Set in British India soon after the Uprising of 1857, Godâs Word, Spoken and Otherwise explores the controversial and ingenious ideas of one of South Asiaâs most influential public thinkers, Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan (1817-1898). Bringing to light previously unpublished material from his exegetical commentaries on the Bible and Qurâan, this study explores the interplay of natural and prophetic revelation from an intertextual perspective. The book provides fresh insight into Sir Sayyidâs life and work, and underscores both the originality of his ideas, and also their continuity within a dynamic Muslim intellectual tradition.
Charles M. Ramsey, Ph.D. (2015), University of Birmingham, is Fellow, Institute for Studies of Religion at Baylor University (USA) where he teaches courses in Islamic Studies and the History of South Asia. He has published many writings on Islam in South Asia, including South Asian Sufis (Continuum, 2012) and The Gospel According to Sayyid Ahmad Khan (Brill, 2020).
Preface Notes on Translation and Transliteration Abbreviations
1 Introduction
â1âApproaching the Texts
â2âApproaching the Context
â3âStudies on Sayyid Ahmad Khan
â4âOutline of the Chapters
2 The Tabyīn in Context
â1âThe Political Setting
â2âThe Intellectual Environment
â3âRevelation Recorded
â4âThe British Intellectual Environment
â5âSayyid Ahmadâs Life and Works
â6âConclusion
3 On the Bible
â1âWhat Is the Significance of the Title TabyÄ«n al-kalÄm?
â2âHow Did Sayyid Ahmad Present His Commentaries on the Bible?
â3âRationale for a Muslim Reading of the Bible
â4âTaḥrÄ«f: The Greatest Obstacle to the TabyÄ«n Project
â5âNÄsikh wa-mansÅ«kh
â6âTabyÄ«n Part 2
â7âTo Reconcile Scripture and Science
â8âThe Garden: What Did Transpire?
â9âConclusion to Genesis
â10âTabyÄ«n Part 3
â11âThe Person of Jesus Christ
â12âThe Words and the Text
â13âThe Counsels of Jesus
â14âTafsÄ«r al-QurʾÄn
â15âJesusâs Miraculous Birth
â16âJesus Speaks in Infancy
â17âJesus Raises the Dead
â18âJesusâs Heavenly Ascension
â19âConclusion
4 Prophecy: Rehearsed and Unrehearsed
â1âTo Know What One Knows
â2âExperience as the Basis of Knowledge
â3âExperiment as the Way to Knowledge
â4âKnowledge for Salvation
â5âThe Prophetic Experience
â6âDifferentiating the Rehearsed and the Unrehearsed
â7âThe Inimitable Qurʾan
â8âThe Qurʾan as Text
â9âRevelation Defined
â10âSources for the Adoption of the Taxonomy
â11âConstruction Applied to the Bible
â12âRevelation Recorded
â13âRevelation in the Bible
â14âThe New Testament Authors
â15âWritings Other Than Gospels in the New Testament
â16âConclusion
5 The Coherence of Revelation
â1âIntroduction
â2âContinuity and Originality
â3âScripturalist falsafa
â4âConclusion
6 Conclusion
â1âHow Did Sayyid Ahmad Conceptualize Prophetic Revelation in the Bible?
â2âWhat Did Sayyid Ahmad Understand Himself to Be Doing in TabyÄ«n?
References Index
Institutes, (academic) libraries, specialists, and (post-graduate) students in Islamic Studies, Inter-faith Relations, history of South Asia, World Religions, Theology, Qurâan and Bible, Inter-cultural Studies, and India, Colonial and post-Colonial Studies, Persia, and Central Asia.