Tradition, Authority and Innovation in Contemporary Sunnī tafsīr: Towards a Typology of Qur'an Commentaries from the Arab World, Indonesia and Turkey

2010 ◽  
Vol 12 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 56-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johanna Pink
Keyword(s):  
Regional Differences ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Narrow Sense ◽  
Islamic World ◽  
Qur'anic Exegesis ◽  
Qur'an Commentaries ◽  
Academic Theology ◽  
Male Academic ◽  
The Way ◽  
Innovative Approaches

This paper discusses a sample of eleven extensive works of tafsīr – in the narrow sense of the word, i.e. tafsīr musalsal – written by Sunnī authors from Egypt, Syria, Indonesia and Turkey between 1967 and 2004. For the purpose of analysis, it proposes a basic typology based on the author(s) and style of the respective commentaries, differentiating between ‘scholars’ commentaries', ‘institutional commentaries’ and ‘popularising commentaries’. It goes on to examine the way in which they make use of exegetical authorities and traditions in their discussion of two particular exegetical problems found in Q 9:111–12. The results allow for the introduction of additional analytic categories based on the authors' aims and underlying attitudes. Building on these, the paper points to regional tendencies within contemporary Qur'anic exegesis and argues that regional differences can, to a large extent, be explained by differences in the structure and curricula of academic theology within the Islamic World. In general, it concludes that the genre of tafsīr tends to be a domain of male academic theologians and a relatively conservative field; boldly innovative approaches to the interpretation of the Qur'an are more frequently found in other exegetical genres.

Tradition and Ideology in Contemporary Sunnite Qur'ānic Exegesis: Qur'ānic Commentaries from the Arab World, Turkey and Indonesia and their Interpretation of Q 5:51

2010 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johanna Pink
Keyword(s):  
Arab World ◽  
Direct Reference ◽  
Faculty Position ◽  
Islamic Theology ◽  
Ideological Bias ◽  
Similarities And Differences ◽  
Qur'anic Exegesis ◽  
Hostile Attitude ◽  
The Way

AbstractThis paper analyses the genre of contemporary tafsīr, focussing on the attitude of modern Sunnite exegetes towards Jews and Christians, on the role of different strands of tradition and of ideological bias for their interpretion of the Qur'ān, and on the similarities and differences between Qur'ānic commentaries from different regions of the Muslim word. It is based on the study of seventeen Qur'ānic commentaries from the Arab World, Indonesia and Turkey that have been published since 1967. The analysis of the authors' background reveals that in recent times, Qur'ānic commentaries tend to be written by professional male 'ulamā' from a provincial background, usually holding a faculty position in Islamic theology. As most exegetes' aim is to stress the timeless relevance of the Qur'ān, few of the commentaries make direct reference to contemporary events. Still, many of them are, in a very modern way, more concerned with providing religious guidance than with explaining the Qur'ān's meaning. However, the “traditional” explanatory approach is still alive, predominantly in commentators who are affiliated with Egypt's Azhar University. Besides the tradition of premodern Sunnite tafsīr, which all commentaries build on to a certain extent, Salafī exegesis is clearly influential in the way in which several commentaries strive at disassociating themselves from Christians and Jews and at building up a dichotomy between “us” and “them” in their exegesis of Q 5:51, which contains an interdiction against taking Christians and Jews as awliyā' (a term that is variably understood as meaning friends, allies, intimates, confidants, helpers, or leaders). It is striking that Arab commentators, for the most part, show a much more hostile attitude towards Christians and Jews than their Indonesian and Turkish counterparts.

