Author: Abla Hasan
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 179360990X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 183
Book Description
This volume challenges a long history of normalizing patriarchal approaches to the Qur’an and calls for a questioning of the interpretive credibility of many inherited Qur’anic commentaries. The author presents a fresh reading of the sacred text and Islamic teaching traditions as the rediscovery of a lost humanitarian and gender-egalitarian textual richness that has been poorly and loosely handled for centuries. The book stresses the importance of reviewing the interpretive linguistic choices that jurists and exegetes over the last fourteen centuries have adopted to semantically reshape the Qur’anic text. The vigilant reading the author provides of carefully chosen texts and commentaries suggests that many interpretive approaches to the Qur’an are dominated by sociopolitical factors alien to the intrinsic values of the text itself. More importantly, inconsistencies across putatively sound books of tafsīr indicate that the Qur’anic text often suffers from historical and systematic drainage of its humanitarianism, gender-egalitarianism, and religious pluralism.
Decoding the Egalitarianism of the Qur'an
Author: Abla Hasan
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 179360990X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 183
Book Description
This volume challenges a long history of normalizing patriarchal approaches to the Qur’an and calls for a questioning of the interpretive credibility of many inherited Qur’anic commentaries. The author presents a fresh reading of the sacred text and Islamic teaching traditions as the rediscovery of a lost humanitarian and gender-egalitarian textual richness that has been poorly and loosely handled for centuries. The book stresses the importance of reviewing the interpretive linguistic choices that jurists and exegetes over the last fourteen centuries have adopted to semantically reshape the Qur’anic text. The vigilant reading the author provides of carefully chosen texts and commentaries suggests that many interpretive approaches to the Qur’an are dominated by sociopolitical factors alien to the intrinsic values of the text itself. More importantly, inconsistencies across putatively sound books of tafsīr indicate that the Qur’anic text often suffers from historical and systematic drainage of its humanitarianism, gender-egalitarianism, and religious pluralism.
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 179360990X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 183
Book Description
This volume challenges a long history of normalizing patriarchal approaches to the Qur’an and calls for a questioning of the interpretive credibility of many inherited Qur’anic commentaries. The author presents a fresh reading of the sacred text and Islamic teaching traditions as the rediscovery of a lost humanitarian and gender-egalitarian textual richness that has been poorly and loosely handled for centuries. The book stresses the importance of reviewing the interpretive linguistic choices that jurists and exegetes over the last fourteen centuries have adopted to semantically reshape the Qur’anic text. The vigilant reading the author provides of carefully chosen texts and commentaries suggests that many interpretive approaches to the Qur’an are dominated by sociopolitical factors alien to the intrinsic values of the text itself. More importantly, inconsistencies across putatively sound books of tafsīr indicate that the Qur’anic text often suffers from historical and systematic drainage of its humanitarianism, gender-egalitarianism, and religious pluralism.
The Qur’anic Dilemma
Author: Abla Hasan
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000802302
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 105
Book Description
This book focuses on reconnecting with the lost rich humanitarian content of the Qur’an through a hermeneutical investigation of al-Khidr’s story. Through an active engagement with primary and secondary sources, the book provides a new analytic reading of this puzzling Qur’anic story. By reinvestigating the largely overlooked pluralistic message in the Qur’an, the book debunks an Islamic fundamentalism, which often uses the text as a justification for ill-informed choices that can be easily seen to drag the Qur’anic text in unexpected directions. It introduces current academic controversies over proper addressing of critical issues in Islamic heritage and goes beyond mystic romanticization to clarify blind spots in reading al-Khidr’s story. Through rethinking al-Khidr’s story, the book addresses the exegetical classical and modern attempts to reconcile the Qur’anic unconditional endorsement of the right to life for everyone regardless of their faith, with the perplexing reference to infidelity as a justification for killing found in chapter 18. The Qur’anic Dilemma will be of interest to all scholars of Islamic Studies or those interested in Qur’anic interpretation, Muslim ethics, or comparative theology.
