Reading the Qur’an Contextually

On June 6, 2013, at the IIIT headquarters in Herndon, VA, Abdulla Saeed (Sultan of Oman Professor of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Melbourne, Australia), spoke to the audience about how a “contextualist” reading of the Qur’an is becoming popular among those Muslims who are often refe...

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Autor principal: Jay Willoughby
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Publicado: International Institute of Islamic Thought 2013
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Acceso en línea:https://doaj.org/article/e6eca48ab23348bf9e92161158c70a24
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spelling oai:doaj.org-article:e6eca48ab23348bf9e92161158c70a242021-12-02T19:23:13ZReading the Qur’an Contextually10.35632/ajis.v30i3.11122690-37332690-3741https://doaj.org/article/e6eca48ab23348bf9e92161158c70a242013-07-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.ajis.org/index.php/ajiss/article/view/1112https://doaj.org/toc/2690-3733https://doaj.org/toc/2690-3741On June 6, 2013, at the IIIT headquarters in Herndon, VA, Abdulla Saeed (Sultan of Oman Professor of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Melbourne, Australia), spoke to the audience about how a “contextualist” reading of the Qur’an is becoming popular among those Muslims who are often referred to as “progressives,” “ijtihadis,” or “contextualists.” Saeed began his presentation by defining context, which he said goes hand in hand with text, in two ways: (1) the linguistic context of the text in which the verse actually functions and (2) the macro-context of the text, which encompasses the social, politicial, economic, intellectual, and cultural milieux in which a particular text functions. But despite the importance of this latter approach, many Qur’anic scholars do not use it because they have traditionally been far more interested in a word for word analysis, examining particular phrases, and maybe providing some explanations in light of hadith or juristic understandings. Thus it has never really been part of the tafs¥r tradition. The science of asbOEb al-nuz´l (the occasions of the revelation) is of some help, but only gives a rather limited and insufficient understanding of the context. He then moved to what he terms the textualist and contextualist approaches. People who follow the first one are very focused on the text’s linguistic meaning and see it as the basis – and maybe the only way – to understanding the text. Those who follow the second one are more interested in keeping an eye on the linguistic meaning as well as the macro-context in which the text functions. A grey area, which can be thought of as a continuum, exists between them ... Jay WilloughbyInternational Institute of Islamic ThoughtarticleIslamBP1-253ENAmerican Journal of Islam and Society, Vol 30, Iss 3 (2013)
institution DOAJ
collection DOAJ
language EN
topic Islam
BP1-253
spellingShingle Islam
BP1-253
Jay Willoughby
Reading the Qur’an Contextually
description On June 6, 2013, at the IIIT headquarters in Herndon, VA, Abdulla Saeed (Sultan of Oman Professor of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Melbourne, Australia), spoke to the audience about how a “contextualist” reading of the Qur’an is becoming popular among those Muslims who are often referred to as “progressives,” “ijtihadis,” or “contextualists.” Saeed began his presentation by defining context, which he said goes hand in hand with text, in two ways: (1) the linguistic context of the text in which the verse actually functions and (2) the macro-context of the text, which encompasses the social, politicial, economic, intellectual, and cultural milieux in which a particular text functions. But despite the importance of this latter approach, many Qur’anic scholars do not use it because they have traditionally been far more interested in a word for word analysis, examining particular phrases, and maybe providing some explanations in light of hadith or juristic understandings. Thus it has never really been part of the tafs¥r tradition. The science of asbOEb al-nuz´l (the occasions of the revelation) is of some help, but only gives a rather limited and insufficient understanding of the context. He then moved to what he terms the textualist and contextualist approaches. People who follow the first one are very focused on the text’s linguistic meaning and see it as the basis – and maybe the only way – to understanding the text. Those who follow the second one are more interested in keeping an eye on the linguistic meaning as well as the macro-context in which the text functions. A grey area, which can be thought of as a continuum, exists between them ...
format article
author Jay Willoughby
author_facet Jay Willoughby
author_sort Jay Willoughby
title Reading the Qur’an Contextually
title_short Reading the Qur’an Contextually
title_full Reading the Qur’an Contextually
title_fullStr Reading the Qur’an Contextually
title_full_unstemmed Reading the Qur’an Contextually
title_sort reading the qur’an contextually
publisher International Institute of Islamic Thought
publishDate 2013
url https://doaj.org/article/e6eca48ab23348bf9e92161158c70a24
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