نوع مقاله : مقاله پژوهشی
عنوان مقاله English
نویسندگان English
In the Quran, God Almighty informs His Messenger of the history of past nations and presents it as a lesson for His servants. In verse 243 of Sūrat al-Baqarah, He recounts the story of a group of the Children of Israel and speaks of their death and restoration to life. A review of the exegetical works reveals that scholars have differed in their interpretation of this verse. Some contemporary commentators, foremost among whom is Moḥammad ʿAbduh in his exegesis Al-Manār, have regarded certain Quranic narratives as non-factual, in c-ontrast to the overwhelming majority of exegetes. One such narrative is the killing of thousands of the Children of Israel and their revivification mentioned in verse 243 of al-Baqarah. By denying the physical and literal death and resurrection of the people in question -as reported in the exegetical traditions (āthār) -ʿAbduh interprets the verse as an allegory of subjugation and acceptance of cultural domination by a nation and society in the face of an enemy, and their revival as a symbol of that nation's restoration by a divine reformer. The present article adopts a narrative-based approach and, employing a descriptive-analytical method, aims to evaluate ʿAbduh's perspective by addressing the question of whether the story in question is factual or non-factual. The internal evidence of the verse, the contextual flow (siyāq) of the surrounding verses, the explicit denotation of its wording, the theological possibility of death and revivification in this world, and the factual nature of other Quranic narratives - all support the historicity of this story. The narrations transmitted by both Sunni and Shīʿa traditions, despite some weakness in their chains of transmission (sanad), possess sufficient frequency in content (istifāḍah) and briefly recount the story of the death and life of a group of people in the past. The findings of this research thus affirm the factual nature of the aforementioned story and endorse the general purport of the narratives -though not their specific details. Moreover, ʿAbduh's interpretive perspective can be appreciated as one possible "message" (maqṣad) of the verse and a moral lesson drawn from a true historical event: namely, that no one can withstand the power of God, nor can one escape death by flight.
کلیدواژهها English
