The polyvalent Qur’anic text lends itself to multiple interpretations, depending
upon one’s presuppositions and premises. In fact, Q. 3:7 distinguishes
between muḥkam (explicit, categorical) and mutashābih (metaphorical, allegorical,
symbolic) verses. As such, this device provides a way for reinterpreting
verses that outwardly appear to be problematic – be it in the area of
gender equality, minority rights, religious freedom, or war. However, many
of the verses dealing with legal provisions in such areas as devotional matters,
marriage, divorce, child custody, inheritance and bequest, and specific punishments
appear to be unequivocal, categorical, and explicit. As such, scholars
have devised certain hermeneutical strategies to situate and contextualize
these verses in a particular socio-historical context, as well as to emphasize
that they were in conversation with the society to which the Qur’an was revealed
and thereby underlining the “performative” (p.15) nature of the relationship
between the Qur’an and the society.
American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences