From ethico-religious exhortation to legal paraenesis: functions of Qur’anic Waʿẓ

This essay examines qur’anic “exhortation” and “legal paraenesis” in light of pre-Islamic Arabic poetry and late antique biblical traditions. It analyzes the verb waʿaẓa and related forms in narrative and legal/legislative sections of suras that can be assigned to different chronological stages of t...

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Main Author: Schmid, N
Format: Journal article
Language:English
Published: Brill 2021
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author Schmid, N
author_facet Schmid, N
author_sort Schmid, N
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description This essay examines qur’anic “exhortation” and “legal paraenesis” in light of pre-Islamic Arabic poetry and late antique biblical traditions. It analyzes the verb waʿaẓa and related forms in narrative and legal/legislative sections of suras that can be assigned to different chronological stages of the Qur’an’s textual genesis. Qur’anic exhortations initially occur in narratives about messengers sent to unbelieving peoples. The word mawʿiẓa then becomes part of the self-referential vocabulary of the Qur’an and is used to characterize the contents of Moses’ Tablets. This linguistic development anticipates a process of legal and regulatory actualization, specification, and exposition: in the Medinan period, legal discourse is framed with the verb waʿaẓa. The emerging Medinan legal paraenesis puts emphasis on social applicability, but it is neither parochial nor does it break with Meccan ethics. Instead, it connects the communication and implementation of laws, rulings, and commands to human volition in a specific social context.
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spelling oxford-uuid:71f8338d-9756-4c06-8aa4-fc67ca628c4e2022-03-26T19:47:06ZFrom ethico-religious exhortation to legal paraenesis: functions of Qur’anic WaʿẓJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:71f8338d-9756-4c06-8aa4-fc67ca628c4eEnglishSymplectic ElementsBrill2021Schmid, NThis essay examines qur’anic “exhortation” and “legal paraenesis” in light of pre-Islamic Arabic poetry and late antique biblical traditions. It analyzes the verb waʿaẓa and related forms in narrative and legal/legislative sections of suras that can be assigned to different chronological stages of the Qur’an’s textual genesis. Qur’anic exhortations initially occur in narratives about messengers sent to unbelieving peoples. The word mawʿiẓa then becomes part of the self-referential vocabulary of the Qur’an and is used to characterize the contents of Moses’ Tablets. This linguistic development anticipates a process of legal and regulatory actualization, specification, and exposition: in the Medinan period, legal discourse is framed with the verb waʿaẓa. The emerging Medinan legal paraenesis puts emphasis on social applicability, but it is neither parochial nor does it break with Meccan ethics. Instead, it connects the communication and implementation of laws, rulings, and commands to human volition in a specific social context.
spellingShingle Schmid, N
From ethico-religious exhortation to legal paraenesis: functions of Qur’anic Waʿẓ
title From ethico-religious exhortation to legal paraenesis: functions of Qur’anic Waʿẓ
title_full From ethico-religious exhortation to legal paraenesis: functions of Qur’anic Waʿẓ
title_fullStr From ethico-religious exhortation to legal paraenesis: functions of Qur’anic Waʿẓ
title_full_unstemmed From ethico-religious exhortation to legal paraenesis: functions of Qur’anic Waʿẓ
title_short From ethico-religious exhortation to legal paraenesis: functions of Qur’anic Waʿẓ
title_sort from ethico religious exhortation to legal paraenesis functions of qur anic waʿz
work_keys_str_mv AT schmidn fromethicoreligiousexhortationtolegalparaenesisfunctionsofquranicwaʿz