reynolds-the-quran-in-its-historical-context-2

54 Nasr Abu Zaydstudy (1968-72), Egypt went through difficult political, economic and social difficultiesdue to the consequences of the 1967 war with Israel. Such an unexpecteddefeat, with more Arab territories occupied by Israel- the Gola~ Heights of Syria,the West Bank from Jordan, Gaza and Sinai from Egypt)- created a culturaltrauma which provoked all of Arab society into questioning and rethinking, especiallythe notion of the Arabic and Islamic heritage (al-turath). 14 PresidentMul)ammad Anwar al-Siidiit (1970-81), who followed Jamal 'Abd al-Nii:;;ir( 1952-70), initiated in October 1970 what he claimed to be the corrective revolution,thawrat al-ta~l;zrl;z. This revolution entailed releasing political prisoners,mainly Muslim Brothers, abolishing press censorship, abolishing the one-partypolitical system and establishing a multi-party system. Along with this new era ofliberty and democracy, an open-door economic policy was adopted, but at oddswith it was an amendment to Article Two of the Constitution, which made "theprinciples of the sharr'a the main source of legislation" instead of one of thesources. Such an amendment was interpreted as a signal for the beginning of a .policy of Isl~mization demanded since the thirties by the Muslim Brothers. It isvery significant that Siidiit acted and behaved publicly in a way that presented himto the eyes of the Egyptian people as the true believing president, al-ra 'rsal-mu 'min. It was his usual way to start his public speeches by the first part of the·basmala, bismi Llah, and end by reciting the last verse of chapter two of theQur'iin, asking God's forgiveness for any fault or forgetfulness.As ev~ry new ruler in the Third World tries at the begipning of his presidentialcareer to create a different image of himself tluin that of his predecessor, Siidiit waseager to combat Nii:;;ir's charismatic image by claiming this new corrective revolutionof liberty, democracy and free-market economy versus Nii~?ir's regime ofsocialism, a one-party political system and constraints on freedom of expression. The ·image of Siidiit was, however, a contradictory image; on the one hand, he used to ·present himself to the Western media as the follower ofthe great pharaohs of Egypt,hardly a positive image from the Islamic perspective. As for the domestic media, hesought to present the image of a pious leader whose inspiration comes directly fromIslam, very much like the stereotype image of the 'Abbasid caliph Hiiriin al-Rashid.The proponents of Islamization supported this free-market policy, and thediscourse of social justice in Islam, or ishtrakiyyat a!-Islam,' was replaced by adiscourse critical ofNii~?ir's regime, which had introduced the laws of land reformation,al-i~/al;z al-zira 'r, in 1954 and nationalization, al-ta 'mrm, beginning withthe nationalization of the Suez Canal Company in 1956. Such laws were deemedto be against the sharr'a, and there was a strong demand to abolish them.Towards understanding the Qur'an 's worldview 55In this context of political and economical change, of cultural questioning andrethinking, as well as increasing ritualistic religiosity in Egyptian society, I started. my academic career. I was searching for answers to the existent debated issues· regarding freedom, justice, equality, Islamic values, Arabic culture, and themeaning of religiosity in Islam. As the Qur'iin and its m~aning was always at theheart of debate about every issue, it was to my mind very important to carry thesequestions back to the roots, the history of Islamic culture and the history of> Qur'iinic exegesis. For my MA thesis, I decided to study the Mu'tazilites' seem­:ingly rational approach to the Qur'iin, focusing on their concept of metaphor,·which emerged as an instrumental linguistic to.ol of interpretation at the beginning. of the ninth century. 15 My choice was not free of bias; I was, and I think I still am,. one of the Arab and Muslim adherents of "rationalism," a "rationalism" whichdoes not exclude or despise religion as a mere psychological phantom.· In addition to my rational tendency, it was also my aim to reconnect Qur'iinic. studies with literary studies, returning to Amin al-Khilli's method, which wasabandoned after the university decided, in 1947, following the scandal of hisstudent's PhD thesis, that al-Khiili should not be allowed to teach or superviseQur' anic studies any more. ''The decision was based on the reason that al-Khilliwas appointed to the chair ofEgyptian Literature on October 6, 1946, and thus hewas not supposed to teach or supervise Qur'anic studies." 16 Following this deci­. sion, Islamic studies in general, and Qur'iinic studies in particular, was left to·whomever was willing to teach it; teaching Islamic and Qur'iinic studies became· .· . a source for attaining baraka, divine blessing, rather than an academic field of·research. By choosing the concept of majaz, figurative expressions, as applied toQur'iinic exegesis by the Mu'tazlites, I took a step in the other direction, towards. 'the literary study of the Qur'iin... The Mu'tazilites are well known for their five principles, which are summarizedin the two basic comprehensive pillars, namely Divine Justice and Divine Unity,· al- 'ad/ wa-l-tawl;zrd, to the extent that they call themselves ahl al- 'ad! wa-1-tawhrd,.regardless of the different views each group holds concerning the details. Mysource was the writings of al-Qiic;li 'Abd al-Jabbiir al-Asadiibiidi (d. 415/1025),. especially his magnum opus al-Mughnf fi abwab al-tawbfd wa-l- 'adlY To·summarize the Mu'tazilite worldvlew constructed from the Qur'iin, one has to, ·.·present a brief account of their ontology, epistemology, and their theory of language,·.:including their metaphoric inte[pretation. As for their ontology, the world is, for:~ the Mu'tazlites, a compound constructed of bodies; the bodies in their tum are14 See for example, Zaki NaJib Mal)miid, Tajdid al-:fikr a/- 'arabi ("Innovation of Arabic Thought"),Cairo: Dar al-Shuriiq, 1971; Adunis (Ali Ahmad Sa 'id), AI-Thiibit wa-l-muta[1mvwi/: oa[lth fi1-ittiba' wa-1-ibdii' 'ind a/- 'Arab ("The Fixed and the Changeable: A Study of Imitation andInnovation in Arabic Thought"), Beirut: Dar al-' Awda, in 3 volumes: I. Al-U.yiil (I974); 2. Ta '.yi!$al-u!$!71 (1977); 3. Sadmat al-[wdiitha (1979); in the early eighties, Mul)ammad 'Abid al-Jabirl,Na[mu wa-1-turiith, ("Our People and Heritage"), Beirut and Casablanca: al-Markaz al-Thaqiifial-' Arabi, 1980, followed by a plethora of publications by Tayyib Tizini, l:lasan l:lanafi, and others.15 The title of the thesis is QQI;Iiyyat al-majiizfi 1-Qur'iin 'ind al-Mu'tazila; accepted in 1977 thegrade of "excellent". It was later published with minor changes as Al-Ittijiih a/- 'aqlf fi 1-taftir:diriisafi qa(liyyat al-majiiz 'inda al-Mu'tazila ("The Rational Trend in Exegesis: A Study of theConcept of Metaphor in the Mu'tazilites' Thought"), Beirut and Casablanca: al-Markaz al-Thaqafial-' Arabi, 1982, followed by several reprints.:.. J6 SeeN. Abii-Zayd, "The Dilemma of the Literary Approach," A/if, 23,2003, p. 32.-17 Edited and published under the supervision of Tahfi l:lusayn and Ibrahim Madkiir, Cairo: Wizaratal-Thaqiifa wa-1-Irshiid al-Qawmi, 1960-65.