scholarly journals Contextualist Approaches and the Interpretation of the Qur’ān

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 527
Author(s):  
Abdullah Saeed ◽  
Ali Akbar
Keyword(s):  
Freedom Of Religion ◽  
Classical Period ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
Legal Texts ◽  
Contextualist Approach ◽  
High Degree ◽  
Do So

When it comes to the interpretation of ethico-legal texts in the Qur’ān, there is usually a high degree of emphasis on literalism and textualism but not enough focus on contextualization. This is true for both the classical period and the modern period. This article points to the contextual nature of interpretation and how the contextualist approach to interpreting the Qur’ān can enable Muslims to follow its ethical teachings in accordance with contemporary needs and circumstances, without sacrificing fundamental Qur’ānic values. In order to do so, the article refers to Qur’ānic passages related to freedom of religion and the laws of punishment, and explores how a contextualist approach to interpreting such passages may yield results different from those of a textualist or literalist approach.

Some reflections on the Contextualist approach to ethico-legal texts of the Quran

2008 ◽  
Vol 71 (2) ◽  
pp. 221-237
Author(s):  
Abdullah Saeed
Keyword(s):  
Historical Context ◽  
Frequent Use ◽  
Legal Texts ◽  
Contextualist Approach ◽  
High Degree ◽  
Different Levels

AbstractA “contextualist” reading of the Quran is becoming increasingly popular, particularly among those Muslims referred to as “progressive-ijtihadis”. One of the primary concerns of this reading is that in order to understand and interpret the ethico-legal content of the Quran and relate that content to the changing needs and circumstances of Muslims today, it is important to approach the text at different levels, giving a high degree of emphasis to the socio-historical context of the text. In the classical tafsīr this emphasis on socio-historical context was not considered important, particularly in the interpretation of the ethico-legal texts, despite the frequent use of asbāb al-nuzūl literature. In this paper, I will explore how progressive-ijtihadis are adopting a contextualist reading of ethico-legal texts of the Quran. To illustrate this, I will use one or two such texts (verses) and their interpretations by the progressive-ijtihadis and will seek to demonstrate the contours of this approach, and highlight some of the challenges this approach is facing.

On the Limitation and Openendedness of the Shari‘ah’s Necessary Universals

2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 50-68
Author(s):  
AbdulHameed Badmas Yusuf
Keyword(s):  
Basic Needs ◽  
Classical Period ◽  
Modern Period

The claim that the necessary universals (al-kullīyāt al-ḍarūrīyah) of the Shari‘ah are limited to five values (viz., religion, life, intellect, progeny, and property) is a subject of debate. Some scholars argue in favor of it, while others assert that this category should be open-ended. This argument started as early as the classical period and has, in the modern period, continued to elicit more divergentopinions. This study seeks to critically examine the viewpoints of various modern scholars/writers, especially those who oppose this limitation. It shall establish that these five values represent humanity’s basic needs perfectly. As such, other values that have been proposed can only be regarded either as means or as complements in relation to them.

scholarly journals Doing Well By Doing Good In The Community: Evidence From Some South African Small Businesses

2015 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 227
Author(s):  
D. Y. Dzansi
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Empirical Research ◽  
Economic Performance ◽  
Small Businesses ◽  
Economic Benefits ◽  
Business Practice ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
High Degree ◽  
African Setting ◽  
Do So

<p>Researchers and policy makers worldwide are convinced that only clear empirical evidence of the economic benefits of business social responsibility (BSR), rather than normative assertions, can motivate small businesses enough to accept and adopt it as an integral business practice. Unfortunately, empirical research so far has yielded mixed results, such that smaller businesses are right to be skeptical about adopting BSR. This paper reports the findings of empirical research on patterns of BSR engagement practices and growth in firms’ sales and gross profit among small and micro enterprises (SMMEs) in a South African setting. This is to determine how a small firm’s economic performance varies (if at all) with the degree of its BSR performance and the kind of BSR activity it engages in. The results suggest a high degree of BSR activity among firms with substantial portions of profit dedicated to BSR. However, contrary to expectations, very weak (minor) link was found between BSR performance and economic performance among the sample of small businesses on some but not all dimensions of BSR considered in the study. Nonetheless, it is recommended that managers and owners of small businesses be encouraged to adopt and practice BSR. Even if they do not do so for economic reasons, they would be right to do so to ‘atone’ for the widely acknowledged detrimental impacts of business on society. </p>

