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

82 Nasr Abu Zaydcertain, whereas the Qur'an's worldview is loaded with uncertainty .because itaddresses all levels of understanding. There is, therefore, a certain tension betweenthe philosophical worldview and the Qur'anic worldview, a tension that can onlybe solved by ta 'wit. But again, if ta 'wit is not to be available for everyone, howcan those who are deprived of such privilege attain appropriate knowledge of theQur'an's worldview? The solution for Ibn Rushd is that the conflict between theimmediately apparent meaning and the demonstrative meaning is not intrinsic.When "scripture is considered carefully, and the rest of its contents searched pageby page, there wiil invariably be found among the expressions of Scripture somethingwhich in its apparent meaning bears witness to that allegorical interpretationor comes close to bearing witness." 84 Shari'a and philosophy are, after all, breastfeedingsisters; there is no contradiction between the two modes oftruth. Still, IbnRushd's advice to search the content of Scripture page by page is waiting to beexecuted thoroughly.The Qur' an as textMy first direct encounter with Qur'anic studies, after my study of Mu'tazilite .hermeneutics in my MA and Ibn al-' Arabi's hermeneutics in my PhD, is presented 'in Majlnlm al-na(i(i: dirasafi 'ulz7m al-Qur 'an ("The Concept of the Text: A Studyin the Sciences of the Qur'an"), which I wrote while in Japan in 1987. At thattime I was concerned about the ideological manipulative hermeneutics of theQur'an practiced by the classical theologians as well as by the contemporary'ulama ', whether they belong to the official religious institutions or belong tothe political Islamist movement. So, the question of the very concept ofthe Qur' an .-what is the Qur'an?- directed me to investigate the classical 'u!am al-Qur 'an.It will suffice here to present a very brief account of the basic argument ofthe book.The classical Qur'anic sciences, when read in the light of modem theoriesabout textual analysis, reveal that the Qur'an, although recognized as a holy text,is a historically and culturally determined text. This historical text is the subjectof understanding and interpretation, whereas God's words exist in a spherebeyond any human knowledge. Therefore, socio-historical analysis is needed forits understanding and a modem linguistic methodology should be applied forits interpretation. The Qur'an is a message revealed from God to man throughthe Prophet Mul]ammad, the Messenger of God and a human. The Qur'an isvery clear about that. A message represents a communicative link between a·sender and a recipient through a code or a linguistic system. Because the sender ·in the case of the Qur' an cannot be the object of scientific study, the scientificintroduction to the analysis of the text of the Qur'an can only take place throughthe study of the contextual reality and the cultural milieu of seventh-centuryArabia.84 On the Harmony of Religion and Philosophy, 50.Towards understanding the Qur 'an's worldview 83The contextual reality refers to the totality of the socio-political conditions that." ..,.~.v~ the background for the actions of those who were addressed by the text.cultural milieu refers to the world of conceptions that is embodied in the1au,!>ua'l:S"• the same language in which the Qur'an is embodied. Therefore, the(histric:ity of the Qur' an must be the starting point of interpretation. The questionhistoricity makes it impossible to isolate the Qur'anic message, i.e. its worldfrompre-Qur'anic cultures and traditions. Thus the Qur'an is na(i(i tarikhiwa-mzmt