some reflection on post-enlightenment qur'anic hermeneutics

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1422 Michigan State Law Review [Vol. 2006:1403language, but almost never in all four languages. 71 The mufassirun (authorsof the tafsir) in each linguistic community speak to their own interpretivecommunities and these communities engage in <strong>some</strong> discourse amongthemselves within each language cluster, and there is little or no discoursebetween the communities. The same is also true for the mufassirun of thetraditionalist tafsir. Because of the limited discourse surrounding each tasfir,many Muslims remain unsatisfied with the tafsir when they seek to applyit to issues thrust upon them by modern life.The most important task of contemporary Islamic scholarship, then, isto confront, assess, concretize, critically analyze, understand, empower,make relevant, and perhaps unite (or at least engage and synthesize) thevarieties of the Post-Enlightenment Qur’anic hermeneutic that seek to arriveat sound methodologies for interpretation of the Qur’an that will be ofbroad, positive, and practical use to governments, juridical bodies, internationalorganizations, and individual Muslims faced with the challenges ofmodern and post-modern life. These methodologies must transcend thelinguistic limitations that the discourse currently suffers from and they mustalso provide a fair and adequate account of the canonical traditions thathave heretofore dominated all efforts to interpret the Qur’an. If this scholarshipaccomplishes these things, it should regain the authority that the canonicaltafsir possessed in days gone by.I fully acknowledge that this is a very tall order, describing a task thatis an enormously complex and difficult assignment. It requires that scholarsof Islam, and the universities, institutions, and patrons that support them,begin to insist that their works be translated into all of the main languagesof Islamic scholarly discourse. The task also requires a deeply inwardlookingset of actions that in <strong>some</strong> respects are beyond the scope of thisArticle. I do believe, however, that this Article can begin that reflectiveprocess by exploring one important area where Post-EnlightenmentQur’anic hermeneutics is of pre-eminent importance in today’s world andwhere such scholarship is sorely needed. That area involves the juridicalissues of interpretation in regard to the contemporary application of Islamicconceptions of human equality. We live in an Egalitarian Age and no competentcontemporary interpretation of the Qur’an can ignore this fact. Clarityin this area is central to the Islamic world’s understanding of itself and71. There are three recent exceptions to this trend. Much of Sayyid Qutb’s thirtyvolumetafsir, Fi Zilal al-Qur’an (In the Shade of the Qur’an), originally published in Arabic,has been translated into English, Farsi, Urdu, and other languages. See, e.g., QUTB, INTHE SHADE OF THE QUR’AN, supra note 3. Similarly, Syed Maududi’s tafsir has similarlybeen translated into many languages, including English, from the original Urdu. See SYED A.ABU ALA’A MAUDUDI, THE MEANING OF THE QUR’AN (1967). Further, Professor Roy Mottahedehhas just recently published an English translation of the first volume of MuhammadBaqir al-Sadr’s seminal text on Islamic jurisprudence. See AS-SADR, LESSONS, supra note 3.
Special] Post-Enlightenment Qur’anic Hermeneutics 1423its relationship with the West. Although the clarity must be Qur’anic, itmust of necessity also acknowledge the historical reality of the Enlightenment(as well as a number of other important historical phenomena thathave occurred in the Post-Enlightenment era, including the rise and declineof colonialism, the emergence of nationalism, two world wars, the advent ofthe nuclear age, and the civil/human rights revolution of the mid to latetwentieth century).The traditionalist argument might be made that the Post-Enlightenment tafsir, particularly the writing of Muhammad ‘Abduh and theso-called “scientific” exegetes, essentially “Islamicizes” Enlightenmentideas for the benefit of Muslim audiences. This is a powerful argument, andif it is right, then Qur’anic hermeneutic outside of the realm of popular religionhave become essentially moribund and impoverished. If it is wrong,or perhaps only partially right, then there is the hopeful possibility that Muslimscan restore the Qur’an to its preeminent position as the most importantarbiter of the affairs of life in the Islamic world. Fidelity to the hermeneuticalmethod that I will outline and fidelity to related methods of critical legalhistory will help us to achieve <strong>some</strong> clarity in determining whether the traditionalist’sargument is a valid one. There are many issues but I will onlydiscuss one, the issue of human equality, as it is the leading issue confrontingMuslims in modern life and is the product of the Post-Enlightenmentmindset.IV. A QUR’ANIC HERMENEUTIC FOR AN EGALITARIAN AGEMuslims assert that the idea of universal human equality is a core preceptin the Islamic belief system and a central tenet of the Shari’a. 72 Islamicegalitarianism, in place since the time of the Prophet Muhammad, greatlyfacilitated Islam’s spectacular growth in the first century after the death ofthe Prophet, and it has continued to be a powerful catalyst for the expansionof the religion over the past fourteen-hundred years. 73 In spite of these facts,it appears that the Islamic egalitarian ethic is now severely impoverished.72. The Shari’a is the entire corpus of Islamic law and jurisprudence, encompassingthe positive law or “fiqh,” (“comprehension” or “understanding”) and the methodologies forderiving the positive law from the sources, or “usul al-fiqh” (“the roots of understanding”).See KAMALI, supra note 9, at 2. On the question of Muslim assertions of Islam’s insistenceon human equality, see generally MOHAMMAD HASHIM KAMALI, FREEDOM, EQUALITY ANDJUSTICE IN ISLAM (2002) and SAYYID QUTB, SOCIAL JUSTICE IN ISLAM (John B. Hardie trans.,rev. ed. 2000).73. See MAJID KHADDURI, THE ISLAMIC CONCEPTION OF JUSTICE 143 (1984) (detailingthe early egalitarian messages of the Qur’an and the Prophet); BERNARD LEWIS, THEPOLITICAL LANGUAGE OF ISLAM 64 (1988) (acknowledging Islam’s egalitarian message andits impact on caste-based societies in the East and hierarchical and aristocratic societies in theWest).
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