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" The Stories of Joseph and the Cave: Reading Modern Qur’anic Commentaries in the United States "
Ebadur Rahman
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Latin Dissertation
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| Language of Document
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English
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| Record Number
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1090071
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tc5
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| Title & Author
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The Stories of Joseph and the Cave: Reading Modern Qur’anic Commentaries in the United States\ Ebadur Rahman
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| College
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COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
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| Date
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2022
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| Degree
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Doctor of Philosophy
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2022
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| Page No
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336
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| Abstract
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The publication of Qur’an commentaries authored by contemporary Muslims provide glimpses
into influential trends that have been competing for the attention of contemporary Muslims. This
dissertation primarily examines three works of Qur’anic translation and exegesis (Ar. Tafsīr) in
the English language. These works are representative of three influential trends or schools of
thought in contemporary Islam: an “Islamist” or “Activist” trend represented by Abu’l ‘Ala
Mawdudi, a rationalist-modernist trend represented by Muhammad Asad, and a Salafi trend
represented by the Mubarakpūrī English abridgement of the medievalist Ibn Kathīr's hadith-based
tafsir. These commentators often engage earlier Qur’anic commentaries and make choices about
which voices and positions from the “classical legacy” they foreground, highlighting what they
believe may resonate with their readers.
The first chapter provides an historical overview to some of the major trends in Qur’anic
exegesis. The second chapter provides background on the commentators, including the social and
political contexts of the commentators as well as their education and important aspects of their
careers. The third and fourth chapters focus on two chapters of the Qur’an (Q12 and Q18) as these
appear in the three commentaries, highlighting how modern commentators reflect their own
concerns and context and their various reform projects in their interpretations of Muslim scripture.
I supplement the main three commentators with a sample of contemporary living voices who also
comment on these two Qur’anic chapters to highlight how Muslims continue to reinterpret the
Qur’anic texts in relation to what they see as most relevant and meaningful. Chapter five looks at
how these works have been received and considers how they offer a window into the contestation
taking place in contemporary Islam. After a brief conclusion to the dissertation, I have an afterword
which features a reflection upon my own teaching of these two chapters in a university setting.
While the Islamic scholarly traditions and Qur’anic commentaries are a multilayered,
polyvalent tradition, these traditions are often (unfortunately) truncated by many contemporary
Muslims. I try to highlight certain areas where the contemporary commentaries are, on the one
hand, generally narrower than the rich polyvalent traditions of the premodern exegetical tradition,
but on the other hand, move in new directions as Muslims today relate their readings of scripture
to contemporary concerns. This analysis of contemporary Qur’anic commentaries and their
commentators moves beyond freezing Muslims into the fixed category of the “premodern.”
Though the three commentaries were chosen to be representative of three important trends in
modern Islam, the dissertation is also careful to show that the boundaries between these approaches
are often fluid, providing concrete examples of how contemporary Muslims are reinterpreting
Muslim scripture, affirming and selecting from the premodern tradition, critical of certain aspects
of that tradition, and also adding their own voices to make the Qur’anic text speak to their modern
situations.
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