Encountering Ambiguity: Muʿtazilī and Twelver Shīʿī Approaches to the Qur'an's Ambiguous Verses

2016 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 91-115 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tehseen Thaver
Keyword(s):  
Eleventh Century ◽  
Arabic Language ◽  
Conceptual Approach ◽  
Islamic Jurisprudence ◽  
Primary Determinant ◽  
Linguistic Challenges ◽  
Qur'anic Exegesis ◽  
Exegetical Tradition ◽  
Qur'an Commentaries ◽  
Early Islamic

Within the broader discipline of Qur'anic exegesis, the sub-genre of the mutashābihāt al-Qurʾān (the ambiguous verses of the Qur'an) is comprised of works dedicated to the identification and explication of those verses that present theological or linguistic challenges. Yet, the approach, style, and objective of the scholars who have written commentaries on the ambiguous verses are far from monolithic. This essay brings into focus the internal diversity of this important exegetical tradition by focusing on the Qur'an commentaries of two major scholars in fourth/eleventh-century Baghdad, al-Sharīf al-Raḍī (d. 406/1016) and Qāḍī ʿAbd al-Jabbār (d. 415/1025). Al-Raḍī was a prominent Twelver Shīʿī theologian and poet while ʿAbd al-Jabbār was a leading Muʿtazilī theologian during this period; al-Raḍī was also ʿAbd al-Jabbār's student and disciple. Through a close reading of their respective commentaries on two Qur'anic verses, I explore possible interconnections and interactions between Shīʿī and Muʿtazilī traditions of exegesis, and demonstrate that while ʿAbd al-Jabbār mobilised the language of Islamic jurisprudence, al-Raḍī primarily relied on early Islamic poetry and the etymology of the Arabic language. Methodologically, I argue against a conceptual approach that valorises sectarian and theological identity as the primary determinant of hermeneutical desires and sensibilities.

The Mistaken Identification of “The West” with “Modernity”

1996 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
John Obert Voll
Keyword(s):  
World History ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
The West ◽  
Islamic World ◽  
Historical Perspectives ◽  
Important Impact ◽  
Mistaken Identification ◽  
Nature Ofthe ◽  
Made In ◽  
The Way

The relationships between Islam and the West are complex. Even theperceptions of those relations have an important impact on the nature ofthe interactions. If the basic images that are used in discussing “Islam andthe West” are themselves ill-defiied or viewed in inconsistent ways, therelationships themselves are affected in sometimes dangerous ways.Inconsistent and contradictory terms of analysis can lead to misunderstandingand conflict.One of the most frequent conceptual mistakes made in discussingIslam and the West in the modem era is the identification of “the West”with “modemity.” This mistake has a significant impact on the way peeple view the processes of modernization in the Islamic world as well as onthe way people interpret the relationships between Islam and the West inthe contemporary era.The basic generalizations resulting from the following analysis can bestated simply: 1) “modernity“ is not uniquely “western”; 2) “the West” isnot simply “modernity”; and 3) the identifixation of “the West” with“modemity” has important negative consequences for understanding therelationships between Islam and the West. Modernity and the West aretwo different concepts and historic entities. To use the terms interchangeablyis to invite unnecessary confusion and create possible conflict’andinconsistency. This article will address the problem of definition and theapplication of the defined terms to interpreting actual experiences andrelationships.Understanding the difficulties raised by the identification of theWest with modernity involves a broader analysis within the frameworkof world history and global historical perspectives. In such an analysis, ...

scholarly journals Status Al-Quran Digital dari Perspektif Fiqh

2014 ◽  
Vol 9 (10) ◽  
Author(s):  
Khairul Anuar Mohamed
Keyword(s):  
Daily Life ◽  
Islamic World ◽  
Working Paper ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Way

The working paper entitles ''The status of Quranic Digital from Fiqh Perspective''. There is no doubt taht in recent years, IT has been widely used in all aspect especially in our daily life. Our religion also accepts IT as one of the way to preach and it also has been widely used in Islamic world. One of the proof was the invention of Quranic Digital. Islamic technocrats have invented the Digital Quran for Muslim to make good use of it but also to help us to draw closer to Allah. The objective of this paper is to identify and explain about the fiqh's problems between Digital Quran and physical Quran such as Mushaf. This explanation hopefully can help Muslims to have confidence when using the Quranic Digital especially in the mainstream. A research has been conducted to study about the fiqh's problem in Quranic Digital and the author found out that the Quranic Digital can be touch even without wudhu' or during period (Haidh) because of it was not physically written like Mushaf and the words was stored in the device with other equipment.

