An Apocalyptic Interpretation of the Quran

Left to right: Professors Maher Jarrar and Todd Lawson

The Anis Makdisi Program in Literature hosted a lecture in February on the resurgence of apocalyptic studies of the Quran. The lecture, entitled "On the Poetics of Opposition in the Quran," was presented by prominent scholar Todd Lawson. An associate professor in the Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations at the University of Toronto, Lawson is also a research associate at the Institute of Islamic Studies at McGill University.

Over the past years, there has been a resurgent interest in apocalyptic studies, explained Lawson. He said the accepted definition of apocalypse comes from the Apocalypse of John, meaning revelation of a particular kind and often presented by a supernatural entity, though most commonly concerned with the future and especially the judgment of the dead.

Some of the prominent features of apocalyptic literature include cosmology, primordial events, persecution, final judgment, and, as Lawson stressed, the interplay of opposition and duality. He expressed as well a particular interest in the study of the Quran as an apocalypse, a holy book that is not commonly considered an apocalypse.

Professor Lawson offered an explanation for understanding the Quran as an apocalypse, basing his argument on two key features of apocalyptic studies. First, he emphasized the degree of interplay between duality and opposition in the Quran. Examples of this binary include heaven and hell, punishment and reward, and male and female. Lawson argued that "opposition and duality is the sine qua non of Tawhid," in which these oppositions make possible the existence of an overall oneness.

Second, Lawson presented the importance of understanding the semantic and semiotic explanations of Quranic terms and explained the issue of reading the Quran typologically. Moreover, he added, this requires us to interpret the symbols and representations of the Quran as a story that "gives meaning to everything."

Lawson's literary research of the Quran as an apocalypse presents an alternative framework for understanding apocalyptic studies through a new medium that is different from the conventional Book of Revelations in the Bible.