Gnostic Apocalypse and Islam

In his Gnostic Apocalypse and Islam, Todd Lawson provides a rich and multifacetedexploration of an unconventional exegetical text by Ali MuhammadShirazi (d. 1850), more prominently known as the Bab. The text in questionis 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 importanttext for understanding the rise of Babism, a messianic new religiousmovement 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 isalso a valuable contribution to tafs¥r studies and the burgeoning field of Muslimapocalyptic 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 deeplyconnected 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 examplesprovided is that the chapters of the Tafs¥r are called s´rahs, the text hasprostration (sajdah) markers, each s´rah opens with the basmalah, and nearlyall of them have disconnected letters at their beginning. In Lawson’s ownwords, “…it is clear from the structure of the work that the author is introducinga new scripture or revelation by means of the Trojan horse of exegesis” (p. 22) ...