L’auteur

Sarra Tlili est professeur adjoint de langue et de littérature arabes à l’Université de Floride. Elle a obtenu son doctorat en arabe et en études islamiques à l’Université de Pennsylvanie en 2009, avec une thèse sur la nature et le statut des animaux dans le Coran, sous la direction du professeur Joseph Lowry. (Source www.languages.ufl.edu/news.html)

Présentation

The Qur’an has been regarded as an anthropocentric text, in which humans occupy a privileged status in the hierarchy of beings. The idea that from a Qur’anic perspective humans are superior to other species is also reflected in various Islamic literatures. This perception is not, however, supported by a close reading of the Qur’an, which not only presents nonhuman animals as complex beings, but also considers them superior to most humans. In this dissertation, I undertake a contextual reading of the Qur’an, whereby the study of its animal themes is performed in conjunction with the study of their interpretations offered in selected works from the Islamic exegetical tradition (tafsir ). After surveying views about the status and perceived nature of nonhuman animals in a number of world religions, philosophical schools, and Islamic intellectual disciplines and introducing the tafsir genre, I move to the discussion of Qur’anic animal themes traditionally thought to convey nonhuman animals’ inferiority to humans. Among such themes there are, for example, the concepts of taskhir (usually interpreted as the subjugation of all creatures to humans) and istikhlaf (sometimes understood as humans’ representation of God on earth). For these and similar concepts, I propose alternative interpretations grounded mostly in lexical analyses and contextual usages. I also discuss the portrayal of nonhuman animals in the Qur’an, whereby I deal with themes such as nonhuman animals’ spirituality, rationality, language, morality, perspective, resurrection, and accountability. Finally, I discuss the portrayal of humans in the Qur’an and the Qur’anic criteria for assigning status. Analysis of the concept of tafd[dotbelow]il (usually understood as preferment), regarded as one of the clearest indications that God in the Qur’an prefers humans to other animals, indicates that the idea of preferment is not intended in it, and that the status emanating from tafd[dotbelow]il , if any, is of a transient nature. From a Qur’anic perspective, meaningful status, which ultimately translates into God’s pleasure or displeasure and reward or punishment in the hereafter, needs to be earned, and is not contingent on species membership.

(Source Sarra Tlili, "From an ant’s perspective : The status and nature of animals in the Qur’an" (January 1, 2009). Dissertations available from ProQuest. Paper AAI3363677. http://repository.upenn.edu/dissert…)