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000802302
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 105
Book Description
This book focuses on reconnecting with the lost rich humanitarian content of the Qur’an through a hermeneutical investigation of al-Khidr’s story. Through an active engagement with primary and secondary sources, the book provides a new analytic reading of this puzzling Qur’anic story. By reinvestigating the largely overlooked pluralistic message in the Qur’an, the book debunks an Islamic fundamentalism, which often uses the text as a justification for ill-informed choices that can be easily seen to drag the Qur’anic text in unexpected directions. It introduces current academic controversies over proper addressing of critical issues in Islamic heritage and goes beyond mystic romanticization to clarify blind spots in reading al-Khidr’s story. Through rethinking al-Khidr’s story, the book addresses the exegetical classical and modern attempts to reconcile the Qur’anic unconditional endorsement of the right to life for everyone regardless of their faith, with the perplexing reference to infidelity as a justification for killing found in chapter 18. The Qur’anic Dilemma will be of interest to all scholars of Islamic Studies or those interested in Qur’anic interpretation, Muslim ethics, or comparative theology.
Decoding the Egalitarianism of the Qur'an
Author: Abla Hasan
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781793609915
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 182
Book Description
This volume challenges longstanding interpretative practices in reading the Qur'an and invites readers to discover afresh the riches and gender-egalitarian directness of the sacred text itself. The work retrieves for readers and scholars an oft-neglected tradition of encounter with Islam's scripture and teaching tradition.
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781793609915
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 182
Book Description
This volume challenges longstanding interpretative practices in reading the Qur'an and invites readers to discover afresh the riches and gender-egalitarian directness of the sacred text itself. The work retrieves for readers and scholars an oft-neglected tradition of encounter with Islam's scripture and teaching tradition.
Islamic Interpretive Tradition and Gender Justice
Author: Nevin Reda
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
ISBN: 0228002966
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 397
Book Description
Since the 1980s, Muslim women reformers have made great strides in critiquing and reinterpreting the Islamic tradition. Yet these achievements have not produced a significant shift in the lived experience of Islam, particularly with respect to equality and justice in Muslim families. A new approach is needed: one that examines the underlying instruments of tradition and explores avenues for effecting change. In Islamic Interpretive Tradition and Gender Justice leading intellectuals and emerging researchers grapple with the problem of entrenched positions within Islam that affect women, investigating the processes by which interpretations become authoritative, the theoretical foundations upon which they stand, and the ways they have been used to inscribe and enforce gender limitations. Together, they argue that the Islamic interpretive tradition displays all the trappings of canonical texts, canonical figures, and canon law – despite the fact that Islam does not ordain religious authorities who could sanction processes of canonization. Through this lens, the essays in this collection offer insights into key issues in Islamic feminist scholarship, ranging from interreligious love, child marriage, polygamy, and divorce to stoning, segregation, seclusion, and gender hierarchies. Rooting their analysis in the primary texts and historical literature of Islam, contributors to Islamic Interpretive Tradition and Gender Justice contest oppressive interpretative canons, subvert classical methodologies, and provide new directions in the ongoing project of revitalizing Islamic exegesis and its ethical and legal implications.
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
ISBN: 0228002966
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 397
Book Description
Since the 1980s, Muslim women reformers have made great strides in critiquing and reinterpreting the Islamic tradition. Yet these achievements have not produced a significant shift in the lived experience of Islam, particularly with respect to equality and justice in Muslim families. A new approach is needed: one that examines the underlying instruments of tradition and explores avenues for effecting change. In Islamic Interpretive Tradition and Gender Justice leading intellectuals and emerging researchers grapple with the problem of entrenched positions within Islam that affect women, investigating the processes by which interpretations become authoritative, the theoretical foundations upon which they stand, and the ways they have been used to inscribe and enforce gender limitations. Together, they argue that the Islamic interpretive tradition displays all the trappings of canonical texts, canonical figures, and canon law – despite the fact that Islam does not ordain religious authorities who could sanction processes of canonization. Through this lens, the essays in this collection offer insights into key issues in Islamic feminist scholarship, ranging from interreligious love, child marriage, polygamy, and divorce to stoning, segregation, seclusion, and gender hierarchies. Rooting their analysis in the primary texts and historical literature of Islam, contributors to Islamic Interpretive Tradition and Gender Justice contest oppressive interpretative canons, subvert classical methodologies, and provide new directions in the ongoing project of revitalizing Islamic exegesis and its ethical and legal implications.
Fables of the Ancients?
