The Concept of Divine Revelation (waḥy) in Classical Islam: from the Semantics of the Term to the Theology of Divine Speech

   The article presents a systematic analysis of the nature of divine revelation (waḥy) in the Islamic tradition at the intersection of three dimensions: lexical- semantic, historico- biographical, and theological. Based on early Arabic lexicography (al- Khalīl, Ibn Manẓūr) and pre-Islamic poetry, the semantic core of the root w–ḥ–y is reconstructed as hidden intentional communication. The study systemizes the 78 Qur’ānic occurrences of the lexeme waḥy and identifi es its semantic registers, using Q. 42: 51 as the basic typology of the modes of waḥy. А functional distinction is drawn between waḥy and tanzīl. The ontology of revelation, as formulated in the doctrine of double descent (al- Lawḥ al- Maḥfūẓ — Bayt al-Izza — the earth), is reconstructed. The article examines the classical debate on the createdness and uncreatedness of the Qur’ān, the Ash‘arī distinction between kalām nafsī and kalām lafẓī, and the concept of i‘jāz as a theological consequence of the accepted model of waḥy. It substantiates the comparability of the doctrine of double descent and the Ash‘arī distinction: both models differentiate between the pre-eternal status of the Qur’ān and its historical and linguistic manifestation. Overall, this allows us to consider waḥy not as a term with a single meaning, but as a semantic field within which the сlassical schools address the issue of the correlation between the divine and the linguistic dimensions of revelation in different ways.

1. Abubakarov S. M. (2022). Problema otkroveniia (waḥy) i ontologicheskogo statusa Korana v trudakh islamskikh myslitelei-neomodernistov: na primere F. Rakhmana i N. Kh. Abu Zaida [The Issue of Revelation (waḥy) and the Ontological Status of the Qur’ān in the Writings of Neo-Modern Islamic Thinkers: The Cases of F. Rahman and N. H. Abu Zayd]. Master’s thesis, scientific adviser D. V. Mukhetdinov. St Petersburg: St Petersburg State University. 85 p. Retrieved from: https://dspace.spbu.ru/handle/11701/41161 (06. 02. 2026). (In Russian)

2. Abu Zayd N. Kh. (2020). Koran kak protsess kommunikatsii mezhdu Bogom i chelovekom [The Qur’ān: God and Man in Communication]. Islamskaia mysl’: traditsiia i sovremennost’ [Islamic Thought: Tradition and Modernity]. D. V. Mukhetdinov (ed.-in-chief), S. Yu. Boroday (ed.), and [et al.]. Moscow: “Medina” Publ. Iss. 4, pp. 293–322. (In Russian)

3. Abū Zayd, Naṣr Ḥāmid. (2014). Mafhūm al-naṣṣ: dirāsa fī ‘ulūm al- Qur’ān [The Concept of the Text: A Study of the Qur’anic Sciences]. al- Dār al-Bayḍā’; al-Maghrib: al- Markaz al-Thaqāfī al-‘Arabī Publ. 328 p. (In Arabic)

4. Afsaruddin A. (2020). The Vocabulary of Revelation: Divine Intent and Self-Disclosure in the Qur’an. Journal of Qur’anic Studies. Vol. 22. No. 1, pp. 192–215. DOI: 10.3366/jqs.2020.0416

5. Ahlwardt W. (1870). The Divans of the Six Ancient Arabic Poets: Ennābiga, ’Antara, Tharafa, Zuhair, ’Alqama and Imruulqais. London: Trübner & Co. 232 p.

6. [Ali A. Yu.]. (2015). Sviashchennyi Koran. Smyslovoi perevod s kommentariiami [The Holy Qur’ān: A Commentated Interpretive Translation]. Mukhetdinov D. V. (ed.-in-chief). Moscow: “Medina” Publ. 1888 p. (In Russian; In Arabic)

7. Al- Bāqillānī, Abū Bakr Muḥammad b. al-Ṭayyib. (1997). I‘jāz al-Qur’ān [The Inimitability of the Qur’an]. Al-Sayyid Aḥmad Ṣaqr (ed.). 5^th ed. Cairo: Dār al-Ma‘ārif Publ. 314 p. Retrieved from: https://shamela.ws/book/953/342#p1 (04. 03. 2026). (In Arabic)

