Feminists’ interpretation of the selected verses of the Qur’an regarding woman’s empowerment and right: a contextual approach
The interpretation of the verses of the Qur’Én regarding women’s empowerment and right is a challenging and debatable issue. In Islam, the Qur’Én is seen by almost all Muslims as the words of Allah (swt). The majority Muslim exegetes used the method of literal reading while Muslim feminists applie...
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| Format: | Conference or Workshop Item |
| Language: | English |
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Zes Rokman Resources
2016
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| Online Access: | http://irep.iium.edu.my/52265/ http://irep.iium.edu.my/52265/ http://irep.iium.edu.my/52265/1/52265_Feminists%20interpretation.pdf |
| Summary: | The interpretation of the verses of the Qur’Én regarding women’s empowerment and right is a challenging and
debatable issue. In Islam, the Qur’Én is seen by almost all Muslims as the words of Allah (swt). The majority Muslim
exegetes used the method of literal reading while Muslim feminists applied the methods of the contextual and historical
readings towards understanding wmoen’s empowerment and their right in society. Muslim feminists obviously cannot
reject or question the text itself but they have to take the Qur’Én in its entirety. The contextual and historical readings
applied by Muslim feminists involve reading a verse with regard to the historical, social, and political context in which
it was revealed in order to disclose an underlying liberal intent. The aim of it is to liberate Muslims from a literal
reading of the Qur’Én. Such method by Charles Kurzaman is considered as the liberal SharÊÑah approach.ii This
approach argues that women have the similer right and the authority of empowerment in every aspect of life as mn has.
However, Muslim feminists face great challenges and accusations made by traditional Muslim exegetes and antifeminists
because feminist scholarship is not loyal to the teachings of Islam and denies its heritage. Such approach also
produces liberal Islam and liberal SharÊÑah, influenced by Western values and imposed upon Islam and Muslims as
believed by anti-feminists. Given the context, this study examines women’s empowerment and right according to the
selected verses of the Qur`an interpreted by the Muslim feminists. This also focuses on Muslim women’s engagement
in developing the feminism and exegetes’s approaches to the tafsir al-Qur`an about women’s empowerment and their
right. This also analyzes contextual approaches applied by Muslim feminists to interpret the contentious verses about
women’s leadership and their rights within the purview of contemporary thought which is based on the textual
arguments of the Qur’Én and Sunnah. Two questions on the basis of those verses will be examined; one is the question
of intra-textual and contextual approaches to women’s empowerment and the second is their rights in present context.
The study concludes that though there are accusations against Muslim feminists, but the majority of the Muslim
scholars has viewed women’s rights as their innate-rights and with a textual analysis and inductive approach they have
made the prospects of formulating an Islamic stance on the basis of the sacred texts of the Qur’Én in the current
context. |
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