BOOK REVIEWS

ETHICO-RELIGIOUS CONCEPTS IN THE QUR'AN

Islamic studies in Japan,
ly Qur'anic studies, are regrettably
far behind those of Christianity and
Buddhism, in spite of the fact that
Islam is one of the three predomi-
nant world religions.
One of the main reasons for this
is that Japanese intellectuals are
generally so strongly Western-
oriented in their attitudes towards
foreign cultures that until relatively
recen t years academic interest in
the Islamic field has been extreme-
ly limited. Another is the linguistic
barrier of Arabic itself, which is
considered one of the most difficult
languages in the world. Moreover,
it is universally recognized that an
approach to Islamic thought without
an expert knowledge of Arabic can
achieve little in comprehending its
essentials. To rely upon translation
for this is hazardous at best.
It follows, under these circu!TI-
stances, that Japan has been serious-
By Toshihiko Izutsu.
Montreal 1966.
253 pp., Index 255-284.
ly handicapped by the lack of
scholastic interest in Islamic studies.
In this connection, we should be
proud of Dr. Izutsu, the author of
this book, who is the pioneer Arabic
scholar of Japan and the only trans-
lator of the Qur'an directly from
Arabic into Japanese-a noteworthy
achievemen t considering that his
Arabic had to be entirely self-
taught. The excellence of the
English in the work under review
clearly illustrates the writer's re-
markable aptitude for languages.
He is now Professor at the Institute
of Cultural and Linguistic Studies,
Keio University, Tokyo, and
Visiting Professor at McGill Uni-
versity, Montreal, where he lectures
on Islamic theology and philosophy.
The present book is a revised
edition of his earlier work, The
Structure of the Ethical Terms in
the Koran, published in 1959, but
as the author states in his preface,
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"a number of passages have been
completely rewritten. So much has
it been altered that the book may
very well be regarded as a new
one." His scholarly conscientiousness
is to be highly respected, also in
the case of the revised edition of
the translation of the Qur'an where
occasional ambiguous translations
have been thoroughly corrected (e.
g. IV, 34, Modern Egyptian verse
number).
Needless to say, the Qur'an is one
thing, and Islamic law, the post-
Qur'anic code, is another. Never-
theless, mainly because of the
tendency of Islamic scholars to
over-glorify the Qur'an, these two
are often confused when the con-
cepts of the Islamic moral code are
considered. They often condemn
the ethics of pre-Islamic times as
barbarian paganism, and praise the
rise of the new Islamic religion.
The author of this book is neither
praising :- or defending any of the
numerous ethical theories that have
been offered to date by philosophers
and scholars. His attitude is highly
objective towards both pre-Islamic
ethics and those of Qur'anic time,
and he draws a distinction between
Qur'anic ethics and the post-Qur.
'anic code. This objectivity is
coupled with his method of seman
tic analysis of the value-words of
the Qur'an in the field of conduct
and character.
The first section (Principles of
Semantic Analysis, Language and
Culture, 1. The Scope and Focus of
the Study, II. The Method of
Analysis and Its Application) is
concerned with considerations of
method. The simplest and com-
monest way of ascertaining the
meaning of a foreign word is by
being told an equivalent word in
one's own language. Dr. Izutsu
points out that this _way of under-
standing words is the least reliable
one especially for Qur'anic Arabic.
For instance, there is a great dif
ference between kiifir and misbe.
liever which is usually given as its
English equivalent. "In point of
fact, translation turns out to be far
more frequently misleading than
enlightening." "The semantic dis-
crepancy between words and their
foreign' equivalents' naturally in-
creases as we turn to those regions
of existence where unique words of
vision tend to dominate and where
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language is charged with the task
of reflecting and expressing the
truly ethnic features of a people's
life." Dr. Izutsu assumes a strategic
importance for the method of
semantic analysis in seven cases:
1. contextual definitions, 2. syno-
nyms, 3. contrasts, 4. deduction
from opposites, 5. semantic relations
of words, 6. parallel meanings, 7.
other contexts.
