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Since the 1960s, the Syrian theologian Jawdat Saʿīd's (1931–2022) anthropocentric and social perspective on Qur'anic hermeneutics has played a major role in the ongoing epistemological debates that are emblematic of progressive trends in Islamic thought. By approaching history as the main source of the holy book of Islam, Saʿīd developed a particular understanding of jihād, leading him to the theorisation of radical nonviolence. This paper aims to analyse how this epistemic approach is employed in relation to another pivotal doctrinal notion, namely tawḥīd, which Saʿīd translates in social terms as the accomplishment of global justice and equality. His shift from a theological to a social interpretation of tawḥīd reveals a process of de-dogmatisation of the doctrine. This same shift also occurs in his interpretation of sacred history, which is intended as a paradigm to help mankind to cope with societal challenges through the continuous renewal of the meaning(s) of the Qur'an. A comparative exploration of the thought of a selection of other modern-day intellectuals in the second half of the article then helps to situate Saʿīd's effort in the wider context of contemporary Islamic exegetical trends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent scholarship on the classical tafsīr tradition has shown it to be characterised by, first, an interest in the polyvalent readings of the Qur'an and, second, methodological variegation. It is widely held that these features first appeared in exegetical works of the fourth/tenth century, particularly those of al-Ṭabarī (d. 310/923) and al-Thaʿlabī (d. 427/1035). However, in the following paper I argue that it is rather in Abū Zakariyyā al-Farrāʾ's (d. 207/824) Maʿānī al-Qurʾān, a linguistic-oriented tafsīr from nearly a century earlier, that we first find the features of mature classical tafsīr. In this article, I focus on al-Farrāʾ's citation of ḥadīths to illuminate his methodological variegation, which is scattered throughout his dense discussions of the Qur'an. His use of ḥadīths proves to be a good measure of his methodological variegation, given their wide reception and application in nearly all the disciplines of Arabo-Islamic scholarship utilised by exegetes. These observations provide a missing link that furthers our understanding of how the tafsīr tradition grew from the simpler, more concise forms of the second/eighth century to the exhaustive, encyclopaedic works of the fourth/tenth century onward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the creation of the first human, Adam (pbuh), humanity received revelation from the prophets. The revelation experience that began with Adam (peace be upon him) continued until the last prophet, Hz. Muhammad (peace be upon him), and this chain of revelation concluded with the Qur'an. The process of writing the verbal revelation along with the revelation of the Quran was carried out by the Prophet himself. The Qur'an, which was expanded into a book during the caliphate of Hz. Abu Bakr following the passing of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), was duplicated during the caliphate of Hz. Uthman and has remained unchanged to this day. It is seen that there are some differences between the writing and recitation of the Quran, which was carried in book form, throughout the historical process. These differences manifest themselves as authentic recitations as recitation seba/seven recitations and recitation ashare/ten recitations. In addition to these recitations, there are also shaz recitations. There is another type of recitation that is controversial whether it is included in the sahih and shaz recitations or whether it is a recitation, and this is Mudrec Recitation. Whether Mudraj Qiraat is a form of reading among seven or ten recitations has been a matter of debate among scholars working on this subject. While some of the scholars who study the differences in recitation argue that mudraj recitation is a form of recitation, others claim that it is an explanation between verses in tafsir Mushafs. While there was no clear statement that Mudraj Qiraat was a form of recitation until Suyûtî, with Suyûtî, Mudraj recitation took place among the concepts of recitation. However, there is still uncertainty as to whether mudraj recitation is a form of reading. Clarifying this opacity is an important problem that awaits an answer. It is considered essential to clarify the aforementioned opacity by making a synthesis of the previous studies on this subject. Because the differences in recitation in some verses regarding the provisions also lead to changes in the provisions. This work called 'The Concept of Mudraj in Readings', which we have criticized, is a kind of answer to the questions waiting to be answered on this subject. