"Clarifying the Divine Teachings for Thee"

The Qurʾānic relationship with the Bible has been the subject of extensive scholarship, but this scholarship is usually detached from consideration of the Qur’ān's self-representation. It is often overlooked how the Qur’ān itself considers its context, its audience, & its relationship to other texts.
My presentation will examine the relationship between the Qur'an and the Bible from the perspective of the Qur’ān itself. Based on the Semitic rhetoric present in these texts, I will attempt to focus on six Qurʾānic verses (Q 5:15, 5:19, 5:48, 16:44-45, 16:63-64, 27:76) which have the implication that “raison d'être of the Qurʾānic revelation is to elucidate controversial parts of the earlier scriptures”. The idea proposed here not only highlights one of the most significant dimensions of the Qur’ān’s relationship to the biblical tradition, but also provides a bridge between traditional Islamic studies of the Qur’ān and recent scholarship on the study of the Qur’ān during Late Antiquity.