Author: Alan Dundes
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
ISBN: 0585466777
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 105
Book Description
Given the widespread consensus that the Qur'an was in oral tradition before being committed to written form, it should come as no surprise to learn that the Qur'an still bears the traces of its original oral form. The field of knowledge most concerned with oral tradition is folkloristics, the study of folklore. Folklorist Alan Dundes has carefully and respectfully documented some of these unmistakable traces. These traces include numerous oral formulas repeated throughout the Qur'an as well as several traditional folktales. Just as Jesus effectively used parables to get His message across, so similar means are to be found in the Qur'an. The scholarly identification of formulas and folktales in the Qur'an represents an entirely new approach to this world-famous religious text. Not only does it provide insight into the basic composition of this sacred document, but for readers not previously familiar with the Qur'an, it pinpoints and makes accessible many of the principal themes contained therein.
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
ISBN: 0585466777
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 105
Book Description
Given the widespread consensus that the Qur'an was in oral tradition before being committed to written form, it should come as no surprise to learn that the Qur'an still bears the traces of its original oral form. The field of knowledge most concerned with oral tradition is folkloristics, the study of folklore. Folklorist Alan Dundes has carefully and respectfully documented some of these unmistakable traces. These traces include numerous oral formulas repeated throughout the Qur'an as well as several traditional folktales. Just as Jesus effectively used parables to get His message across, so similar means are to be found in the Qur'an. The scholarly identification of formulas and folktales in the Qur'an represents an entirely new approach to this world-famous religious text. Not only does it provide insight into the basic composition of this sacred document, but for readers not previously familiar with the Qur'an, it pinpoints and makes accessible many of the principal themes contained therein.
Land, Law and Islam
Author: Hilary Lim
Publisher: Zed Books Ltd.
ISBN: 1848137206
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 247
Book Description
In this pioneering work Siraj Sait and Hilary Lim address Islamic property and land rights, drawing on a range of socio-historical, classical and contemporary resources. They address the significance of Islamic theories of property and Islamic land tenure regimes on the 'webs of tenure' prevalent in the Muslim societies. They consider the possibility of using Islamic legal and human rights systems for the development of inclusive, pro-poor approaches to land rights. They also focus on Muslim women's rights to property and inheritance systems. Engaging with institutions such as the Islamic endowment (waqf) and principles of Islamic microfinance, they test the workability of 'authentic' Islamic proposals. Located in human rights as well as Islamic debates, this study offers a well researched and constructive appraisal of property and land rights in the Muslim world.
Publisher: Zed Books Ltd.
ISBN: 1848137206
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 247
Book Description
In this pioneering work Siraj Sait and Hilary Lim address Islamic property and land rights, drawing on a range of socio-historical, classical and contemporary resources. They address the significance of Islamic theories of property and Islamic land tenure regimes on the 'webs of tenure' prevalent in the Muslim societies. They consider the possibility of using Islamic legal and human rights systems for the development of inclusive, pro-poor approaches to land rights. They also focus on Muslim women's rights to property and inheritance systems. Engaging with institutions such as the Islamic endowment (waqf) and principles of Islamic microfinance, they test the workability of 'authentic' Islamic proposals. Located in human rights as well as Islamic debates, this study offers a well researched and constructive appraisal of property and land rights in the Muslim world.
The Qur'an and Its Biblical Reflexes
Author: Mark Durie
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781498569477
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 394
Book Description
Drawing on tools from linguistics and theology, this book argues that Biblical reflexes in the Qur'an are not inherited, but repurposed to serve the Qur'an's own distinctive theological vision.
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781498569477
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 394
Book Description
Drawing on tools from linguistics and theology, this book argues that Biblical reflexes in the Qur'an are not inherited, but repurposed to serve the Qur'an's own distinctive theological vision.
Believing Women in Islam
Author: Asma Barlas
Publisher: University of Texas Press
ISBN: 1477315926
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 352
Book Description
Does Islam call for the oppression of women? Non-Muslims point to the subjugation of women that occurs in many Muslim countries, especially those that claim to be "Islamic," while many Muslims read the Qur’an in ways that seem to justify sexual oppression, inequality, and patriarchy. Taking a wholly different view, Asma Barlas develops a believer’s reading of the Qur’an that demonstrates the radically egalitarian and antipatriarchal nature of its teachings. Beginning with a historical analysis of religious authority and knowledge, Barlas shows how Muslims came to read inequality and patriarchy into the Qur’an to justify existing religious and social structures and demonstrates that the patriarchal meanings ascribed to the Qur’an are a function of who has read it, how, and in what contexts. She goes on to reread the Qur’an’s position on a variety of issues in order to argue that its teachings do not support patriarchy. To the contrary, Barlas convincingly asserts that the Qur’an affirms the complete equality of the sexes, thereby offering an opportunity to theorize radical sexual equality from within the framework of its teachings. This new view takes readers into the heart of Islamic teachings on women, gender, and patriarchy, allowing them to understand Islam through its most sacred scripture, rather than through Muslim cultural practices or Western media stereotypes. For this revised edition of Believing Women in Islam, Asma Barlas has written two new chapters—“Abraham’s Sacrifice in the Qur’an” and “Secular/Feminism and the Qur’an”—as well as a new preface, an extended discussion of the Qur’an’s “wife-beating” verse and of men’s presumed role as women’s guardians, and other updates throughout the book.
