Quranic Hermeneutics: New Avenues

The Quran is the source of ethics and guidance for all Muslims. In fact, the divine book has been given to Prophet Muhammad who was sent to the whole mankind. The traditions of the Prophet have always been believed to be the interpretations by words and deeds of the Quran. But traditions can never claim the same authenticity that the Quran does, because traditions came to be spurious and fabricated. Hermeneutics of the Quran has for much too long an exercise based on traditions. When the doors of Ijthihad were closed, so did the innovation of exegetes who came to write interpretations for interpretations. Time went by. But the process of interpreting the text came to be ossified and fossilized. There have been attempts to read the text according to the changing times and different contexts. Of late, reading the Quran from many perspectives, including that of women, have come to fore. Fazlur Rahman’s Major Themes of the Quran can be considered as an attempt to revive the ethical spirit of the Quran in the new context. Ziauddin Sardar’s Reading the Quran and Blogging the Quran follow suit. For all those who want to read the Quran contextually, we would like to open up new avenues

Infoeditor