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This dissertation is an attempt to understand what the Qur'an means by the term ḥikmah. I argue that the Qur'an, when it uses the term, is engaging with biblical wisdom discourse, as it had been interpreted and understood in late antiquity. Wisdom texts are a category of books in the Hebrew Bible and Apocrypha, such as Proverbs and Sirach, that emphasize the importance of acquiring wisdom through contemplating the natural world and one's own life experience. The presence of this wisdom genre in the Bible encouraged Hellenistic Jews and early Christians to embrace the Greek philosophical notion of natural law, the idea that what is morally right and wrong is known innately, and confirmed through divine revelation. Over subsequent centuries, church fathers and rabbis continued to debate what the relationship between divine revelation and natural law / wisdom ought to be. I argue that when the Qur'an invokes ḥikmah, it engages in that debate, and ultimately presents a relationship between scripture and natural law that is close to the Christian conception.

Muḥammad ῾Abduh (d. 1905) and Muḥammad Rashīd Riḍā's (d. 1935) Tafsīr al-Manār is widely considered a turning point in Qur'anic exegesis for its presumed departure from traditional Sunni Arabic commentaries on the Qur'an, both methodologically and intellectually. This thesis investigates this assumption by taking a closer look at the text of the Manār commentary itself. With a primary focus on the Tafsīr al-Manār's exegesis of Sūrat al-Mā'ida-authorship of which should, along with most other parts of the commentary, be ascribed to Rashīd Riḍā-I argue that, although certain traditional exegetical techniques and features remain in this commentary, their presence and function appear to be superficial in many ways. Specifically, Rashīd Riḍā breaks with some of the conventions followed by classical mufassirūn not only by introducing a number of novel ideas, some of which stand in opposition to classical Sunni doctrine, but also by demonstrating a much more pronounced interest in the social and political realities of his day. In this context, the author often seems to use tradition in a way that serves the purpose of advancing his own agenda as a social reformer, although he does so in an arguably subtle and nuanced fashion. On the one hand, abiding by certain traditional exegetical rules allows him to showcase his own scholarly credentials to participate in the long-standing tafsīr genre. On the other hand, his proximity to and engagement with tradition seems to help him justify some of his more blatant departures in a manner that signals to the reader that his views are, in fact, not far-fetched at all, but intrinsically Islamic.

For what is often described as 'the most common command in the Qur'ān', the literary function of the word qul (meaning 'Say!', in the second person singular imperative form) still remains unclear and continues to pose 'one of the most vexed questions of Qur'ānic rhetoric'. According to the standard concordance to the Qur'ān, the word qul appears 332 times in fifty-seven of its 114 sūras. Scholars have put forward a variety of classifications and interpretations for its Qur'ānic usage. This thesis explores existing interpretations of the word qul and I then analyse and classify all 332 qul statements according to their function in the respective passages in which they occur. I posit that the vast majority (93%) of the qul statements are related to an antecedent in the Qur'ān. In many instances, these qul statements form one part in a complex matrix of responses to an antecedent, and the rhetorical effect of a qul statement in a given passage is determined by the antecedent, other responses and the syntagmatic interplay between them. This thesis demonstrates that the function of the word qul varies depending on the theme and the antecedent to which it is related. For example, quls in the form of rhetorical questions mostly draw attention to an aspect of God's power, and they usually form a question and affirmation exchange; also nearly half of the quls in the Qur'ān respond to an audience question or statement beginning with an introductory verb derived from the Arabic letters q/w/l, such as, 'They say (yaqūlūna), "..."'. Documenting the qul statements highlights the Qur'ān's pervasive engagement with an audience, as well as its disputational character. Unlocking the function of qul statements reveals how Qur'ānic polemics work, and in turn how the Qur'ān engages with its audience. In the final chapter of this thesis, selected passages are examined in detail to demonstrate how the word qul in some selected passages strings together statements, objections, questions, and arguments.

