Pub Date : 2023-09-01DOI: 10.2979/jfs.2023.a908303
Omaima Abou-Bakr
Qurʾanic Textuality and the Potential of Aesthetic (Jamālī) Interpretation Omaima Abou-Bakr (bio) At the other end of the spectrum from the extra-qurʾanic material and women's lived reality is qurʾanic textuality. Much in alignment with Hadia Mubarak's approach to studying the Qurʾan on its own terms, internal logic, and moral world, and with Amira Abou Taleb's overarching paradigm of iḥsān, as described in this roundtable and in her writing more broadly, I put forth a particular hermeneutical "textual" method that draws upon the approaches and interpretive tools of literary criticism and aesthetic theory. Applications on the qurʾanic text would mean analyzing features of textual beauty and harmony—especially in the form of elements of unity, coherence, symmetry, sequence, structural patterns, repetitions, echoes, correspondences, binaries, and counterparts—as a gateway to uncovering deeper ethical and spiritual meanings. The beautiful textual form embodies, illustrates, and conveys an ethical message, and a reader experiences an apprehension of "harmony-in-the-text" as a means and guide to the inner layers of thought. In other words, the process seeks a synthesis of aesthetic sense, emotive response, and reflection (tadabbur)—with a focus on gender ethics. This method of examining language, rhetorical devices, structure, and style has both classical and modern roots. Classical concepts like iʾjāz (the Qurʾan's inimitability), such as in Kitāb Ḍalāʾil al-Iʾjāz (Proofs of Inimitability) and Asrār al-Balagha fī ʿIlm al-Bayān (Secrets of Rhetoric in the Science of Eloquence) by ʿAbd al-Qāhir al-Jurjānī' (d. 471 H/1078 CE), Nazm al-Qurʾān (Structural Organization of the Qurʾan) by al-Jāḥiẓ (160–256 H/776–869 CE), and Sufi symbolic interpretation (al-tafsīr al-ishārī), dealt with diverse textual facets, though rarely leading to holistic considerations, such as making clear links with ethical meanings and gender justice. Modern developments and special interest in coherence-focused exegesis begin with Hamīdudīn Farāhī (1836–1930) and Amīn Iṣlāḥī (1904–97), and contemporary scholarship's revivification of this trend includes the literary school of Amīn al-Khulī (1895–1966) and Āʾisha Abd [End Page 87] al-Raḥmān (1913–98) in Egypt, initiating her work of exegesis that focuses on stylistic features of eloquence and psychological effect entitled al-Tafsīr al-Bayānī lil-Qurʾān al-Karīm (1962). More scholarship centering coherence and unity followed, including the studies of Mustansir Mir (b. 1949) on the "sura as a unity," al-Waḥda al-Bināʾiyya li-l-Qurʾān al-Majīd (Structural Unity of the Glorious Qurʾan, 2006), by Taha Jabir Alalwani (1935–2016), and Salwa El-Awa's Textual Relations in the Qurʾan (2006). Currently, this scholarly movement of holistic approaches in qurʾanic studies is led and applied by Nevin Reda.1 Building on this tradition, I seek more applications of this kind of hermeneutics through what is termed in literary theory as "close reading"
《古兰经》的文本性和审美的潜力(Jamālī)解释奥玛玛·阿布·巴克尔(bio)在《古兰经》之外的材料和女性生活现实的另一端是《古兰经》的文本性。与Hadia Mubarak研究《古兰经》自身条件、内在逻辑和道德世界的方法，以及Amira Abou Taleb的iḥsān总体范式非常一致，正如在这次圆桌会议和她更广泛的写作中所描述的那样，我提出了一种特殊的解释学“文本”方法，该方法利用了文学批评和美学理论的方法和解释工具。在古兰经文本上的应用意味着分析文本的美与和谐的特征——特别是以统一、连贯、对称、顺序、结构模式、重复、呼应、对应、二元和对应物等元素的形式——作为揭示更深层次的伦理和精神意义的门户。优美的文本形式体现、阐释和传达了一种伦理信息，读者体验到一种对“文本和谐”的理解，这是一种通往思想内层的手段和指南。换句话说，这个过程寻求审美、情感反应和反思(tadabbur)的综合——重点是性别伦理。这种考察语言、修辞手段、结构和风格的方法既有古典的根源，也有现代的根源。古典概念就像我ʾjāz(《ʾ的不可模仿性),如在装备ābḌalāʾil al-Iʾjāz(不可模仿性的证明)和Asrār al-Balagha fīʿIlm al-Bayān(雄辩的言辞在科学的秘密),ʿAbd al-Qāhir al-Jurjānī’(471 d。H /公元1078年),Nazm al-Qurʾān(结构组织的《ʾ)al-Jāḥ我ẓ(160 - 256 H / 776 -公元869年),和苏菲象征性解释(al-tafsīr al-ishārī),不同的文本处理方面,虽然很少导致整体考虑,比如与伦理意义和性别正义建立明确的联系。