Publisher: University of Texas Press
ISBN: 1477315926
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 352
Book Description
Does Islam call for the oppression of women? Non-Muslims point to the subjugation of women that occurs in many Muslim countries, especially those that claim to be "Islamic," while many Muslims read the Qur’an in ways that seem to justify sexual oppression, inequality, and patriarchy. Taking a wholly different view, Asma Barlas develops a believer’s reading of the Qur’an that demonstrates the radically egalitarian and antipatriarchal nature of its teachings. Beginning with a historical analysis of religious authority and knowledge, Barlas shows how Muslims came to read inequality and patriarchy into the Qur’an to justify existing religious and social structures and demonstrates that the patriarchal meanings ascribed to the Qur’an are a function of who has read it, how, and in what contexts. She goes on to reread the Qur’an’s position on a variety of issues in order to argue that its teachings do not support patriarchy. To the contrary, Barlas convincingly asserts that the Qur’an affirms the complete equality of the sexes, thereby offering an opportunity to theorize radical sexual equality from within the framework of its teachings. This new view takes readers into the heart of Islamic teachings on women, gender, and patriarchy, allowing them to understand Islam through its most sacred scripture, rather than through Muslim cultural practices or Western media stereotypes. For this revised edition of Believing Women in Islam, Asma Barlas has written two new chapters—“Abraham’s Sacrifice in the Qur’an” and “Secular/Feminism and the Qur’an”—as well as a new preface, an extended discussion of the Qur’an’s “wife-beating” verse and of men’s presumed role as women’s guardians, and other updates throughout the book.
Understanding the Hadith
Author: Ram Swarup
Publisher: Prometheus Books
ISBN: 1615922431
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 262
Book Description
Noted Indian writer and polymath Ram Swarup explores the meaning of Islam through the words of the Sahih Muslim, considered by Muslims to be one of the most authoritative of the collections of "traditions" (Arabic Hadith) about the life of the Prophet Muhammad. Like the Koran, these traditions are believed to be divinely revealed by Allah and they complement the verses of the Koran, in many cases expanding upon them and explaining the context of their revelation. As Swarup notes in his introduction, to Muslims the Hadith literature represents the Koran in action, stories of "revelation made concrete in the life of the Prophet." Among the orthodox they are considered as sacred as the Koran itself.Swarup is plainly skeptical of the claim that the Hadith literature is divinely inspired. In the introduction he says, "The Prophet is caught as it were in the ordinary acts of his life - sleeping, eating, mating, praying, hating, dispensing justice, planning expeditions and revenge against his enemies. The picture that emerges is hardly flattering. . . . One is . . . left to wonder how the believers, generation after generation, could have found this story so inspiring. The answer is that the believers are conditioned to look at the whole thing through the eyes of faith. To them morality derives from the Prophet''s actions. . . .his actions determine and define morality."The Sahih Muslim, a massive work consisting of 7,190 traditions divided into 1,243 chapters, is hardly accessible to the average reader; so Swarup quotes representative selections that touch upon the main tenets of Islam: faith, purification, prayer, fasting, pilgrimage, marriage and divorce, crime and punishment, religious wars (jihad), paradise, hell, repentance, and many other features of the religion.To non-Muslims this work provides many insights into the mindset of the average Muslim who is raised on these traditions about Muhammad. It also underscores the gulf that exists between the sanctum of orthodox Islam and an increasingly secularized Westernized world.
