The Qurʾān and its Disbelievers

Abstract

According to the majority Muslim opinion, the first rev- elation of the Qurʾān occurred when the Prophet, upon him blessings and peace, was in retreat at the cave of Ḥirāʾ, some fifteen kilometers from the Kaʿba, the an- cient House of God, built by the Prophets Ibrāhīm and his son Ismāʿīl, upon them peace, approximately twenty- five hundred years prior to this event; the last verses of the Qurʾān were revealed in 632, just a few days before the death of the Prophet in Madina, the oasis town to which he had migrated in 622. During the twenty-three year period of the descent of the Qurʾān and ever since then, it has drawn two funda- mental responses from humanity: (i) belief in its Divine authorship, which simultaneously entails belief in the veracity of the Messenger to whom it was revealed, and (ii) disbelief in its Divine authorship and consequently the denying the prophethood of Muḥammad, upon him blessings and peace. This article explores, in brief, various aspects of the sec- ond response in three categories of works: (i) polemical works on the Qurʾān; (ii) works by the Orientalists; and (iii) the contemporary academic studies of the Qurʾān that are based on implicit or explicit disbelief in its Divine authorship. The article also seeks to explore inherent links between these three categories and provides histori- cal background to their emergence.