Narrative Ethics and the Art of Qur’anic Storytelling

This course offers an ethical approach to the Qur’an through a close reading of its narratives. After a general introduction to the Qur’an as a religious scripture and aesthetic experience in Muslim life, we will engage in a close reading of key Qur’anic narratives, many of which are based on well-known Biblical stories. What are the literary characteristics of the Qur’an’s retelling of Biblical stories? How are these characteristics related to the objectives of these narratives, particularly, the formation of the ethical self? Our close readings will be guided by two broad hermeneutical approaches:

1. traditional Muslim exegesis that focuses on ethical, typological interpretation (e.g., mystical, philosophical);
2. contemporary hermeneutical approaches concerned with narrative ethics (e.g., Paul Ricoeur, Alasdair MacIntyre).

We will conclude our course with broader reflections on the practice of reading religious scripture through a relational, multi-perspectival lens.