This is a lightly edited version of the keynote address Professor Nagel originally intended to deliver at the conference “Islamic Stories of the Prophets: Semantics, Discourse, and Genre” (Università degli Studi di Napoli L’Orientale, Naples, October 14–15, 2015). Although he was unable to attend the conference, he has graciously granted us permission to include the paper as part of this issue of Mizan: Journal for the Study of Muslim Societies and Civilizations.