Original Research

Rereading Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd’s method of interpreting religious texts

Abdul Mufid, Abd. Kadir Massoweang, Mujizatullah Mujizatullah, Abu Muslim, Zulkarnain Yani
HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies | Vol 79, No 1 | a8102 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.4102/hts.v79i1.8102 | © 2023 Abdul Mufid, Abd. Kadir Massoweang, Mujizatullah Mujizatullah, Abu Muslim, Zulkarnain Yani | This work is licensed under CC Attribution 4.0
Submitted: 09 September 2022 | Published: 31 January 2023

About the author(s)

Abdul Mufid, Department of Hadith Studies, Faculty of Theology, Sekolah Tinggi Agama Islam Khozinatul Ulum Blora, Blora, Indonesia
Abd. Kadir Massoweang, Research Center for Religious Treasures and Civilizations, National Research and Innovation Agency, Jakarta, Indonesia
Mujizatullah Mujizatullah, Research Center for Religious Treasures and Civilizations, National Research and Innovation Agency, Jakarta, Indonesia
Abu Muslim, Research Center for Religious Treasures and Civilizations, National Research and Innovation Agency, Jakarta, Indonesia
Zulkarnain Yani, National Research and Innovation Agency, Jakarta, Indonesia

Abstract

The contemporary Qur’anic studies have been marked by amazing development. Various methods and approaches to understand the Qur’an are offered by the scholars. One of the prominent figures in this field is Nashr Hamid Abu Zayd. Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd (1943–2010 M) is a highly controversial contemporary thinker. He is an Egyptian scholar who is accused of being apostate, because of his theory of qur’anic hermeneutic (the textual of Qur’an). This is reflected in his stances towards contemporary religious discourse and the approach to reading religious texts, especially the Quran, which requires reading according to a hermeneutic mechanism. His books ‘Naqd al-Khitab al-Dini (Criticism of Religious Discourse)’ and ‘Al-Takfir fi Zaman al-Takfir (Thinking in the Time of Atonement)’ caused a great uproar in the early nineties of the last century. Abu Zayd was accused of criticising atheists because of their stances on the text. Therefore, this study aimed to discuss Abu Zayd’s position on contemporary religious discourse and his new approach to reading religious texts, and also aims to discuss why Abu Zayd’s theory has been string up Islamic world and ending by his expulsive from his native country. To deal with this problem, this article discusses Abd Zayd’s biography and some cultural framework of his people. The methodology of Qur’anic hermeneutic is the least his. Having examined the topic, the author finds that Abu Zayd believes that modem literary theory and criticism denote the way to understand and interpret the Qur’an ‘objectively’. The contribution of this research is discussing Abu Zayd’s contemporary religious discourse and his new approach to reading religious texts.

Contribution: The contribution of this research is discussing Abu Zayd’s contemporary religious discourse and his new approach to reading religious texts.


Keywords

religious texts; Qur’anic studies; hadith studies; hermeneutic; interpretation.

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HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies  vol: 79  issue: 2  year: 2023  
doi: 10.4102/hts.v79i1.8519