some reflection on post-enlightenment qur'anic hermeneutics

Special] Post-Enlightenment Qur’anic Hermeneutics 1439The seventh century Qur’anic context of slavery is thus unequivocal.Yet, Muslim jurists, applying these verses to contemporary circumstances,are unanimous in concluding that such relationships are no longer permittedby Islamic law and that the text is an anachronism or “obsolete.” 146 All ofthe important examples for this interpretation come from the Post-Enlightenment hermeneutical literature, yet such interpretations have beenreadily and unquestionably accepted by even the traditionalist commentators.Two examples from the Post-Enlightenment hermeneutical literatureare instructive. Muhammad Rashid Rida, writing in the early twentieth century,referred to the emancipatory and liberal treatment of slaves mandatedby the Qur’an and argued that the elimination of slavery was therefore oneof the purposes of the Qur’anic revelation. 147 In coming to this conclusion,he cited examples from the history of abolition in the Americas and in Sudanand suggested that the abolition of slavery must, of necessity, be agradual affair. 148 Sayyid Qutb, in his famous commentary on the Qur’an,similarly argues that the Qur’an mandates a struggle to establish a virtuoussociety. 149 This struggle springs only from piety, and in that spirit, suchpiety requires the freeing of slaves. 150 The virtuous society is thus one thatis slavery-free. 151146. See THE MEANING OF THE HOLY QUR’AN, supra note 75, at 875 n.2991 (commentingthat slavery is now “obsolete”); ASAD, supra note 76, at 540 n.46 (asserting thatslavery can be no more); AHMAD IBN NAQIB AL-MISRI, RELIANCE OF THE TRAVELER 458-59(Nuh Ha Mim Keller ed. & trans., rev. ed. 1994) (observing that slavery is a dead letter).147. See RIDA, supra note 3, at 143-45.148. See id. at 143.149. QUTB, IN THE SHADE OF THE QUR’AN, supra note 3, at 176-79 (commenting onSura ul-Balad).150. Id.151. Id. In recent times a number of other commentators have also made this argument.The British abolitionist C.W.W. Greenidge, in his important book on slavery, makesthe same argument and cites a number of sources as support. See C.W.W. GREENIDGE,SLAVERY 58-65 (1958). He makes extensive use of the argument of Syed Ameer Ali, theIndian Islamic modernist, and he quotes Eldon Rutter, who remarked “The Koran rightlypractised would soon bring about the complete cessation of slavery.” Id. at 65 (quotingEldon Rutter in The Holy Cities of Arabia). He also quotes Bertram Thomas, who said: “Inthe unabatement of slavery Arabia has been false to her Prophet.” Id. (quoting BertramThomas in The Arabs). Greenidge also quotes an Imam, Dr. H. Ghoraba, who gave a sermonin which “he quoted with approval ‘a great Moslem scholar [unnamed, but likely RashidRida], who claimed that meditation upon the policy of Islam would prove that Islam came toabolish slavery in spite of its recognition of it.’” Id. (quoting H. Ghoraba). Verse 4:36 inSura An-Nisa exhorts the believers to “[b]e good to [their] parents, to relatives, to orphans, tothe needy, to neighbours near and far, to travellers in need, and to [their] slaves.” The HolyQur’an, Sura An-Nisa 4:36 (translated by author). The modern Qur’an commentator MuhammadAsad asserts that this verse is also an exhortation to seek the abolition of slaveryand maintains that Muhmmad ‘Abduh held a similar position. See ASAD, supra note 76, at110 n.48.