Objective Meaning In The Quran In Its Dealing With Historicity

Abstract

Taking a stand for E. Betti in the debate he had with H.G. Gadamer, Fazlur Rahman defends the possibility of knowing with certainty the objective meaning of the Quran, which differs from the literal sense. For the Indo-Pakistani reformist, this objective meaning, which corresponds to the divine intention, is in accordance with the universal values of modernity. Yet, many intellectuals, including South African Farid Esack, takes up the Gadamerian argument and plead for the historicity of any interpretation, criticizing the idea that an interpretation can be objective. In that view, be it classical or modern, no interpretation would be without prejudice, and pretending otherwise would confine the Quran to the historicity of the reader. Even if Rahman restates the difficulty of the search for objectivity, the problem of his modernism is that it may give the illusion of a real, authentic Islam, which then forecloses the dynamics of textual reinterpretation.