ABSTRACT

A collection of articles and studies discussing early Islamic tenets and beliefs based on Islamic traditions and literature. A number of studies appear for the first time in English. The topics dealt with relate to the Islamic prostration in ritual prayer, Islamic traditions which are discussed through the analysis of hadith literature and reports and narratives related to the literary genre of the qiṣaṣ al-anbiyā' (Stories of the Prophets). The readers of this collection of essays are scholars and students of early Islam, of the development hadith literature and of the narratives on Islamic prophets; all together the studies bring to light the dynamics between the formation of early traditions and their role in the origin and developments of Islamic literature.

part I|88 pages

The Islamic Act of Prostration (Sujūd)

chapter 1|29 pages

Muslim Attitudes towards Prostration (Sujūd)

I. Arabs and prostration at the beginning of Islam and in the Qur'ān

chapter 2|20 pages

Muslim Attitudes towards Prostration (Sujūd)

II. The prominence and meaning of prostration in Muslim literature

part II|77 pages

Hadith, Traditions, and Literature

chapter 6|15 pages

Ḥadīth and Muslim Dietary Norms

Some traditions on the goodness of meat and the permissibility of horse meat

chapter 7|11 pages

“Two Rivers are Believers and Two are Disbelievers…”

A sacred river geography in a saying attributed to Muḥammad?

chapter 9|12 pages

Inna Allāh Yubghiḍu al-Balīgh Min al-Nās

A study of an early ḥadīth

chapter 10|14 pages

Methods and Contexts in the Use of Ḥadīths in Classical Tafsīr Literature

The exegesis of Q. 21:85 and Q. 17:1

part III|76 pages

The Staff of Moses, the Prophets

chapter 12|10 pages

Modern Islamic Exegesis and the Rejection of the Isrā'īliyyāt

The legends about the staff of Moses transforming into a snake

chapter 13|9 pages

At Cock-Crow

Some Muslim traditions about the rooster