Interpretations (Tafsir) Of The Qur’anic Context: A Discourse – Part Two
By Dr
Uzma Khatoon, New Age Islam
20 July
2023
Abstract
The primacy of the Qur’an in the Muslim world
has always been accepted. In modern period, renewed emphasis has been placed by
the Muslim scholars on the Qur’an as a source of guidance. Due to this change
and emphasis, it become a challenge to many facet of the accepted tradition,
the theological, legal other spheres. In recent years, different approaches to
the Qur'an and the Muslim exegetical works reflect a wide variety of methods,
presuppositions, focuses of interests and substantive conclusions. The various
interpretations of the Qur'an belong to different stages of the intellectual
history of Islam, and reflect in themselves the development of Islamic thought.
In this paper I intended to examine how to different interpreters tried to
examine and rethinking of the context of the Qur’an. I will also try to examine
very briefly different feminist approach in this regard.
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Relating
the Qur’an to the Modern Muslim
Several
reformist thinkers of the modern period strived to fill the gap between the
Qur’an and the everyday life of Muslims that had been caused by the decline of
the Qur’anic teaching in a legal manner. One of their main caused was the
distance between the Qur’an and young Muslims who were deeply impressed by the
achievements of Western civilization. In the twentieth century, these Muslims
often studied at Western universities, learnt European languages, such as
French, English and German. Through this medium they read widely in European
literature and thought and influenced by them. They were ignorant about the
Qur’an and traditional Islamic scholarship, including its discourse, language
and vocabulary.
Although,
Muslim scholars of a ‘modern approach’ who wanted to recapture the meaning of
the Qur’an for those who has were influenced by western thought. Such
modernist, Abu’l Ala Mawdudi (d. 1979), a well-known Pakistani scholar and
founder of the neo-revivalist Jamaat Islami, explained in the preface to his
famous Tafsir, Tafhim al-Qur’an that his principal aim in writing was the
explanation of the Qur’an to the young educated Muslim, not to the academics:
The present work is neither directed at
scholars and researchers, nor is it aimed at assisting those who, having
mastered the Arabic language and the Islamic religious sciences. His main aim
was to embark upon a thorough and elaborate study of the Qur’an. Such people
already have plenty of material at their disposal. Instead it is intended for
the lay reader, the average educated person, who is not well-versed in Arabic
and so is unable to make full use of the vast treasures to be found in
classical works on the Qur’an.
In a similar context, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad
have try to attempt to make the Qur’an fit a particular situation exactly, and
his genuine desire in the Tarjuman al-Qur’an to let the Qur’an speak to the
average Muslim. Azad shows that two main
concerns: first, that the Surah al- Fatiha, and hence his commentary upon it,
epitomizes the essential teaching of the Qur’an; secondly, that the translation
and his explanatory notes make possible the application of the Qur’an to the
daily lives of ordinary Muslims. He wrote:
I make bold to say that the greatest
contemporary hindrance in the way of the religious reform of Muslims has now
been removed. Even so, this was the only a beginning, he said. He wrote of the
need for many editions to be published, for other supplementary literature, for
a subject index, for references and a glossary of terms, for translation into
other languages. In short, he called for the establishment of a society to
carry out all such work. But he did not feel this was his personal
responsibility; his main objectives had been fulfilled.
Sayyid Qutub wrote his commentary (Fi Zilal
al-Qur’an) also to provide a fresh perspective on the relevance of the Qur’an
to the young of modern period Muslim of today. Qutub’s particular style of
writing, his uncompromising commitment to his view of Islam, and his portrayal
of many of the institutions of modern society as Jahiliyyah (akin to
pre-Islamic institutions, that is, non-Islamic), ensure for his commentary an
important place among those whose primary aim is to establish Islam as the
dominant socio-political force in Muslim societies. Qutub’s work, a good
example of a Tafsir of a personal reflective nature, is somewhat
divorced from standard exegetical tradition in its more free-flowing ideas
around the text; it draws in the modern world and its challenges, and refuses
to follow any early approach to Tafsir. It is, as the title suggests,
‘in the shade of the Qur’an’, and attempts to find relevance and meaning at a
personal and collective level for Muslims of the modern period. It is perhaps
this feature of the Tafsir that has provided the basis for the wide
acceptability of Zilal among many Muslim youth, particularly those
committed to the ideological orientation of the Muslim Brotherhood and similar
movements.
