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50 Nasr Abu Zaydfrom the perspective of later developments. In other words, hermeneutics isworking on what the memory grasps from the past. To start with, the early personalencounter with the Qur'an is characterized as an encounter" With ambiguity, uncertaintyand questioning.Life experience: ambiguity and uncertaintyAs a child in the kuttiib (the traditional elementary school) the curricula included,besides reading, writing and reckoning, training in Qur'anic recitation with aprofessional recognized qiiri '. In order to help children attain a minimum understandingof what they recite, the simple theological dogma of tawbfd was taught:Allah is not begotten, neither does He beget (Q 112); He does not sleep, neitherdoes He eat; His Throne encompasses the heavens and the earth all together (Q2:255).As far as I can remember, this was puzzling not only for me but for some otherchildren as well. When the inspector of the ministry of education visited the lcuttiibfor evaluation, i.e. to decide whether the ministry would continue its financialsubsidiary to the lcuttiib, he asked this tricky question: What does Allah eat?Children answered without hesitation: He eats the best food (some specific kindsoffood, considered the best from the villager's perspective, were mentioned, suchas kebab, chicken, rice and pasta in addition to baklava as dessert.)Even more puzzling to me was the phrase "neither begets nor begotten." Lateron, as a scholar, the theological claim of God as a!- 'illatu al-illii (the First Cause)to avoid an endless series of reasoning was not convincing at all. My child-mindcould not stop searching for the genesis (the father and the mother) of Allah.Later I came to understand why the people of Mecca insisted on considering theangels as Allah's daughters and further insisted on keeping Allah far away fromtheir daily affairs; He is the creator of heaven and earth. He administers the dailyaffairs to the angels, His daughters. Although the Qur'an rebukes the Meccans'belief in angels as the daughters of Allah, it still teaches that the angels act asAllah's agents who bring His amr, command, from heaven to earth (Q 16:2, 97:4).The Qur'an's protest over the idea of Allah's daughters was because the Arabsconsidered female children inferior to male children, tq the extent of committingfemale infanticide (Q 17:31). Thus the Qur'an exclaims, a-lakumu l-dhakaruwa-lahu al-unthii, tilka idhan qismatun (ifzii (Q 53:21-22). Shall I infer now thatthe Qur'anic worldview is, as Muslims think, absolutely independent of thepre-Qur'anic worldview of the pagan Arab?I was able to memorize the entire Qur'an with the capacity of reciting it-----~--according-to-the-norms of tajwfd'_when Lwas eight years old, an event celebratedin the grand mosque of my village where I had to be tested by the well-knownshaykhs of the village with the attendance of my family and relatives. It was avery harsh test: one shaykh would recite a verse of the Qur'an and order me tocontinue; some minutes later, another shaykh would interrupt and recite anotherverse from another chapter and so on. Hours passed before I was addressed asshaykh qiiri' by my own kutfiib, Shaykh Mal:lmild al-NamTsT. My father was readyTowards understanding the Qur 'iin 's worldview 51to present a gift of wool qufliin to each shaykh and my mother was ready at homepreparing a big feast. 8As the Qur' an was easily memorized, it was easily forgotten when I was transferredfrom the kuttiib to a secular school. But forgetting did not affect the intimatepersonal connection with the Qur'an which became an essential componentof my identity; my memory could easily recall a passage of the Qur'an whenevoked by a single word. Later on, as a scholar, this intimacy became problematicto the extent I had to consult an English translation of the Qur' an in order to establisha space of 'otherness' and proceed with a scholarly analysis. 9My father's dream was that I would become an imiim 'iilim like Mul:lammad'Abduh (d. 1905), but he realized later that this·was a long path, so, because of hissickness and fear of early death - which happened shortly afterward - he decidedthat I would take the shortcut of secular-school education. My father's dreamnever escaped my attention, although it went in another direction later on. Thisshortcut route allowed me to get a high school diploma as a technician whichsecured a job that allowed me to earn money and support my family after the deathof my father. After eight years, I embarked for the university after attaining thehigh school certificate necessary for university admission. In the department ofArabic language and literature of the faculty of letters (Cairo University) therewere two courses in Islamic Studies: 'ult7m al-Qur 'an and tafslr in the secondyear and ulz7m al-/:ladith in the third year. I decided after graduation to continuemy postgraduate study in Qur'anic Studies, returning to my father's dream, butmy model example was not Mul:lammad 'Abduh, orTal:lai;Iusayn (d.l973), but acombination of the two, Amin al-Khilli (d. 1967), the champion of the literaryapproach to the Qur'an.I should mention here that during the years between graduation from technicalschool in 1960 and matriculation to university in 1968, I was able to read a lot;reading was my favorite, indeed my only, hobby. Driven by a dream to be a poet,a romance writer, a philosopher and a man of letters, I ended up in academia inIslamic Studies. My early readings turned out to be crucial in determining mydestination. Among the many writers/thinkers who influenced my mode ofthought, I only mention here the most influential names, the late well-known 1988Nobel Laureate NajTb Mal:l~ (d. 2006), Tal:la I;Iusayn, Amin al-Khilli, and SayyidQutb (executed 1966) ..8 "Shaykh Nasr" became my epithet in the village. As I was so proud of myself, my father feared thatthis pride would lead to arrogance and decided to teach me by several direct and indirect means tobe modest; he used to ask me every morning to recite for him Qur'iin 25:63-67, which describes thepious habits of the believers, in addition to the wise sage Luqmiin's admonition to his son in Qur'an31:17-19, which begins: ya bunayya aqimi l-0alata wa-' amur bi-1-ma 'ni.fi w-anha 'an al-munkariw-a0bir 'ala ma a0abaka ("0 my young son, establish what is right and forbid what is wrong. Bepatient with the things that afflict you!).9 An awareness of the distance between the text and interpreter is, among other requirements, aprerequisite for a hermeneutical approach. See, F. Korner, Revisionist Koran Hemteneutics inContemporary Turkish University Theology, Rethinking Islam, WUrzburg: Ergon, 2005, 33.