Muhammad Shahrur

Muhammad Shahrur
Born Muhammad Shahrur
1938 (age 78–79)
Damascus, Syria
Nationality Syrian
Known for Quraniyoon studies

Muhammad Shahrour (born 1938) is an Islamic thinker and author. He is an Emeritus Professor of Civil Engineering at the University of Damascus who writes extensively about Islam.[1] Shahrour was trained as an engineer in Syria, the former Soviet Union and Ireland.[2] He refers to the book of Prophet Mohammad as "The Book" not the Quran; which makes him unique and different from all other Islamic thinkers and traditional scholars. Yet similar to Quraniyoon Muslims, he does not consider Hadith as a divine source; however; he does not belong to the same school as Ahmed Subhy Mansour.[3]

Life

Shahrour decided to write his first book, which took him more than twenty years to complete, after the Arab defeat in the 1967 Six Day War that was a collective shock for the Arab world. This led Shahrour to search for a way out of the region's crisis, which he interpreted above all as a moral and intellectual crisis.[4]

Positions

Shahrour says that traditional scholarship on the Qur'an is unscientific. His interpretation of the Quran supports liberal political positions such as pluralism.[5] He also says that the Quran must be read and understood in relation to ever changing social realities.[2] Shahrour says that "jurisprudence in the name of God is a farce benefiting only those wanting to maintain political power", thus opposing diamterically the views of both Islamists and of the Ulama, the traditional legal Islamic scholars.[4] According to Shahrour, Islam makes no laws, but sets limits (Hudud) within which man enjoys "the greatest possible degree of freedom". The traditional interpretation of Hudud in Islamic law or Sharia is a class of punishments that are fixed for certain crimes. However, according to Shahrur the chopping off of a hand is not the only punishment for theft, but its most severe form. A judge could also sentence the guilty party to do, for example, volunteer work instead.[4]

Publications

Books by Muhammad Shahrour:

in Arabic:

In English:

Reactions

Shahrour's first book has circulated throughout the Middle East and North Africa. His second and third books have been banned in many countries, but thousands of copies have been published, sold, and circulated under the table. At least thirteen books have been published attacking Shahrour's first book.[7]

Shahrour and a dozen or so like-minded intellectuals from across the Arab and Islamic worlds provoked bedlam when they presented their call for a reinterpretation of holy texts after a Cairo seminar entitled "Islam and Reform" in 2004.[8] His thoughts have angered many traditional scholars in Al-Azhar University and has been declared apostate by two of them, Mustafa Al-Shak'a and Farahat Al-Sayeed Al-Mungi.[9] When Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, the influential Islamic thinker and frequent guest on Al-Jazeera, was asked about the significance Shahrur's work for the Islamic world, he said: "It's a new religion!" [4]

Notable quote

“It is easier to build a skyscraper or a tunnel under the sea than to teach people how to read the book of the Lord with their own eyes. They have been used to reading this book with borrowed eyes for hundreds of years”.[10]

References

  1. ↑ The New Voices of Islam: Reforming Politics and Modernity : a Reader By Mehran Kamrava
  2. 1 2 Tolson in US News 2001
  3. ↑ Mohammad Sharour Official Website
  4. 1 2 3 4 Mudhoon, Loay (2009). "The Reformist Islamic Thinker Muhammad Shahrur: In the Footsteps of Averroes". Translated from the German by John Bergeron. Qantara. Retrieved 29 January 2012.
  5. ↑ Context Magazine
  6. ↑ "Book of the Month:The Qur’an, Morality and Critical Reason: The Essential Muhammad Shahrur". New York University Center for Dialogues Islame - U.S. - The West. Retrieved 29 January 2012.
  7. ↑ Shahrour: The Divine Text and Pluralism in Muslim Societies
  8. ↑ MacFarquhar, Neil (December 10, 2004). "Muslim scholars increasingly debate unholy war". New York Times.
  9. ↑ http://www.ahl-alquran.com/arabic/show_news.php?main_id=6739
  10. ↑ Article 19
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