Do Different Interpretations of the Qur'an Make the Qur'an Irrelevant?
Question:
I attended a debate yesterday and one of the panelist said that different people use Quran to justify what they believe through interpretation. During the Q/A an atheist then asked the question, if everyone can interpret the Quran to mean what they mean and justify what they do, be it mass murder by one group and complete non-violence by another, doesn't that make Quran an irrelevant sacred text?
Answer:
No matter if one considers it justified or not, Muslims continue to consider the Qur’an as their basis of religion. Therefore at least till the time that there are Muslims in the world, the Qur’an remains a relevant book. Consequently the question of whether the Qur’an (or any other text that is considered as divine by its followers) is relevant or not is itself an irrelevant and practically useless question.
The relevant and practically useful question will be, how the Qur’an should be read and interpreted at our time. My answer to this question is that, like any other text, it needs to be read and interpreted while considering both the context of the text and the context in which it was revealed, and without allowing its apparent meaning to be manipulated by less reliable sources.
The problem of many misinterpretations of the Qur’an is that they are based on a reading of the text that totally ignores both textual and historical context and is also hugely influenced by sectarian beliefs that are rooted in no reliable sources. Part of the findings of my PhD, where I compared approaches to interpretation of the Qur’an, revealed that the reading of the Qur’an that justifies killing of innocent, is an ‘extreme’ example of such approach (i.e. even a typical out of the context interpretation of the Qur’an does not lead to justifying such murders!).
There is another important point that we need to appreciate and this is what often people do not think about. The reason we believe that the Qur'an and the Established Sunnah are the primary sources of understanding Islam is because of intellect (note, even a blind belief in these is coming from intellect, although a very basic level of intellect). Therefore while the Qur'an and the Established Sunnah remain the primary sources of understanding Islam, intellect will be the original source of understanding Islam.
The corollary of the above is that any interpretation of the Qur'an and the Established Sunnah that goes against our intellect will be incorrect. This also includes that part of our intellect that recognises and appreciates common moral values.
Subsequently, if some one argues that "with so much different interpretations of the Qur'an, and the relative strength of the reasons behind many of these interpretations, how one should decide what is correct and what is wrong interpretation", my answer will be as follows:
All those interpretations of the Qur'an that go against our intellect, including common moral values, are wrong. Killing civilians is against any moral value. Therefore any interpretation of the Qur'an that leads to justifying this for a human being is absolutely incorrect.
I should also say that the Qur’an, though being sacred, still is a text. Any text can be interpreted more or less the way that a reader likes. This however does not mean that all texts are irrelevant. This simply points out the importance of textual analysis based on the context and based on rational premises.
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November 2105
Farhad Shafti
I attended a debate yesterday and one of the panelist said that different people use Quran to justify what they believe through interpretation. During the Q/A an atheist then asked the question, if everyone can interpret the Quran to mean what they mean and justify what they do, be it mass murder by one group and complete non-violence by another, doesn't that make Quran an irrelevant sacred text?
Answer:
No matter if one considers it justified or not, Muslims continue to consider the Qur’an as their basis of religion. Therefore at least till the time that there are Muslims in the world, the Qur’an remains a relevant book. Consequently the question of whether the Qur’an (or any other text that is considered as divine by its followers) is relevant or not is itself an irrelevant and practically useless question.
The relevant and practically useful question will be, how the Qur’an should be read and interpreted at our time. My answer to this question is that, like any other text, it needs to be read and interpreted while considering both the context of the text and the context in which it was revealed, and without allowing its apparent meaning to be manipulated by less reliable sources.
The problem of many misinterpretations of the Qur’an is that they are based on a reading of the text that totally ignores both textual and historical context and is also hugely influenced by sectarian beliefs that are rooted in no reliable sources. Part of the findings of my PhD, where I compared approaches to interpretation of the Qur’an, revealed that the reading of the Qur’an that justifies killing of innocent, is an ‘extreme’ example of such approach (i.e. even a typical out of the context interpretation of the Qur’an does not lead to justifying such murders!).
There is another important point that we need to appreciate and this is what often people do not think about. The reason we believe that the Qur'an and the Established Sunnah are the primary sources of understanding Islam is because of intellect (note, even a blind belief in these is coming from intellect, although a very basic level of intellect). Therefore while the Qur'an and the Established Sunnah remain the primary sources of understanding Islam, intellect will be the original source of understanding Islam.
The corollary of the above is that any interpretation of the Qur'an and the Established Sunnah that goes against our intellect will be incorrect. This also includes that part of our intellect that recognises and appreciates common moral values.
Subsequently, if some one argues that "with so much different interpretations of the Qur'an, and the relative strength of the reasons behind many of these interpretations, how one should decide what is correct and what is wrong interpretation", my answer will be as follows:
All those interpretations of the Qur'an that go against our intellect, including common moral values, are wrong. Killing civilians is against any moral value. Therefore any interpretation of the Qur'an that leads to justifying this for a human being is absolutely incorrect.
I should also say that the Qur’an, though being sacred, still is a text. Any text can be interpreted more or less the way that a reader likes. This however does not mean that all texts are irrelevant. This simply points out the importance of textual analysis based on the context and based on rational premises.
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November 2105
Farhad Shafti
