Blackboard Learn 11-04-12 3:12 PM

Introduction
This lecture will review some of the key arguments by leading Muslim
women scholars Amina Wadud and Asma Barlas. These scholars are
concerned with epistemological reform within the Islamic traditions that take
into account women's reading and interpretations of religious texts as valid
sites of discursive authority. They challenge the patriarchal interpretations of
religious texts that have led to problematic interpretations regarding
women's issues in Islam. They regard this as a process of androcentric
readings that reflect particular historical and cultural worldviews and
highlight the need for new analysis and interpretations to better capture the
spirit of social justice and gender justice within the message of the Qur'an.

Lecture Topics
1. Gendered Politics of Religious Interpretation
2. Mapping the Historical, Discursive and Political Context for
Conservative, Fundamentalist and Critical Approaches to Religious
Interpretation

Amina Wadud- Qur'an And Woman

In her book Qur'an and Woman, Amina Wadud situates her discussion of
alternative Qur'anic exegesis (interpretation) within the context of identity
formation in a post-colonial context . She argues that Muslim Women's
rights have faired better in contexts where there was greater stability within
a communal sense of Islamic identity. When that is threatened, that is

https://my.ryerson.ca/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tabGroup=course…Text.jsp%253Fcourse_id%253D_52299_1%2526content_id%253D_1469643_1 Page 1 of 11
Blackboard Learn 11-04-12 3:12 PM

Muslim identity is weak in the face of external pressures, Muslim women's

rights are compromised women become the symbols of Islamic
identification. The veil for example was used in ths way as a marker of
Islamic identitification that was galvanized during the Iranian revolution and
the Algerian anti-colonial struggle, both cases are examples of where
Islamic identity was under siege.

Muslim women are more closely guarded due to perceived external threats
and resulting internal flexibility- women's bodies bear the burden of the
honour and retention of collective identity (see Zine, 2004). In the current
context, external pressures such as global, cultural and economic
imperialism occurring as the by- products of globalization present the same
threat to Islamic identification. These factors have played into the rise of
fundamentalisms and political extremism in many parts of the Muslim world.

N/A
Ideological and Epistemological
Reform
There is also a need to engage ideological reform- alternative exegesis in
this process that scholars like Amina Wadud and Asma Barlas are
undertaking- the sanctity of the sources are maintained- but the
hermeneutics or how they are interpreted and understood and then applied
are based on a process of human understanding and engagement.

Wadud notes that there is no distinction made between three levels of

understanding Islam:

1. Islam as defined through cultural nuance and a wide range of Muslim

practices
https://my.ryerson.ca/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tabGroup=course…Text.jsp%253Fcourse_id%253D_52299_1%2526content_id%253D_1469643_1 Page 2 of 11
Blackboard Learn 11-04-12 3:12 PM

2. The Islam legitimated by authorities (primarily male) of he intellectual

legacy
3. Or the Islam that reflects the primary sources

Wadud asks the important question: "Is Islam what Muslims do, what
governments establish, what the intellectual legacy articulated or what the
primary sources imply?"

In examining the intellectual legacy, she looks at the Neo-traditionalist view

based on classical texts. For example in Al Ghazzali's book on marriage and
sexuality, women viewed through this historical, cultural and patriarchal
prism as dependent creatures best kept within the confines of the home and
male authority where their honour and sexuality can be guarded and
protected (connect this with Mernissi's argument earlier )

Neo-traditional approaches and understandings such as these- growing in

popularity due to various cultural, economic and political changes in Muslim
societies. As a response to Orientalism and the representation of Muslim
women, Wadud points out a very common by-product whereby Muslims
have come to the so-called "defense" of Islam by defending practices that
are harmful to women.

As a response to the encroachment of globalization (i.e the homogenization

of culture based on western secular hegemony)some Muslims have
retreated to the Madinah model as a means to recuperate an "authentic"
Islamic identity. They base this authentication of identity on the complete
veiling and seclusion of women and their exile from the public domain
including higher education, which is considered to be a vehicle of corrupt or
un-Islamic values.

Such ideologies get their groundings from particular readings of the Qur'an
or tafseer as these exegetical practices are known. But Wadud reminds us

https://my.ryerson.ca/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tabGroup=course…Text.jsp%253Fcourse_id%253D_52299_1%2526content_id%253D_1469643_1 Page 3 of 11
Blackboard Learn 11-04-12 3:12 PM

that tafseer or Qur'anic exegesis is human-made interpretation and therefore

subject to human nuances, peculiarities and limitations. Divine Will cannot
be contained or explained by any one such limited being or community-
Divine Will is always in the process of becoming, and unfolding as part of a
dynamic process

Therefore the Qur'an must be continually interpreted. The dynamic

manifestation of Qur'anic guidance is not only a form of interpretation but
also the only way to actually attain the lived state of Islam. Wadud further
argues that while previous interpretation can provide many insights into that
guidance- they are limited when they are taken up as the exclusive means
of understanding Divine Will.

