The summary of my paper for the coming conference of IQSA at Yoga- Indonesia- August- 2015. The Qur’an Between “Constitutional (Universal) Principles” and the Limits of a Procedural Approach: How the Qur’an May Become the Foundation for a New Discourse By Dr. Ali Mabrook The paper argues that Muslims do not need a Qur’anic tafsir with new content, if this would remain subject to the rules of classical discourse. Rather, Muslims and the world at large would derive immense benefit from employing the Qur’an as the foundation for a completely new discourse that is capable of addressing the urgent needs of our time. This necessarily requires developing a new conceptual framework and methodological apparatus for studying the Qur’an. The starting point of any such project is to recognize the distinction which the Quran itself makes, between universal principles that do not change over time (which we may term the “constitutional principles” of the Qur’an), and various legal procedures developed at certain points in Muslim history, which sought to actualize these foundational principles for people living within a specific time and place (i.e., the “procedural aspects” of the Qur’an, Sunnah and fiqh). The classical discourse employed when studying the Quran—which is still utilized by a majority of Muslims today—prioritizes various temporal and procedural aspects of the Quran at the expense of its foundational (i.e., universal and eternal) principles. Although the procedural aspects of the Qur’an were revealed in order to actualize its foundational principles at a specific time and place—and are thus by no means immutable—they nevertheless came to be viewed as fixed and perpetual objectives. With the passage of time and the immense changes inevitably associated therewith, these procedural aspects of the Qur’an—ordained for and relevant to a specific time and place—eventually became obstacles that impede and even prevent Muslims from implementing the universal principles revealed by the Qur’an. This, in turn, has severely hindered Muslims from bringing their lives and societies into harmonious alignment with the basic realities of the modern world. In order to reconcile Muslims with the values and constantly shifting reality of our contemporary world, we should approach the Qur’an in such a way that it provides the foundation for a new discourse. Any such discourse should prioritize the universal and eternal “constitutional principles” of the Qur’an, and not be enslaved to outdated concepts regarding its temporal and procedural aspects.
Posted on: Mon, 22 Dec 2014 20:12:07 +0000
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