An Evaluation of Wansbrough’s View to the Miraculousness of the Qurān

Some orientalists have examined the miraculousness of the Qurān. John Edward Wansbrough, the outstanding American Qurān researcher is one of them. In his discussion of the miraculousness concept, Wansbrough first refers to Ibn Qutayba’s typology of the prophets’ miracles in general and the status of Moses (a) in particular. Examining the concepts of the terms such as “kitāb,” “kalima,” “kalimāt,” “kalama,” “kalāmullāh,” and “qawl” – which are deemed by him as related to miraculousness – he links them to the revelations made to Moses (a) or the teachings of the Old Testament (e.g., the order of creation or the implied description of the Divine Will). He takes the word “kitāb” in the verses with clear dialectic content to mean “sulṭān” and emphasizes the difficulty of identifying the word “kitāb” as the Qurān. He then introduces the verses on the necessity of the existence of the Bible (i.e., the necessity of having the written confirmation of the Divine Book) as a reflection of the Judo-Christian controversy, and in addition to “kitāb,” interprets some applications of the terms “kalimāt,” “kalāmullāh,” and “qawl” as the Qurān. Next, he attributes the phrases “naṣīban min al-kitāb,” “tafṣīl al-kitāb,” and “kalama” to the revelation onto Moses (a), and exclusively attributes the juxtaposition of “nubuwwat” and “kitāb” or “al-kitāb,” “al-hukm,” and “al-nubuwwa” to the Judaists and refers to the encounter between Ka‘b and ‘Umar. He also interprets five out of nine cases of the use of the term “kitābullāh” as order and command. Finally, he maintains that the terms “kalimāt,” “kalima,” and “qawl” are also used to express the Divine Will and are similar to the implied reference to the Divine Will in the Old Testament or the order of creation. This study investigates Wansbrough’s evidences taken from the Qurān and the Testaments, and evaluates his views using an analytical-critical approach. The examination of Wansbrough’s stance to the miraculousness of the Qurān reveals that the doubts he casts are fruitless efforts to question the miraculousness of the Qurān.