8. Al-Bayhaqī, Aḥmad b. al-Ḥusayn. (1401 AH / 1980 AD). Al- I‘tiqād wa-l-hidāya ilā sabīl al-rashād ‘alā madhhab al-salaf wa-aṣḥāb al-ḥadīth [Belief and Guidance to the Path of Right Conduct according to the Way of the Salaf and the People of Hadith]. Aḥmad ‘Iṣām al-Kātib (ed.). Beirut: Dār al-Āfāq al-Jadīda Publ. 376 p. Retrieved from: https://shamela.ws/book/12997/55 (04. 03. 2026). (In Arabic)

9. Al- Farāhīdī, Abū ‘Abd al-Raḥmān al-Khalīl b. Aḥmad. Kitāb al-‘Ayn [The Book of ‘Ayn]. (n. d.). M. al-Makhzūmī, I. al-Sāmarrā’ī (eds.). Baghdad: Dār wa-Maktabat al- Hilāl Publ. Vol. 3. 440 p. (In Arabic)

10. Al-Jurjānī, ‘Abd al-Qāhir b. ‘Abd al-Raḥmān b. Muḥammad. (1375 AH / 1955 AD). Dalā’il al-i‘jāz [Proofs of Inimitability]. Maḥmūd Muḥammad Shākir (ed. and comm.). Cairo: Maktabat al- Khānjī Publ. 684 + 36: il. (In Arabic)

11. Al-Suyūṭī, Jalāl al- Dīn. (1426 AH / 2005 AD). Al-Itqān fī ‘ulūm al-Qur’ān[The Perfect Guide to the Sciences of the Qur’an]. Markaz al-Dirāsāt al-Qur’āniyya (ed.). Medina: Majma‘ al-Malik Fahd li-Ṭibā‘at al-Muṣḥaf al-Sharīf Publ. Vol. 1. 335 p. (In Arabic)

12. Al-Suyuti, Jalal al-Din. (2001). Sovershenstvo v koranicheskikh naukakh [The Perfect Guide to the Sciences of the Qur’an]. Iss. 2: The Doctrine of the Sending Down of the Qur’an. Moscow: “Muravei” Publ. 272 p. (In Russian)

13. Al-Tabrīzī, Yaḥyā b. ‘Alī (1352 AH / 1933 AD). Sharḥ al-qaṣā’id al-‘ashr [Commentary on the Ten Odes]. 2^nd ed. Cairo: Idārat al-Ṭibā‘a al-Munīriyya Publ. 335 p. Retrieved from: https://shamela.ws/book/37488/129 (01. 04. 2026). (In Arabic)

14. Badawi E. M., Abdel Haleem M. (2008). Arabic- English Dictionary of Qur’ānic Usage. Leiden: Brill. 1069 p.

15. Bigiev M. (2021). O Blagorodnom Korane (fragment) [On the Noble Qur’ān: A Fragment]. A. G. Khairutdinov (transl. from Turkish, introd. and notes). Islamskaia mysl’: traditsiia i sovremennost’ [Islamic Thought: Tradition and Modernity]. D. V. Mukhetdinov (ed.-in-chief), S. Yu. Boroday (ed.), and [et al.]. Moscow: “Medina” Publ. Iss. 5, pp. 157–196. (In Russian)

16. Gaynutdinov R. I., Izmaylov R. R. (2026). Kratkii obzor rannei istorii stanovleniia khanafitskoi verouchitel’noi shkoly na territorii Rossii (X–XV vv.) [A Brief Overview of the Early History of the Formation of the Ḥanafī School of ‘Aqīda on the Territory of Russia (10^th-15^th Centuries)]. Islam v sovremennom mire [Islam in the modern world]. Vol. 22. No. 1, pp. 83–102. (In Russian); DOI: 10.22311/2074-1529-2026-22-1-83-102

17. Graham W. A. (1977). Divine Word and Prophetic Word in Early Islam: A Reconsideration of the Sources, with Special Reference to the Divine Saying or Hadîth Qudsî. The Hague; Paris: Mouton. xvii, 266 p.

