Gnostic Apocalypse and Islam Qur’an, Exegesis, Messianism, and the Literary Origins of the Babi Religion By Todd Lawson (London and New York: Routledge, 2012. 228 pages.)

Abstract

In his Gnostic Apocalypse and Islam, Todd Lawson provides a rich and multifaceted
exploration of an unconventional exegetical text by Ali Muhammad
Shirazi (d. 1850), more prominently known as the Bab. The text in question
is Tafs¥r S´rah Y´suf, also known as Qayy´m al-AsmOE’ and Aúsan al-Qa§a§.
Available only in manuscript form, the Tafs¥r is an early and critically important
text for understanding the rise of Babism, a messianic new religious
movement that emerged out of Shi‘ism. Lawson’s study will not only be of interest to scholars of Ithna’ ‘Ashari Shi‘ism, Babism, and Baha’ism, but is
also a valuable contribution to tafs¥r studies and the burgeoning field of Muslim
apocalyptic literature.
The Tafs¥r S´rah Y´suf, however, is not a conventional scriptural commentary,
for its relationship to the Qur’an is far more complex. Being deeply
connected to the Bab’s emerging identity as the “gate” of the hidden Imam,
the Tafs¥r moves beyond the sphere of the explanatory into that of the revelatory.
As a result, the text bears explicitly scriptural resonances. Among the examples
provided is that the chapters of the Tafs¥r are called s´rahs, the text has
prostration (sajdah) markers, each s´rah opens with the basmalah, and nearly
all of them have disconnected letters at their beginning. In Lawson’s own
words, “…it is clear from the structure of the work that the author is introducing
a new scripture or revelation by means of the Trojan horse of exegesis” (p. 22) ...