现代发展和对以连贯为中心的释经的特殊兴趣始于ham dud n Farāhī(1836-1930)和am n Iṣlāḥī(1904-97)，当代学者对这一趋势的复兴包括埃及的am n al- khuli(1895-1966)和Ā al- isha Abd [End Page 87] al-Raḥmān(1913-98)的文学流派，开始了她的释经工作，专注于口才和心理效果的风格特征，名为al- tafs r al-Bayānī il- qur r ān al- kar m(1962)。随后出现了更多以一致性和统一性为中心的学术研究，包括Mustansir Mir (b. 1949)对“篇章作为一个统一体”的研究，al-Waḥda al- binir iyya li-l-Qur ā ān al- majmajd(《荣耀的古兰经的结构统一性》，2006)，Taha Jabir Alalwani(1935-2016)的研究，以及Salwa El-Awa的《古兰经中的文本关系》(2006)。目前，这种整体方法在古兰经研究中的学术运动是由Nevin reda领导和应用的。1基于这一传统，我寻求这种解释学的更多应用，通过文学理论中所谓的“细读”来识别文本结构和设计，这些结构和设计可以揭示主题的“潜文本”，这些主题没有明确说明，但具体体现，暗示，并且是更整体意义的一部分这种努力背后的美学(jamālī)哲学是，和谐的形式体现和反映了和谐的价值观，读者能够欣赏和思考神圣文本的这一明显方面，就像追随一幅复杂的、丰富多彩的、对称比例的挂毯，吸引着我们对完美和美丽的感觉。与美丽的事物相遇——在这种情况下，是神圣的经文——开启了灵魂对更高精神意义的理解。苏菲派以前在他们关于象征主义、符号(ishārāt)和诗学的文献中使用了古典阿拉伯语al-majāz qantarāt al-ḥaqīqa(比喻/隐喻是通向现实的桥梁)因此，这种取向可以被认为是对这种解释学追求的重要启发。Muḥyīddīn伊本·阿拉比(公元560-638 H/公元1165-1240)，在他602年撰写的论文Kitāb al-Jalāl wa-l-Jamāl(《威严与美丽之书》)中……
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Pub Date : 2023-09-01DOI: 10.2979/jfs.2023.a908300
Yasmin Amin
Critical Studies of Hadith and of Islamic MasculinityTwo Important Frontiers for Future Qur'anic Scholarship Yasmin Amin (bio) This roundtable offers frameworks for critical reading, methods for challenging subjectivity and methodological rigidity, strategies for engaging with qurʾanic interpretive traditions, and avenues for conducting rigorous philological, grammatical, rhetorical, and structural analyses. But at least two additional critical and interrelated issues remain to be explored. First, the majority of feminist works separate qurʾanic narratives about women and men and focus on verses that deal with social issues pertaining predominantly to women (most notably Q 2:282, 4:1, 4:34, and 24:31); however, this approach preserves much of the logic on which patriarchy is built. Future feminist scholarship should devote more energy to understanding the construction of masculinity in the Qurʾan and in extra-qurʾanic sources. Second, many studies focus solely on the Qurʾan and its exegesis by employing works from the inherited canon to deconstruct, undermine, or expose inherent gender biases. However, the inherited canon, especially in the traditionally grounded episteme of qurʾanic sciences, consists of interconnected scholarly disciplines. Authors writing in the tafsīr genre use hadith (aḥādīth) to interpret the Qurʾan, but in doing so, they often disregard the painstaking classification system developed over the centuries to discern the authenticity of hadith reports. Future feminist qurʾanic scholarship should critique the misuse of hadith, particularly in instances where the misuse entrenches male privilege and undermines other instances in the Qurʾan which depict an egalitarian ethos in marriage and gender relations more broadly.1 [End Page 75] Over centuries and generations, male scholars have advanced male legislative and scholarly privileges while female interpretive authorities have been marginalized.2 Therefore, to generate more gender-based research that positively affects women's lived realities, the narrow focus on Qurʾan and tafsīr should be widened to reconstruct a more egalitarian, inclusive, and gender-just ethos for qurʾanic scholarship. Given that the Qurʾan constitutes the foundation of Islamic epistemology and given that scholars interpret it through the prophetic Sunna (the reported actions and behaviors of the Prophet Muḥammad), through qiyās (deductive analogy), and through ijmāʿ (consensus), a reexamination of the whole interpretive foundation is paramount. In particular, the abuse of aḥādīth and prophetic sīra (biographical narrations) when used to entrench prevailing gendered hierarchies and bolster discriminatory laws constitutes a complete disregard for the model prophetic legacy. Current and future generations deserve the right to interpret the Qurʾan and thereby also change the laws in the context of their changing lived realities and circumstances, thus restoring the dynamic relationship between reason and consen
