Document Type : Specialized article
Authors
1
Ph.D. in Teaching Islamic Studies, Qur’an and Islamic Texts, Farabi Faculty, Tehran, Iran
2
Assistant Professor, Department of Islamic Studies, School of Medicine, Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, Hamadan, Iran
Abstract
Muhammad Ahmad Khalafallah’s theory of the “art of storytelling” (al-fann al-qaṣaṣī), by advancing six principles, offers a literary-historical reading of the Qur’anic narratives (qaṣaṣ al-Qurʾān), thereby reducing them from divinely revealed historical propositions to moral parables and symbolic myths. Despite scattered critiques, no systematic examination of all these principles as a coherent whole- together with an exposition of the chain of their humanizing implications- has yet been undertaken. This research gap underlies the necessity of the present article. Accordingly, the central question of the study is: what methodological shortcomings and inconsistencies do Khalafallah’s six principles, in analyzing the Qur’anic narratives, encounter, and what consequences does their acceptance entail toward the humanization (insānīyya / basharī-angārī) of the Qur’an? The study hypothesizes that these principles, by constructing a false antithesis between historical reality and the pedagogical aim, by mythologizing the narratives, and by subordinating the criterion of truth to the dominance of literary logic, progressively destabilize the epistemic structure of revelation from within and pave the way for the Qur’an’s humanization. Employing a descriptive-analytical-critical method and drawing upon library-based data, the article examines each principle in three stages: exposition (bayān), identification of the doubt (shubha), and critique based on textual (intra-Qur’anic), logical, and linguistic evidence. The findings indicate that these principles respectively lead to the negation of the historical and miraculous (iʿjāz) dimension of the Qur’an, the demolition of the foundations of prophethood, the transformation of the divine Word into a human text, the normalization of a mythological view, epistemological relativism, and the denial of the Qur’an’s universality- ultimately providing a bridge for the emergence of subsequent radical theories, such as the views of Abu Zayd and Arkoun.
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