Translation and Analysis of the Entry on ‘Hijra’ in the Leiden’s Encyclopedia of the Quran

The Holy Qurʾān is the book of Muslims and the miracle of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (s), and has long attracted the attention of both Muslim and non-Muslim scholars and researchers. The Leiden Encyclopedia of the Qurʾān is one of the products of research done by Orientalists on this heavenly scripture. Considering the Orientalist approach to Islam and the Qurʾān provides new areas of research and study for Muslims, while also giving them the opportunity to respond to doubts and misgivings. The entry on ‘emigration’ (hijra) in this encyclopedia has been written by Mohammed al-Faruque, and in it he explores the concept of emigration in divine verses. The present paper has translated and analyzed this entry using library-based sources with a descriptive-analytic approach. The positive points and merits of this entry are: the author’s approach is fair, expressive and fluent, correct references to the verses, careful scrutiny of lexical meanings, and referring to other related entries. However, at the same time, it is not without flaws. Some of its weaknesses include: mistakes in referral to sources, lack of adequate explanation, not relating the differing opinions, lack of precision in expression, citation of anomalous opinions and lack of reference to multiple sources. The result of this is that part of its contents are not sufficiently convincing.