Reworked of the Ethico-legal Content of the
Qur’an
A
significant idea highly developed in the modern period has been that a number
of Qur’anic ethico-legal instructions were primarily intended for a specific
people in specific circumstances; that is, the Muslims of Hijaz of the early
first/seventh century. Thus, when these ethico-legal instructions are applied
to subsequent generations of Muslims whose social and historical context and
experience differ widely from that of the seventh-century Hijaz, some
consideration has to be given to the relevance of ethico-legal instructions in
the new environment. If this is the case, one can argue that each generation
may reach understandings of the Qur’an’s ethico-legal instructions that may
differ from the understandings of earlier generations. Consequently, new understandings of the
ethico-legal content of the Qur’an are a required product of a new age.
Two ideas
have been highly developed in support of the need for fresh understandings of
the Qur’an in different times and contexts in the modern period. First, for Ghulam Ahmad Parvez, a proponent
of the self-sufficiency of the Qur’an, Islam has a fixed core, but in application
is adaptable and fluid. This implies that the ‘texts of revelation do not have
a single, fixed meaning. Rather, each new generation can expect to find in the
Qur’an new treasures as their own capacity to understand its teaching grows.’ Second is the idea that the ethico-legal
instructions of the Qur’an can be approached at two levels: a surface one
related to putting into practice a specific ethico-legal instruction, and a
deeper one related to underlying reasons for such an instruction. The argument
is that the underlying reasons should determine whether the surface level
practice has to be followed to the letter strictly in all times, places and
contexts. If the underlying reasons for an ethico-legal instruction are
associated with specific social, historical, economic, political or other
circumstances, and if these circumstances no longer exist, then the practice of
that ethico-legal instruction may be left ‘suspended’ or ‘idle’. If
circumstances change again, the ethico-legal instruction may be reinstated.
This gives a prominent place to the underlying reason, an approach familiar to
classical Muslim jurists, as the debates on Hikmah amply demonstrate.
However, although earlier interpreters of the ethico-legal content of the
Qur’an were somewhat interested in the historical context of the revelation
through the medium of Asbab Al-Nuzul (occasions of revelation)
literature, they did not highlighted this context in the same way that
modern-day Contextualists do, who highlight the contextual nature of the Qur’an
in their argument for rethinking Qur’anic rulings, where such rulings are seen
to be inappropriate in the modern period.
Importance
Of Reason
An offshoot of this critical spirit was the
emphasis on reason in the interpretation of the ethico-legal content of the
Qur’an. For many scholars, reason should be seen as an important medium through
which God’s word is made intelligible to the human mind. For Ghulam Ahmad
Parvez(d. 1985), a modernist Muslim thinker, the Qur’an contained all the
necessary principles for practicing the Islamic conception of right belief and
action. The task of explaining those principles was to be assigned to both
reason and divinely sanctioned political authorities.
Irrational
or mythological views previously ascribed to the text by early Muslims were to
be discarded. An aspect of the emphasis on reason adopted in some modern
interpretations of the Qur’an, though not necessarily related to its
ethico-legal content, is the negation of miraculous or supernatural elements of
narratives found therein. Several modernist scholars attempted to ‘strip the
text 1of legendary traits and primitive notions’.
