How People Have Rethought the Quran

Last week, I talked about the different ways people have rethought Islam, so I wanted to dive deeper into how people rethink Islam through reinterpretation of the Quran. This background will help us understand more about the theology of the Nation of Islam and other NRMs.

Muslims believe the Quran, the word of Allah, was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad (S) through the angel Gabriel. In the Quran, there are many dialogues between Allah and different groups of people (believers, disbelievers, etc). Because of the high content of dialogues and because the main purpose of the Quran is to teach humanity how they should live their lives, every part of the Quran needs to be read with context. Traditional and liberal scholars of the Quran have differed over how much context impacts the reading and application of the Quran.

One difference between traditional and liberal scholars is the understanding of the importance of historical context on reading and applying the Quran. Traditional scholars tend to default towards verses in the Quran being applicable to any times (with only some exceptions) while liberal scholars tend to emphasize reading the Quran through a modern lense. The context traditional scholars value more than historical context is situational context. For example, liberal scholars would rethink the Islamic ruling of cutting the hand off the thief because it is “barbaric” while traditional scholars would look at each situation of thievery to determine if this ruling should be applied or not.

Another difference between traditional and liberal interpretations of the Quran is the understanding of the use of metaphors. Traditional scholars typically consider the Quran to be literal unless it is obvious a metaphor is being used, while some liberal scholars are more open towards understanding verses of the Quran metaphorically or allegorically to fit some other understanding of our world (such as a “rational” perspective on our world). An example of this would be the belief of some liberal scholars that heaven and hell are states of minds and not actual places (which is the traditional viewpoint).

The reason I mention these two points is that they form the basis of the difference between the ideology of the Nation of Islam (and other Islamic NRMs) from traditional Islam. The belief system of the Nation of Islam stems from Islam, but has components of their belief influenced by Black nationalism, Mu’tazilism (a rationalistic branch off Islam), and other sources. I will be making another post briefly talking about the history and theology of the Nation of Islam.