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Pub Date : 2023-09-01DOI: 10.2979/jfemistudreli.39.2.14
Abla Hasan
Moving from Male-Centric Fallacies to Feminist Interpretive Authority Abla Hasan (bio) Omaima Abou-Bakr soundly argues for finding new implications in the qurʾanic text and applying a form of structuralist analysis that generates more nuanced meanings. Abou-Bakr, along with Asma Lamrabet, Mulki Al-Sharmani, Ziba Mir-Hosseini, Asma Afsaruddin, Celene Ibrahim, Amira Abou-Taleb, and others, contributes to what is rapidly receiving more recognition and visibility as a Qurʾan-centric exegesis. In Woman's Identity and the Qur'an: A New Reading (2004), Nimat Hafez Barazangi boldly invites Muslim women and men to reread and reinterpret the Qurʾan. Barbara Stowasser's Women in the Qurʾan, Traditions, and Interpretations (1997) provides a study of scripturalist literature and its symbols. In Women and Gender in the Qur'an (2020), Celene Ibrahim focuses in her tafsīr on qurʾanic female figures. Nevin Reda and Yasmin Amin's edited volume Islamic Interpretive Tradition and Gender Justice (2020) adds to the ongoing conversation by questioning the assumed timeless validity of the tradition of men's interpretation that arose in the early centuries of Islam. My own work applies a methodological approach using the Qurʾan to interpret the Qurʾan (tafsīr al-Qurʾān bi-l-Qurʾān). The hermeneutic seeks internal qurʾanic answers that do not invite as much external speculation and theorization. To avoid surrendering the text to the interpreters' will and inherent biases, I methodologically prioritize the qurʾanic voice itself over every other interpretive strategy. The Qurʾan, I argue, already contains all the necessary tools for its decoding. This holistic hermeneutical approach can not only help to retrieve the overall lost gender-egalitarian message of the Qurʾan but also can respond to false controversies introduced into the exegetical tradition when exegetes project explanations that result in inherent textual inconsistencies. An example is the traditional interpretation of the expression "strike them [f., pl.]" in Q 4:34. Much has been said and written about what is soundly considered by many as the most controversial verse in the Qurʾan. Among those [End Page 91] who have notably contributed to the discussion are Kecia Ali, Hadia Mubarak, Ayesha Chaudhry, Karen Bauer, Laury Silvers, Saʾdiyya Shaikh, Laleh Bakhtiar, John Andrew Morrow, Juliane Hammer, Celene Ibrahim, and Nevin Reda. In Decoding the Egalitarianism of the Qur'an: Retrieving Lost Voices on Gender, I argue for a holistic hermeneutical approach that starts by reconnecting Q 4:34 to its logical context. The strict application of tafsīr al-Qurʾān bi-l-Qurʾān could reveal another meaning altogether. This verse is an example of what I refer to as the male addressee fallacy. We must observe that the actual addressee of Q 4:34 is not "husbands," and we must reconnect this verse to its true addressee, as specified in the beginning of Q 4:29: "O you [pl., gender inclusive] who believe," that is, the community o
从以男性为中心的谬论到女权主义解释权威，亚伯拉·哈桑(传记)奥玛玛·阿布-巴克尔有力地论证了在古兰经文本中寻找新的含义，并应用一种结构主义分析形式来产生更细微的含义。阿布-巴克尔与阿斯玛·拉姆拉贝特、穆尔基·阿尔-沙玛尼、兹巴·米尔-胡塞尼、阿斯玛·阿夫萨鲁丁、塞莱娜·易卜拉欣、阿米拉·阿布-塔勒布等人一起，对以《古兰经》为中心的释经迅速得到更多认可和关注做出了贡献。在《女性的身份与古兰经:一种新的解读》(2004)一书中，尼玛特·哈菲兹·巴拉赞吉大胆地邀请穆斯林男女重新阅读和诠释古兰经。芭芭拉·斯托瓦瑟的《古兰经、传统和诠释中的女性》(1997)对经书文学及其符号进行了研究。在《古兰经中的女性与性别》(2020)一书中，Celene Ibrahim的研究重点是古兰经中的女性形象。Nevin Reda和Yasmin Amin编辑的《伊斯兰解释传统与性别正义》(2020)通过质疑伊斯兰教早期几个世纪中出现的男性解释传统的假定永恒有效性，增加了正在进行的对话。我自己的工作采用了一种方法论方法，使用《古兰经》来解释《古兰经》(tafsīr al-Qur ā ān bi-l-Qur ā ān)。诠释学寻求内部的古兰经答案，而不需要外部的猜测和理论化。为了避免将文本屈服于解释者的意志和固有的偏见，我在方法上优先考虑古兰经的声音本身，而不是其他任何解释策略。我认为，《古兰经》已经包含了所有必要的解码工具。