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Ḥadīth qudsī (plur. aḥādīth qudsiyya, lit., holy tradition; also ḥadīth ilāhī, ḥadīth rabbānī, plur. aḥādīth ilāhiyya/rabbāniyya, lit., divine tradition; khabar, report, plur. akhbār, sometimes used instead of ḥadīth) designates a direct-discourse statement ascribed to God—hence the preferred translation “divine saying”—that is not from the Qurʾān but is reported normally in ḥadīth format, with supporting isnād (chain of transmitters), on the authority of the prophet Muḥammad. A divine saying is distinguished formally from a Qurʾānic revelation and…

[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. Judaism – III. Christianity – IV. Islam I. Religious Studies Any kind of written document relating to a religious symbol system (Symbols/symbol theory) can be considered a holy Scripture. The existence of a written text as a criterion is a convenient starting point for a systematic orientation within the variety of religious texts produced throughout history. The process of reducing something to written form always implies more or less distanced reflection on what …

[German Version] I. History of Religion – II. Church History – III. Fundamental Theology – IV. Orthodox Law – V. Eastern Poetry – VI. Islam – VII. Buddhism – VIII. Taoism I. History of Religion The canon can be defined as a complex process of selection of documents regarded as authoritative; from the totality of the extant written tradition, documents are set apart according to certain criteria as holy or inspired (Inspiration/Theopneustia). Although the concept of the canon as a normative collection…

[German Version] (Jul 9, 1885, Hvena, Sweden – Feb 25, 1947, Linköping). The scholarship of the Swedish Lutheran bishop Tor Andrae embraced Islam, the history of religions, and religious psychology. At Uppsala he studied philosophy, history, languages, and theology. He served as a pastor from 1912 to 1924 and as a bishop from 1937 to 1947; he became a lecturer…

The basmala has historical precedents in pre-Islamic usage. Al-Zamakhsharī (d. 538/1144) long ago noted the ancient Arabs' use of the formula “in the name of [the deities] al-Lāt [or] al-ʿUzzā” (1:29). Toufic Fahd (42), citing the Taʾrīkh of al-Ṭabarī (d. 310/923) and the Kitāb al-Aghānī of Abū l-Faraj al-Iṣfahānī (d. 356/967), describes bi-smika llāhumma (“in your name, O God”) as an epistolary formula used by “the ancient Arabs” to begin any written document. Theodor Nöldeke points out parallels to bi-smi llāh in Jewish and Christian bibles in the recurring formula “in th…