Qur'anic Hermeneutics in the Thought of Taha Jabir Al-Alwani

Abstract

This article examines Taha Jabir Al-Alwani’s attempt to crystallize a holistic hermeneutical approach to the Qur'an. The article’s central argument is that Al-Alwani calls on exegetes of the Qur’an to underpin their hermeneutics with thinking about the Qur’an’s higher objectives (maqāṣid).  Al-Alwani’s hermeneutics, thus, requires attention to capturing the overall goals and purposes of Qur’anic verses (including the wisdom in how they are expressed) in relation to the composition of human beings and their existence in the universe. For Al-Alwani, a maqāṣidic or objective-oriented hermeneutical approach to the Qur’an allows for the Ummah’s renewal (tajdīd) ‒ when needed and where beneficial. This is achieved namely through two processes: an integrated reading of revelation and the universe wherein the exegete seeks to understand the relation between them; and understanding the Qur’an in light of the doctrine of abrogation (naskh) or supersession (i.e., of one ruling by another), clear (muḥkam) and ambiguous or multivalent (mutashābih) verses (i.e., susceptible to different interpretations), and the Qur’an’s structural unity (al-waḥdah al-bināʾiyyah).