Driven by a detailed hermeneutical investigation of the Qur'anic story of creation, this book questions the hybrid Biblical/Qur'anic narrative that gradually erased the lines that define the authentic Qur'anic account. Abla Hasan argues that humanity's divine status is the bedrock from which to investigate the meaning of human religiosity and address the problem of pain and suffering. The detailed analysis in this book answers many linguistic and logical pending questions in the Qur'an and...

This book focuses on reconnecting with the lost rich humanitarian content of the Qur’an through a hermeneutical investigation of al-Khidr’s story. Through an active engagement with primary and secondary sources, the book provides a new analytic reading of this puzzling Qur’anic story.By reinvestigating the largely overlooked pluralistic message in the Qur’an, the book debunks an Islamic fundamentalism, which often uses the text as a justification for ill-informed choices that can b...

This volume challenges a long history of normalizing patriarchal approaches to the Qur’an and calls for a questioning of the interpretive credibility of many inherited Qur’anic commentaries. The author presents a fresh reading of the sacred text and Islamic teaching traditions as the rediscovery of a lost humanitarian and gender-egalitarian textual richness that has been poorly and loosely handled for centuries. The book stresses the importance of reviewing the interpretive linguistic choi...