No abstract available / RELIGIOUS STUDIES & ARABIC / MA (ARABIC)

No abstract available / RELIGIOUS STUDIES and ARABIC / MA (ARABIC)

The publication of Qur’an commentaries authored by contemporary Muslims provide glimpses into influential trends that have been competing for the attention of contemporary Muslims. This dissertation primarily examines three works of Qur’anic translation and exegesis (Ar. Tafsīr) in the English language. These works are representative of three influential trends or schools of thought in contemporary Islam: an “Islamist” or “Activist” trend represented by Abu’l ‘Ala Mawdudi, a rationalist-modernist trend represented by Muhammad Asad, and a Salafi trend represented by the Mubarakpūrī English abridgement of the medievalist Ibn Kathīr's hadith-based tafsir. These commentators often engage earlier Qur’anic commentaries and make choices about which voices and positions from the “classical legacy” they foreground, highlighting what they believe may resonate with their readers. The first chapter provides an historical overview to some of the major trends in Qur’anic exegesis. The second chapter provides background on the commentators, including the social and political contexts of the commentators as well as their education and important aspects of their careers. The third and fourth chapters focus on two chapters of the Qur’an (Q12 and Q18) as these appear in the three commentaries, highlighting how modern commentators reflect their own concerns and context and their various reform projects in their interpretations of Muslim scripture. I supplement the main three commentators with a sample of contemporary living voices who also comment on these two Qur’anic chapters to highlight how Muslims continue to reinterpret the Qur’anic texts in relation to what they see as most relevant and meaningful. Chapter five looks at how these works have been received and considers how they offer a window into the contestation taking place in contemporary Islam. I conclude with a reflection upon my own teaching of these two chapters in a university setting. While the Islamic scholarly traditions and Qur’anic commentaries are a multilayered, polyvalent tradition, these traditions are often (unfortunately) truncated by many contemporary Muslims. I try to highlight certain areas where the contemporary commentaries are, on the one hand, generally narrower than the rich polyvalent traditions of the premodern exegetical tradition, but on the other hand, move in new directions as Muslims today relate their readings of scripture to contemporary concerns. This analysis of contemporary Qur’anic commentaries and their commentators moves beyond freezing Muslims into the fixed category of the “premodern.” Though the three commentaries were chosen to be representative of three important trends in modern Islam, the dissertation is also careful to show that the boundaries between these approaches are often fluid, providing concrete examples of how contemporary Muslims are reinterpreting Muslim scripture, affirming and selecting from the premodern tradition, critical of certain aspects of that tradition, and also adding their own voices to make the Qur’anic text speak to their modern situations.

Arabic text. Arabic summary and keywords cannot be copied into meta data fields / The importance of this research is evident from the field related to it; namely, that of reports about circumstances for Qur’anic revelations. Without a comprehensive knowledge of it, many of the subtleties and nuances of Qur’anic discourse remain concealed from us. For this purpose, I used al-Suyuti’s "Lubab al-Nuqul fi Asbab al-Nuzul" for the pivotal and comprehensive role it occupies among works dealing with this discipline. Briefly, my methodology was the following: I first presented a summary of the author’s biography. Secondly, I edited the manuscript I had obtained of this book from the King Faisal Library in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Thirdly, I made comparisons between this version and numerous printed versions of this book in order to verify the authenticity of textual information I presented in this thesis by categorising Prophetic and other reports at the levels of their soundness and weakness so that the reader may obtain a firm insight into their status levels. Fourthly, I amended reports that al-Suyuti had omitted in relation to verses he had cited. Fifthly, I graded different reports on a topic according to established criteria in this subject; often reconciling them where it was possible. I interpreted verses in their general purport by indicating that the report/s relating to the circumstances for revelation was/were already embodied in their signification. I only deviated from this norm where I found that a body of reliable scholars had given preference to a particular report vis-à-vis a certain verse; in which case I adopted their opinion. Sixthly, I attached brief commentaries to relevant verses to enable the reader to gain a more comprehensive grasp of text within its context. Finally, I defined some peculiar terminology found in this book for the benefit of unfamiliar researchers. / Religious Studies and Arabic / D. Litt. et Phil. (Islamic Studies)

Arabic text. Arabic summary and keywords cannot be copied into meta data fields / The importance of this research is evident from the field related to it; namely, that of reports about circumstances for Qur’anic revelations. Without a comprehensive knowledge of it, many of the subtleties and nuances of Qur’anic discourse remain concealed from us. For this purpose, I used al-Suyuti’s "Lubab al-Nuqul fi Asbab al-Nuzul" for the pivotal and comprehensive role it occupies among works dealing with this discipline. Briefly, my methodology was the following: I first presented a summary of the author’s biography. Secondly, I edited the manuscript I had obtained of this book from the King Faisal Library in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Thirdly, I made comparisons between this version and numerous printed versions of this book in order to verify the authenticity of textual information I presented in this thesis by categorising Prophetic and other reports at the levels of their soundness and weakness so that the reader may obtain a firm insight into their status levels. Fourthly, I amended reports that al-Suyuti had omitted in relation to verses he had cited. Fifthly, I graded different reports on a topic according to established criteria in this subject; often reconciling them where it was possible. I interpreted verses in their general purport by indicating that the report/s relating to the circumstances for revelation was/were already embodied in their signification. I only deviated from this norm where I found that a body of reliable scholars had given preference to a particular report vis-à-vis a certain verse; in which case I adopted their opinion. Sixthly, I attached brief commentaries to relevant verses to enable the reader to gain a more comprehensive grasp of text within its context. Finally, I defined some peculiar terminology found in this book for the benefit of unfamiliar researchers. / Religious Studies and Arabic / D. Litt. et Phil. (Islamic Studies)

The aim of this work is to analyze quranic feminist interpretation focusing on controversial verse 4:34. We attempt to demonstrate the way islamic feminist exegets deal with the key concepts of this verse mostly notion of male authority (qiwwama and faddala), female obedience (qanitat) and disobedience (nushuz) and wife beating (idribuhunna) through the islamic feminist hermeneutical principles mainly contextual, holistic and through reexamination of terminology. Particular arguments, approaches and interpretative manoeuvres of feminist Qurʼanic exegesis aiming to legitimize gender egalitarian reading of the Qurʼan and challenging centuries of andocentric exegetical tradition will be examined.