Sunday 5/11 - Lecture: Why It Is Important to Question Some of What You Were Taught about the Qur’an: Re-Defining How to Study the Humanities

Date: Sunday, 5 November 2023

Time: 4:30 PM

Registration fee: 100 AED

About the lecture:

True or False?

- According to the Qur’an, Ishmael was the intended son whom Abraham was supposed to sacrifice... False!

- The Chapter of the Elephant (Surah al-Fil) in the Qur’an is about an Abyssinian king who intended to destroy the Ka’bah... False!

- The Qiblah passages in the Qur’an are about Jerusalem vs Makkah... False!

Abdulla Galadari is an Associate Professor at Khalifa University. His field is in Qur’anic hermeneutics and the Qur’an’s possible engagement with Near Eastern traditions in Late Antiquity, such as biblical and rabbinic traditions. He uses a multidisciplinary approach to the Qur’an, such as using cognitive science of religion and philology. He is the author of Qur’anic Hermeneutics: Between Science, History, and the Bible (Bloomsbury Academic, 2018), Metaphors of Death and Resurrection in the Qur’an: An Intertextual Approach with Biblical and Rabbinic Literature (Bloomsbury Academic, 2021), and Spiritual Meanings of the Ḥajj Rituals: A Philological Approach (Fons Vitae, 2021).