Automatic IQ Estimation Using Stylometric Methods

2019 ◽  
pp. 32-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Polina Shafran Abramov ◽  
Roman V. Yampolskiy
Keyword(s):  
Computer Science ◽  
Educational Tool ◽  
Forensic Evidence ◽  
Text Features ◽  
High Degree ◽  
Iq Estimation ◽  
The Average Range ◽  
Do So ◽  
Wide Exposure

Stylometry is a study of text linguistic properties that brings together various fields of research such as statistics, linguistics, computer science and more. Stylometry methods have been used for historic investigation, as forensic evidence and an educational tool. This chapter presents a method to automatically estimate individual's IQ based on quality of writing and discusses challenges associated with it. The method utilizes various text features and NLP techniques to calculate indexes which are used to estimate individual's IQ. The results show a high degree of correlation between expected and estimated IQs in cases when IQ is within the average range. Obtaining good estimation for IQs on the high and low ends of the spectrum proves to be more challenging and this work offers several reasons for that. Over the years stylometry benefitted from wide exposure and interest among researches, however it appears that there aren't studies that focus on using stylometry methods to estimate individual's intelligence. Perhaps this work presents the first in-depth attempt to do so.

Informal Accountability, Distrust, and Speaking Out

2021 ◽  
pp. 228-260
Author(s):  
Mark Knights
Keyword(s):  
East India Company ◽  
Public Accountability ◽  
Speaking Out ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
Informal Accountability ◽  
Do So ◽  
Legal Processes

Accountability did not operate solely through formal audits, institutions or legal processes; informal and public forms of accountability were also particularly important, not least as a pressure on Parliament, the East India Company and other institutions (often themselves seen as corrupt), to increase their oversight of officers. Such public accountability could take many forms but the chapter focuses on people (often officials themselves) who made public revelations when they felt that formal accountability mechanisms had failed. These men might now be called ‘whistle-blowers’ but in the pre-modern period their behaviour struggled to achieve legitimacy. The chapter surveys the variety of their motives and shows how they fought to expose and remedy corruption, often using print to do so, before sketching the negative ways in which their institutions reacted to their complaints and publicity.

The Sparta Game

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Josiah Ober ◽  
Barry R. Weingast
Keyword(s):  
Ruling Class ◽  
Equilibrium Situation ◽  
Ruling Elites ◽  
Degree Of Stability ◽  
The Stability ◽  
High Degree ◽  
Proportionality Principle ◽  
Do So ◽  
A Share

In this chapter, Ober and Weingast find the roots of some of the most unusual features of Archaic/Classical-era Sparta in the “proportionality principle.” That principle holds that the stability of a regime in which ruling elites extract revenues from nonelites through violence (or its threat) requires that each elite receive a share of rents proportionate to his potential to employ disruptive violence. When proportionality is respected, no one with the power to disrupt society has an incentive to do so. This equilibrium situation helps explain the high degree of stability in Sparta’s sociopolitical system, but it also held the seeds of Sparta’s demise. Proportionality meant that rents could not be redistributed in ways that would have been more economically productive, and the Spartans’ failure to redistribute rents led to the regular demotion of the least successful Spartiates from the ruling class and hence to demographic and military collapse.

scholarly journals Formation of Abasic Oligomers in Nonenzymatic Polymerization of Canonical Nucleotides

Life ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 57
Author(s):  
Chaitanya V. Mungi ◽  
Niraja V. Bapat ◽  
Yayoi Hongo ◽  
Sudha Rajamani
Keyword(s):  
Information Transfer ◽  
Rna World ◽  
Purine Nucleotides ◽  
Abasic Sites ◽  
Glycosidic Bonds ◽  
Product Characterization ◽  
Acid Catalyzed ◽  
The Stability ◽  
High Degree ◽  
Do So