Feminist Hermeneutics of the Qur'an

One of these limitations or "blind spots" as Wadud refers to it is the
complete lack of attention to women's voices in the historical legacy of
tafseer. Qur'anic interpretation has an androcentric legacy that doesn't take
into account female experiences and perspectives. It is therefore important
to begin a consideration of the female voice in relation to women's
experiences of the Qur'an and their responses and processes of meaning
making.

Wadud notes that if justice and equity are clear principles of the Qur'an-then
justice and equity must be manifest in any social system deemed to be
Islamic.

A feminist exegesis of the Qur'an sustains the integrity of the Islamic

worldview but challenges any and all intellectual developments of the past
and present that have violated any aspect of women's honor and dignity as
human beings (p.20).

https://my.ryerson.ca/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tabGroup=course…Text.jsp%253Fcourse_id%253D_52299_1%2526content_id%253D_1469643_1 Page 4 of 11
Blackboard Learn 11-04-12 3:12 PM

Asma Barlas- Text And Textualities

In her book Believing Women in Islam: Unreading Patriarchal Interpretations
of the Qur'an Asma Barlas is seeking to identify the methodologies Muslims
have used to read the Qur'an and render meaning from the text. She is also
concerned with how that methodology has led to confusing the Qur'an with
the secondary religious texts (hadith) in the process marginalizing it within
Muslim religious discourses

She uses her own methodology to analyze the hermeneutic process:

1. She refers to texts: as any discourse fixed by writing

2. Texuality: how a text is read what modalities are employed in
reading the text
3. Inter-textuality: internal relationships of the texts to one another
4. Extra-textuality: the context of reading

In developing a textual analysis, Barlas argues that access to Qur'anic

meaning is mediated by tafsir (exegesis) and hadith and that here is a
distinction between Divine Speech and it's earthly manifestation. In other
words, Divine text may be unalterable but the ingenuities of human
interpretation are endless.

So it is the interpretive process that is both imprecise and incomplete that is

open to critique and challenge not revelation itself. Barlas notes that even
before the Qur'an was written down, Qur'an reciters and scholars differed
substantially in their reading of certain words, phrases and verses. Gender-
negative readings have emerged from the sources that have traditionally
been used to interpret the Qur'an and shed light on meanings.

To understand this we have to examine the role of both tafsir and hadith as
part of a meaning making process. The need for interpretation according to
https://my.ryerson.ca/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tabGroup=course…Text.jsp%253Fcourse_id%253D_52299_1%2526content_id%253D_1469643_1 Page 5 of 11
Blackboard Learn 11-04-12 3:12 PM

Barlas is threefold:

The first two reasons were epistemological:

1. The polysemous nature of the Qur'an or the fact that verses were
open to multiple levels of interpretation
2. The lack of transparency of some verses

The 3rd reason was a socio-political one:

3. After the death of the Prophet Muhammad, there was a need to

govern a growing multicultural community and integrate it into the
fold of Islam. Therefore there was a need to elucidate Qur'anic
meanings to a growing diverse Islamic constituency.

As a result of these political conditions, the mode of Qur'anic exegesis

reflected not only the training, religious affiliation and interest of scholars
and jurists, but also the political goals and ambitions of the early Muslim
state particularly the Umayyed and Abassid Dynasties.

The need for tafsir was also to make the Qur'an relevant to all periods of
history and time. Barlas notes that while the need to deal with diverse social
contexts facilitated tafsir, in time these social contexts came to shape the
contents of interpretation.

She also contends that despite the human interpretive nature of tafsir, it has
often come to be confused with the Qur'an itself and held to the same
unquestionable standard of authority and that secondary and tertiary texts-
the hadith, tafsir and corpus of jurisprudential knowledge, have in some
cases come to be elevated to the same and sometimes higher level than the
Qur'an.

She also discusses the canonization of Ijma or juristic consensus- in the

https://my.ryerson.ca/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tabGroup=course…Text.jsp%253Fcourse_id%253D_52299_1%2526content_id%253D_1469643_1 Page 6 of 11
Blackboard Learn 11-04-12 3:12 PM

classical medieval period- that also made tafsir static and closed. She
advocates opening the gates of ijtihad- the use of independent judgment and
reasoning - to a discourse which many regard as having been closed
somewhere during the tenth century.

Any re-thinking is often regarded negatively by conservative scholars as

bida or innovation. According to Barlas this has limited the production of
legitimate and authoritative Islamic knowledge to a specific period in history
and to the work of a handful of scholars.

Conservative and Critical

Interpretations
It is in the nature of Qur'anic exegesis that we can find reasons for why
some readings of the Qur'an are unfavourable to women. According to
Barlas, the primary reason for this is the in the nature of interpretive
methods that have the tendency to generalize the specific. Barlas follows
Wadud's argument that some of the greatest restrictions on women result
from interpreting Qur'anic solutions for particular problems as if they were
universal principles. For Barlas the reluctance to separate the universal from
the particular was the result of the way exegetes (people who interpret the
Qur'an) theorize the relationship between revelation (which is sacred and
universal) and its human interpretation (which is historically-specific).

