Rejecting, accepting, adapting innovative epistemology and methodologies
How is one to grapple with a religious text? With which tools grasp their contents? A full appreciation of religious thought hangs on two principles: knowledge, which provides the data supporting the reflection on the object studied; interpretation wherein the objective reading becomes understood by means of linguistic analysis and personal reflection. The authors mentioned in the introduction revisit a classical question but, equipped with new ways to answer its second part, they find it possible to approach by other means the substance of the sacred text in its values, beliefs and judgments. They declare their intent to combine “authenticity” and “modernity” to distinguish between what is “sacred” (linked to the source beckoning knowledge) and what is “human” (linked to exploration and understanding). In this context Ijtihad[1] takes on a broader meaning than that hitherto prevailing among traditionally trained Ulama, thereby causing dissensions.
The premise is as follows: religion's fundamental role is to guide humans, direct them within well defined realms the fields of which may broaden or dwindle according to what those who speak in the name of religion say, that is to say according to human expectations and religious discernment. For Al Jabri, Arkoun or Abu Zayd, one of the functions of an Islam-trained social scientist is to make available to people the wherewithal best suited to help them understand the Quranic text. The question that confronts them is this: does their research founded in an innovative epistemology give them the right to say all? They know that the object of their scrutiny is hallowed, its sanctity attached not only to “God” or to the “Quran” but to “Islam” itself. Accordingly in order properly to understand the faith, it behoves first to have a sound knowledge of what was said by those who spoke or wrote authoritatively about it over the centuries. Such an analysis falls to epistemological research and remains free from any religious slant.
Al Jabri and Abu Zayd converge on the historicity of the religious text and on the fact that the religious heritage has undergone some evolutions throughout the centuries but they diverge when it comes to methodology. Al Jabri and Arkoun analyse the Arab heritage from a rational standpoint and consider that the religious discourse too may be subjected to critical analysis. Abu Zayd follows a different path in his interpretation of cultural heritage. He turns his attention to the Arab production as a whole, the sacred text (Quran and Sunna) included, which he sets as the frame within which a wide-ranging culture is to be understood as a whole.
