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This study analyses the commentaries of four Muslim intellectuals who have turned to scripture as a liberating text to confront an array of problems, from patriarchy, racism, and empire to poverty and interreligious communal violence. Shadaab Rahemtulla considers the exegeses of the South African Farid Esack (b. 1956), the Indian Asghar Ali Engineer (1939-2013), the African American Amina Wadud (b. 1952), and the Pakistani American Asma Barlas (b. 1950). Rahemtulla
examines how these intellectuals have been able to expound this seventh-century Arabian text in a socially liberating way, addressing their own lived realities of oppression, and thus contexts that are worlds removed from that of the text's immediate audience. Through a close reading of their works,
he underlines the importance of both the ethico-social content of the Qur'an and their usage of new and innovative reading practices.
This work provides a rich analysis of the thought-ways of specific Muslim intellectuals, thereby substantiating a broadly framed school of thought. Rahemtulla draws out their specific and general importance without displaying an uncritical sympathy. He sheds light on the impact of modern exegetical commentary which is more self-consciously concerned with historical context and present realities. In a mutually reinforcing way, this work thus illuminates both the role of agency and hermeneutical
approaches in modern Islamic thought.
List of contents
- Introduction
- 1: Theology of the Margins: The Reading of Farid Esack
- 2: From the Hereafter to the Here and Now: The Reading of Asghar Ali Engineer
- 3: Gender Justice as a Way of Life: The Reading of Amina Wadud
- 4: Against Patriarchy: The Reading of Asma Barlas
- Conclusions: On Thematic Readings
- Select Glossary
- Bibliography
About the author
Shadaab Rahemtulla is Lecturer in Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations at the University of Edinburgh. A Canadian Muslim of Indian descent, he received his doctorate in contemporary Islamic thought at the University of Oxford.
Summary
This study analyses the commentaries of four Muslim intellectuals who have turned to scripture as a liberating text to confront an array of problems, from patriarchy, racism, and empire to poverty and interreligious communal violence.
Additional text
Rahemtulla is to be thanked for providing a compelling analysis, within a specific tradition, of the wider task of interpreting an ancient religious text so that it speaks to the present with a liberating timbre and power without falling into apologetics or idealistic essentialism.
Report
a clear and concise piece of work that is easily accessible to readers without specialist knowledge of Islam, especially with the aid of the appended glossary. If only more academic publications could be so mercifully sparing in their use of unnecessary jargon and verbiage! Mehmet Ciftci, University of Oxford, Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations
