Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd: from the sciences of language to an interpretation of the Quranic text
Abu Zayd too proposes to revisit the “Quranic sciences” and to differentiate between the “sacred text” and the objective circumstances of its emergence. To that end he relies on the notion of “concept of the text” which shows that it is in constant interaction with its environment. Acknowledging this reality, he explains, leads to two explanatory processes: the first is direct, it aims to draw the meaning and the sense in religious terms; the second is indirect and linked to scientific realms other than that of “religious sciences”. If it is agreed that the Quran as a whole is a cultural product quite independently from the “divine origins” Muslims lend it, it can accordingly be subjected, like any other text, to modern methods of scrutiny such as hermeneutics and semantics, for it cannot be dissociated from a specific cultural linguistic system. Thus language and cultural environment alike become acceptable references towards the explanation and the interpretation of the Quran.
Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd's approach explicitly takes its cue from scriptural studies of St Paul's letters conducted in the second half of the 20th century. In the event, exegetes resorted to philology, linguistics, textual criticism, literary theory and literary genres in order to open a constructive and human dialogue between the text, the person, history and humanity. The works put out by Abu Zayd follow that line, they have as a starting point the conviction that the Quran can only be well understood if considered as part and parcel of a living culture within which it had achieved in a matter of years a dominant status, then as a text that has outstripped its cultural framework to influence other “cultures”. Accordingly, Aby Zayd considers that acknowledging the presence of the text in the culture has consequences other than merely acknowledging its presence in the emotions of Muslim believers, which is why he sees no contradiction between a linguistic approach to the Quran and faith in its “divine origins”.