18. Hurvitz N. (2002). The Formation of Hanbalism: Piety into Power. London; New York: Routledge. 224 p.

19. Ibn Hishām, ‘Abd al- Malik b. Hishām. (1955). Al- Sīra al-Nabawiyya [The Prophetic Biography]. In 2 vols. Muṣṭafā al- Saqqā (ed.), Ibrāhīm al-Abyārī (ed.), ‘Abd al-Ḥafīẓ Shalabī (ed.). 2^nd ed. Cairo: Shirkat Maktabat wa- Maṭba‘at Muṣṭafā al-Bābī al-Ḥalabī wa- Awlāduhu Publ. Vol. 1. 716 p. Retrieved from: https://shamela.ws/book/23833/260 (05. 03. 2026). (In Arabic)

20. Ibn Khisham. (2007). Zhizneopisanie Proroka Mukhammada [The Life of the Prophet Muhammad]. N. A. Gainullin (transl. from Arabic). Moscow: Umma Publ. 656 p. (In Russian)

21. Ibn Isḥāq, Muḥammad. (1398 AH / 1978 AD). Al-Sīra [The Biography]. Suhayl Zakkār (ed.). Beirut: Dār al-Fikr Publ. 381 p. Retrieved from: https://shamela.ws/book/9862/115 (22. 01. 2026). (In Arabic)

22. Ibn Manẓūr, Muḥammad b. Mukarram. (1414 AH / 1993 AD). Lisān al-‘Arab [The Tongue of the Arabs]. 3^rded. Beirut: Dār Ṣādir Publ. Vol. 15. 494 p. Retrieved from: https://shamela.ws/book/1687/7988 (22. 02. 2026). (In Arabic)

23. Ibrahim T. (2022). Imena Boga soglasno islamu: Koranicheskii indeks [The Names of God According to Islam : A Qur’anic Index]. Moscow: Institut vostokovedeniia Rossiiskoi akademii nauk Publ. [; Izdatel’skii dom “Medina” Publ.]. 800 p. (In Russian)

24. Ibrahim T. K., Sagadeev A. V. (1991). Miḥna. Islam. Entsiklopedicheskii slovar’ [Islam. An Encyclopedic Dictionary]. Moscow: Nauka Publ. P. 166. (In Russian)

25. Islam cherez prizmu khadisov [Islam through the Prism of Hadith] (2021). In 8 vols. Vol. 2. Mukhetdinov D. V. (ed.-in-chief), Khairetdinov D. Z., Sibgatullina A. T. (resp. eds.); transl. from Turkish. Moscow: ID “Medina” Publ. 552 p. (In Russian)

26. Izutsu T. (2008). God and Man in the Qur’an: Semantics of the Qur’anic Weltanschauung. 1^sted. Tokyo: Keio University Press, 1964; repr. Kuala Lumpur: Islamic Book Trust. 292 p.

27. Lane E. W. (n. d.). An Arabic- English Lexicon. Retrieved from: https://lexicon.quranic- research.net/data/27_w/059_wHe.html (25. 04. 2026).

28. Leirvik O. (2015). Waḥy and Tanzīl. Modern Islamic Approaches to Divine Inspiration, Progressive Revelation, and Human Text. Studia Theologica — Nordic Journal of Theology. Vol. 69. No. 2, pp. 101–125. DOI: 10.1080/0039338X.2015.1081617

29. Lewin B. (1978). A Vocabulary of the Hudailian Poems. Göteborg: Elanders Boktryckeri Aktiebolag. vii, 484 p.

30. Loynes S. P. (2021). Revelation in the Qur’an: A Semantic Study of the Roots n-z-l and w-ḥ-y. Leiden; Boston: Brill. ix, 181 p.

31. Madelung W. (1974). The Origins of the Controversy concerning the Creation of the Koran. Orientalia Hispanica, Barral J. M. (ed.). Leiden: Brill. Vol. 1, pp. 504–525.

32. Madigan D. (2001). The Qur’ān’s Self- Image: Writing and Authority in Islam’s Scripture. Princeton: Princeton University Press. xv, 236 p.

33. Madigan D. (2004). Revelation and Inspiration. Encyclopaedia of the Qur’ān, McAuliff e J. D. (gen. ed.). Leiden; Boston: Brill. Vol. 4, pp. 437–448.

34. Martin R. C. (1980). The Role of the Basrah Mu‘tazilah in Formulating the Doctrine of the Apologetic Miracle. Journal of Near Eastern Studies. Vol. 39. No. 3, pp. 175–189.

35. Melchert C. (2006). Ahmad ibn Hanbal. Oxford: Oneworld. 188 p.

36. Michot Y. (2008). Revelation. The Cambridge Companion to Classical Islamic Theology, Winter T. (ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 180–196.

