Sacred Texts
KoranContemporary Controversies Over Koranic Criticism
There has long been a distinction, if not a conflict, between interpretation based on traditions of the Prophet and his Companions (tafsir bi-l-ma'thur) and interpretation based on reason (tafsir bi-l-ra'y). Contemporary conflicts can to some extent be seen as a continuation of that classic dispute. The central question is what role the Prophet had in the process of revelation. Even without denying the divine origin of the Koran, some Muslim authors discuss the human, and therefore conditioned, aspect of the text. Though this has caused great consternation, particularly in the case of the Egyptian author Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd, in many respects it has its roots in classical discussions—about the nature of the prophetic access to the unseen realm, compared to that of poets and seers; and about the nature of the passage from the eternal divine word that has no letters, words, or sounds, to the actual Arabic words of the Koran. It is not new to suggest that what God revealed was the meaning (ma'na) and that the Prophet, or perhaps Gabriel, was responsible for the wording (lafz) that nonetheless faithfully conveyed that meaning.
Another approach came from the Sudanese author M. M. Taha, who suggested that, contrary to traditional approaches, the earlier rather than the later revelations are the authoritative heart of the Koran. The Meccan verses contain the eternally valid principles of faith, justice, and equality. The Medinan verses, however, represent an application of the principles to a very particular historical circumstances and cannot respond to the changed circumstances of the early twenty-first century. Taha was executed for heresy in 1985. His approach has found echoes in the work of, among others, feminist writer Fatima Mernissi.
The controversy arises from calling into question the contemporary adequacy not of the Word of God itself, but of some of its traditional interpretations. This is seen to open the way to a reduction of the Koran to the same level as the much analyzed and thus diminished Bible. It is also an attack on the power of the guardians of traditional interpretations. Nonetheless, the quest for a new approach to the Koran continues, based on the confidence that the scripture need not remain locked in the seventh or the tenth century, but that it remains the Word of God valid for and relevant to this century.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Abū Zayd, Nasr Hāmid. Critique du discours religieux: Nasr Abou Zeid; essais traduits de l'arabe par Mohamed Chairet. Arles: Actes Sud, 1999.
Ahmed, Leila. Women and Gender in Islam: Historical Roots of a Modern Debate. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1992.
Al-Tabarī, Abū Ja'far Muhammad b. Jarīr. The Commentary on the Qur'ān. Vol. 1, edited by W. F. Madelung and A. Jones. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1987. A first volume of an abridged translation of the most famous classical commentary.
Ayoub, Mahmoud. The Qur'an and its Interpreters. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1984–. Brings together the material of a dozen classical and modern commentaries. Only two volumes so far.
Bell, Richard, and W. M. Watt. Bell's Introduction to the Qur'ān. New ed. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1970. Classic Western introduction in English.
Esack, Farid. The Qur'ān: A Short Introduction. Oxford: Oneworld, 2001.
Hawting, G. R. The Idea of Idolatry and the Emergence of Islam: From Polemic to History. Cambridge, U.K., and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999.
Hawting, G. R., and Abdul-Kader Shareef, eds. Approaches to the Qur'ān. London: Routledge, 1993.
Ibn Warraq, ed. Origins of the Koran: Classic Essays on Islam's Holy Book. Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 1998. In spite of Ibn Warraq's polemical intent, these books are useful because they make available important scholarly articles on the Koran published in the last hundred years.
——. What the Koran Really Says: Language, Text, and Commentary. Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 2002.
Madigan, Daniel A. The Qur'ān's Self-image: Writing and Authority in Islam's Scripture. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2001.
Martin, Richard C., ed. Approaches to Islam in Religious Studies. Oxford, U.K.: Oneworld, 2001.
McAuliffe, Jane Dammen, ed. Encyclopaedia of the Qur'ān. Leiden: Brill, 2001–. A new project eventually to be five volumes.
Mernissi, Fatima. The Veil and the Male Elite: A Feminist Interpretation of Women's Rights in Islam. Translated by Mary Jo Lakeland. Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, 1991.
Rippin, Andrew, ed. Approaches to the History of the Interpretation of the Qur'ān. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988.
Robinson, Neal. Discovering the Qur'ān: A Contemporary Approach to a Veiled Text. London: SCM Press, 2003.
Sells, Michael A. Approaching the Qur'ān: The Early Revelations. Ashland, Ore.: White Cloud Press, 1999.
Soroush, Abdolkarim. Reason, Freedom and Democracy in Islam: Essential Writings of 'Abdolkarim Soroush. Translated and edited by Mahmoud Sadri and Ahmad Sadri. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. Includes a critical introduction by the editors.
Stowasser, Barbara Freyer. Women in the Qur'an, Traditions, and Interpretation. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994.
Tāhā, Mahmūd Muhammad. The Second Message of Islam. Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1987.
Wansbrough, John E. Quranic Studies: Sources and Methods of Scriptural Interpretation. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1977.
——. The Sectarian Milieu: Content and Composition of Islamic Salvation History. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1978.
Welch, Alford T. "Kur'ān." In Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed., vol. 5, edited by P J. Bearman et al., 400–432. Leiden: Brill, 1960–.
Wild, Stefan, ed. The Qur'ān as Text. Leiden: Brill, 1996.
Daniel A. Madigan
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