Chapter 4
A Comparative Study of Contemporary South Asian Exegetes
In: Dynamics of Islam in the Modern WorldSearch for other papers by Tariq Rahman in
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Abstract
This study examines the way two Quranic verses (9:5 and 9:29) are interpreted by four South Asian exegetes in their Urdu exegeses. The first two, Hafiz Saʿid and Masʿud Azhar, both from Pakistan, use certain interpretive devices — mainly, generalization of the commands given in these verses to fight the polytheists and the People of the Book, applying them to all non-Muslims forever. Both also assume that conditions given by the traditional Sunni theorists on jihad (such as the necessity of a Muslim ruler initiating an offensive war, treaties of peace being publicly renounced, a ratio of at least 1:2 in the military strength between Muslims and their antagonists and care that non-combatants are not deliberately harmed) are no longer required, as the “West” is on the warpath against Islam and Muslim rulers are either cowards or stooges of the enemies of Islam. The second set of exegetes — Wahiduddin Khan from India and Jawed Ahmad Ghamidi from Pakistan — are modernist Muslims who interpret the very same verses using the interpretive device of restriction. They argue that both verses were valid only for the Arab polytheists and the Jews and Christians who had begun hostilities against the nascent Muslim community. Moreover, both invoke the theory that the Arab polytheists were not offered the option of paying the poll tax to avoid conversion, as the People of the Book and Zoroastrians were, because God himself wanted to punish them. Both, therefore, argue that nowadays jihad can only be defensive and the norms of international behavior supported by the world community are in conformity with Islam.