الهه هادیان رسنانی

This article provides a critical analysis of Samuel Ross's perspective presented in his book, "Quranic Exegesis and the Turn to Scripture." Ross examines the interaction of Muslim exegetes with the Bible, aiming to elucidate the reasons for its neglect in pre-modern interpretations and its increasing use in modern ones. He argues that despite the existence of old Arabic translations of the Bible, Muslim exegetes rarely referenced it until the late nineteenth century. However, after this period, influenced by factors such as British and French colonialism, the arrival of Christian missionaries, and the publication of Arabic Bible versions, exegetes in the Islamic world began to extensively utilize this text in their interpretations. This article critiques Ross's methodology and examines his historical and theoretical foundations, analyzing the challenges to his hypothesis of initial Muslim unfamiliarity with the Bible and his simplification in analyzing interpretive developments. The findings reveal that despite Ross's innovation in studying intertextual relationships, his source-critical and historical limitations hinder a complete understanding of the complexities of Muslim engagement with the Bible. This research, focusing on critiquing Ross's viewpoint and analyzing its methodological and historical limitations, aims to clarify the weaknesses and challenges of his hypotheses regarding the interaction between Quranic exegesis and the Bible.

The stories of the Prophets ( Qaṣaṣ al-Anbīyāʼ ) in the Qur'an and the Old Testament (OT), while seemingly narrating shared figures, reflect two distinct conceptual frameworks at the level of structure, function, and message. This article employs a comparative approach to examine the fundamental differences between these two texts in narrating the Prophets' stories. It demonstrates that the Qur'an presents these narratives as a tool for individual spiritual development, social reform, and the realization of Divine Laws (Sunan Ilahi) in history. In contrast, these stories in the OT are predominantly ethnocentric, historical, and confined to the fate of the Israelites. In the Qur'an, the Prophets are universal models for combating oppression, inviting to Monotheism, and establishing a Monotheistic Nation; whereas in the OT, they often function as tribal leaders or local advisors. These differences have profound implications in the educational, theological, and civilizational spheres, such that the Qur'anic stories have served as a civilizational and epistemic pillar of the Islamic world, shaping the Ummah system and its universal values. Conversely, the OT's perspective on these stories largely serves to establish ethnic and territorial identity. The present article uses a descriptive-analytical method, analyzing the content of the Holy Qur'an and the Old Testament, to investigate this distinction and its functions across social, historical, and doctrinal dimensions. In the Qur’an, prophets are introduced as universal exemplars—leaders in the struggle against injustice, advocates of monotheism, and architects of a unified, God-conscious community. In the Hebrew Bible, however, prophets typically function as tribal leaders or local moral reformers. These divergent portrayals carry far-reaching implications in theological, educational, and civilizational domains. Qur’anic prophetic narratives, as a foundational epistemic and civilizational component of Islamic thought, have played a pivotal role in shaping the vision of a global ummah and its ethical values. In contrast, the Hebrew Bible’s rendering of prophetic stories serves predominantly to affirm national and territorial identity. This article employs a descriptive-analytical method, using content analysis of the Qur’an and the Hebrew Bible, to investigate this structural and functional divergence and its ramifications in the social, historical, and doctrinal dimensions.