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Supersession or subsumption? The Sunni-Hanafi legal theory, tafsir studies, and the inter-religious dialogue
Abstract
The paper presents the less studied Ḥanafī juristic approach toward Judaism and Christianity, which can have important ramifications for the inter-religious dialogue. It also foregrounds a limitation of the prevalent tafsīr studies which tend to ignore the non-exegetical Muslim literature (e.g. works on uṣūl al-fiqh) which simultaneously served as the site of exegetical activity. The Christian doctrine of Supersession considers the Hebrew Bible as pre-figuring the birth, passion, and resurrection of Christ (Kendell Soulen, Matthew Tapie, and Jules Isaac). This anticipation was fulfilled in Jesus in a double sense: it was fulfilled (accomplie), rendered obsolete (dépassée), and expired (périmé). The paper surveys Ḥanafī Qurᵓān exegeses and notable works on Ḥanafī legal theory, authored over the last millennium in different regions, to demonstrate that the notion of supersession, dominant among Christian communities once, was also mistakenly attributed to Islam in a broad-brush approach. The paper discusses Ḥanafī theories of law (uṣūl al-fiqh) which argue that the teachings of a prophet are not subject to time limits: their teachings are perennially valid by default till a particular provision is specifically abrogated by the same prophet or another. Islam, therefore, subsumes all the teachings of the previous prophets. They hold that the teachings of Moses, Jesus, and others are not alien but “ours” because they belong to “our Prophet.” They, however, accept only those earlier teachings that are found in the Qur’an and the Ḥadīth literature because they deem the biblical literature unreliable. Thus the locus of the inter-religious dialogue shifts to the motif of biblical authenticity or textual corruption (taḥrīf), a field now almost wholly governed by the secular methods of historical criticism: redaction, canon, form, and textual criticisms. If the Ḥanafī doctrine is acknowledged, the efforts to engage in a fruitful inter-religious dialogue will get squarely focused on the taḥrīf motif and is, therefore, consigned to the realm of the secular. Since the notions of subsumption of earlier laws, and corruption in biblical material have been discussed inadequately in the tafsīr works, and are understood fully in the light of works in other disciplines, the paper suggests that the discipline of tafsīr studies should open up to non-exegetical works in order to fully comprehend the Muslim understanding of their sacred texts.
Discipline
Religious Studies/Theology
Geographic Area
All Middle East
Sub Area
All Time Periods