The Muslim tradition tells us that when Muslims migrated to Medina and their number increased, they felt the need for an efficient means to convoke the community for the daily prayers. Jews and Christians both had well-established summoning rituals involving different instruments, that Muslims considered adopting. They eventually developed a distinct, simple ritual consisting of a small set of chanted formulæ, which became known as the adhān, the Islamic call to prayer. This is the narrative thread that we find in all major Sunnī collections of aḥādīth - reported sayings of Muḥammad and his companions - which recount the introduction of the adhān. The present work postulates that this thread or 'proto-narrative' was used by several narrators, transmitters, and collectors until the third/ninth century who modified it and added new elements in order to settle political and religious controversies of their times. This proto-narrative is outlined in the main chapter (chap. 3), which highlights how it was modified and why, using close textual analysis of both Sunnī and Shī'ī texts with data-dense graphs of relations, locations, and times produced via network visualisation tools. Five major Sunnī legal treaties from the second/eighth century onwards were also scrutinised (chap. 4) to better understand the general context in which the aḥādīth about the introduction of the adhān were being circulated and confirm the results obtained through the textual analysis. The conclusions reveal specific mechanisms used in the formation and transmission of aḥādīth. In the case of the adhān, aḥādīth represent half of a 'conversation' between people, students, or rulers on one side, asking questions about the origins and the right form of the call to prayer, and on the other side, scholars or jurists who answer with adapted narratives. Only the latter was preserved, yet the present thesis shows that it is often possible to reconstruct, to a certain extent, the former part of this 'conversation'.

Fiqh, literally 'deep understanding', is the science of religious law in Islam. What does it mean for an Islamic jurist to 'do fiqh'? And how does an engagement with fiqh guide a jurist to produce statements of law for particular social contexts? These are perennial questions in the field of Islamic legal studies. The current thesis offers an answer to these questions from the viewpoint of jurists from the early classical Ḥanafī tradition of Central Asia. The thesis starts with an examination of Central-Asian Ḥanafī works of legal theory to extract the underlying epistemological foundations of this legal tradition. The remainder of the thesis presents a series of investigations into a leading work of legal commentary - the Hidāyah of Burhān al-Dīn 'Alī ibn Abī Bakr al-Marghīnānī (d. 593/1197) - to assess how these epistemological foundations inform the work. These investigations range from a study of the processes by which the legal cases commented on in the work were seen to be authoritative, to a study of the use of rational arguments, dialectical sequences and juristic disagreement in exploring and expositing cases of the law. The thesis also studies points of theory employed in the commentary that reveal how social context was seen to impact on the production of law. The study concludes by suggesting a general theory of Ḥanafī jurisprudence, explaining what it means to 'do fiqh' - presented as a particular form of engagement with the legal cases transmitted from the teaching circle of Abū Ḥanīfah (d. 150/767), the school's eponym - and how this fiqh engagement with Ḥanafī precedent informed the production of legal statements tailored to specific contexts - by the application of a particular filter of legal mechanisms, each of which reflects an understanding of the overarching principle of 'necessity' (ḍarūrah). The study presents a uniquely Ḥanafī legal epistemology which is underpinned by particular notions of authority, rationality and tradition.

Huwiyya is a term that essentially denotes the non-manifest aspect of God, His essence. But in the works of Ibn 'Arabī and al-Qāshānī, this term has many different applications corresponding to the many different facets of God and the many different modalities of His interaction with the Cosmos. God is fundamentally non-manifest, unfathomable to a creation that is ontologically and epistemologically incapable of comprehending Him - upon this primary signification both Sufis agree. However, al-Qāshānī discreetly breaks ranks with his master when he emphasises God's connection to His creation more than His dissociation from it in the context of this term, and though this aspect is also present in Ibn 'Arabī's usage of the term, in al-Qāshānī it is far more prominent. Moreoever, his scientific style and analytic approach stand in stark contrast to that of his predecessor. Both are the result of a pedagogical concern that supercedes commentative fidelity. However, though it is undeniable that al-Qāshānī's style is far more didactic, it more than just that, it is the forging of a new worldview - one that is completely congruent with, but still subtly different from, that of Ibn 'Arabī. But in order to elucidate this, it is necessary to analyse relevant aspects of Ibn 'Arabī's thought. In attempting to excavate these and other nuances of difference, I have been influenced by the method of Toshihiko Izutsu in using a term, huwiyya, as a window in to the thought and cosmology of Ibn 'Arabī and al-Qāshānī. I have also been influenced by Ronald Nettler's approach in Sufi Metaphysics and Qur'ānic Prophets, where Ibn 'Arabi's thought is rigorously pursued to expose underlying assumptions and arguments. I have used these approaches in my own way, and towards my own interpretative analysis which compares the works of Ibn 'Arabī and al-Qāshāni. Furthermore, I have supplemented this type of analysis, which is primary source based (and appears as such in the works of both Izutsu and Nettler) with secondary material to provide a broader context of the rationale behind the differences in style and content between the master and his disciple.