37. Mukhetdinov D. V. (2023). Teologiia obnovleniia. Islamskii neomodernizm i problema traditsii [The Theology of Renewal: Islamic Neo- Modernism and the Problem of Tradition]. Moscow: “Medina” Publ. 736 p. (In Russian)

38. Mukhetdinov D. V. (2025). Programma obnovleniia. Islakh va tadzhdid (islamskoe reformatorstvo) [The Program of Renewal: Islah wa-Tajdid (Islamic Reformism)]. Moscow: “Medina” Publ. 152 p. (In Russian)

39. Musa I. (2017). Fazlur Rakhman: zhizn’ i uchenie [Fazlur Rahman: Life and Teaching]. Islamskaia mysl’: traditsiia i sovremennost’ [Islamic Thought: Tradition and Modernity]. D. V. Mukhetdinov (ed.-in-chief), S. Yu. Boroday (ed.), and [et al.]. Moscow: “Medina” Publ. Iss. 2, pp. 64–97. (In Russian)

40. Nawas J. A. (1994). A Reexamination of Three Current Explanations for al-Ma’mūn’s Introduction of the Miḥna. International Journal of Middle East Studies. Vol. 26. No. 4, pp. 615–629.

41. Ovsjannikov D. V. (2026). Sovremennye musul’manskie teologicheskie podkhody k fenomenu Bozhestvennogo Otkroveniia i soprichastiia s nim. Otklik na: Divine Revelation and Communication: Contemporary Muslim Theological Approaches. Ed. by C. Turner. Berlin; London: Gerlach Press, 2025. 330 p. [Modern Muslim Theological Approaches to the Phenomenon of Divine Revelation and Communion with It. An Essay on: Divine Revelation and Communication: Contemporary Muslim Theological Approaches. Ed. by C. Turner. Berlin; London: Gerlach Press, 2025, 330 pp.]. Ishrak. Zhurnal islamskoi fi losofi i [Ishraq. Islamic Philosophy Journal]. Vol. 4. No. 1, pp. 75–80. (In Russian); DOI: 10.21146/2949-1126-2026-4-1-75-80

42. Ozalp M. (2025). Quranic Framework for waḥy as Revelation: Four Levels of God’s Communication with His Creation. Divine Revelation and Communication: Contemporary Muslim Theological Approaches, Turner C. (ed.). Berlin; London: Gerlach Press, pp. 5–31.

43. Patton W. M. (1897). Aḥmed Ibn Ḥanbal and the Miḥna: A Biography of the Imām Including an Account of the Moḥammedan Inquisition Called the Miḥna, 218–234 A. H. Leiden: E. J. Brill. 209 p.

44. The Quranic Arabic Corpus (n. d.). Retrieved from: https://corpus.quran.com/qurandictionary.jsp?root=wHy (25. 04. 2026).

45. Rezvan E. A. (1991). Waḥy. Islam. Entsiklopedicheskii slovar’ [Islam. An Encyclopedic Dictionary]. Moscow: Nauka Publ. P. 50. (In Russian)

46. Rezvan E. A. (1991). al-Lawḥ al- Maḥfūẓ. Islam. Entsiklopedicheskii slovar’ [Islam. An Encyclopedic Dictionary]. Moscow: Nauka Publ., pp. 146–147. (In Russian)

47. Rezvan E. A. (2001). Koran i ego mir [The Qur’ān and Its World]. St Petersburg: Peterburgskoe vostokovedenie Publ. 608 p. (In Russian)

48. Rudolph U. (2015). Al-Māturīdī and the Development of Sunnī Theology in Samarqand, R. Adem (transl.). Leiden; Boston: Brill. 442 p.

49. Rudolph U. (1999). Al- Māturīdī i sunnitskaia teologiia v Samarkande [Al-Māturīdī and Sunnī Theology in Samarqand]. L. Trutanova (transl. from German), O. Lukin (ed.). Almaty: Fond “XXI vek” Publ. 286 p. (In Russian)

50. Saeed A. (1999). Rethinking ‘Revelation’ as a Precondition for Reinterpreting the Qur’ān: A Qur’anic Perspective. Journal of Qur’anic Studies. Vol. 1. No. 1, pp. 93–114.

51. Vasalou S. (2002). The Miraculous Eloquence of the Qur’an: General Trajectories and Individual Approaches. Journal of Qur’anic Studies. Vol. 4. No. 2, pp. 23–53. DOI: 10.3366/jqs.2002.4.2.23

52. Watt W. M. (1973). The Formative Period of Islamic Thought. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. xii, 424 p.

53. Zellentin H. (2022). Review of Simon P. Loynes, Revelation in the Qur’an: A Semantic Study of the Roots n-z-l and w-ḥ-y. Review of Qur’anic Research. Vol. 8. No. 4, pp. 37–45. DOI: 10.5913/rqr2022v8.04.