Al-Kawthar and Abraham

Q 108, Surat al-Kawthar, is one of the most enigmatic chapters of the Qurʾān. Abdel Haleem translates it: (1) We have truly given abundance (al-kawthar) to you [Prophet], (2) so pray to your Lord and make your sacrifice to Him alone, (3) it is the one who hates you who has been cut off (al-abtar). The common understanding is that the addressee is the Prophet, and that he is given al-Kawthar (v. 1), variously interpreted as: abundant good; a river in paradise the vessels of which are as numerous as the stars; a vast following; a pool; prophethood; the Qurʾān. The "one who hates" is identified with several figures, the foremost being the Prophet's Meccan opponent al-ʿĀṣ ibn Wāʾil, and al-abtar, translated by Abdel Haleem as "cut off," is regarded in the exegetical material as: one who dies behind leaving no male offspring; one cut off from others; one who has no good in him; one who is despised. In this paper I offer a new interpretation of Q 108. I take the addressee here to be both the Prophet and Abraham, a paramount figure in the Qurʾān. I interpret al-Kawthar as the vast progeny promised to Abraham in Genesis. I take v. 2 to refer to the sacrifice of Abraham's son. The hater/enemy in v. 3 I take to be an amalgam of figures found in the Book of Jubilees, the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Midrash, and the Babylonian Talmud all of whom either instigate the test of sacrifice against Abraham or actively try to dissuade him from following God's command. In this reading, the Prophet acts as the mouth-piece of the Divine, relaying to his audience a conversation between God and the well-known patriarch Abraham; in the process, the Prophet is Abrahamized. I conclude by offering suggestions about other chapters in which we might read a second addressee besides the Prophet, such as Q 93 and Q 94.