Abstract
Returning to the primary sources (the Qur’an and Sunnah) has been the main slogan in Islamic revivalist and reformist movements since the late nineteenth century. Ideas about the dismissal of traditional Islam and the different approaches to interpreting the primary sources have therefore emerged during the modernisation period of Islamic thought. More recently, those who are either educated in the West or influenced by Western-thought studied the Qur’an thoroughly and, consequently, produced fundamental writings on such issues as liberation, gender justice, interfaith solidarity, pluralist theology and so on. In Qur’an of the Oppressed: Liberation Theology and Gender Justice in Islam, Rahemtulla brings four Muslim intellectuals (Farid Esack, Ashar Ali Engineer, Amina Wadud, and Asma Barlas) together to demonstrate that they “turned the scripture as a liberating text to confront an array of problems, from patriarchy, racism and empire to poverty and interreligious communal violence” (pp. 1–2). In doing so, he particularly focuses on how they read the Qur’an in the light of egalitarianism and social justice, how they criticised existing reading practices, and how they made original contributions to issues of liberation and gender justice.
Rahemtulla classifies the way these four Muslim thinkers interpret the Qur’an using thematic exegesis in which the scripture is not interpreted as verse by verse (tafsir musalsal), but as a whole in view of specific themes, viz. social and gender justice. He devotes a considerable part of the book to the biographical information of the thinkers to understand the central role played by their personal experience in their thematic exegesis. Thus, readers can easily understand why a particular thinker’s thematic exegesis is shaped by certain themes, considering the oppressive attitudes that these thinkers experienced in their own communities. For example, born and raised under the apartheid regime of South Africa, Esack promotes a liberation theology which privileges the perspective of the oppressed. While the Indian Muslim (Dawudi Bohra, a sub-sect of Shi’a Isma’ili) Engineer who witnessed Hindu-Muslim conflict in India calls for social justice and peace, the African-American Wadud, who grew up in a white supremacist society, and the Pakistani-American Barlas, who was forced flee her country during Zia’a regime, prioritise gender justice.
The book consists of four main chapters; each of them deals with a particular thinker’s reading of the Qur’an. Rahemtulla not only descriptively demonstrates their methodology and interpretation, but also analytically engages with them and shows similarities and differences among their theories, hermeneutic, etc. The most notable similarity among their methodologies is that each thinker takes the Qur’an as the most authoritative source for Islam, thus either dismissing the authority of other Islamic sources, such as the hadiths and Islamic jurisprudence or selectively using them. Similarly, each thinker chooses a particular Qur’anic or non-Qur’anic story or concept as their paradigm of struggle. For instance, Esack uses the story of the Exodus about the struggle of oppression, Engineer tells the story of the Battle of Karbala which reveals the “unity of creation, undivided by socioeconomic hierarchy” (p. 73), Wadud uses the concepts of tawhid (the unity of God) and khilafa (human trusteeship) to contextualise gender-egalitarian reading of the Qur’an. Interestingly, Wadud also utilises the figure of Hagar, who was rejected in her society because of her status, race, and colour and abandoned by Abraham in the desert, yet was also the recipient of divine revelation. For Wadud, the story of Hagar should lead Muslims to reinterpret the shari’a, for the struggles of the women (specifically African-American Muslim women) are ignored in classist and patriarchal modes of interpretation. Lastly, like Wadud, Barlas makes uses of tawhid for her anti-patriarchal reading of the Qur’an. Overall, these thinkers employ textual holism (a commitment to an integrated reading of the Qur’an) and historical criticism as methodological tools, and despite the differences in their nuances, they nevertheless provide a contextual interpretation of the Qur’an initially introduced by Fazlur Rahman. Throughout the book, Rahemtulla also provides Rahman’s methodology and shows commonalities and differences between Rahman and the chosen thinkers’ contextual interpretation.
As for their differences in approach, the most remarkable instance pertains to how their understanding of oppression shapes their reading of the Qur’an. For example, the phrase “preferential option for the poor”, which is introduced by a Catholic liberation theologian, Gustavo Gutiérrez, plays a significant role in Esack’s liberation theology. In his hermeneutic, praxis is treated as equally important as the Qur’anic text. For Esack, the Qur’anic text “speaks to a more specific context: that of oppression and poverty” (p. 50). In contrast, Wadud gives more attention to the linguistic study of the Qur’an in order to reveal Qur’anic vision of gender justice while Barlas questions the relations between the Qur’anic text and patriarchy. In other words, in Esack’s writings (see also Engineer), the concept of the oppressed is used in a broader sense than in Wadud and Barlas’s. While for the former, the oppressed can be both male and female, the latter focuses mainly on gender egalitarianism. From this praxis-based theory, both Esack and Engineer offer comprehensible interfaith theology, whereas Wadud and Barlas propose a gender justice analysis in which interfaith theology plays a little role. This is not saying that the latter’s approach is deficient, but rather that their contribution to the gender studies within Islamic theology is undeniably robust.
Rahemtulla’s approach, though fine in parts, lacks emphasis on his explicit position when he addresses the flaws of certain thinkers’ interpretations. This is especially the case when he deals with their engagement with the androcentric verses of the Qur’an (for example, Q 4:34). Rahemtulla believes that Esack idealises the Qur’anic text by pointing out that “the Qur’an presupposes male control over women, in that women are to be economically maintained and protected by men, scolded, and even beaten if they are disobedient” (p. 37). He thinks that Engineer and Barlas exhibit an essentialist tendency which portrays the Qur’anic text “as being liberatory” (p. 60) and presents patriarchal readings as “misreading” (p. 62). Although Rahemtulla claims that Esack’s interpretation of gender issue is more nuanced than Engineer’s (probably also Barlas’), he pays scant attention to the subject, thereby overlooking important questions, such as whether the idealization of the text can be considered the best strategy or what flaws are there in this hermeneutical treatment, etc.
Qur’an of the Oppressed contains vast literature on various subjects. Rahemtulla provides literature on four Muslim thinkers’ theologies, as well as literature on liberation theology, politics, and ethics, and hermeneutic. Although liberation theology is not as popular as it used to be within Christian theology, it received little attention in Islamic circles. These four chosen thinkers provide a comprehensive liberation theology, which stems from the Qur’an. However, they only address elite readership owing to the complex hermeneutic and theological framework employed. Nevertheless, Rahemtulla still thinks that there are significant parallels between these writers’ writings and popular Islamic literature. Their writings may transcend elite readership if marketed well beyond that circle. In fact, academics now reach more people than they previously did by using social media, in particular Facebook and Twitter.
Thus, considering the social and gender justice problems faced by Muslims in our contemporary world, Engineer, Wadud and Barlas provide solutions to these problems in light of the Qur’an. Indeed, Qur’an of the Oppressed is an essential reference for those interested in social and gender justice in Islam.