SOAS Research Online

Abstract

What would a good theologian do when faced with Qur’anic statements that are, one way or another, problematic, either when considered in themselves, or if they appear inconsistent? A theologian may go as far as contending that what appears to be a problem is not actually a problem, but will not go any further to pretend that, au contraire, it is somehow a positive thing. One figure, Najm al-Din al-Tufi, thought otherwise. A certain class of problematic scriptural statements, he argued, purely on account of their problematic nature, may have a positive role to play: they could be turned into evidence for the veracity of scripture. This strange position, which does not necessarily exclude the other, standard approaches, is put forth in the context of his treatment of apparently contradictory scriptural statements relating to the problem of destiny. This paper will discuss al-‡üfı’s proof of prophecy from scriptural contradiction, in addition to his more standard treatment of this problem, which is presented alongside and is of interest in its own right.