这种整体解释学方法不仅可以帮助恢复古兰经中丢失的性别平等主义信息，而且可以回应当注释者提出解释导致内在文本不一致时引入训诂传统的错误争议。一个例子是对“strike them [f]”的传统解释。[Q 4:34]。许多人都认为这是古兰经中最具争议的经文，关于这段经文，人们说了很多，写了很多。在这些对讨论做出显著贡献的人当中，有Kecia Ali, Hadia Mubarak, Ayesha Chaudhry, Karen Bauer, Laury Silvers, Sa - diyya Shaikh, Laleh Bakhtiar, John Andrew Morrow, Juliane Hammer, Celene Ibrahim和Nevin Reda。在《解读古兰经的平等主义:找回关于性别的失落声音》一书中，我主张采用一种整体的解释学方法，首先将古兰经4:34与其逻辑背景重新联系起来。严格应用tafs ā r al-Qur ā ān bi-l-Qur ā ān可以完全揭示另一种含义。这节诗是我所说的男性收件人谬论的一个例子。我们必须注意到，古兰经4:34的实际收件人不是“丈夫”，我们必须将这节经文重新连接到它的真正收件人，正如古兰经4:29开头所指定的那样:“你们相信的人啊，”也就是所有的信徒群体丈夫这个词甚至没有在Q章34节提到:rijāl这个词的意思是“男人”。将Q 4:34中的rijāl翻译为“丈夫”是基于不准确的解释推断。同样的，nisha - nah这个词在翻译时应该考虑到这个词的字面和主要含义:“女人”，而不是“妻子”。因此，很明显，这节经文并没有针对丈夫提出关于他们应该如何管教不顺服的妻子的建议。更确切地说，出现在Q 4:34的段落是针对整个信徒群体的，并详细说明了如何公正地惩罚那些行为严重违反社区法律的女性。换句话说，这节经文并不完全与婚姻冲突有关。同样的一般地址也适用于q4:35，它提供了整个社区的程序来帮助家庭解决婚姻冲突。与问4:34相反，问4:35直接而具体地处理了婚姻冲突。就像古兰经4:34的情况一样，诉诸经文本身的中心地位和古兰经的一致性原则，正如圆桌会议上其他几位学者所强调的那样，可能证明古兰经中先前有争议的段落只有在通过……
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Pub Date : 2023-09-01DOI: 10.2979/jfs.2023.a908309
Tracy Sayuki Tiemeier
Invisibility, Anti-Asian Racism, and Feminist Studies in Religion Tracy Sayuki Tiemeier (bio) In July of 2020, the leadership of Feminist Studies in Religion, Inc. (FSR) issued a statement on anti-Black racism in the wake of the recent police killings of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and Rayshard Brooks.1 FSR committed to a series of action items to combat anti-Black racism. It also committed to ongoing self-reflection on its own history and practices as they relate to race and racism. As a part of this work, the Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion (JFSR) published a roundtable in 2022 (38, no. 1). For the roundtable, Judith Plaskow wrote a lead piece reflecting on race, racism, and the history of JFSR,2 and a series of scholars wrote short responses. The respondents included former JFSR coeditors and current board members. All current unit coleaders also offered responses. Nami Kim's response is particularly relevant for our own roundtable here. She writes that even as we continue to "examine how 'our' work and network engender anti-Blackness," FSR also must attend "to multiple logics of white supremacy and Christian hegemony, since white supremacy is undergirded by not only anti-Black racism but also anti-Muslim racism, pernicious orientalism and anti-Asian racism, and settler colonialism."3 These multiple logics were on our mind when Grace Ji-Sun Kim (FSR director at large) and I (FSR vice president) developed this roundtable discussion. Our hope is to continue FSR's antiracism initiatives by [End Page 107] attending to some of these complex dynamics as they impact Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities. As has been well documented (and, for many of us, personally experienced), the COVID-19 pandemic led to a surge of violence and hate against Asian and Pacific Islander folks in North America and Europe. But, as Nami Kim notes, the violence long predates COVID; and Stop AAPI Hate's work to document, research, and respond to the rise of anti-Asian attacks did not receive significant attention until the murders of six women of Asian descent in Atlanta (March 16, 2021).4 Clearly, anti-Asian racism in religion, the academy, and society has a much longer history than just the past three years. Our roundtable participants—Grace Ji-Sun Kim, Vijaya Nagarajan, Rachel Bundang, Najeeba Syeed, and Tamara C. Ho—have been invited to reflect on the following questions: How do you see Asian invisibility and/or anti-Asian racism in religion and society? How do you respond to that in your scholarship? How do you see Asian, Asian American, and Pacific Islander American voices and issues represented in feminist studies in religion? And what needs to happen in feminist studies in religion to contend with Asian invisibility and anti-Asian racism? These questions are only meant to start the conversation, as we wanted participants to have the freedom to develop their thoughts in light of their own concerns and work. A number of themes arise from th
