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Hellenistic Ideas in the Qur'an
Abstract
The Qur’?n contains a rich terminology for different aspects of time, used in concrete practical ways, rather than systematically constituting a theoretical notion of time. Furthermore, the Qur’?n includes a large number of stories about past figures and events with important implications for the present time of the early Muslim community. Another relevant aspect of time in the Qur’?n is to be found in prophetic statements about the future, both worldly and eschatological, made in the past tense suggesting the already completed fulfillment of the statement. The highly interesting data presented in these various ways, thus, constitute a multilayered concept of time, fundamentally relevant for the Qur’?nic worldview. The Qur’?nic concept of time, in general, was developed against the background of the perception of time in pre-Islamic Arabic poetry. There, time is personified and considered as a universal acting power of obliteration that dominates human destiny and is deeply interrelated with death. Especially dahr, the personified idea of endless time, plays a major role in pre-Islamic Arabic poetry as a mighty destructive power. Compared to aion, the personified concept of endless time in Greek literature, particularly in late antique poetry flourishing in the Mediterranean region in the 5th and 6th Century AD, dahr seems to be the Arabic equivalent to aion. The idea of time as a universal power of destruction, paramount in pre-Islamic Arabic poetry, has been picked up and consistently annihilated in the Qur’?n. There, time is atomized, divided into periods that conform to physical laws and into restricted segments. It becomes a transparent container of actions, mainly those of God who dominates absolutely time and history. The very idea of turning times is also used in the Qur’?n, but it is here that no other power apart from God turns days and nights. It is extremely important to note that whereas this idea is completely absent in the Bible as well as in Jewish and Christian writings, it does exist in the Qur’?n as well as in the pre-Islamic Arabic and Hellenistic poetry of Late Antiquity. By analyzing Qur’anic images of time, the paper will show an Arabic form of Hellenism in which Islam arose and the concept of time in the Qur’?n has been developed.
Discipline
Religious Studies/Theology
Geographic Area
None
Sub Area
All Time Periods