For
instance, Abduh, in his explanation of Q.2:63 in which the Qur’an refers to the
‘suspension’ of Mount Sinai (Wa Rafa˛na Fawqakum Al-Tur), interprets
this as referring to an earthquake (Wa Qad Yakun Dhalika Fi Al-Ayah Bi Darb
Min Al-Zilzal). Similarly, Sayyid
Qutub (d. 1966), in his commentary, Zilal, also seems to draw back from
the literal understanding of ‘suspension’. He states that the important point
in Q.2:63 is that it alludes to the image of the mountain above the people’s
heads. Other ‘mythical’ references, such
as to the people of Kahf (cave)
and the talking of birds and ants,
were given more ‘rational’ interpretations by modernist Muslim scholars,
such as Ghulam Ahmad Parvez and Khalifa Abdul Hakim (d. 1959). In emphasizing his rational approach, Ahmad
Khan believed that what the Qur’an contained was not contrary to nature. Miracles
were not to be seen as miracles, but as phenomena that followed laws of nature
but which people of the time were unable to see as acting according to those
laws. It is also a remarkable aspect of
Azad's understanding of the Qur'an that he has emphasized the Qur'anic appeal
to one's own judgement and the use of reason to arrive at the truth of the
Qur'anic message. Azad has, more than once, made it clear that the Qur'an
emphatically exhorts man to use reason and ponder over the signs of God found
within and without himself so that he may be directed to the right path. This
if call to reason and reflection, according to him, is one of the basic axioms
of the Qur'anic message of Truth. He points out:
"The primary and the most important
feature of the method of presentation followed by the Qur'an is the appeal to
reason that it makes. It lays repeated emphasis on the search for truth, on the
need of exercising one's reason and insight, of reflecting over the outward
experience of life and drawing valid conclusions. In fact, there is no chapter
in the Qur'an wherein it has not made an earnest appeal to man to reflect upon
everything.”
'On earth are signs for men of firm belief, and
also in your own selves, will ye not then notice them?' (LI:20-21)
Muhammad Iqbal of the Indian subcontinent
stated that the Qur’an contained what he called ‘legends’; an example of this
is his reference to the Qur’anic ‘legend’ of the fall. Tantawi Jawhari (d. 1940) of Egypt argued
that some ideas in the Qur’an were related to an outdated worldview; for
instance, the concept of seven heavens and seven earths (to which the Qur’an
refers a number of times) is, according to Tantawi Jawhari, part of an
antiquated worldview held by the Sabians, for whom the number seven was
important.
A number of Muslim feminists have recently
argued that it is important for Muslims to reread the Qur’an, such as Fatima
Mernissi, Amina Wadud Muhsin, Asma Barlas and Riffat Hasan have criticize the ‘male-oriented’ readings of
early and modern interpreters as being biased against women and as perpetuating
historical injustices against women. They argue that, if Muslim society is to
bring one-half of the Muslims to a respectable level of equality, the Qur’anic
rules and values concerning women must be understood and interpreted in the
light of the socio historical context of the time of revelation. Their argument
continues that if such contexts can change, so can the interpretations and
rulings derived from them.
The belief
is that, although the Qur’an improved the lot of women in first/seventh-century
Hijaz, many of its reforms were ignored or side-lined in its interpretation in
succeeding generations, with the result that women’s positions in most Muslim
societies actually worsened over the course of Islamic history. These Muslim
feminists are not interested in casting religion and scripture aside in order
to gain the rights they are seeking. Their most important tool is the Qur’an
itself and sustained arguments about how it should be read. Fatima
Mernissi(b.1940) a Moroccan sociologist,
attempts to present the case for re-reading in a number of her works.
She developed a critical approach to Islamic tradition over several years and
ventured into hitherto ‘taboo’ areas.
In a number
of her works, she examines the Qur’anic text in the light of hadith, focusing
on the biases of some of the Companions who narrated these hadith, particularly
those concerning women. She claims that
the Companions, at times, attributed their own views to the Prophet himself.
