Two Accounts of Qur'anic Revelation

This essay examines the notions of revelation and prophecy as offered by Fazlur Rahman and Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd. Their ideas regarding prophecy and revelation contribute to the clarification of some foundational issues in Islamic theology. For both Rahman and Abu Zayd, theology begins with the idea that divine revelation is intended for human beings. So, even though this revelation is divine in origin, it is also mostly intelligible. This rethinking of the idea of revelation is welcomed by some Muslim thinkers, but has not met with so positive a reception in more traditional Islamic circles. I argue that what makes these human-centric accounts of revelation controversial is the idea of Muhammad's “contribution” to the revelation process and the article investigates this idea as it is formulated in the work of these two scholars.