Rethinking Islam with Sultan Shahin

Urdu Section

28 Jun 2011, NewAgeIslam.Com

"I am a Witness to the Changes in Islam" Interview with Leading Islamic reformist Nasr Hamid Abu Zaid (1943-2010)
	Civilisations are like waves – always in movement: coming from Africa or the old Iraq, to Greece and from there to the Middle East. There was the Hellenistic period, when Alexander the Great tried to spread his rule through the entire region. Then came the Islamic civilisation. And finally the Renaissance and the modern Western civilisation. This type of exchange, which emphasises the importance of dialogue between the civilisations and religions, began in the 7th century. They see Islam as fixed, unchanging, which just is not the case. There is a change underway in the Muslim world, a reformation. It began at the end of the 19th century and continued through the 20th. It has gone through highs and lows. -- Nasr Hamid Abu Zaid in an interview to Erhard Brunn (Translated from English by: Md.Zafar Iqbal, NewAgeIslam.com)

"I am a Witness to the Changes in Islam" Interview with Leading Islamic reformist Nasr Hamid Abu Zaid (1943-2010)

Nasr Hamid Abu Zaid in an interview to Erhard Brunn (Translated from English by: Md.Zafar Iqbal, NewAgeIslam.com) "I am a Witness to the Changes in Islam" Leading Islamic reformist and literary scholar, Nasr Hamid Abu Zaid, believes that individual freedom is an essential prerequisite to faith. Everyone, therefore, also has the right to convert to another faith. He talked to Erhard Brunn about some of his ideas before his death on July 5, 2010 in Cairo.) The relationship between the Muslim and the non-Muslim worlds is one that is deeper and more historical than we think, believes Abu Zaid Q: The question of what the Muslim attitude to violence is still one that very much preoccupies the West. You recently pointed out that recourse to the Koranic suras is totally misleading in today's context… Abu Zaid: Of course, the Koran sometimes uses very strong language in its exhortations to fight. Researchers have to question why the Koran employs such strong, persuasive language in this case. The context is crucial here. The Arabs who believed in Mohammed were to be convinced of the need to fight against their own families and, in so doing, to gainsay the pre-Islamic tradition. So it was forbidden for an individual to fight against his own tribe. But the arrival of Mohammed as prophet drew so many members of various tribes to him. When the time came for them to defend their new community, the threat came from their own tribes. The uncompromising tone of the Koran is understandable here. Islam was not born out of a world empire; it arose from a world of tribal tradition, tribal laws and pagan rules. Blood bonds and tribal ties did not hold the new community together. They came, after all, from many different tribes. They came together into a new kind of tribe, one that from the beginning was locked in conflict with other tribes. They had to defend themselves. All of this formed the Koran. The Koran is very much a product of its formative influences. This is why we cannot understand the Koran without knowledge of the historical background. These people did not follow a new spiritual leader in order to fight. They had somehow fallen out of the tribal system. But in the end they had to fight. Prof. Abu Zaid was born near the city of Tanta, Egypt, in 1943. After studying Arabic at the University of Cairo, he was appointed associate professor at the Institute of Arabic Language and Literature in 1987. His study of the Koran, in which he analyses the history of its formation, sparked a fiercely controversial reaction. Accused of apostasy by religious hardliners, he was forced to divorce his wife and, finally, to leave Egypt. Abu Zaid had been teaching in Leyden, in the Netherlands, since 2004. He died in Cairo on July 5, 2010) Translated from the German by Ron Walker Source: © Qantara.de 2008 URL for Full English Text: http://www.newageislam.com/NewAgeIslamIjtihadRethinkingIslam_1.aspx?ArticleID=791 URL: http://newageislam.com/NewAgeIslamUrduSection_1.aspx?ArticleID=4922