Living by the Qur’an: Islam scholar Jonathan Brown

Jonathan Brown is the author of Mis­quoting Muhammad: The Challenge and Choices of Inter­preting the Prophet’s Legacy, a book that examines the ways that Islamic scriptures are interpreted in the modern world. Brown is a professor of Islamic studies at Georgetown University and professor of Muslim-Christian Understanding in Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service.

Could you give me an overview of scripture in the Islamic tradition?

The Abrahamic traditions are all similar structurally. They all have a central written text, and surrounding that text, a variety of secondary scriptures that emerge out of the questions of interpretation.