"My understanding of Islam is open to new interpretations, otherwise it would return to build a new dogma"
Andalusian - 21/02 / 2010 10:55 - Author: Luis Fermin Moreno - Source: Åland
http://www.webislam.com/?idt=15297
all know that mixing theology and linguistics can be dangerous. Especially if you are a Muslim believer and love heart philology. Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd, Egyptian 66, Arabist and philosopher, knew that in these times, is not exactly easy to be exegete of the Qur'an, but he could not betray any of his two loves. And suffered the consequences, bad and less bad: on the one hand, censorship, exile and divorce, in Islamic legal sense, "the other, considered as one of the most important reformist figures in Islam. Doctor
Arab and Islamic Studies professor at Cairo University until 1995, Abu Zayd soon discovered "the need to understand the Koran in its historical and cultural context" and was devoted to the philological interpretation of the Muslim holy book, revealing the changes that have lived el islam en su contacto con otras culturas, “para que sea comprendido hoy”. Su obra parte de una premisa simple y clara: el Corán debe analizarse como texto y como literatura. En su opinión, “la filología es la única y posible vía para ahondar, esclarecer y adecuar el mensaje coránico a la comunidad islámica globalizada”.
Pero esto es algo que a muchos musulmanes, temerosos de que se ponga en cuestión la autoridad de Mahoma, no les gusta oír. No es de extrañar, pues, que sus libros fueran tildados de constituir una “ofensa a Dios y al islam” y surgieran las amenazas de muerte por parte de grupos fundamentalistas. En 1993, un colega lo denunció y, dos años after the High Court declared the Egyptian "apostate" and quashed his marriage to Ibtihal Yunis Hispanist because, according to Egyptian law, a Muslim can not be married to an infidel. The couple rejected the sentence - "How can separate a couple that you want? My wife refused, "he says - and ended up in exile in the Netherlands, where now occupies the chair theologian of Islam Averroes and Humanities at the University of Utrecht.
Abu Zayd has no regrets. Rather: "I have forgiven. They wanted to silence me but now my ideas are better known. My works have been translated into farsi, Turkish and Indonesian. He revisited Egypt. I come out ahead. " It is clear what for him is important: the dissemination of ideas in the Islamic world. Has been forced to work in the West, but has not lost its roots and appears as a thinker of court or Western influence: "I would say to the Muslim nation was born, raised and lived as a Muslim and will die as a Muslim", has come to run on occasion.
A religion of modernity
pregnant
So in his writings only alludes to European authors or other religions. This does not mean they do not spread through our land. In Spain, the publisher just Herder publish, precisely, his latest book, The Koran and the future of Islam. This book is a kind of synthesis of the postulates that Abu Zayd has maintained throughout his life. The starting point is the analysis of scripture as a historical text: detecting the presence of different literary styles, the philologist distinction between the text and the divine teaching it contains. Moreover, he argues, the relief using a language and story structure of the original Arab culture must be adapted to a globalized world: "We must change the paradigm of thought. We can not keep thinking according to standards established 900 years ago. " Not to mention the successive transformations undergone Islam over the centuries: "no interactions with India, Iran or Hellenism, without going any further, Islam can not be conceived today," he explains.
"The customs, art, lifestyles have evolved since the inception of Islam in most Muslim countries, commercial or criminal laws, school systems, men-women relationships, aspirations fueled by images or ideas external, etc. must be tailored to the Islamic heritage, "continues the theologian. "We must rethink the Qur'an in the light of current needs. Almost all of the Qur'an consists of exhortations, not laws. God said their willingness to push humanity down a path of continual conversion, did not set a framework of rules that have run untouched to block the initial impulse. While reading the Koran must seek values, not laws. " And this reading emerges not only a modern vision of the sacred text and Mohammed, but also spiritual, religious practice of burning issues, and politicians, such as democracy, human rights, violence and feminism. Comment
Abu Zayd, in any case, that Islamic culture is going through a tough period of intransigence and secrecy at the hands of a malicious and deadly religious discourse, which embellishes the past and makes a bad use of tradition. But he also believes that they themselves must evolve. In his words, "the same way that Muslims should not be pushed to the limits defined by the reactionaries, they should not be defined in terms of delay and resistance to progress."
The Muslim world, it says, "is like a woman who is pregnant with modernity, but when it comes to the operating room to give birth, instead of finding a quiet, is crowded and noisy, and that prevents him from giving birth. " Muslims are never alone, concludes: "there is always interference from any foreign power, and this blocks people, which is closed and seeks protection in the tradition. " A paradigmatic example is, in his view, the question of the veil. In keeping with his radical defense of women's rights, claims that the Quran does not impose the veil, only "modest dress is recommended." But I also think the ban on its use in public places, as in France, "is a case of secular fundamentalism. I liken the French secularism Wahhabism (stickler version of Islam that dominates Saudi Arabia). Things like this only serve to cause bitterness fundamentalist. "
And bitterness and fundamentalism is what most fleeing Abu Zayd, as it has done all his life. So warned, hay que tomar sus propias obras con las debidas precauciones: “ésta es mi comprensión moderna del islam, que se ha formado en un tiempo determinado, bajo ciertas condiciones y que no es eterna. Está abierta a nuevas interpretaciones; de lo contrario volveríamos a fabricar un nuevo dogma”. Léanlo, pues, como merece, pero no se lo tomen al pie de la letra.
