Abstract:
This article discusses “Communities of the Qur’an,” a conference, public talk, and forthcoming book that will examine the Qur’an’s “communities of interpretation.” They are represented by ten world- renowned academics and leaders from the Sunni, Shi‘i, and Ahmadi communities; reformist LGBT, feminist, African American, and Qur’an-only groups; as well as non-Muslims like the Bahais. In this brief paper, I discuss their nature, engagements with the Qur’an as a text or an experience, and the challenges they face in the twenty- first century.
Machine summary:
” They are represented by ten world- renowned academics and leaders from the Sunni, Shi‘i, and Ahmadi communities; reformist LGBT, feminist, African American, and Qur’an-only groups; as well as non-Muslims like the Bahais.
On the Nature of Community On March 10-11, 2016, the Boniuk Institute for the Study and Advancement of Religious Tolerance hosted the “Communities of the Qur’an” conference, which was addressed by (in order of presentation) Ingrid Mattson (London and Windsor Community Chair in Islamic Studies, Huron University College), Saj- jad Rizvi (associate professor, Islamic intellectual history, University of Exeter), Ali Asani (professor, Indo-Muslim and Islamic religion and cultures, Harvard University), Ahmed Subhy Mansour (president, International Qur’anic Center), Amina Wadud (professor emeritus and visiting scholar, Starr King School for the Ministry), Mujeeb Ur Rahman (Advocate of the Supreme Court, Pakistan), Todd Lawson (professor emeritus, Middle Eastern and Islamic studies, Uni- versity of Toronto), and Aminah Beverly McCloud (professor, religious studies, DePaul University).
” Debate, dialogue, discussion and explanation – the Sunni community is, above all else, a discursive space that can be initiated at any point with a word of the Qur’an … The recognition of a core set of diverse, equally authentic interpretive methods and schools within Sunni Islam is an (aspirationally irenic) solution to the rejection of the imamate on the one hand, and the need to establish parameters of orthodoxy – or the appearance thereof – on the other.