Publisher: Prometheus Books
ISBN: 1615922431
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 262
Book Description
Noted Indian writer and polymath Ram Swarup explores the meaning of Islam through the words of the Sahih Muslim, considered by Muslims to be one of the most authoritative of the collections of "traditions" (Arabic Hadith) about the life of the Prophet Muhammad. Like the Koran, these traditions are believed to be divinely revealed by Allah and they complement the verses of the Koran, in many cases expanding upon them and explaining the context of their revelation. As Swarup notes in his introduction, to Muslims the Hadith literature represents the Koran in action, stories of "revelation made concrete in the life of the Prophet." Among the orthodox they are considered as sacred as the Koran itself.Swarup is plainly skeptical of the claim that the Hadith literature is divinely inspired. In the introduction he says, "The Prophet is caught as it were in the ordinary acts of his life - sleeping, eating, mating, praying, hating, dispensing justice, planning expeditions and revenge against his enemies. The picture that emerges is hardly flattering. . . . One is . . . left to wonder how the believers, generation after generation, could have found this story so inspiring. The answer is that the believers are conditioned to look at the whole thing through the eyes of faith. To them morality derives from the Prophet''s actions. . . .his actions determine and define morality."The Sahih Muslim, a massive work consisting of 7,190 traditions divided into 1,243 chapters, is hardly accessible to the average reader; so Swarup quotes representative selections that touch upon the main tenets of Islam: faith, purification, prayer, fasting, pilgrimage, marriage and divorce, crime and punishment, religious wars (jihad), paradise, hell, repentance, and many other features of the religion.To non-Muslims this work provides many insights into the mindset of the average Muslim who is raised on these traditions about Muhammad. It also underscores the gulf that exists between the sanctum of orthodox Islam and an increasingly secularized Westernized world.
In Search of the Original Koran
Author: Mondher Sfar
Publisher: Prometheus Books
ISBN: 1615921052
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 152
Book Description
In this fascinating study of the origins of Islam, historian Mondher Sfar reveals that there is no historical, or even theological, basis for the orthodox view that Muhammad or his earliest followers intended the Koran to be treated as the inviolable word of God. With great erudition and painstaking historical research, Sfar demonstrates that the Koran itself does not support the literalist claims of Muslim orthodoxy. Indeed, as he carefully points out, passages from Islam''s sacred book clearly indicate that the revealed text should not be equated with the perfect text of the original "celestial Koran," which was believed to exist only in heaven and to be fully known only by God. This early belief helps to explain why there were many variant texts of the Koran during Muhammad''s lifetime and immediately thereafter, and also why this lack of consistency and the occasional revisions of earlier revelations seemed not to disturb his first disciples. They viewed the Koran as only an imperfect copy of the real heavenly original, a copy subject to the happenstances of Muhammad''s life and to the human risks of its transmission. Only later, for reasons of social order and political power, did the first caliphs establish an orthodox policy, which turned Muhammad''s revelations into the inerrant word of God, from which no deviation or dissent was permissible. This original historical exploration into the origins of Islam is also an important contribution to the growing movement for reform of Islam initiated by courageous Muslim thinkers convinced of the necessity of bringing Islam into the modern world.
Publisher: Prometheus Books
ISBN: 1615921052
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 152
Book Description
In this fascinating study of the origins of Islam, historian Mondher Sfar reveals that there is no historical, or even theological, basis for the orthodox view that Muhammad or his earliest followers intended the Koran to be treated as the inviolable word of God. With great erudition and painstaking historical research, Sfar demonstrates that the Koran itself does not support the literalist claims of Muslim orthodoxy. Indeed, as he carefully points out, passages from Islam''s sacred book clearly indicate that the revealed text should not be equated with the perfect text of the original "celestial Koran," which was believed to exist only in heaven and to be fully known only by God. This early belief helps to explain why there were many variant texts of the Koran during Muhammad''s lifetime and immediately thereafter, and also why this lack of consistency and the occasional revisions of earlier revelations seemed not to disturb his first disciples. They viewed the Koran as only an imperfect copy of the real heavenly original, a copy subject to the happenstances of Muhammad''s life and to the human risks of its transmission. Only later, for reasons of social order and political power, did the first caliphs establish an orthodox policy, which turned Muhammad''s revelations into the inerrant word of God, from which no deviation or dissent was permissible. This original historical exploration into the origins of Islam is also an important contribution to the growing movement for reform of Islam initiated by courageous Muslim thinkers convinced of the necessity of bringing Islam into the modern world.