Andalusian - 21/02 / 2010 10:55 - Author: Luis Fermin Moreno - Source: Åland
http://www.webislam.com/?idt=15297
all know that mixing theology and linguistics can be dangerous. Especially if you are a Muslim believer and love heart philology. Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd, Egyptian 66, Arabist and philosopher, knew that in these times, is not exactly easy to be exegete of the Qur'an, but he could not betray any of his two loves. And suffered the consequences, bad and less bad: on the one hand, censorship, exile and divorce, in Islamic legal sense, "the other, considered as one of the most important reformist figures in Islam. Doctor
Arab and Islamic Studies professor at Cairo University until 1995, Abu Zayd soon discovered "the need to understand the Koran in its historical and cultural context" and was devoted to the philological interpretation of the Muslim holy book, revealing the changes that have lived el islam en su contacto con otras culturas, “para que sea comprendido hoy”. Su obra parte de una premisa simple y clara: el Corán debe analizarse como texto y como literatura. En su opinión, “la filología es la única y posible vía para ahondar, esclarecer y adecuar el mensaje coránico a la comunidad islámica globalizada”.
Pero esto es algo que a muchos musulmanes, temerosos de que se ponga en cuestión la autoridad de Mahoma, no les gusta oír. No es de extrañar, pues, que sus libros fueran tildados de constituir una “ofensa a Dios y al islam” y surgieran las amenazas de muerte por parte de grupos fundamentalistas. En 1993, un colega lo denunció y, dos años after the High Court declared the Egyptian "apostate" and quashed his marriage to Ibtihal Yunis Hispanist because, according to Egyptian law, a Muslim can not be married to an infidel. The couple rejected the sentence - "How can separate a couple that you want? My wife refused, "he says - and ended up in exile in the Netherlands, where now occupies the chair theologian of Islam Averroes and Humanities at the University of Utrecht.
Abu Zayd has no regrets. Rather: "I have forgiven. They wanted to silence me but now my ideas are better known. My works have been translated into farsi, Turkish and Indonesian. He revisited Egypt. I come out ahead. " It is clear what for him is important: the dissemination of ideas in the Islamic world. Has been forced to work in the West, but has not lost its roots and appears as a thinker of court or Western influence: "I would say to the Muslim nation was born, raised and lived as a Muslim and will die as a Muslim", has come to run on occasion.
A religion of modernity
pregnant
So in his writings only alludes to European authors or other religions. This does not mean they do not spread through our land. In Spain, the publisher just Herder publish, precisely, his latest book, The Koran and the future of Islam. This book is a kind of synthesis of the postulates that Abu Zayd has maintained throughout his life. The starting point is the analysis of scripture as a historical text: detecting the presence of different literary styles, the philologist distinction between the text and the divine teaching it contains. Moreover, he argues, the relief using a language and story structure of the original Arab culture must be adapted to a globalized world: "We must change the paradigm of thought. We can not keep thinking according to standards established 900 years ago. " Not to mention the successive transformations undergone Islam over the centuries: "no interactions with India, Iran or Hellenism, without going any further, Islam can not be conceived today," he explains.
"The customs, art, lifestyles have evolved since the inception of Islam in most Muslim countries, commercial or criminal laws, school systems, men-women relationships, aspirations fueled by images or ideas external, etc. must be tailored to the Islamic heritage, "continues the theologian. "We must rethink the Qur'an in the light of current needs. Almost all of the Qur'an consists of exhortations, not laws. God said their willingness to push humanity down a path of continual conversion, did not set a framework of rules that have run untouched to block the initial impulse. While reading the Koran must seek values, not laws. " And this reading emerges not only a modern vision of the sacred text and Mohammed, but also spiritual, religious practice of burning issues, and politicians, such as democracy, human rights, violence and feminism. Comment
Abu Zayd, in any case, that Islamic culture is going through a tough period of intransigence and secrecy at the hands of a malicious and deadly religious discourse, which embellishes the past and makes a bad use of tradition. But he also believes that they themselves must evolve. In his words, "the same way that Muslims should not be pushed to the limits defined by the reactionaries, they should not be defined in terms of delay and resistance to progress."
The Muslim world, it says, "is like a woman who is pregnant with modernity, but when it comes to the operating room to give birth, instead of finding a quiet, is crowded and noisy, and that prevents him from giving birth. " Muslims are never alone, concludes: "there is always interference from any foreign power, and this blocks people, which is closed and seeks protection in the tradition. " A paradigmatic example is, in his view, the question of the veil. In keeping with his radical defense of women's rights, claims that the Quran does not impose the veil, only "modest dress is recommended." But I also think the ban on its use in public places, as in France, "is a case of secular fundamentalism. I liken the French secularism Wahhabism (stickler version of Islam that dominates Saudi Arabia). Things like this only serve to cause bitterness fundamentalist. "
And bitterness and fundamentalism is what most fleeing Abu Zayd, as it has done all his life. So warned, hay que tomar sus propias obras con las debidas precauciones: “ésta es mi comprensión moderna del islam, que se ha formado en un tiempo determinado, bajo ciertas condiciones y que no es eterna. Está abierta a nuevas interpretaciones; de lo contrario volveríamos a fabricar un nuevo dogma”. Léanlo, pues, como merece, pero no se lo tomen al pie de la letra.
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