The Apocalypse of Peace: Eschatological Pacifism in the Meccan Qur’an
‘Forbear them and say, “Peace!” For soon they will know’, warns Q 43.89, ominously alluding to the imminent eschaton and the final judgement of the wicked. This article argues that the Meccan Qur’an adopts a biblical and Christ-like paradigm of eschatological pacifism, counselling Believers to pract...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2024
|
| In: |
Islam and Christian-Muslim relations
Year: 2024, Volume: 35, Issue: 4, Pages: 329-371 |
| Further subjects: | B
Muhammad
B Pacifism B lslam B Quran B Jihad B Prophet |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | ‘Forbear them and say, “Peace!” For soon they will know’, warns Q 43.89, ominously alluding to the imminent eschaton and the final judgement of the wicked. This article argues that the Meccan Qur’an adopts a biblical and Christ-like paradigm of eschatological pacifism, counselling Believers to practise patient endurance (ṣabr) in the face of pagan persecution (fitna), with the assurance that God’s judgement is near at hand. I suggest that the Arabic ṣabara (‘to patiently endure’, root: ṣ-b-r), upon which the Qur’an’s eschatological pacifism is based, is a calque of the New Testament hypomenō, plausibly mediated through the Syriac saybar (root: s-b-r). If correct, this would represent a fascinating ideational trajectory linking Jesus of Nazareth to Muḥammad of Mecca. The Meccan Qur’an’s eschatological pacifism provides a compelling counter-model to the thesis of militant-imperial eschatology recently advanced by Stephen Shoemaker in his 2018 monograph The Apocalypse of Empire: Imperial Eschatology in Late Antiquity and Early Islam, in which he provocatively compares Muḥammad’s movement to ISIS. In contrast, I argue that the Qur’an’s imminent eschatology, located primarily in the Meccan corpus, promotes not world conquest but quietism, manifesting in various pacifistic responses that resemble not ISIS but ʿĪsā. |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 1469-9311 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Islam and Christian-Muslim relations
|
| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1080/09596410.2025.2484082 |
