Book Detalis

This short book, originally a doctoral thesis successfully submitted to Gottingen University, is a discussion by the author of the Qur'an’s famous ‘Light Verse in the context of the revelation and Muslim theological nterpretation’ (subtitle). Currently, Dr. BaZol-Gu¨rdal is lecturing at the theological faculty of Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt. With 24. 35 (fully cited three times, on pp. 12, 20, and 95 f.) her book focuses on one of the longer verses most frequently recited by Muslims during the ritual prayer (al-Bal:h), besides the Throne Verse (2. 255) and verses 22–23 of Surat al-Eijr (59), where many of God’s ‘most beautiful names’ (al-asm: al-Ausn:) are listed.

In fact, the Light Verse amounts to the only (necessarily allegorical) self-description of God in the entire Quran, given that the Prophet’s near encounter with God during his ascent to heaven (al-isr:; al-mir6:j) merely served his legitimization as prophet, not the description of the divine. To be sure, the book in its title and its translation of 24. 35 (p. 12) does not correctly quote the Light Verse which describes God as ‘Light of the Heavens [plural] and the earth’, reflecting the Muslim belief in seven, sc. several, heavens (17. 44; 23. 86). True, the Qur’an in 38 instances speaks of heaven in the singular. This is mainly true of some of the earliest short suras (like 82, 84–86, 88 and 91), which have the character of conjurations.

However, as in 24. 35 itself, the Qur'an in no less than 62 other instances speaks of heavens, in the plural (67. 5 even refers to the ‘lowest heaven’). The book’s structure is clear: Chapter 1 is devoted to an analysis of what the single word Allah, opening 24. 35, stands for. Chapter 2 deals exclusively with the second word of 24. 35, i.e. nur (Light). Surveying the entire Qur'an, the concept of Light is found 152 times in altogether 23 suras. Only Chapter 3, the final one, deals with the understanding of 24. 35 proper by Muslim scholars