Overview

Ali Akbar examines the works of four noted scholars of Islam: Fazlur Rahman (Pakistan), Abdolkarim Soroush (Iran), Muhammad Mujtahed Shabestari (Iran) and Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd (Egypt). His study shows that the consequences of taking a humanistic approach to understanding revelation are not confined to the realm of speculation about the relationship between God and humans, but also to interpreting Qur'ānic socio-political precepts. The four scholars emerge as a distinctive group of Muslim thinkers who open up a new horizon in contemporary Islamic discourse.

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9781474456166

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"Contemporary Perspectives on Revelation and Qurʾanic Hermeneutics offers a systematic and analytical study of a specific trend in understanding the nature of revelation, as represented in the works of four contemporary Muslim reformists: Abdulkarim Soroush, Muhammad Mujtahid Shabestari, Fazlur Rahman, and Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd.(...) An academic reader interested in the contemporary debate on the nature of revelation in Islamic scholarship would find this book beneficial and a valuable contribution.--Hasan Doagoo ""Religious Studies Review"" In this timely, innovative and detailed study Ali Akbar masterfully examines four major proponents of a ""humanist"" theory of revelation in Islam and how this theory informs their respective Qur'anic hermeneutics. Importantly, Akbar also discusses the practical socio-political and legal implications of this 'humanistic' theory of revelation and aptly recognises the crucial role this theory has in enabling meaningful and consequential renewal of religious discourse as a first and necessary step toward the engendering of more democratic, human rights-based and egalitarian Muslim societies and cultures.--Adis Duderija, Griffith University (...) Contemporary Perspectives on Revelation provides a comprehensive study of the surveyed scholars' theory of revelation and its influence on their hermeneutic approaches.--Hasan Doagoo ""Religious Studies Review"""

Author Information

Ali Akbar is a Research Fellow at Deakin University and at the University of Melbourne. His research interests include Middle Eastern and Iranian Politics, Modern Islamic Thought, classical and contemporary Qur'anic hermeneutics and Islamic Feminism. His work appeared in a number of key journals, including Middle Eastern Studies, Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations, and Islamic Quarterly. He is the author The Political Discourse of Decline and Backwardness among Contemporary Iranian Intellectuals (Farzan-e Rooz, 2017), written and published in Persian, and co-author of Contemporary Approaches to the Qurʾān and Its Interpretation in Iran (Routledge, 2019).

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