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This article explores the ways a number of exegetes deal with ideas of authorial intent and textual (mis)understanding, on the basis that the Qur'anic discourse is a set of intentions, or rather an 'intentional discourse' (al-khiṭāba al-qaṣadiyya). In their view, the Qur'an is a discourse, rather than a monologic, linear text. As a speech act that uses the power of the spoken utterance, it is able to use language in a ways that allow it to convey its intended meanings fully, thereby guiding the recipient to a complete understanding of the speaker's intention. Qur'anic Arabic is a specialised language that can be understood primarily through an appreciation of authorial intention (mabdaʾ al-qaṣad). This is the most significant element in intentional discourses, in contrast to other genres such as literature, in which the reader's understanding of the text is guided by both linguistic and semantic conventions and personal reader reception. In the case of the Qur'an, a failure to confine oneself to seeking to understand the speaker's intended meaning leads to misunderstandings, and thus represents the most prominent threat to an accurate understanding of its message. Misunderstandings can arise from issues such as the recipient's lack of linguistic and rhetorical competence, or their lack of sufficient knowledge of the characteristics and qualities of the author of the discourse, not to mention the effect of personal assumptions. Exegetes have therefore attempted to arrive at a taxonomy of the degrees of textual understanding and misunderstanding of authorial intent in the Qur'an, and the range and scope of their analysis will be addressed in this article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the commentaries of three contemporary Pakistani scholars – Dr Israr Ahmad, Javed Ahmed Ghamidi, and Engineer Muhammad Ali Mirza – on three Qur'anic themes as addressed in three specific verses: the creation story (Q. 4:1), women and legal testimony (Q. 2:282), and marital relationships (Q. 4:34). It emerges that the approaches taken by all three scholars differs considerably to those of earlier, premodern interpreters. For example, none of the three quote earlier authoritative opinions or engage in grammatical discussion, while only one uses ḥadīths to make his point. All three selectively bring in modern ideas to reinforce existing exegetical opinions and interpretations, and only rarely challenge these. While the three scholars deviate from the wider, inherited exegetical tradition in maintaining that women are not spiritually inferior or secondary to men, they do not challenge any other inherited concepts. In their discourse, they propagate the idea that men (i.e. husbands and fathers) are in charge of the family unit, the fundamental building block of society, because of their innate psychological and physiological features, and hence have greater responsibilities towards their households and society, while women, although spiritually equal, have different roles. None of the three scholars seem to consider the impact of changing socio-economic realities in Pakistan in their exegeses on the three themes addressed here, giving the impression that the normative values and customs of an Islamic society are independent of these changes. Finally, Ghamidi takes a more flexible approach in his question-and-answer sessions as compared to his tafsīr musalsal, giving the impression that the genre is more about conserving the meaning of the scripture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hitherto, the field of tafsīr studies has been beset by several challenges that have hindered its ability to produce a reliable historical outline of the genre. These challenges include: (1) the voluminous nature of our sources, both in terms of the sheer number of works and their individual length; (2) the fact that the overwhelming majority of works continue to be available only in manuscript form; (3) the tendency of previous scholarship to focus on the 'classical' period, leaving the post-classical tafsīr tradition largely unexplored, especially the ḥawāshī; and (4) our limited knowledge about which works were historically popular, when, where, and for whom. This article shares the findings of a multi-year project to convert the most important union catalogue of Arabic tafsīr manuscripts, al-Fihris al-shāmil, into a searchable database and to use this database to pose and answer questions that were hitherto difficult to explore. These questions include: (1) What were the most longitudinally popular commentaries on the Qur'an as suggested by counts of extant manuscripts and their geographic distribution today? (2) To what extent have academic scholars studied these works? It is hoped that these findings will assist the field in planning future scholarly projects and in ultimately developing a more reliable outline of the tafsīr tradition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the compilation of hadiths, which are considered the second source of Islam after the Quran, started in an early period, it took centuries to complete the process. This service is of paramount importance, especially for mujtahid scholars. Because the scholar who will engage in ijtihad first looks for the answer to the problem he encounters in the Quran and the Prophetic Sunnah, and if he cannot find the answer he is looking for in these two sources, he resorts to ijtihad. It was not difficult for the mujtahid