Transcript Modern Quranic Interpretation

Modern Quranic
Interpretation
Quranic Interpretation/
Tafsir
• Tafsir bi’l-ma’thur or bi’l-ma’qul
– Classical scholars say interpretation only based on personal reason (ra’y) is prohibited… it
must accord with and be backed up by transmitted material
• Ta’wil/Interpretation vs. Tafsir: “It is He who revealed the Book in it are strongly
establishes ayat these are the Mother of the Book and others that are ambiguous
and those who have misguidance in their hearts they follow the ambiguous of it
seeking to cause dissention and seeking its ta’wil and none knows its ta’wil except
God and those firm in knowledge they say ‘We believe in it, all if it comes from our
Lord’ and none remembers this but those possessed of reason. (3:7)
– Where does the comma go? Who can know?
• Muhammad b. al-Sa’ib al-Kalbi (d. 763) attributes to Ibn Abbas (d.
688): “The Quran was [revealed] in four aspects: tafsir [the literal
meaning?], which scholars know; Arabic with which the Arabs are
acquainted; lawful and unlawful, of which it is not permissible for
people to be unaware; and tawil [the deeper meaning?] that only God
knows.” Ibn Abbas also says that ta’wil is “what will be (ma huwa
ka’in).”
• Al-Maturidi: “The tafsir belongs to the Companions, the tawil to the
scholars ( fuqaha), because the companions saw the events and knew
the circumstances of the revelation of the Quran”
Early Tafsir Types
• Explanation of words and circumstances: derived from Ibn
Abbas, Mujahid, Qatada, Ali b. Abi Talha
– Collections: Muhammad b. Saib al-Kalbi and Muqatil b.
Sulayman (d. 767)
• Grammar/Language Works: Ma’ani al-Quran by al-Farra’ (d.
822)
• Stories of the Prophets: ex. Tafsir of al-Dahhak b. Muzahim
of Balkh (d. 723), al-Suddi
Later Tafsir Genres
• Asbab al-nuzul: ex. of al-Wahidi (d. 1075)
• Summa Works: linguistic, historical, and theological
orientations; ex. al-Tabari (d. 923), al-Zamakhshari (d.
1144) al-Razi (d. 1210)
• Ahkam al-Quran works: ex. al-Jassas (d. 980)
• Mystical Tafsirs: al-Sulami (d. 1022) and Ibn Arabi (d.
1240)
Modern Tafsir
• Continuations of Classical Genre: Ruh al-ma’ani of Mahmud al-Alusi
(d. 1854)
• Modernist Tafsir:
– the Quran as its own best interpreter ex. Muhamad Abduh (d. 1905); Azad ‘let
the Quran disclose its own reality’
• Revolutionary/Activist: Sayyid Qutb (d. 1966) and Ali Shariati (d.
1977)
• Literary Critical Analysis: ex. Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd
• Quran-Only Movement: M. Tawfiq Sidqi (d. 1920) in Egypt and
Abdallah Chakralawi (d. 1930) in India
Sayyid Qutb
• From literary critic to fundamentalist… thanks to prison… executed
1966
• Islam as ideal, authentic system: social justice w/out Communist
atheism; freedom w/out limitless toleration of the West
• Shariah vs. Fiqh
• Reflective reading of the Quran… his own understanding of God’s
words
– First 16/30 volumes written before entering prison in 1954, the rest from
prison
• Tawhid vs. Shirk / Jahiliyya vs. Islam (emerges in 1964)
Ali Shariati
• Tawhid, Shirk & Hijra: tawhid as radical social equality, bringing all
under God’s justice vs. Shirk = deifying of human institutions and
injustices… Hijra transition between the two
• “Life is conviction and struggle and nothing more. Look at the
Companions of the Prophet, they were all men of the sword,
concerned with improving their society, men of justice.”
• Quran as revolution for the masses: the Quran “begins in the name of
God and ends in the name of the masses (al-nas)”
Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd
• Famous Book: Mafhum al-nass
• Quran is eminently tied to interpretation; no objective
meaning… speech act 
• Divine speech subject to rules of human interpretation
because it became temporal, limited in a time and place
• Interpreter is essential component of meaning  will always
change/not fixed
• Influence of Ibn Arabi: infinite meanings?
• Critique of religious authority
Abu’l-Kalam Azad
• Muslim political activist against British in India – joins Indian
National Party against Muslim League
• Against narrow communalism: hijra as internal, spiritual
• Rejection of Scholasticism: “Had Imam Razi chosen to
represent what exactly the Quran stood for, at least two thirds
of what he wrote would have been left unwritten.”
Friday Question
Quran and Science
Miraculous school: Rida?
Compatibility School: Khan
Not-Interested School: azad