Muslim Exegetes Research Articles

ANALISIS DAN KRITIK METODE HERMENEUTIKA AL-QUR’AN MUḤAMMAD SHAḤRŪR

Muḥammad Shaḥrūr is one of the leading contemporary Muslim scholars who criticized the methodology of Qur’anic exegesis as developed by the classical Muslim exegetes. They said that those classical Muslim interpreters treated the Qur’anic textes in a passive and rigid manner, putting them out of the dialecticalcontext and contextualization. Consequently, understanding of the Qur’an is ad hoc and partial. To overcome this problem, Shaḥrūr suggested a new method, approach, and procedure of reading the Qur’an. This paper will critically examine Shaḥrūr’s hermeneutical approach as a new method of reading the Qur’an and otherreligious textes.Keywords: Muḥammad Shaḥrūr, Hermeneutika al-Qur’an, Kontekstualisasi

Biblical Elements in Koran 89, 6-8 and Its Exegeses: A New Interpretation of “Iram of the Pillars”

Abstract The meaning of the expression “Iram of the pillars” which is found in Kor 89, 7 has been the subject of many debates among ancient Muslim exegetes. The ambiguous signification of this passage has led to a large number of different interpretations and has (seemingly) led to many myths, whether in classical Arabic literature (religious and profane alike) or in modern Western writings. The aim of this paper is to give a critical overview and analysis of the various exegeses for this Koranic verse, to study the developments and history of the ‘Iram myth’ and finally, in light of these elements as well as through a Biblical/Midrashic comparative approach, to suggest our own theory of what was certainly the primitive and forgotten meaning of “Iram of the pillars”.

The jizya Verse (Q. 9:29): Tax Enforcement on Non-Muslims in the First Muslim State

The jizya verse has been the basis of a huge amount of writing by Muslims in Islamic law and Qur'anic exegesis, and by non-Muslim scholars writing about Islam. It continues to be used by some academics, the media and anti-Islamic propagandists to denigrate Islam and its treatment of non-Muslims, especially the ‘People of the Book’. This article aims to examine the verse afresh, using close linguistic analysis and paying due regard to the linguistic and historical contexts of the verse and all its elements, as well as the style of the Qur'an, and what it says outside the confines of this verse. Such analysis will demonstrate that the picture that has been made of this verse, based on various historical contingencies, both by Muslim exegetes and jurists and non-Muslim writers, is far removed from the actual picture as given in the Qur'an itself.

Martyrdom in Islam * BY DAVID COOK

The author devotes nine chapters to the concept of martyrdom in Islam in its many narratives of martyrs and martyrdom, following discussion in Chapter 1 of ‘Martyrdom in Religions’ in general. According to Cook, among the general features of martyrological narrative is the creation of ‘a boundary between belief systems’, between the martyr and the other, understood as different and opposing to the extent that it is ‘an absolute evil upon which the audience can focus their revulsion’. Martyrdom narrative in Judaism and Christianity is discussed in this chapter but on non-Abrahamic religious tradition the author is silent. In the next chapter ‘Martyrdom in the Genesis of Islam’, the author reflects on various aspects of the verses of Qurʾān as interpreted by famous Muslim exegetes, specifically on accounts of the battles waged during the early years. The discussion is further supplemented with references to events recorded in the books of ḥadīth and the life history of the Prophet.

Arab Prophets of the Qur'an and Bible

Recent scholarship on the Qur'an has noted the need for more attention to the historical content of the Qur'an, and in evaluating how the historical study of the Qur'an compares to the long tradition of Biblical studies in Europe and North America. This paper examines the question of the historicity of the Qur'an's contents with particular attention to how historical information in the Qur'an has traditionally been used and compared to the historical narrative drawn from Biblical scholarship by Muslim exegetes. In particular, this study focuses on the question of the ‘Arab’ prophets Hūd, Sālih, and Shucayb: of all the prophets mentioned by name in the Qur'an, only these three appear not to be mentioned in the Bible, and, as such, they provide a helpful example with which to examine the treatment of historical materials in the Qur'an. In addition to Islamic exegesis, this paper uses a number of non-Qur'anic literary sources, and archeological findings, to demonstrate that there is a fair amount of evidence external to the Qur'an for the historicity of the Arab prophets, suggesting the need for a much more varied and wider consideration of the phenomenon of prophecy in the ancient world as the common heritage of the religions of the Book.