Ansari (Mahsheed), Modern Debates on Prophecy and Prophethood in Islam, London, Routledge, 2023, 312 p. ISBN 9781003275848

Author

Mahsheed Ansari is a Senior Lecturer at the Centre for Islamic Studies & Civilisation and a research fellow at the Centre for Religion and Ethics and Society (CRES), Charles Sturt University. She is a reader in Islamic thought plus a community activist working in the areas of interfaith dialogue, social harmony and leadership-mentoring programs with Muslim youth and women. Her research interests include the history of Islamic thought, spirituality and culture. She has been working on the oral history project - Muslim Pioneers Post WWII -and is writing a biography of Dr. Ashfaq Ahmad.

Presentation

While prophethood is the backbone of the Islamic tradition and an uncompromised tenet of faith, the impact of modernity with its ambivalent status afforded to the prophet and institution of prophethood shook many Muslim scholars. Through analysis of these modern debates on prophethood in Islam, this book situates Muhammad Iqbal’s (1877-1938) and Said Nursi’s (1877-1960) discourses within it and assesses their implications on the modern period. This book introduces the ‘what, who and how’ of the prophets in the Islamic tradition. It unveils the rich Islamic literature of both the classical and modern periods and analyses the construction of their philosophies and theologies. Concise in both historical and textual analysis, this book makes an important contribution to our understanding of contemporary debates on prophecy and prophethood in Islam, and will be of great interest to postgraduate students and researchers of Islam, religious studies, medieval studies and contemporary studies of Islam and religion.

Table of contents

Introduction

1 Demystifying the Prophetic Vocation in Islam

2 Theologising Resurgence of Prophetology in the Modern Muslim World

3 Iqbal’s and Nursi’s Methodology in Context of Their Global and Local Histories.

4 Rational Challenges and New Understandings of Prophethood

5 Traditional and Metaphysical Tensions of Prophethood

6 Conclusion: Towards a New Philosophy of Prophethood in Islam