These biased hadith achieved dominance in the interpretation of the Qur’an1and
provided justification for Muslim theologians to retain the status quo regarding
women. Mernissi is at pains to ‘humanize’ the Companions and show them as
fallible, well beyond the ideal images developed in Sunni Islam and upheld to
the present day. Emphasizing that the Qur’anic message in relation to women was
probably lost in the cultural beliefs and practices of the seventh century CE
and beyond, Mernissi poses a rhetorical question: Is it possible that Islam’s
message had only a limited and superficial effect on deeply superstitious
seventh century Arabs who failed to integrate its novel approaches to the world
and to women?
Amina
Wadud(b.1952), an African-American Muslim and associate professor of Islamic
Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University. another Muslim feminist, also
argues for a return to the message of the original text. She argues that the
Qur’an is flexible enough to accommodate innumerable cultural situations.
Wadud’s approach is of a holistic nature, which she states is lacking in
traditional and many contemporary methods of interpretation. These have focused
on one verse at a time, and little effort has been “made to recognize themes
and to discuss the relationship of the Qur’an to itself, thematically.”
Asma Barlas(b.1958) a Pakistani scholar,
director of the centre for the study of culture, race and ethnicity of the
department of Politics at Ithaca College, New York. Barlas’ work discusses the
issue of textual polysemy and argues that it is in itself a Qur’anic value. She
avoids the potential for moral relativism by arguing that not all readings have
equal value. She argues that the Qur’an itself warns against “reading it in a
decontextualized, selective, and piecemeal way” and “confirms that some
meanings, thus some readings, are better than others.”
Apart from
Muslim feminists, several thinkers of the modern period have argued for fresh
approaches to the interpretation of the Qur’an and argued for a rethinking of
the interpretation of the ethico-legal texts. The literature on the
interpretation (both theoretical and applied) of ethico-legal texts in the
modern period indicates that there is a strong desire on the part of many
Muslims, scholars and laity alike, to find the relevance of the Qur’anic text
to contemporary issues without compromising the overall message of the Qur’an,
its value system or its essential beliefs and practices. In the twentieth century,
Muslim scholars made many attempts to demonstrate the relevance of the Qur’an
to contemporary life. Reformist thinkers, such as Muhammad Iqbal (d. 1938),
Hasan al-Banna (d. 1949), (d. 1979), Murtaza Mutahhari (d. 1979), Fazlur Rahman
(d. 1988) and Ayatollah Khomeini (d. 1989), Nasr Hamid Abu Zaid (b.1943),
Muhammad Arkaun (b.1928), Aisha ‘Abd al- Rahman Bint al-Shati (d.1998), argued
that the Qur’anic text is relevant to the modern period and is the basis on
which any reform project must be attempted.
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References
And Notes:
The Makkah school of exegesis was founded by
Ibn Abbas and was the most influential in Qur’anic exegesis. He was the
Prophet’s paternal cousin and well known for his extensive knowledge of the
Qur’an, Arabic language, Pre-Islamic poetry, Arabic History and culture
Arthur J. Arberry, trans., The Koran
Interpreted, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1964). "That is the Book,
wherein is no doubt, a guidance to the god-fearing." 2:3 "...There
has come to you from God a light, and a Book
Manifest
whereby God guides whosever follows His good pleasure in the ways of
peace,..."5:17-8
Maulana Aslam Jairajpuri, Hamaray Dini ‘Ulum,
Maktaba Jamia Ltd.Delhi, 1989, p.31.
Al-Quran, 75:19.
Ibid., 16:44.
Ghulam Ahmad Hariri, Tarikh-i-Tafsir wa
Mufasirin, Taj Company Delhi, N.D. p.4.
Jairajpuri, op.cit., p.21.
Hariri, op.cit., p.5.
Syed Shahid Ali, Urdu Tafasir Biswin Sadi
Mein, Kitab-i-Duniya, New Delhi, 2001, p.7.
Al-Quran, 14:4.
