Aural epistemology

hearing and listening in the text of the Qur’an

Authors

  • Lauren E Osborne Whitman College

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/bar.16810

Keywords:

Islam, Qur'an, Hearing, Senses, Emotion, Affect

Abstract

This article takes the Qur’an’s discourse on the sense of hearing as part of its greater world of emotion and affect, wherein sense perceptions can be understood as part of its felt landscape. Taking the prevalence of the Qur’an’s recitation in tradition and the Qur’an’s own discourse about orality and revelation as a starting point, the paper examines the understanding of the sense of hearing found within the text. Specifically, in the Qur’an, the sense of hearing is linked to ideas of cognition and comprehension. Understanding of the discursive content or meaning of a message is obtained through hearing.

Author Biography

  • Lauren E Osborne, Whitman College

    Lauren E. Osborne is Assistant Professor of Religion at Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington. Her book in progress is on the recitation of the Qur’an, and the possibilities for understanding meaning across the sound and experience of the text. In this research, she employs both hermeneutic and ethnographic methods, drawing on her backgrounds in religious studies and music. More broadly, she is interested in the intersections of Islamic studies, Qur’anic studies, sound studies, sensory studies, and affect theory.

References

'Abd al-Baqi, Muhammad Fu'ad (n.d.) Al-Mu'jam al-Mufahras Li-Alfaz al-Qur'an al-Karim. Bayrut: Dar Ihya' al-Turath al-'Arabi.

Ahmed, S. (2015) The Cultural Politics of Emotion (2nd edn). New York: Routledge.

Ambros, A. A. (1986) 'Hore, ohne zu horen' zu Koran 4, 46 (48). Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenlandischen Gesellschaft 136: 15-22.

Attallah, H. (forthcoming) An introduction to disability studies and the Qur'an: rhetoric and social justice in Muslim scripture. In T. Al-Ameer (ed.) Islam and Social Justice. Peter Lang.

Bauer, K. (2017) Emotion in the Qur'an: an overview. Journal of Qur'anic Studies 19(2): 1-30. https://doi.org/10.3366/jqs.2017.0282

Bazna, M. S. and T. A. Hatab (2005) Disability in the Qur'an. Journal of Religion Disability & Health 9(1): 5-27. https://doi.org/10.1300/J095v09n01_02

Blatherwick, H. and J. Bray (eds) (2019) Arabic emotions: from the Qur'an to the popular epic. Cultural History 8(2). https://doi.org/10.3366/cult.2019.0195

Chabbi, J. (2001-2006) Jinn. In J. D. McAuliffe (ed.) Encyclopaedia of the Qur'an. Washington DC: Brill. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1875-3922_q3_EQSIM_00237

Claassens, L. J., S. Shaikh, and L. Swartz (2019) Engaging disability and religion in the global south. In B. Watermeyer, J. McKenzie, and L. Swartz (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Disability and Citizenship in the Global South 147-64. Cham: Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74675-3_11

Denny, F. M. (1981) The Adab of Qur'an recitation: text and context. In A. H. Johns(ed.) International Congress for the Study of the Qur'an: Australian National University, Canberra, 8-13 May 1980 143-60. Canberra City: South Asia Centre, Faculty of Asian Studies, Australian National University.

Denny, F. M. (1989) Qur'an recitation: a tradition of oral performance and transmission. Oral Tradition 4(1-2): 5-26. http://journal.oraltradition.org/issues/4i-ii/denny

Eisenlohr, P. (2018) Sounding Islam: Voice, Media, and Sonic Atmospheres in an Indian Ocean World. Oakland, CA: University of California Press. https://doi.org/10.1525/luminos.53

Gade, A. M. (2001-2006) Recitation of the Qur'an. In J. D. McAuliffe (ed.) Encyclopaedia of the Qur'an. Washington DC: Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/1875-3922_q3_EQCOM_00168

Gade, A. M. (2004) Perfection Makes Practice: Learning, Emotion, and the Recited Qur'an in Indonesia. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press.

Graham, W. A. (1987) Beyond the Written Word: Oral Aspects of Scripture in the History of Religion. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Graham, W. A. (2016) Orality. In J. D. McAuliffe (ed.) Encyclopaedia of the Qur'an. Washington DC: Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/1875-3922_q3_EQSIM_00310

Graham, W. A. and N. Kermani (2006) Recitation and aesthetic reception. In J. D. McAuliffe (ed.) The Cambridge Companion to the Qur'an 115-41. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CCOL0521831601.007

Hirschkind, C. (2006) The Ethical Soundscape: Cassette Sermons and Islamic Counterpublics. Cultures of History. New York: Columbia University Press.

Hoffmann, T. (2019) 'Taste my punishment and my warnings' (Q. 54:39): on the torments of Tantalus and other painful metaphors of taste in the Qur'an. Journal of Qur'anic Studies 21(1): 1-20. https://doi.org/10.3366/jqs.2019.0366

Ibn Manzur, Muhammad Ibn Mukarram (1981) Lisan Al-'Arab. Tab'ah Jadida Muhaqqaqa wa-Mashkula Shaklan Kamilan wa-Mudhayyala bi-Faharis Mufassala. al-Qahirah: Dar al-Ma'arif.