2020年7月，在Breonna Taylor、George Floyd和Rayshard brooks被警察枪杀事件发生后，宗教女性主义研究公司(FSR)领导层发表了一份关于反黑人种族主义的声明，FSR承诺采取一系列行动打击反黑人种族主义。它还承诺不断地自我反省自己与种族和种族主义有关的历史和做法。作为这项工作的一部分，《宗教女性主义研究杂志》(JFSR)在2022年(38年，第6期)发表了一篇圆桌会议。1).在圆桌会议上，朱迪思·普拉斯科(Judith Plaskow)写了一篇关于种族、种族主义和JFSR历史的主要文章，2还有一些学者写了简短的回应。受访者包括前JFSR共同编辑和现任董事会成员。所有现任单位领导也都作出了回应。Nami Kim的回答与我们在这里举行的圆桌会议特别相关。她写道，即使我们继续“审视‘我们的’工作和网络如何引发反黑人”，FSR也必须关注“白人至上主义和基督教霸权的多重逻辑，因为白人至上主义不仅受到反黑人种族主义的支持，也受到反穆斯林种族主义、有害的东方主义和反亚洲种族主义以及定居者殖民主义的支持。”当Grace Ji-Sun Kim (FSR总监)和我(FSR副总裁)展开这次圆桌讨论时，这些多重逻辑就在我们的脑海里。我们希望通过关注这些影响亚裔美国人和太平洋岛民(AAPI)社区的复杂动态，继续FSR的反种族主义倡议。众所周知(对我们许多人来说，亲身经历过)，2019冠状病毒病大流行导致北美和欧洲针对亚太岛民的暴力和仇恨激增。但是，正如Nami Kim指出的那样，暴力早在COVID之前就发生了;3 .直到2021年3月16日6名亚裔女性在亚特兰大被谋杀事件发生后，AAPI仇恨组织记录、研究和应对反亚裔袭击事件的工作才得到了广泛关注显然，宗教、学术界和社会上的反亚裔种族主义的历史要比过去三年长得多。我们的圆桌会议参与者- grace Ji-Sun Kim, Vijaya Nagarajan, Rachel Bundang, Najeeba syed和Tamara C. ho -被邀请反思以下问题:你如何看待宗教和社会中的亚洲隐形和/或反亚洲种族主义?你如何在你的奖学金中回应这一点?你如何看待亚裔、亚裔美国人和太平洋岛民在宗教女权主义研究中所代表的声音和问题?女性主义宗教研究需要做些什么来应对亚裔的隐形和反亚裔的种族主义?这些问题只是为了开始对话，因为我们希望参与者能够根据自己的关注点和工作自由地发展自己的想法。圆桌会议的答复产生了若干主题。一方面，亚太裔人士(以及他们的宗教和社区)由于他们的特征、文化等因素而引人注目。他们被认为是不可同化的、永远的外国人。他们是“异类”，从未被视为完全的美国人。这导致了种族化的仇外心理，长期以来的排斥和暴力一直持续到今天。即便如此，美国种族的二元框架意味着，在美国历史和美国种族历史中，AAPI社区同时是隐形的。在学校和教室里，隐形也同样存在。东方主义和西方白人对宗教、权威和学术的霸权建构意味着，在研究他们自己的宗教思想和实践时，亚洲、太平洋岛民和亚太裔社区往往是隐形的。学生、学者和实践者并没有从他们的宗教和社区的抽象呈现(白人男性)中看到他们自己。圆桌会议的撰稿人还强调了亚洲的不可见性是多方面的。有纠缠的不可见性和不可见性中的不可见性。性别动态和性别刻板印象对亚太裔学者起着隐形作用，使他们保持在自己的“位置”上。“额外的综合因素包括教师地位，基督教的主导地位，以及……
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Pub Date : 2023-09-01DOI: 10.2979/jfemistudreli.39.2.09
Rahel Fischbach
Extra-Qurʾanic Sources and Gender-Just Hermeneutics Rahel Fischbach (bio) Indeed, as noted in this roundtable by Hadia Mubarak, gender justice-seeking readings often circumvent or dismiss extra-qurʾanic literature. There are several reasons for this hermeneutical situation. The most apparent is the Qurʾan's status as the primary religious source for Islamic faith and practice. Some scholars consider the exegetical literature—not the Qurʾan itself—to be androcentric and patriarchal.1 Some argue that the extra-qurʾanic material is historically questionable or otherwise insufficiently authentic. Others may shy away from the sheer quantity of extra-qurʾanic literature and the sophisticated hermeneutical strategies necessary for integrating these sources into qurʾanic reading practices. I will reflect on some challenges and possibilities of utilizing extra-qurʾanic exegetical and narrative literature for gender-just readings of the Qurʾan, since a close relation exists between text, context, and reading practices in the meaning-making process. The stimulus for my ponderings was Celene Ibrahim's work Women and Gender in the Qur'an (2020). There, she suggested that certain Medinan passages addressing or alluding to women can be read as "case studies," originally intended to inculcate new, specific values in the early Muslim society (umma).2 My initial reservations regarding her reading concerned the contextualization of those passages using extra-qurʾanic sources including sīra (biography), naskh (abrogation), and nuzūl (the advent of verses) literatures. These sources are historically contested, at times contradictory, and often inconclusive. Single āyas (verses) often have multiple scenarios as possible contextual background. I also thought that relying too heavily on extra-qurʾanic narrative material [End Page 71] could distract from the Qurʾan-centered approach advanced by Ibrahim.3 My own objections admittedly resulted from an unconscious textual and historical positivism. Contrary to postmodern aspirations, many of us remain