to reach the Quran. However, it was not easy to reach the Prophetic Sunnah, which had spread over the wide Islamic geography and whose codification had not yet been completed, under the conditions of that period, and therefore no mujtahid, including the Rightly-Guided Caliphs and the imams of major sects, was fully versed in the Prophetic Sunnah. In the research, it was determined by giving examples of important names from every layer that not every mujtahid, including the companions, was aware of some prophetic sunnah during the process of tadween and before. It was emphasized that the tadween is especially important for mujtahids and it was pointed out that the tadween positively contributed to the knowledge of the sunnah of the mujtahid scholars. As a result, it has been observed that a mujtahid, regardless of his rank, once a sound sunnah reaches him, he reverts from his old view and makes his judgment in accordance with the sunnah. It was only possible for the sunnah to reach the Islamic geography with the codification of hadiths. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The contemporary Qur'anic studies have been marked by amazing development. Various methods and approaches to understand the Qur'an are offered by the scholars. One of the prominent figures in this field is Nashr Hamid Abu Zayd. Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd (1943-2010 M) is a highly controversial contemporary thinker. He is an Egyptian scholar who is accused of being apostate, because of his theory of qur'anic hermeneutic (the textual of Qur'an). This is reflected in his stances towards contemporary religious discourse and the approach to reading religious texts, especially the Quran, which requires reading according to a hermeneutic mechanism. His books 'Naqd al-Khitab al-Dini (Criticism of Religious Discourse)' and 'Al-Takfir fi Zaman al-Takfir (Thinking in the Time of Atonement)' caused a great uproar in the early nineties of the last century. Abu Zayd was accused of criticising atheists because of their stances on the text. Therefore, this study aimed to discuss Abu Zayd's position on contemporary religious discourse and his new approach to reading religious texts, and also aims to discuss why Abu Zayd's theory has been string up Islamic world and ending by his expulsive from his native country. To deal with this problem, this article discusses Abd Zayd's biography and some cultural framework of his people. The methodology of Qur'anic hermeneutic is the least his. Having examined the topic, the author finds that Abu Zayd believes that modem literary theory and criticism denote the way to understand and interpret the Qur'an 'objectively'. The contribution of this research is discussing Abu Zayd's contemporary religious discourse and his new approach to reading religious texts. Contribution: The contribution of this research is discussing Abu Zayd's contemporary religious discourse and his new approach to reading religious texts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the discussion on Arabic lexicographical tradition has deep roots in history, with its origins traced back to the elucidation of Quranic lexemes. Topics include efforts to interpret rare words in the Quran are regarded as the genesis of lexical studies among Muslims; and fundamental rules defining morphological and phonetic structures, as well as permutation processes.

The holistic approach to the Qur'ān is a phrase used under different headings in the field of tafsīr. The article assumes that a comparative analysis of the usage areas will provide more clear and understandable data on the scope of this phrase. The aim of the article is to bring out the scope of the expressions such as the holistic approach to the Qur'ān and the unity of the Qur'ānic text, thus to reveal the difference among these uses. Based on this background, the article presents and analyzes five different topics in which the aforementioned phrases are used in the field of tafsīr. These are the interpretation of the Qur'ān by the Qur'ān (tafsīr al-Qur'ān bi'l-Qur'ān), the relationship between verses and sūras (munāsabāt al-āyāt wa'l-suwar), thematic tafsīr (al-tafsīr al-mawdū'ī), sūrah-based tafsīr, and structural studies based on Semitic rhetoric. Tafsīr al-Qur'ān bi'l-Qur'ān means the explanation of a verse with other verses of the Qur'ān, thus refering to the understanding of the text in its inner unity. Munāsabāt al-āyāt wa'l-suwar contains the thesis that the verse and sūra units should have a successive relationship, so it has the concept of unity that is expected to emerge from this relationship. Thematic tafsīr proposes to consider the verses related to a particular subject of the Qur'ān as a whole. Sūra-based tafsīr claims that the Qur'ānic sūras are whole units with certain main themes. As for the structural studies based on Semitic rhetoric defended by some scholars in recent Western studies, the Qur'ān is a text that has some symmetrical structures and therefore has structural unity. In each of these headings, we come across holistic approaches that differ from each other at certain points. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]