Izutsu, T. (2002) Ethico-Religious Concepts in the Qur'an. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press.

Jones, A. (2001-2006) Orality and writing in Arabia. In J. D. McAuliffe (ed.) Encyclopaedia of the Qur'an. Washington DC: Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/1875-3922_q3_EQCOM_00140

Kapchan, D. (2017) The splash of Icarus: theorizing sound writing/writing sound theory. In D. Kapchan (ed.) Theorizing Sound Writing 1-22. Middletown, Connecticut: Wesleyan.

Kermani, N. (2015) God Is Beautiful: The Aesthetic Experience of the Quran. Malden, MA: Polity Press.

Kueny, K. (2020) Tasting fire: affective turn in Qur'an depictions of divine punishment. Body and Religion 3(2): 30-51. https://doi.org/10.1558/bar.16118

Kugle, S. (2001-2006) Vision and blindness. In J. D. McAuliffe (ed.) Encyclopaedia of the Qur'an. Washington DC: Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/1875-3922_q3_EQCOM_00213

Madigan, D. A. (2001) The Qur'an's Self-Image: Writing and Authority in Islam's Scripture. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780691188454

Mouftah, N. (2019) The sound and meaning of God's word: affirmation in an Old Cairo Qur'an lesson. International Journal of Middle East Studies 51(3): 377-94. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020743819000357

Nelson, K. (1985) The Art of Reciting the Qur'an. Austin: University of Texas Press.

Neuwirth, A. (2007) Studien zur Komposition der Mekkanischen Suren. Die Literarische Form des Koran - ein Zeugnis seiner Historizitat? (2nd edn). Studien zur Geschichte und Kultur des Islamischen Orients, Volume 10. Berlin: De Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110920383

Neuwirth, A. (2014) Scripture, Poetry, and the Making of a Community: Reading the Qur'an as a Literary Text. Qur'anic Studies Series. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Neuwirth, A. (2019) The Qur'an and Late Antiquity: A Shared Heritage (trans. S. Wilder). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Osborne, L. E. (2016a) Textual and paratextual meaning in the recited Qur'an: an analysis of a performance of Surat Al-Furqan by Sheikh Mishari Rashid Alafasy. In M. A. Sells and A. Neuwirth (eds) Qur'anic Studies Today. New York: Routledge.

Osborne, L. E. (2016b) The experience of the recited Qur'an. International Journal of Middle East Studies 48(1): 124-8. https://doi.org/10.1017/S002074381500152X

Osborne, L. E. (forthcoming) The relationship between the oral and the written. In D. A. Madigan, M. M. Dakake, and G. Archer (eds) The Routledge Companion to the Qur'an. New York: Routledge.

Patel, Y. (2018) 'Their fires shall not be visible': the sense of Muslim difference. Material Religion 14(1): 1-29. https://doi.org/10.1080/17432200.2017.1417215

Rasmussen, A. K. (2010) Women, the Recited Qur'an, and Islamic Music in Indonesia. Berkeley: University of California Press. https://doi.org/10.1525/california/9780520255487.001.0001

Rippin, A. (2001-2006) Seeing and hearing. In J. D. McAuliffe (ed.) Encyclopaedia of the Qur'an. Washington DC: Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/1875-3922_q3_EQSIM_00379

Rippin, A. (n.d.) The religious metaphor of deafness. Unpublished paper. University of Victoria.

Sells, M. A. (1991) Sound, spirit, and gender in Surat Al-Qadr. Journal of the American Oriental Society 111(2): 239-59. https://doi.org/10.2307/604017

Sells, M. A. (1993) Sound and meaning in Surat al-Qari'a. Arabica 40(3): 403-30. https://doi.org/10.1163/157005893X00183

Sells, M. A. (2007) Approaching the Qur'an: The Early Revelations (2nd edn). Ashland, OR: White Cloud Press.

Sells, M. A. (2016) The casting: a close hearing of Sura TaHa 1-79. In M. A. Sells and A. Neuwirth (eds) Qur'anic Studies Today 124-77. New York: Routledge.

Sirry, M. A. (2014) Scriptural Polemics: The Qur'an and Other Religions. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199359363.001.0001

Smith, M. M. (2008) Still coming to 'our' senses: an introduction. Journal of American History 95(2): 378-80. https://doi.org/10.2307/25095623

Stewart, D. J. (1990) Saj' in the Qur'an: prosody and structure. Journal of Arabic Literature 21(2): 101. https://doi.org/10.1163/157006490X00017

Stoller, P. (1997) Prologue: the scholar's body. In Sensuous Scholarship ix-xviii. Contemporary Ethnography. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

Van Gelder, G. J. H. (2001-2006) Hearing and deafness. In J. D. McAuliffe (ed.) Encyclopaedia of the Qur'an. Washington DC: Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/1875-3922_q3_EQSIM_00187

Wild, S. (ed.) (2006) Self-Referentiality in the Qur'an. Diskurse der Arabistik, Volume 11. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.

Published

2020-09-01

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Osborne, L. E. (2020). Aural epistemology: hearing and listening in the text of the Qur’an. Body and Religion, 3(1), 71-93. https://doi.org/10.1558/bar.16810