Interreligious Teachings and the Qur’an

Abstract

This essay provides an overview of approaches to teaching interreligious studies and focuses on approaches to the study of some Qur’anic verses that have been given exclusivist interpretations. In this chapter, I demonstrate how and why I teach Qur’anic verses that have been considered hostile to the other. Most scholars, when discussing religious diversity in Islam, highlight verses that reach to the other, but they rarely address the seemingly exclusivist ones. Addressing these verses in the class helps students understand the broader message of Islam and also sheds light on how Muslim scholars have struggled with such verses to give them a more favorable meaning. Using this approach of turning exclusivist verses into inclusivist ones helps my students understand that the interpretation of sacred texts is determined by historical, linguistic, and cultural contexts.