Methodological Foundation Controversies on Modern Reading Orientation in Quranic Text (Abidalmajeed Al-Sharfi as an Example)

Abstract

The modernist trend in reading the Qur’anic text is one of the contemporary trends achieving a presence in the Arab and Islamic arena, those who are concerned in the circle of this trend: like Muhammad Arkoun, Nasr Hamid Abu Zaid, Fadl Rahman Malik, Abd al-Majid al-Sharafi, and Sadiq Belaid and others call to start reconsidering the study of the Quranic text with a new vision and approach in their general contents. So they attempt to transcend the traditional readings with the text and relying on a “scientific” reading that takes its origins and references from the gains and methods of modern Western sciences.

      The research study seeks to reveal the cognitive and ideological implications theses of this trend carry in the circle of its concern with the Quranic text and that is one of its ways to stop at two main paths. The first begins with analyzing the theoretical foundations on which the trend of modernist reading of the Quranic text is based. The second is to choose a “model” reflected in reading Quranic text. This model was represented by the approaches presented by Abdul Majeed Al-Sharafi whether in terms of his reading of Islamic religious discourse and thought in general, or his reading of the dimensions and contents of the Quranic text in particular.