Focusing on the Arabia of the
period, from the pre-Islamic time
of heathendom to the earliest days
of Islam, the author begins the
analysis of the key ethico-religious
terms of the Qur'an by giving a
number of concrete examples in
order to illustrate his method. He
shows how far a mere translation
of the terms 'kiijir,' 'ziilim' and
, dhanb' as misbeliever, evil-doer,
and sin come short of doing full
justice to the original words. He
analysis in detail the words derived
from the root 'JHL.'
In the second and third section,
he gives the main results obtained
by the practical application of his
methods, quoting numerous Qur'an-
ic passages and ancien t Arabic
poems such as Mu'allaqah (Tarafah
and Labid), ijamiisah (Abii Tam-
mam) or Diwan ('Abid b.
which are beautifully translated by
the author.
In the second section (From
Tribal Code to Islamic Ethics), he
discusses the pessimistic conception
of the earthly life which is shown
by both pre-Islamic poetry and the
Qur'an. The second part of this
section deals with another charac-
teristic of ] iihiliya (pre-Islamic
time), the spirit of tribal solidarity,
in which there was a distinction
between right and wrong, between
what is good and what is bad, al-
though their sense of morality
derived from tribalism "lacked a
constant, theoretical basis." "It is
of supreme importance for the right
estimation of Muhammad's religi-
ous movement to realize that it was
just in such a circumstance that he
declared the definite superiority of
religious relationship over the ties
of blood," which was the foremost
bond of the tribe. The author,
thirdly, after having discussed the
two basic features of pre-Islamic
ethics, ventures to make an analy-
tical approach to the dynamic
transformation of the old ethical
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elemen ts of paganism into the new
religious concept of monotheism
within the framework of Islamiza-
tion. The fourth part of his conten-
tion is to point out that the
Qur'anic outlook divides all human
qualities into two diametrically op-
posed concepts, 'Paradise' and 'Hel1.'
He refers to many instances of that
basic dichotomy of moral properties
in Qur' anic verses.
In the third section (The Analy-
sis of Major Concepts), Dr. Izutsu
discusses in detail the Qur'anic
system of ethico-religious concepts
against the historical background
described in the section. The strate-
gic importance for the method of
semantic analysis mentioned in the
first section is here fully applied in
analyzing the inner structure of
'kltjr.' The author emphasizes the
concept, 'kufr,' with the view that
it is a "most comprehensive term for
all negative ethico-religious values,"
and" the very center of the whole
system of negative properties."
After analyzing the concept of
, kujJ" itself, the other key terms
that surround this major subject,
'fiisiq,' 'jiijir,' '?iilim,' 'mu'tadi,'
'musrif,' 'niJaq,' and 'imiin' are
precisely analyzed. 'Nzfaq' which
is customarily translated as ' hypo-
crisy' in English, and 'imiin' which
is the exact antithesis of ' kufr,' are
given independent chapters respec-
tively. The final part of the third
section is devoted to "the very
strong and vigorous" dichotomy of
, good' and 'bad,' although there
are in the Qur'an itself no abstract
concepts of good and bad. The
Qur'an " judges human conduct and
character in a very concrete form:
, imiin' and' kufr', constitute
the two pillars of Qur'anic ethics."
It could be said that Dr. Izutsu's
interpretation of 'kiifir' and 'mu-
shurik,' for instance, i ~ somewhat
over-semantic without due conside-
ration of the chronology of the
Qur'anic passages which are inex-
tricably connected with the social
events of the time about which
Muhammad revealed each verse of
the Qur'an. As the author states
in his concluding paragraph, "The
Qur'an, particularly in the Medina
period, has much to say about com-
munity life. This side of Qur'anic
ethics has not been systematically
explored in the present work." This
however, in no way minimizes the
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importance of his invaluable, stimu-
lating work.
An index of Qur'anic citations
listed under both the FlUgel and
Modern Egyptian system, an index
of Arabic words grouped under
their respective roots arranged in
order of the Arabic alphabet, and
an index of subjects are included
at the end of the book.
Motoko Katakura
Lecturer, Takushoku University, Tokyo