some reflection on post-enlightenment qur'anic hermeneutics

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1436 Michigan State Law Review [Vol. 2006:1403ods of reasoning are grounded in and determined by the interpreter’s viewof the revelation’s reconstructed history. Professor Rahman’s approachrejects historical reconstruction as the primary referent in determining themeaning of a text. 134 Hans-Georg Gadamer, a German philosopher who hadconsiderable influence on Rahman’s thinking and the thinking of severalother Post-Enlightenment interpreters, also rejected reconstructive historicism.135 In famous words, Gadamer, commenting on such thinking in thecontext of interpreting art, said:Reconstructing the conditions in which a work passed down to us from the pastwas originally constituted is undoubtedly an important aid to understanding it. Butwe may ask whether what we obtain is really the meaning of the work of art thatwe are looking for, and whether it is correct to see understanding as a second creation,the reproduction of the original production. Ultimately, this view of hermeneuticsis as nonsensical as all restitution and restoration of past life. Reconstructingthe original circumstances, like all restoration, is a futile undertaking in view ofthe historicity of our being. What is reconstructed, a life brought back from thelost past, is not the original. In its continuance in an estranged state it acquiresonly a derivative, cultural existence. . . . [A] hermeneutics that regarded understandingas reconstructing the original would be no more than handing on a deadmeaning. 136What, then, should be the role of tradition in Post-Enlightenment interpretationof the Qur’an? In the example I have chosen, focusing on theproblem of human equality, do we read a Post-Enlightenment understandingof the meaning of the conception of “equality” into the verses on the hajjthat use that term? Does it make sense to look at “equality” through seventh-centuryeyes? This question is more difficult than it appears becausewe must acknowledge that we are interpreting a theological text, one thatalso has legal and normative implications. So in evaluating the tradition, wemust be aware that “the miracle of understanding consists in the fact that nolike-mindedness is necessary to recognize what is really significant andfundamentally meaningful in tradition.” 137 In the case of the hajj, the traditionof limiting participation in the ritual to Muslims only is a centrally importantpractice that has become part of the understanding of the text governinghow the ritual is to be performed. This understanding is greatly en-134. See RAHMAN, ISLAM AND MODERNITY, supra note 2, at 8-11.135. See GADAMER, TRUTH AND METHOD, supra note 8, at 166.136. Id. at 166-67. Gadamer equated the hermeneutic enterprise in interpreting art asessentially the equivalent to the interpretation of literature:All written works have a profound community in that language is what makes thecontents meaningful. In this light, when texts are understood by, say, a historian,that is not so very different from their being experienced as art. And it is not merechance that the concept of literature embraces not only works of literary art buteverything passed down in writing.Id. at 163. He also asserted that all religious texts qualify as literature. See id. at 162.137. Id. at 311.
Special] Post-Enlightenment Qur’anic Hermeneutics 1437hanced by the hadith of the Prophet Muhammad. Because traditional interpretationstill has great significance and fundamental meaning for the adherentsof the popular religion, we would very likely come to the same conclusionthat the seventh century interpreters arrived at, if we look at the traditionin contemporary relation to the text.Although this conclusion seems right for the hajj, it may not be soright for the understanding of the verse’s application to problem of ingressand egress to Mecca. Of course, Omar may have instituted the rule prohibitingingress to Mecca by non-Muslims out of a desire to protect the religiousintegrity of the hajj. However further historical investigation wouldbe required to find out if this is true. If that conclusion is drawn, we musthave the courage to say that the prohibition on ingress to Mecca by non-Muslims is not based on interpretation of the text, which does not supportsuch a conclusion but rather that it based on practical necessities. If thosenecessities change, or if we find a better way of dealing with the issue, itmay very well be that the rule would change.B. The Problem of SlaveryThe Qur’an contains many verses that discuss and regulate the relationshipbetween slaves and the free. 138 There can be no dispute that theQur’an clearly took the existence of slavery in seventh century Arabia forgranted. It unequivocally accepted slavery as part of the social and economiclife of communities that ultimately came to embrace the new Islamicmessage and sought only to humanize slavery’s rules and curb its harsheraspects. 139 Similarly, the Sunnah tells us that the Prophet Muhammad received,owned, and made gifts of chattel slaves during his lifetime, and heaffirmatively employed chattel slavery as a tool of conquest in war. 140138. See The Holy Qur’an, Sura Al-Baqara 2:221, Sura An-Nisa 4:25, Sura An-Noor24:32 (permitting and regulating marriage to slaves), Sura Al-Baqara 2:178-179 (establishinglaw of homicide for slave and free), Sura Muhammad 47:4 (governing disposition and freedomfor enslaved prisoners of war), Sura An-Nisa 4:3, 4:24, 4:36 (establishing rules governingrelations with concubines), Sura An-Nisa 4:92 (stipulating freedom of slave as expiationfor sin), Sura Al-Balad 90:13 (announcing ethical standard urging emancipation of slaves).139. PATRICIA CRONE, GOD’S RULE: GOVERNMENT AND ISLAM 351 (2004); BERNARDLEWIS, RACE AND SLAVERY IN THE MIDDLE EAST: AN HISTORICAL ENQUIRY 5-6 (1990); J.O.Hunwick, Black Slaves in the Mediterranean World: Introduction to a Neglected Aspect ofthe African Diaspora, in THE HUMAN COMMODITY: PERSPECTIVES ON THE TRANS-SAHARANSLAVE TRADE 5 (Elizabeth Savage ed., 1992).140. Although the facts are contested, there is a large body of evidence that theProphet Muhammad owned a concubine. She was a gift to him from the Byzantine Prelate inAlexandria. Her name was Mariyah and she bore him a son, Ibrahim. See W. MONTGOMERYWATT, MUHAMMAD AT MEDINA 294 (1972); see also JONATHAN E. BROCKOPP, EARLYMALIKI LAW: IBN ‘ABD AL-KAKAM AND HIS MAJOR COMPENDIUM OF JURISPRUDENCE 142 n.95(2000) (stating that Mariyah was “clearly a slave”). The historical assertion that the Prophet
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