trapped in the search for authorial intentions and historical authenticity, or, on the other side of the hermeneutical spectrum, we are so preoccupied with language, representation, and textual synchronicity that we cannot but subscribe to a relativist pluralism. Shifting focus to the discursive system in which the Qurʾan is enmeshed, including the aforementioned sources (sīra, aḥādīth, tafsīr, asbāb al-nuzūl), as well as folktales, ritual, pictorial arts, and the like, directs our attention to the complexity of the reading process. Any reading of the Qurʾan is inescapably linked to—or even determined by—extra-qurʾanic material, ritual, ideas, events, assumptions, and translations. The Qurʾan constantly points beyond itself to other texts, to its context, and to its own statements. Through extra-qurʾanic discursive, visual, and performative practices, each part of the Qurʾan evokes a multitude of associations, feelings, ideas,
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Pub Date : 2023-09-01DOI: 10.2979/jfemistudreli.39.2.23
Vijaya Nagarajan
Narratives of the Body and ShameDegrees of Invisibility/Visibility in Public Spaces Vijaya Nagarajan1 (bio) It is the first day of classes, spring semester, in January 2022. I am on my way to work at my university.2 I am standing at an East Bay BART station, a part of the public transportation train system in the San Francisco Bay Area. This particular day, I notice, to my surprise, that my experience in these normative public spaces is entirely different from the semester before. Every time the train screams into the station, the hair bristles on the back of my neck, and rivulets of sweat run down my arms. I press my back hard against the concrete wall, just about nine feet away from the tracks. My feet, in my fastest running shoes, are ready to run in either direction. But the problem is, I do not know and cannot know exactly where my attacker will be coming from. I am afraid, in a way I have never been before. I have spent most of my life in the United States, though not all of it. I am an immigrant from India. I arrived as an eleven-year-old Tamil girl from New Delhi in 1972, fifty years—a half-century—ago. I never expected that I would face this kind of fear as a sixty-year-old woman in the United States. I somehow [End Page 127] imagined that by now, I would feel a deep sense of belonging here inside this landscape, this place I would easily call my own. The reason is, as a child, I had simply imagined a linear curve in the degrees of inclusion I would experience as I spent more and more time in the United States. But as we clearly know, popular movements of feminism and anti-feminism, racism and antiracism, and environmentalism and anti-environmentalism do not linearly construct themselves in the historical periodicities of time. Instead, the historical timelines of racism and antiracism movements, feminism and anti-feminism, and environmentalism and anti-environmentalism are nonlinear, so that they are shaped as much by anti-racism resistance movements and racism movements propelled by specific charismatic, popular figures and the politics, economics, and religions shaping both civic and personal lives. I hope that my eyes peering over my black pandemic mask do not reveal my terror. Normally, when I was waiting for a BART train, I would have a book to read for fun in my hands, my eyes absorbed, without any sense of danger. Or I would be looking at my cell phone, texting and catching up on digital life. Or I would start talking to the person next to me, also waiting in line. But I no longer feel I can do those things. I no longer have that freedom. I watch, though, how other folks on the platform can still do those things. That incident that happened a few days ago has only touched some of us in a way that has changed us, changed our behavior, changed our standing in the world. Instead, I watch, closely scanning the faces all around me, trying to guess which one might hate the color of my skin, or the shape of my eyes. I feel strangely dis