Imperial Security and Moslem Militancy, With Special Reference to the Hertogh Riots in Singapore (December 1950)

1986 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 322-335 ◽  
Author(s):  
A.J. Stockwell
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Special Reference ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Colonial Rule ◽  
Colonial Power ◽  
Islamic World ◽  
The Government

In the nineteenth century the British, Dutch, French and Russians bit deep into the Islamic world. European colonial power rested on the active support of Moslem rulers who, as leaders of clearly defined and hierarchical societies possessed of laws and monarchs, were attractive collaborators in the exercise of imperialism. With a pragmatism born of frontier experience, Europeans reached agreements with Islamic regimes throughout Asia and Africa. The dictum of Usuman dan Fodio — “The government of a country is the government of its king. If the king is Moslem, his land is Moslem” — was echoed in many a European statement on the principles and practices of colonial rule. The British, for their part, struck deals with Indian princes and Fulani emirs, with the Egyptian Khedive and the Sultan of Zanzibar, with the royal houses of the Arab world and the rulers of the Malay states.

Religious reforms in the Islamic world in the 19th and 20th centuries

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 (01) ◽  
pp. 218-224
Author(s):  
Ali Farhadov
Keyword(s):  
Way Of Life ◽  
Islamic World ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Way

The article is devoted to the history of religious reforms in the Islamic world. The goal of the reform of Islamic thinking is to return to the roots, the Koran, to cleanse the religion of heresy, and later the incorrect elements introduced into it. Islamic laws and the way of life outside of them should be open to the new, since the peculiarity of Islam is the newness of religion for every time. According to the Muslim reformists, the renewal, first of all, must occur in Islamic thinking.

Epilogue

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joel Blecher
Keyword(s):  
Al Qaeda ◽  
Islamic World ◽  
Labor Practices ◽  
The Way

The epilogue examines contemporary appropriations of hadith commentary among Islamist groups in the contemporary Islamic world, while contemplating the way an interpreter strives for timeliness and/or timelessness. The epilogue examines how rereadings of Mamluk-era hadith works were alternately deployed by a Pakistani Salafi commentator to bring about fairer labor practices, an al-Qaeda deputy to justify a rebellion in Egypt, and an anonymous propagandist for ISIS’s magazine (Dabiq) to justify the “revival of slavery” in Iraq and Syria. The epilogue concludes where the book began: ethnographic observations of prerevolution Damascus, where a renowned Damascene Shaykh, in the shade of Syria’s Baʿth party headquarters, delivered a live commentary on the Ṣaḥīḥ in part to contest Islamist understandings of the Prophet’s legacy.

Courtesan

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Felicity Chaplin
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Visual Culture ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Second Empire ◽  
Narrow Sense ◽  
General Sense ◽  
High Class ◽  
Art And Literature ◽  
French Art ◽  
The Way

La Parisienne is frequently associated with prostitution, whether in the narrow sense of the streetwalker or courtesan or the general sense of the object and subject of consumption. Tracing her development in nineteenth-century art and literature, this chapter examines the way the Parisienne as courtesan is re-presented in cinema in Charles Chaplin’s A Woman of Paris (1923), Alain Cavalier’s La Chamade (1968), and Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge! (2001). Cinematic courtesans have their prefigurations in both real life courtesans of the Second Empire, as well as in representations in French art, literature, and visual culture (Manet, Degas, Toulouse-Lautrec, Balzac, Zola, Dumas fils). Motifs associated with the Parisienne courtesan include the familiar tropes associated with Paris as a demimonde: desire, pleasure, and consumption. Alongside these tropes are the visual and narrative motifs on which the iconography of the Parisienne courtesan is based: fashion or style (often conceived to denote luxury and leisure), transformation (usually from provincial to high class), ambiguity (insofar as her class origins, motivations, and emotional allegiances are generally obscure), and the ménage à trois (films featuring Parisienne courtesans often involve the choice between an earnest but poor lover and a rich benefactor).