Abdullah Saeed, Interpreting the Qur’an:
Towards a Contemporary Approach, New York: 2006, pp.9-10
Ibid.,p.10
13 Ignaz
Goldziher, Introduction to Islamic Theology and Law, trans. Andras and Ruth
Hamori, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1981.
Joseph Schacht, An Introduction to Islamic
Law, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1964
Shah Waliullah, The Conclusive Argument from
God, trans. Marcia K.Hermansen, Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1996, p. xxviii.
J.M.S. Baljon, Modern Muslim Koran
Interpretation, Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1961,p. 2.
J.M.S. Baljon, Religion and Thought of Shah
Wali Allah, Leiden: E.J. Brill,1986, p. 165.
Waliullah, al Shah -Fawz al-Kabir fi usul
al-tafsir, Bayrut: Dar al-Basha’ir, 1407/1987, p. 112.
Ibid., p.108
The work began in 1879 and was left
unfinished at the time of his death in 1898.
Troll , C.W. Sayyid Ahmad Khan: A
Reinterpretation of Muslim Theology, New Delhi: Vikas Publ. House, 1978, pp.
144–170.
Muhammad Rashid Rida and Muhammad ˛Abduh,
Tafsir al-Qur’an al-hakim al-shahir bi-tafsir al-Manar, 12 vols, Bayrut: Dar
al-Ma˛rifah, n.d., vol. I, p. 24.
Ibid.,p.19
Ibid., p.19
Abu’l Kalam Azad, Tarjuman al-Qur’an, (Urdu),
vol. I, Sahitya Academy, Delhi, 1964, pp.366-378
Mir, Mustansir , Coherence in The Qur’an: A
Study of Islahi’s Concept of Nazm in Tadabbur-i-Qur’an, American Trust
Publication,1983, pp. 1-2.
Mawdudi, Towards Understanding the Qur’an, p.
1.
Azad, Tarjuman al-Qur’an, op.cit. vol I, pp.
7, 14-16
Ibid., p.48
Brown, Rethinking Tradition in Modern Islamic
Thought, p. 48.
Baljon, Modern Muslim Koran Interpretation,
p. 21.
Rida and Abduh, Manar, vol. I, p. 340.
Qutub, Fi-Zilal al-Qur’an, vol. I, p. 76.
Qur’an, 9-19
Qur’an,27:17-20
Baljon, Modern Muslim Koran Interpretation,
pp. 22–24; Khalifa Abdul Hakim, Islamic Ideology, the Fundamental Beliefs and
Principles of Islam and their Application to Practical Life, Lahore: Institute
of Islamic Culture, 1993.
Troll, Sayyid Ahmad Khan, op.cit
Azad, Tarjuman al Qur’an, op.cit., vol.I,
p.31
Muhammad Iqbal, The Reconstruction of
Religious Thought in Islam, Lahore: K. Bazar, 1958, p. 85.
Baljon, Modern Muslim Koran Interpretation,
pp. 43–44.
Fatima Mernissi, Women and Islam, trans. Mary
Jo Lakeland, Oxford: B. Blackwell, 1991
Fatima Mernissi, ‘A Feminist Interpretation
of Women’s Rights in Islam’, in Charles Kurzman (ed.) Liberal Islam, New York:
Oxford University Press, 1998, 126.
Amina Wadud-Muhsin, Qur’an and Woman, Kuala
Lumpur: Fajar Bakti, 1992. Pp.x-2
Asma Barlas, Believing Women in Islam:
Unreading Patriarchal Interpretations of the Qur’an, p. 16.
Part One
of the Article: Interpretations (Tafsir) Of The Qur’anic Context: A Discourse
– Part One
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Dr. Uzma Khatoon is a PhD from Department of
Islamic Studies, Aligarh Muslim University and taught there between 2017-18.
URL: https://newageislam.com/debating-islam/interpretations-tafsir-quranic-discourse-part-two/d/130255