las dos obras que Ŷaʿfar atribuyó a Ibn Masarra, la erudición posterior ha tachado la mayoría de fuentes primarias sobre Ibn Masarra de imprecisas, tendenciosas o mal informadas, de modo que las ha descartado. La fuente más esclarecedora sobre Ibn Masarra, al-Inbāʾ fī šarḥ ḥaqāʾiq al-ṣifāt wa-l-asmāʾ de Ibn al-Uqlīšī, parece haber pasado desapercibida hasta fechas recientes. Tomando como base la información que aporta Ibn al-Uqlīšī, este artículo sugiere la atribución a Ibn Masarra de al-Radd ʿalā l-Kindī, o Refutación de Sobre la Filosofía primera de al-Kindī, obra ya editada, si bien bajo la atribución a Ibn Ḥazm. Esta obra coincide con descripciones del pensamiento de Ibn Masarra en fuentes primarias, si bien excluyendo de las fuentes primarias las dos obras que Ŷaʿfar le atribuye.

TA’LIQ TALAK PERSPEKTIF IMAM SYAFI'I DAN IMAM IBN HAZM

In marriage, an agreement can be made to avoid things that may not be desirable. In terms of marriage agreements, Imam Syafi'I and Imam Ibn Hazm have different opinions about the law. This study uses a qualitative literature approach. The result of this research is that there is a similarity in opinion between Imam Syafii and Imam Ibn Hazm in terms of the understanding of the marriage agreement. Then regarding the law, he both had different opinions, namely: Imam Shafi'i allowed and legalized the fall of divorce when the conditions had been fulfilled, while Imam Ibn Hazm had an invalid opinion, the divorce imposed outside the provisions of syara 'according to him was invalid because it violated the provisions Allah SWT. Then in terms of the legal basis used between Imam Syafii and Ibn Hazm is also different, namely: Imam Syafi'I uses al-Qur'an surah al-Maidah verse 5, the Hadith narrated by Imam Bukhari, as well as Hadith from Ibn Majah. Meanwhile, Imam Ibn Hazm used al-Qur'an surah at-Talaq verse 1 and hadith from Imam Abu Dawud.