She looks at the methodologies of Conservative and Critical scholars who

invoke two very different kinds of methodology to interpreting the Qur'an

Conservatives
Conservative scholars have this tendency to generalize the particular. While
all believing Muslims agree that the Qur'an is universal and is relevant to all
https://my.ryerson.ca/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tabGroup=course…Text.jsp%253Fcourse_id%253D_52299_1%2526content_id%253D_1469643_1 Page 7 of 11
Blackboard Learn 11-04-12 3:12 PM

times and places, there are different ways that interpretive communities
have derived meaning from the text. Conservatives advocate a de-
historicized reading of the Qur'an as a means of adhering to its universality,
so they do not take into account the historical context of revelation.

Yet the methodology of the conservative exegetes is to look at specific

revelation chronologically where some later revelations may abrogate earlier
ones (which is in itself a form of historicity). They also support only the
authority of the classical exegesis and the religious knowledge production of
early Muslim scholars- since they saw them as being closer to the prophet
in "real time." Once again History becomes an intrinsic aspect of their
method and how they ascertain a vision of the Qur'anic world view- despite
their rejection of historicity.

Qur'anic revelation took place over a period of 23 years - in response to

particular situations and circumstance. Wadud notes that a significant part
of Qur'anic exegesis is asbab al nuzul or the reason for revealing a
particular verse. Yet according to Barlas, Conservatives see these as
"occasions of revelation" rather than "occasions for revelation"- a key
distinction. They see the context of Divine speech as being outside of time
therefore arguing that the context does not affect the content. For
conservative scholars, contextualizing undermines universality. Yet the
unwillingness to separate the general from the particular has lead to
restrictive readings.

Critical Views
Critical interpretive perspectives reverse the premises of conservative
views.

They argue for example that Divine speech does occur in historical time and
that there is a coherence between the context and contents of God's words.

https://my.ryerson.ca/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tabGroup=course…Text.jsp%253Fcourse_id%253D_52299_1%2526content_id%253D_1469643_1 Page 8 of 11
Blackboard Learn 11-04-12 3:12 PM

Yet in making this argument they are not rejecting the Qur'an's universalism,
but they are rejecting the conservative notion that the Qur'an can only be
temporalized within a specific context.

On the contrary, critical scholars argue that the Qur'an's universality is

limited by attempts to fix its meaning. Instead they see the Qur'an's
universalism as lying in the ability of new communities of believers to derive
new meanings on the basis of both aql (intellect) and Ilm (knowledge).
Critical scholars favour a thematic historical mode of interpretation and
invoke ijtihad or independent judgment or reasoning that helps distinguish
the general from the specific.

Other strategies include distinguishing between Meccan and Madinian

verses (those revealed to the Prophet Muhammad in Mecca and those
revealed in Medina). The Meccan verses tend to establish ethical and moral
principles/ Medinian verses geared more toward social regulation (again in
response to particular historical need). Many classical scholars drew from
the latter phase arguing that these verses abrogated the earlier ones, while
other scholars contested this method. These contestation among even
classical scholars is important in drawing attention to the fact that meanings
rendered from the Qur'an were debated and subject to a variety of
epistemological and methodological viewpoints. This speaks to the plurality
of meanings offered by the Qur'an that complicate staid and static notions.

Discussion Board Questions - Week 12

1. Drawing from both Wadud and Barlas, explain what it means
to "unread"patriarchy in religious texts. What kinds of
arguments/positions do they propose for a more egalitarian reading?
What would be some of the constraints and challenges to the full
acceptance of these alternative perspectives within Muslim societies?

https://my.ryerson.ca/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tabGroup=course…Text.jsp%253Fcourse_id%253D_52299_1%2526content_id%253D_1469643_1 Page 9 of 11
Blackboard Learn 11-04-12 3:12 PM

Video

Cover Girls
Window Media Hi-Bandwidth

Window Media Lo-Bandwidth

Divorce Iranian Style

Window Media Hi-Bandwidth

Window Media Lo-Bandwidth

Orientalism
Window Media Hi-Bandwidth

Window Media Lo-Bandwidth

Woman and Islam I

Window Media Hi-Bandwidth
https://my.ryerson.ca/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tabGroup=course…ext.jsp%253Fcourse_id%253D_52299_1%2526content_id%253D_1469643_1 Page 10 of 11
Blackboard Learn 11-04-12 3:12 PM

Window Media Lo-Bandwidth

Woman and Islam II

Window Media Hi-Bandwidth

Window Media Lo-Bandwidth

https://my.ryerson.ca/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tabGroup=course…ext.jsp%253Fcourse_id%253D_52299_1%2526content_id%253D_1469643_1 Page 11 of 11