Logic, Rhetoric and Legal Reasoning in the Qur'an: God's Arguments PDF
Preview Logic, Rhetoric and Legal Reasoning in the Qur'an: God's Arguments
cover next page > Cover title: Logic, Rhetoric, and Legal Reasoning in the Qur'aÌ„n : God's Arguments RoutledgeCurzon Studies in the Qur'an author: Gwynne, Rosalind Ward. publisher: Taylor & Francis Routledge isbn10 | asin: 0415324769 print isbn13: 9780415324762 ebook isbn13: 9780203343081 language: English subject Islam and reason--Koranic teaching, Koran and philosophy, Intellect--Religious aspects--Islam--Koranic teaching. publication date: 2004 lcc: BP134.R33G89 2004eb ddc: 297.1/2281 subject: Islam and reason--Koranic teaching, Koran and philosophy, Intellect--Religious aspects--Islam--Koranic teaching. cover next page > < previous page page_i next page > Page i LOGIC, RHETORIC, AND LEGAL REASONING IN THE Muslims have always used verses from the to support opinions on law, theology, or life in general, but almost no attention has been paid to how the presents its own precepts as conclusions proceeding from reasoned arguments. Whether it is a question of God’s powers of creation, the rationale for his acts, or how people are to think clearly about their lives and fates, Muslims have so internalized patterns of reasoning that many affirm that the appeals first of all to the human powers of intellect. This book provides a new key to both the and Islamic intellectual history. Examining argument by form and not content helps readers to discover the significance of passages often ignored by the scholar who compares texts and the believer who focuses upon commandments, as it allows scholars of exegesis, Islamic theology, philosophy, and law to tie their findings in yet another way to the text that Muslims consider the speech of God. Rosalind Ward Gwynne studied at Portland State University, the Middle East Centre for Arab Studies, Shemlan, Lebanon, and the University of Washington. She was a Fulbright Fellow in Yemen. She is Associate Professor of Islamic Studies in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Tennessee. < previous page page_i next page > < previous page page_ii next page > Page ii ROUTLEDGECURZON STUDIES IN THE QURAN Series Editor: Andrew Rippin University of Victoria, Canada In its examination of critical issues in the scholary study of the Quran and its commentaries, this series targets the disciplines of archaeology, history, textual history, anthropology, theology and literary criticism. The contemporary relevance of the Quran in the Muslim world, its role in politics and in legal debates are also dealt with, as are debates surrounding Quranic studies in the Muslim world. LITERARY STRUCTURES OF RELIGIOUS MEANING IN THE Edited by Issa J.Boullata THE DEVELOPMENT OF EXEGESIS IN EARLY ISLAM The authenticity of Mulsim literature from the Formative Period Herbert Berg BIBLICAL PROPHETS IN THE AND MUSLIM LITERATURE Robert Tottoli MOSES IN THE QURAN AND ISLAMIC EXEGESIS Brannon M.Wheeler LOGIC, RHETORIC, AND LEGAL REASONING IN THE God’s arguments Rosalind Ward Gwynne < previous page page_ii next page > < previous page page_iii next page > Page iii LOGIC, RHETORIC, AND LEGAL REASONING IN THE QUR'AN God’s arguments Rosalind Ward Gwynne LONDON AND NEW YORK < previous page page_iii next page > < previous page page_iv next page > Page iv First published 2004 by RoutledgeCurzon 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by RoutledgeCurzon 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 RoutledgeCurzon is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005. To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk. © 2004 Rosalind Ward Gwynne All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested ISBN 0-203-34308-5 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-38978-6 (OEB Format) ISBN 0-415-32476-9 (Print Edition) < previous page page_iv next page > < previous page page_v next page > Page v CONTENTS Acknowledgments vii Introduction ix 1 The Covenant 1 2 Signs and precedents 25 The signs of God 26 Precedent in sacred history 32 3 The Sunna of God 41 4 Rules, commands, and reasons why 59 Does God work for a purpose? 