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Pub Date : 2023-09-01DOI: 10.2979/jfemistudreli.39.2.15
Mulki Al-Sharmani
Islamic Feminist HermeneuticsBetween Scholarship and Lived Realities Mulki Al-Sharmani (bio) One critique leveled at Islamic feminist scholarship is that it is divorced from the realities of lay Muslim women.1 But is it? If I ask a Muslim woman in rural Egypt or in Finland if she has heard of Saʾdiyya Shaikh's tafsīr of praxis or amina wadud's notion of tawḥīd as social praxis, the answer might be no.2 But there is another way to pose the question: Do the questions that Islamic feminist scholars bring to Islamic texts speak to ordinary women? Can we find similarities between the interpretive engagements of these scholars and lay women's pursuits of religious meanings? My answer would be yes. My research since 2013 comprises textual analyses of the works of Islamic feminist scholars, collaborative writings with some of these scholars, and ethnographic research on lay Muslim women in Finland and Egypt who are engaging with the Qurʾan and the interpretive tradition as they live their daily lives. I argue that both Islamic feminist scholars and the lay women I have studied are equally concerned with making sense of the Qurʾan's key theological and ethical teachings and see them as integral to informing Muslim gender norms. Both grapple with the text and appreciate its aesthetics, seeing the latter as part of its overall message of beauty and justice. [End Page 95] Two examples illustrate these connections. In her scholarly writings on Sūrat al-Raḥmān, Omaima Abou-Bakr foregrounds the affective experience of encountering the Qurʾan and shows how central qurʾanic principles such as moral beauty, justice, and harmony are highlighted through the aesthetics of the text and traced back to the Oneness of God who is the source of existence in its multiplicity and diversity. Nadia, a fifty-year-old divorced Egyptian woman, grapples with patriarchal interpretations that justify polygamy, domestic violence, and child marriage. She has not read any Islamic feminist scholarship or engaged in gender activism. She is a Muslim who believes the Qurʾan is divine and normative. I have been conducting life history interviews with Nadia over two years.3 She shares how in the past she read the Qurʾan without tadabbur (reflection), but now she reflects on what she reads. In one of our interviews, she describes her reading practice: "I feel God is telling me about himself. I see the nature around me, and I read the sura [Sūrat al-Raḥmān], and I feel God. I feel God's power and justice. And it is so musical." While Nadia is not using the same conceptual language as Abou-Bakr, she captures the same understanding of qurʾanic ethos and affect. She is also making connections between what she sees and experiences around her (nature) and what she reads in the text. Life's trials such as losing a son to a car accident and an abusive marriage are also a lens through which she engages with the Qurʾan. Like Islamic feminist scholars, Nadia also reads Q 4:34 in light of her knowledge o
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Pub Date : 2023-09-01DOI: 10.2979/jfemistudreli.39.2.02
Magda Mohamed
