The Life of the Qur’an: From Eternal Roots to Enduring Legacy

Philologist Jebara (Muhammad) meticulously chronicles the Quran’s “incredibly dynamic life,” from its origins in a series of holy revelations received by the prophet Muhammad beginning in 610 CE to today. Shared by Muhammad into an “unwelcoming world,” the Quran—the “word of God” uncovered in a series of messages to Muhammad—was initially dismissed by Meccans. Framing the holy text as an active entity which “only speaks when it has an audience,” Jebara writes that it entered a “forced period of introspection” when Muhammad was isolated in the desert from 617 to 619 CE, and emerged afterwards in revelations marked by a “self-assured voice articulating a fully formed approach to living.” Around 630 CE, Muhammad and his disciples began consolidating the fragments into a “coherent single work that could endure for a universal audience.” Following the prophet’s death in 632 CE , the Quran’s “intense divine energy had no single guardian to guide its flow,” Jebara writes, explaining that this lack of a central authority catalyzed struggles between those who wished to use the holy text’s power for their political aims, but also sparked “mind-blowing outpouring[s] of creativity” during the Islamic Golden Age. Jebara casts the Quran as a “dynamic living being... that continually reinvent[ed] itself” in response to the sometimes-unwelcoming climate in which it was revealed and can “adapt to meet the shifting needs” of today’s students. Enriched by the author’s scrupulous scholarly attention and evident passion for the topic, this is an ambitious take on a complicated history. (Feb.)