Assignment for section:
Friday, September 12, 1997

The following questions are intended to help you organize your thoughts as you prepare for Friday's section and compose your essays, due in section. Don't feel that you have to answer all these questions in your paper; rather, keep them in the back (or front) of your mind as you are reading, thinking, and writing. We recommend that you write an essay on the topic, "On First Reading the Qur'an" or "On Re-Reading the Qur'an" (for those of you who have read it before)--but it is fine if you want to write on a different topic. The essay should be short--no longer than 300 words.

1. How do you feel as you are reading this material, comfortable or uncomfortable. Why?

2. What is familiar and what unfamiliar about this material? Note down important messages, ideas, themes, etc.

3. What does the Qur'an have to say about itself as revelation and what literary devices does the Qur'an use to achieve this end?

4. What do the contents of the Qur'an suggest about life in Arabia and/or the Near East in the seventh century C.E.?

5. Consider the following:
   • Whose "voice" or "voices" do you hear as you read the text? Which voice controls the text and how is this achieved?

   • What role does Muhammad play in the Qur'an?

   • What audience is addressed by the Qur'an? Is the audience specific to a particular time and place or general across time and space?

   • What relationship does the dominant voice of the Qur'an attempt to establish with its audience?

   • Pay attention to the use of terms such as "believers", "hypocrites", "unbelievers", "pagans"). How does the use of these terms cause the narrative of the Qur'an to be different from that of the Hebrew Bible or the New Testament? What other terms might be added to this list?