Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān

Get access Subject: Middle East And Islamic Studies
General Editor: Johanna Pink, Universität Freiburg.

Associate Editors: Saqib Hussain, Loyola Marymount University, Anne-Sylvie Boisliveau, Université de Strasbourg,  Suleyman Dost, University of Toronto, Nimet Seker, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

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The Encyclopaedia of the Qur’ān Online is an encyclopaedic dictionary of qur’ānic terms, concepts, personalities, place names, cultural history and exegesis extended with essays on the most important themes and subjects within qur’ānic studies. The Encyclopaedia of the Qur’ān Online is the first comprehensive, multivolume reference work on the Qur’ān to appear in a Western language.
Encyclopaedia of the Qur’ān Online includes direct access to 62 Early Printed Western Qur’āns Online and the Electronic Qurʾān Concordance, a unique online finding aid for textual research.

Subscriptions: see brill.com

Uhud

(6 words)

 see expeditions and battles Bibliography
Source: Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān

[Al-]Ukhdūd

(1,030 words)

Author(s): Robin, Christian Julien
Substantive (or proper name) found in the qurʾānic expression aṣḥāb al-ukhdūd (q 85:4): [They] were destroyed, the men of the furnace (aṣḥāb al-ukhdūd), a fire (q.v.) abundantly fed, while they were sitting by it, and they were witnesses of what they did to believers (see belief and unbelief ), and they ill-treated them for no other reason than that they believed in God (q 85:4-9). Islamic tradition is almost unanimous in identifying these aṣḥāb al-ukhdūd with those involved in the persecution at Najrān (q.v.; a large oasis in southern Saudi Arabia, on the border with Yemen [q.v.]), in No…
Source: Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān

Ulema

(4 words)

 see scholars Bibliography
Source: Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān

Umar

(8 words)

 see caliph; companions of the prophet Bibliography
Source: Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān

Umma

(10 words)

 see community and society in the qurʾān; religion Bibliography
Source: Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān

Umm Ḥabība

(8 words)

 see wives of the prophet Bibliography
Source: Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān

Ummī

(2,709 words)

Author(s): Günther, Sebastian
A qurʾānic epithet for the prophet Muḥammad that acquired significantly different interpretations in the course of Islamic history. Traditionally, Muslims understand ummī as “illiterate” and as unequivocally identifying Muḥammad as “the illiterate Prophet” (al-nabī l-ummī) — a view that has come to constitute an article of orthodox faith and spirituality in Islam (see illiteracy ). Recent research, however, recovering some of the earliest exegetical glossing, has suggested that ummī in the Qurʾān signifies the ethnic origin (being an Arab, Arabian) and the origi…
Source: Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān

Umm Salama

(8 words)

 see wives of the prophet Bibliography
Source: Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān

ʿUmra

(4 words)

 see pilgrimage Bibliography
Source: Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān

Unbelief/Unbelievers

(10 words)

 see belief and unbelief; polytheism and atheism; faith Bibliography
Source: Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān

Uncertainty

(973 words)

Author(s): Schub, Michael B.
Questioning the truth or existence of something. In the Qurʾān, this is a quality often attributed to those peoples, past and present, who do not believe or trust the messengers (see messenger ) or signs (q.v.) of God (see lie; belief and unbelief; opposition to muḥammad; trust and patience). And, like its first auditors, Islamic tradition (and certainly non-Muslims) has grappled with how to understand — and interpret — the word of God (q.v.). According to the tradition, Islam began with Muḥammad's uncertainty and panic ( fa-akhadhatnī rajfa; al-nashiʾ ʿan al-ruʿb; Suyūṭī, Itqān, i, 93…
Source: Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān

Uncle

(5 words)

 see family; kinship Bibliography
Source: Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān

Unclean

(4 words)

 see contamination Bibliography
Source: Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān

Unction

(4 words)

 see baptism Bibliography
Source: Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān

Unity of God

(12 words)

 see god and his attributes; witness to faith Bibliography
Source: Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān

Unity of the Text of the Qurʾān

(695 words)

Author(s): Mir, Mustansir
As a subject of study, the unity of the qurʾānic text assumes special importance because the Qurʾān does not always seem to deal with its themes in what most readers would call a systematic manner (see form and structure of the qurʾān ). Western scholars of Islam have often spoken of the “disconnectedness” of the Qurʾān (see pre-1800 preoccupations of qurʾānic studies; post-enlightenment ¶ academic study of the qurʾān ). Historically, most Muslim exegetes have not raised the issue at all (see exegesis of the qurʾān: classical and medieval ). Of those who have, some have offered the …
Source: Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān

Universe

(8 words)

 see cosmology; creation; nature as signs Bibliography
Source: Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān