ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the Quran and the role it plays in Islam and the lives of Muslims. Muhammad was a widely respected member of his community ever before the first revelation and his vocation as the Prophet of Islam: he was known among his peers by the nickname al-Amin and admired among other things for his ability to mediate in disputes and create and foster consensus. Muhammad's experience is interpreted contextually. Using his knowledge of Judaism and Christianity, Waraqah interprets Muhammad's experience in the light of earlier sacred history and earlier prophecy. Islam holds a number of beliefs about the nature of the Quran, most of which serve to vouchsafe its authenticity as a divinely revealed Scripture. The Islamic science of Quranic interpretation is known as Tafsir. Tafsir is both the name of the process of interpretation and the product of that process – so, for example, the famous Tafsir Ibn Kathir.
