The Qurʾan, Morality and Critical Reason: The Essential Muhammad Shahrur

by Muhammad Shahrur, Andreas Christmann (Editor), Dale F. Eickelman

This book presents the work and ideas of the Syrian writer Muhammad Shahrur to the English-speaking world. Shahrur is at the moment the most innovative intellectual thinker in the Arab Middle East. Often described as the 'Martin Luther of Islam, ' he offers a liberal, progressive reading of Islam that aims to counter the influences of religious fundamentalism and radical politics. Shahrur's innovative interpretation of the Qur'an offers groundbreaking new ideas, based on his conviction that centuries of historical Islam, including scholarship in the traditional Islamic religious sciences, have obscured or even obliterated the Qur'an's progressive and revolutionary message. That message is one that has endured through each period of human history in which Islam has existed, encouraging Muslims to apply the most contemporary perspective available to interpret the Qur'an's meaning.

Genres: Islam, Religion, Nonfiction

636 pages, Hardcover

First published February 23, 2009

About the author

Muhammad Shahrour (Arabic: محمد شحرور) was a Syrian philosopher and author. He was an Emeritus Professor of Civil Engineering at the University of Damascus who wrote extensively about Islam. Shahrour was trained as an engineer in Syria, the former Soviet Union and Ireland. He referred to the book of the Islamic prophet Muhammad as "The Book", not the Quran; which casts him in direct contradiction with other Islamic thinkers and traditional scholars. Yet similar to Quranist Muslims, he did not consider Hadith as a divine source; however, he did not belong to the same school as Ahmed Subhy Mansour.

Reviews

[Maica · Rating 5 out of 5]

I highly recommend this book. Dr. Shahrur is a challenging writer, and his viewpoints allude to Contemporary times, arguing for Islam's responsive nature. He applied hermeneutics and back and forth interpretive tools, taking into consideration historical contexts accompanying each verse.

I think that for this time, my thoughts on this book could not be summarized on just a few descriptive sentences, but this radical reinterpretation of the Qur'an and its most often misconstrued messages could really challenge the values of any dogmatic and rigid 'religious' person. This can be highly personal, but writers like him can redeem those who can no longer tolerate the bigoted attitude of most people who claim absolute certainty and knowledge in Islam.

[Sofia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sharour, like all of Islam's greatest thinkers, is ahead of his time, and yet sadly despite the need for voices like his to be given ear and raised and pushed into the forefront, they are silenced, quashed, and accused of heresy (only truly by either those who haven't read the book or those who have a stake in maintaining the status quo). He makes an excellent point in this book about synonymity in the Quran; pointing out that in regular use of the Arabic language one has to pay attention as to which word has been used in a sentence, in lieu of another similar word because of the nuance each word brings with it. How can it not be so then, with the Words of God Himself!? To relegate words to synonymity, is to strip the Quran of its nuance and to deprive the Word of God (if you do believe it to be) of its miraculous nature. And so he sets the ground to look at words like Muslim, Islam, iman, mu'min, kufr, kafir; all words that, as Muslims and even non-Muslims, now take their meaning for granted, but imagine using the word orange to mean purple, or the word walk to mean fly, it makes a big difference when you realise the difference.

Definitely worth a read (at least of the intro and chapter on Islam and iman if not anything else) and is available online for free http://www.islam-and-muslims.com/Qura... -Reason.pdf

[Quran Raac]

I cannot find it anywhere? Can some one help? Thank you.