Abstract: This article examines how queer Muslim pieties are constructed through sartorial practices, specifically, wearing hijab, and what these pious subjectivities suggest about gender, piety, authority, and identity more broadly in the American Muslim community. In Muslim communities, hijab is imbued with heteronormative assumptions and is often thought about in terms of modesty relating to hetero male desire. Yet people who fall outside heteronormative paradigms also choose to cover, suggesting there are alternative meanings to lift up. Based on interviews with three queer Muslim women in Boston, the author found that through donning hijab, queer Muslim women mark degrees of intimacy and privacy with others, protest and resist normative forces within Muslim and LGBTQ cultures, and secure for themselves a gendered and visible Muslim identity, while simultaneously subverting gender norms. This article shows the creative ways Muslim women have negotiated religious and secular authorities to imagine new, playfully pious possibilities for themselves and the Muslim community.
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Pub Date : 2023-09-01DOI: 10.2979/jfs.2023.a908312
Najeeba Syeed
Decolonizing the Body, Pedagogies, and Anti-Asian Hate Najeeba Syeed (bio) A student emails me, telling me she is in tears, grappling with what it means to let go of definitions of her identity that had held her hostage to the claims of colonized religion. She asks, "What is left?" I've had many students send me these types of emails. They struggle with the process of coming into their own agency and defining their heritage, articulating their experiences of marginalization, and also speaking openly about their strengths and dreams. Here are four pedagogical approaches I've adopted as a professor to respond to student needs and experiences like those named above: 1. Sequence the syllabus in ways that center decolonial framing before teaching religion itself. For example, I assign Linda Tuhiwai Smith's book Decolonizing Methodologies before other texts, before teaching texts on religion and spirituality.1 This framing allowed for colonial constructs we studied later to be interrogated and examined as students were learning them. It changed the method of ending a course with critique and centered the course in this constant questioning of how religions are studied and how religion is constructed in the overall academic framework and institutional settings. 2. Teach more women. I cannot emphasize this enough. So often decolonial critique is taught only from the perspectives of authors who identify as men; adding the voices of female-identified authors may mean stretching the boundaries of what is decolonial. I've used traditional religious writers who do not name [End Page 123] the decolonial method but execute it nonetheless. They may be writing in forms that are not readily accessible as academic texts. For my Indigenous students, for instance, this meant reading firsthand narratives that were not always scholarly works, but the embodied experience of decolonizing was evident, a roadmap in the text. 3. Pay attention to what I am modeling as professor. My body is the first text in the classroom interreligious encounter that a student reads. This is especially the case when students have not encountered religious diversity in their prior experiences. Especially as a woman—a Muslim woman, a Brown woman, and an Asian woman—it is important to name when encounters are complex, complicated, or problematic. This has been very hard. So often my age, my qualifications are asked about, personal revelations sought. Familiarity and comfort with me pursued, I had to insist on being "Professor Syeed" while my colleagues could be addressed by their first names with impunity. More deeply, I have begun to talk about and name when my own body was experiencing violations by what we read, by what we watched, and by what was said in the moment of interaction in the classroom. This has taken practice and deliberation over time. It is done with strength and honesty and clarity; and the methods of how I handled these conflicts were greatly appreciated by my students. 4. T
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