59 Rule-based reasoning 61 The logic of commands 67 Commands in the earliest revelations 70 Commands, commandments, and purpose 77 5 Legal arguments 83 Reciprocity and recompense 84 Priority, equivalence, and limitation 89 Distinction and exception 93 Aristotle’s five “non-artistic” proofs 98 An excursus on performative utterances 105 < previous page page_v next page > < previous page page_vi next page > Page vi 6 Comparison 110 Similarity 110 Analogy 115 Parable 117 Degree 119 7 Contrast 130 Difference 131 Inequality 139 Opposition 140 8 Categorical arguments 152 9 Conditional and disjunctive arguments 170 Conditional arguments 170 Disjunctive arguments 184 10 Technical terms and debating technique 192 11 Conclusions 203 Notes 209 Bibliography 230 241 Index to Verses Index 248 < previous page page_vi next page > < previous page page_vii next page > Page vii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish first to acknowledge my debt of gratitude to my professors of Arabic and Islamic studies, some sadly no longer with us, who sustained me through the long student years: Professors Noury al-Khaledy, Peter Abboud, Nicholas Heer, Farhat Ziadeh, Pierre Mackay, Marina Tolmacheva, Jere Bacharach, Walter Andrews, and George Makdisi. I thank my colleagues in the Southeast Regional Middle East and Islamic Studies Seminar (SERMEISS), the American Oriental Society, and the American Academy of Religion (Study of Islam Section) for listening to and commenting upon initial presentations of some of the ideas presented in this study. I thank my colleagues at the University of Tennessee, historian Thomas Burman and rhetorician Robert Glenn, for reading and commenting upon a draft of the book, as I thank the anonymous readers to whom the publisher submitted it. I thank logician John Nolt for answering my sporadic questions about matters of logic, at least once graciously alighting from his bicycle to ponder a particularly odd query. Mistakes and omissions are entirely my own. I thank UT colleague David Dungan and Khalid Yahya Blankenship for the right books at the right time. I thank the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Tennessee for its policy of arranging periodic research semesters for its faculty, as I thank my colleagues in the department for their support and encouragement. I thank the editor of this series, Andrew Rippin, for his expertise in studies. His prompt and thoughtful assistance solved my editorial problems while preserving my own particular approach to the scholarly issues. And I thank my dear husband Robert for strength, companionship, hugs, computer support, and jazz. < previous page page_vii next page > < previous page page_viii next page > Page viii This page intentionally left blank. < previous page page_viii next page > < previous page page_ix next page > Page ix INTRODUCTION Toward the end of his long spiritual retreat, Abū al-Ghazālī (d. 505/1111) composed a treatise in which he extracted from the five “scales” that would enable the believer infallibly to distinguish divine truth from falsehood. Together these scales constitute “the Just Balance”, al-mustaqīm, mentioned in 17:35 and 26:182, the instrument of known weights and impeccable provenance “that is better and fairer in the final determination” (Q 17:35). Ghazālī’s book is also entitled al-Mustaqīm, and the five “scales” are five logical syllogisms. Ghazālī had consciously grasped what most others had not: that the does not present its content as self-evidently significant but frames it in patterns of argument to show just how that material engages the hearer and the reader—how he or she is to ponder it, understand it and act upon it. Ghazālī demonstrated the use of the “scales” by recasting appropriate passages into inference schemata, a technique that not only produces formally valid arguments but adheres more closely to the text than do many works of exegesis (tafsīr). The principles of reasoning, explanation and justification are part of the intelligibility that the presents as characteristic of God’s creation. The very fact that so much of the is in the form of arguments shows to what extent human beings are perceived as needing reasons for their actions and as being capable of altering their conduct by rational choice when presented with an alternative of demonstrated superiority. Choice is inevitable, but it is the wisdom and order built into creation that make choice at once a necessary and a meaningful act. Inspired by Ghazālī’s short treatise, the present work is a longer and much more detailed analysis of argument. The text of the closely examined, yields more than thirty varieties of < previous page page_ix next page >
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