Gott ist schön. Das ästhetische Erleben des Koran

by Navid Kermani

The melodious recitation of the Quran is a fundamental aesthetic experience for Muslims, and the start of a compelling journey of ideas. In this important new book, the prominent German writer and Islamic scholar Navid Kermani considers the manner in which the Quran has been perceived, apprehended and experienced by its recipients from the time of the Prophet to the present day.Drawing on a wide range of Muslim sources, from historians, theologians and philosophers to mystics and literary scholars, Kermani provides a close reading of the nature of this powerful text. He proceeds to analyze ancient and modern testimonies about the impact of Quranic language from a variety of angles. Although people have always reflected on the reception of texts, images and sounds that they find beautiful or moving, Kermani explains that Islam provides a particularly striking example of the close correlation, grounded in a common origin, between art and religion, revelation and poetry, and religious and aesthetic experience.This major new book will enhance the dialogue between Islam and the West and will appeal to students and scholars of Islam and comparative religion, as well as to a wider readership interested in Islam and the Quran.

Genres: Islam, Religion, Nonfiction, Philosophy

546 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Navid Kermani, born 1967, lives as an Islamic scholar, journalist and writer in Cologne.

Reviews

[Nathan "N.R." Gaddis]

I'm thinking maybe of possibly returning to theism.....

[فرحان · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Every Muslim has the duty to know the true quality of the Quran and to be aware of its magnificence. Today, however, ignorance has spread everywhere; it is flourishing and dominates the world; knowledge is declining, even dying out; it survives only here and there in hiding. The knowledgeable are exposed to the rudeness of a dark age; they cower before it’s gloom as one cowers on encountering a fierce lion. They are so intimidated that they neglect their duties and no longer follow God’s path. People are divided into two groups: some abandon the truth and forget the Guidance, while others are deterred from helping and overtaxed in their own work.”

[Humairaa Tarsoo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was moved when reading this book. It captures an essence of the Quran that I rarely see in mainstream literature and is so extensive. Recommended to those who see some beauty in the Quran and want a more in-depth view on it.

[Fatima Sarder · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are some books, or some moments which occur in life, which bring on a paradigm shift.

The Qur'an has it's own aesthetics.

This is one such book. Yes, we Muslims believe God is beautiful and loves beauty but the concept of such theistic beauty hasn't been much explored.

While there are aspects of the book that seemed out of place (the inclusion of weak, unsubstantiated hadith in a text so rigorously and thoroughly researched) the idea of Qur'anic aesthetics is one begging consideration especially for those unfamiliar with the Arabic language.

[Key takeaway from the book:
Al Baqillani - wanted to prove the miraculous nature of the Qur'an by proving the Prophet Muhammed (an illiterate) could have never uttered such a divinely ordered book. He sought to prove the miraculous nature of the Qur'an (through its history) because the people of his time (of the Abbassid court) sought to find flaws and improve upon the rhetoric of the Qur'an.

Al Jurjani's work: Wanted to show that the Qur'anic eloquence is a combination of it's meanings, placement of rhetoric and perfect word order. Some ordered sentences are inherently more beautiful and elegant sounding than others. He proves the miraculous nature of the Qur'an through poetic devices and grammar.]

This book is a hefty read, but an essentially good one.

[Steven Felicelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kermani is a brilliant writer and scholar (both, each) and here he addresses the quintessence of the Quran/Islam: beautiful, otherworldly language.

Religion = Poetry. Poetry = Religion.

In a given chapter you'll find excerpts from Leibniz, Kafka, Adorno, Rilke, Vico, etc. and the elevated/deep-seated content/context make for a rich, thought-insisting read (though hard to sustain for 350 pages - cognitive stamina required).

[Abdullah Furqaan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been a disciple of Islam for the past seven years , studying this beautiful faith from both an academic point of view as well as from a more "street" or folksy point of view. Prior to this I had never been exposed to Kermani's scholarly work but the way that he weaves in thinkers such as Umberto Eco, Hegel, Goethe, Kafka, and Immanuel Kant and brings them into dialogue with classical Islamic thinkers and the Noble Qur'an is seamless. Kermani's handling of the material tuned my daily recitations of the Quranic Arabic into a magical, quasi-hedonistic aesthetic experience - he reframes, recontextualizes, and demythologizes the literary tradition of Islam.

In the West (as well as in the Middle East), textual and form-criticism of the Qur'an is a field that still demands much more research. Whether or not this is a result of the "cult-of-personality" around the Messenger of Allah and the Noble Qur'an is up in the air, but this work fills a major lacuna in Quranic studies. It covers the history of the first listeners, the function of poetry and song in seventh-century Arabia, the musicality of the Qur'an, Qira'at, Tajwid, just to name a few topics; if any of the following quotes strike you, then this book will contain many nuggets of wisdom:

- "Religions have their aesthetics. They are not collections of logically reasoned norms, values, principles, and doctrines. They speak in myths and images and bind their followers not so much by the logic of their arguments but by the poetry of their texts, the appeal of their sounds, forms, rituals, even their interiors, colors, and odors."

- "The effects of Qur'an recitation on seventh-century Arabs cannot be explained without bearing in mind the magical function of structured or formulaic speech. "

- "The image that the Qur'an's recipients formed of its origins is a view shaped by their sociocultural milieu, their ways of seeing the world, their convictions and mythic beliefs, their imagination, their concept of the revelations; it tells us a little about the historic Muhammad."

- "Unlike the poet, who studies rules of rhetoric, the Prophet uses his skill in his speech with a degree of perfection that exceeds the limits of human skill; unlike the soothsayer, the Prphet does not learn certain techniques to summon inspiration but is chosen by God to be what Kant would call 'a favorite of nature.'"

This text will appeal to students of the Qur'an, students of the religious experience, and scholars of comparative religion. This work is an ambitious and inspiring work of ; it is a slap in the face to the Salafists, Wahhabis, and run-of-the-mill standard Sunni, a shock that proclaims: "the Qur'an dazzles, stirs the heart, and functions as a poetic work of art!!"

[Laila · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kermani is a true treasure to Orientalist studies, though I wouldn’t like to call him an Orientalist as his work has shown far more integrity and true scholarship, as opposed to most Orientalist works. I am very happy to have discovered such a scholar and writer.
It took me a long time to read this book; it is definitely not one you can skim over, but it was well worth the time. I will be reading Kermani’s other works and am looking forward to more.