ABSTRACT
This chapter aims at contributing to a comprehensive understanding of the inherently and exegetically ambiguous notion jār, commonly understood in Qurʾanic ethical discourse in the semitechnical sense of “neighbor.” Eggen investigates the meaning, content, and conceptualizations of the notion and its cognates in lexicographical and exegetical literature. She examines these conceptualizations in their various literary and topical contexts in the Qurʾān, reflecting on the ethics of jār-hood or neighborhood. In the Qurʾanic text, the inherent reciprocity in the notion of jār is juxtaposed with the possible asymmetry of the social realities in which the jār relation functions. In Q. 4:36 a beneficiary entitlement list enlists two categories of jār. The verse asserts the obligation to treat the jār well, although exactly who is included in these two categories is a matter of interpretation. However, in Q. 8:48, the treacherous Devil presents himself as a jār, only to betray the jār-hood obligation, thereby violating the conditions of the jār-hood (see also Q. 33:60). Thus, in addition to the Qurʾanic obligation to be a good neighbor, the text acknowledges the latent precariousness of shared common spaces. This implies a certain ambiguity and warrants a certain caution, something that also needs to be considered in the articulation of a neighborhood ethics.
