The Theoretical Foundations of Contextual Interpretation of the Qur'an in Islamic Theological Schools and Philosophical Sufism

Bibliographic Data

ID4314630
AuthorsHalim Calis (0000-0002-5357-6324, Bethlehem Area School District, corresponding author)
Year2022
Volume13
Issue2
Pages188
Publication date2022-02-21
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueReligions (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2077-1444 • E-ISSN: 2077-1444
PublisherMDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT)
DOI10.3390/rel13020188
OpenAlexW4212986640
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited7

Contextual interpretation of the Qur'an has grown in popularity with the rise of Islamic modernism, mostly because of the need to reform Islamic thought and institutions. Although Qur'anic contextualism is a modern concept, this study argues that its theoretical origins can be traced back to classical Islamic scholarship. Most of the Islamic theological schools, as well as the Akbarī School (the school of Ibn al-'Arabī), a prominent representative of philosophical Sufism, acknowledged the contextuality of the Qur'an by distinguishing between transcendent divine speech and its limited manifestation in human language. Furthermore, Shams al-Dīn al-Fanārī of the Akbarī School developed a hermeneutical theory in which he questioned the authority and the nature of Qur'anic exegesis and emphasized the idea that the Qur'anic text can have multiple meanings, due to the multiplicity of perceptions in different human contexts. I propose that, of the thinking in pre-modern Islamic scholarship, Akbarian scriptural hermeneutics best accommodates the modern practice of reading the Qur'an contextually

Art · Epistemology · Hermeneutics · Interpretation (philosophy) · Islam · Islamic Philosophy · Linguistics · Literature · Political science · Scholarship · Sociology · Sufism · Theology · Education and Islamic Studies · Islamic Studies and History · Islamic Thought and Society Studies · Law · Philosophy · Religious studies

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