Polymerization of nucleotides under prebiotically plausible conditions has been a focus of several origins of life studies. Non-activated nucleotides have been shown to undergo polymerization under geothermal conditions when subjected to dry-wet cycles. They do so by a mechanism similar to acid-catalyzed ester-bond formation. However, one study showed that the low pH of these reactions resulted in predominantly depurination, thereby resulting in the formation of abasic sites in the oligomers. In this study, we aimed to systematically characterize the nature of the oligomers that resulted in reactions that involved one or more of the canonical ribonucleotides. All the reactions analyzed showed the presence of abasic oligomers, with purine nucleotides being affected the most due to deglycosylation. Even in the reactions that contained nucleotide mixtures, the presence of abasic oligomers was detected, which suggested that information transfer would be severely hampered due to losing the capacity to base pair via H-bonds. Importantly, the stability of the N-glycosidic linkage, under conditions used for dry-wet cycling, was also determined. Results from this study further strengthen the hypothesis that chemical evolution in a pre-RNA World would have been vital for the evolution of informational molecules of an RNA World. This is evident in the high degree of instability displayed by N-glycosidic bonds of canonical purine ribonucleotides under the same geothermal conditions that otherwise readily favors polymerization. Significantly, the resultant product characterization in the reactions concerned underscores the difficulty associated with analyzing complex prebiotically relevant reactions due to inherent limitation of current analytical methods.

scholarly journals Thinking Theoretically about Religiosity, Secularity and Pluralism in the Global East

Religions ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (11) ◽  
pp. 337 ◽  
Author(s):  
Grace Davie
Keyword(s):  
East Asia ◽  
Final Section ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
Social Progress ◽  
Scientific Thinking ◽  
International Panel ◽  
The World ◽  
Social Scientific ◽  
High Degree ◽  
Do So

This paper addresses the religiosity, secularity and pluralism of the global East from a theoretical perspective. To do so it draws from work undertaken by the author within the International Panel on Social Progress (IPSP), paying particular attention to the material on religion, diversity and pluralism. The final section of the article demonstrates the rootedness of social scientific thinking in the European Enlightenment and the consequences of this heritage for the understanding of religion in other parts of the world including East Asia. There are no easy answers to the questions posed by the mismatch between theory and data; there are, however, pointers towards more constructive ways forward—ways which respond sensitively to the context under review, maintaining nonetheless a high degree of scientific rigour.

Religious Pluralism and Human Rights in Europe: Where to Draw the Line? Religion, Secular Beliefs and Human Rights, 25 Years After the 1981 Declaration

2008 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 539-544
Author(s):  
Nazila Ghanea
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Freedom Of Expression ◽  
Minority Rights ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Freedom Of Religion ◽  
Freedom Of Association ◽  
Cultural Rights ◽  
The Social ◽  
Vexing Question ◽  
Do So

AbstractThese two books address the vexing question of human rights and freedom of religion or belief essentially in two different contexts and from two different perspectives: the European and the international. They do so in a broad manner, addressing the social, political, legal and policy implications of religion at large as well as freedom of religion or belief itself. From an overview of both, it can be seen that neither minority rights, cultural rights, freedom of expression nor freedom of association compensate the absence of freedom of religion or belief in human rights terms.

Scripture and Society in Modern Muslim Asia—A Symposium Introduction

1993 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
pp. 559-564 ◽  
Author(s):  
John R. Bowen
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Religious Education ◽  
Social Reform ◽  
Political Movements ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Muslim Men ◽  
Do So

Since the late nineteenth century, Muslim movements for religious and social reform have underscored the value of making scripture accessible to a broad public. Scholars and activists alike have urged ordinary Muslim men and women to study and follow the Qur'ān and the hadīth (the reports of the Prophet Muhammad's words and deeds), and to do so they have rendered these scriptural writings and commentaries on them into the vernaculars of Asia, Africa, and Europe. They have also framed a wide range of appeals—to study the sciences, to modernize society, to stage a revolution—in the language and format of scriptural commentary. Vernacular writings (and, more recently, audio and videocassettes) based on scripture provide the foundations of popular religious education (Shahrani 1991), figure prominently in political movements (Fischer 1980; Kepel 1985), and serve as guides for living for Muslims traveling outside their homelands (Kepel 1987). The modern period has seen an explosion in the range of languages, genres, and contexts in which Muslims have authoritatively deployed scripture.

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