Nesebname-i Müluk (Moğol Kısmı) Ve Muizzü’l- Ensab’ın Biçim Ve İçerik Açısından Mukayesesi

2021 ◽  
pp. 235-262
Author(s):  
Hayrunnisa Alan
Keyword(s):  
Jewish History ◽  
World History ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Historical Information ◽  
Islamic World ◽  
Islamic Historiography ◽  
Bene Israel ◽  
The Way

"Nesebname-i Müluk or Şu’ab-ı Pencgâne is a genealogical work which is to be found in the corpus of the famous vizier of Ilkhanate, Rashid al-Din Fazl Allah. This work contains the names of the rulers and their families in world history alongside partial descriptions, including ancestors and caliphs of Prophet Muhammed, rulers of Khitai, Kaisers (rulers of Europe), ancestors and descendants of Genghis Khan, rulers of Bene Israel. His access to historical information about China, the Islamic world, Byzantine, Turkish and Mongol and to include them in the narrative was made possible by Rashid al-Din’s service as a statesman and historian at the Ilkhanate court. The additional part regarding Jewish history is related to Rashid al-Din’s background. In the work, the nations of Noah’s sons and human beings are divided into different branches, the names of the rulers of each branch are mentioned and the ancestors and descendants of Genghis Khan are included as an important part of this whole. Thus, the Mongolian dynasties were defined as legitimate dynasties in accordance with Islamic historiography within world history. The way the names in the pedigree are written (writing in a round or square frame, ink color, etc.) reinforces the theme of legitimizing the Cengiz lineage. Shu’ab has been both a source and an example for the Muizzü’l-ensab prepared in the Timurid palace in terms of form and content. The reproduction of the work in the Timurid palace reflects the perceptions and realities of the Timurid period and is a valuable example of the transfer and updating of tradition. The Muizzü’l-ensab produced in the Timurid court is anonymous and is not as large as the genealogy in the Reşidüddin’s corpus; it is limited to the lineage of Genghis Khan and Emir Timur and the officers who served them. Muizz serves the legitimacy of the Timurid rulers."

COGNITIVE HABITS LINKED TO RESILIENCE: SURPRISING COMMONALITIES ACROSS THE UNITED STATES

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
United States ◽  
Socioeconomic Status ◽  
Regional Differences ◽  
The United States ◽  
Postal Code ◽  
Improvement Plan ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Way

Abstract Background: Research has documented many geographic inequities in health. Research has also documented that the way one thinks about health and quality of life (QOL) affects one’s experience of health, treatment, and one’s ability to cope with health problems. Purpose: We examined United-States (US) regional differences in QOL appraisal (i.e., the way one thinks about health and QOL), and whether resilience-appraisal relationships varied by region. Methods: Secondary analysis of 3,955 chronic-disease patients and caregivers assessed QOL appraisal via the QOL Appraisal Profile-v2 and resilience via the Centers for Disease Control Healthy Days Core Module. Covariates included individual-level and aggregate-level socioeconomic status (SES) characteristics. Zone improvement plan (ZIP) code was linked to publicly available indicators of income inequality, poverty, wealth, population density, and rurality. Multivariate and hierarchical residual modeling tested study hypotheses that there are regional differences in QOL appraisal and in the relationship between resilience and appraisal. Results: After sociodemographic adjustment, QOL appraisal patterns and the appraisal-resilience connection were virtually the same across regions. For resilience, sociodemographic variables explained 26 % of the variance; appraisal processes, an additional 17 %; and region and its interaction terms, just an additional 0.1 %. Conclusion: The study findings underscore a geographic universality across the contiguous US in how people think about QOL, and in the relationship between appraisal and resilience. Despite the recent prominence of divisive rhetoric suggesting vast regional differences in values, priorities, and experiences, our findings support the commonality of ways of thinking and responding to life challenges. These findings support the wide applicability of cognitive-based interventions to boost resilience. Keywords: appraisal; resilience; cognitive; quality of life; societal; geographic Abbreviations: MANOVA = Multivariate Analysis of Variance; PCA = principal components analysis; QOL = quality of life; SES = socioeconomic status; US = United States; ZIP = Zone Improvement Plan (postal code)

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