The Christian Audience of the Qur'an from the Opinions of Western Qur'anic Scholars; A Case Study of the Sydney Griffith Perspective

One of the issues raised in the historical interpretation of the Qur'an, is knowing the audience of this divine book. In this meantime, Western scholars have further investigated Christian audience of the Qur'an: Does the Qur'an speak to a particular sect or group of Christians? If so, which sect? In the present article, the views of a number of Western Quranic scholars are examined in three areas and the view of Sidney Griffith is emphasized. He believes that the Christian audience of the Qur'an should be the same sects familiar in Islamic sources, namely "Nestorians", "Jacobites" or "Melkites", Not the Judeo-Christian groups suggested by some other Western scholars.From Griffith's point of view, the Qur'an conveys the views of Christians, often orally in its contex and criticizes them. Therefore, it cannot be said that the Qur'an has been influenced or borrowed from them. Griffith's view seems to be particularly so is not based on the hypothesis of the Qur'an being influenced by previous sources, also because the audience the Qur'an assume to be well-known and contemporary groups with the advent of Islam, compared with the views of those who consider the addressees of the Qur'an as Judeo-Christian in early Christianity, as well as believers in the Philoponian trinity in Najran which raised by C. Jonn Block, it is closer to the views of Muslims.