Nicolai Sinai has a fascinating article in the book Reclaiming Islamic Tradition: Modern Interpretations of the Classical Heritage. This post will be a review and analysis of this article. The essay examines themes found in Surah 6 in the works of Sayyid Qutb and Rashid Rida.

Rashid Rida was an Islamic thinker born in Lebanon who died in Egypt in 1935. He was trained in the classical Islamic sciences and Arabic, and he developed an intellectual response to what he believed were the challenges facing the Islamic world due to the rise of the West. Rida believed there was a need to unify the Islamic community and to return to the foundational sources of Islam while also engaging with the modern world (Encyclopaedia Britannica, n.d.).

Sayyid Qutb was an Egyptian scholar who worked as a schoolteacher early in his adult life. At first he was largely a secular literary critic, but later he adopted increasingly radical Islamist views, influenced in part by his visit to the United States. When he returned to Egypt, he joined the Muslim Brotherhood and was eventually imprisoned. He was later executed because of writings advocating revolutionary Islamic change, drawing upon scholars such as Ibn Taymiyyah and arguing that much of the Muslim world had fallen into apostasy (Encyclopaedia Britannica, n.d.).

Sinai begins the article by focusing on how modern Qur’anic commentaries, or tafsirs, emphasize the literary and thematic coherence of the Qur’anic surahs. Mustansir Mir has noted that exegetes from different parts of the Islamic world, such as Hamid al-Din al-Farahi, Amin Ahsan Islahi in the Indian subcontinent, and the Iranian scholar Muhammad Husayn al-Tabataba’i, agree that the Qur’anic surahs are structured around thematic pivots (mihwar), hubs (amud), or aims (ghard) (Sinai, 2024, pp. 136–137).

Ingrid Mattson likewise argued that:

“Readers of the Quran, like each one of us in our daily lives, must be prepared to quickly shift attention to a new concern at any moment. This is not to say that the Quran lacks overall unity or coherence. In fact, it possesses a remarkable inner unity and coherence” (Nasr et al., 2015, p. 1591).

Sinai notes that, “To some degree, then, the uptake of such holistic and coherent precedents by modern exegetes resembles the fate of concepts like ijtihad and maslaha, which are likewise traditional notions that are accorded new prominence and are significantly re-cast from the late nineteenth century onwards” (Sinai, 2024, pp. 136–137). Patricia Crone likewise observed that “all believers were entitled to their own opinion on legal questions on the basis of ijtihad, or independent reasoning” (Crone, 2004, p. 63).

Sinai then explains that the attention of modern-day exegetes to Qur’anic coherence is due to literary and aesthetic factors. Sayyid Qutb was a secular writer and literary critic before becoming an Islamic ideologue, and his appreciation of the Qur’an’s literary features was influenced by his close association with the Egyptian writer and poet Abbas Mahmud al-Aqqad. Related to this, in premodern Qur’anic commentaries, the interpretation of a verse could be significantly influenced by non-Qur’anic traditions (Sinai, 2024, p. 137).

Sinai asks an interesting question: “Why might the disentangling of scripture and extra-scriptural tradition that is facilitated by exegetical holism have appeared, and continue to appear, appealing to modern-day Islamic thinkers?” He answers his own question by stating, “At least in part, the answer would seem to be that it supports the modernist strategy of jettisoning secondary layers of the Islamic textual heritage in order to fortify the position of more basic layers” (Sinai, 2024, p. 137).

Sinai then reviews the major themes of Surah 6, including shirk, the Qur’an’s revelatory nature, polemics against Qur’anic doubters, the story of the prophet Abraham, and a defense of the Qur’an’s revelatory power (Sinai, 2024, p. 139).

M. A. S. Abdel Haleem notes that Surah 6 is a “Meccan surah which takes its title from verses 136–139” (Abdel Haleem, 2005, p. 80). Tafsir al-Manar, or Rashid Rida’s commentary, follows the tradition attributed to Ibn Abbas and assigns the surah to the Meccan period. It was also believed to have been revealed “in one whole,” or jumlatan wahidatan. Sinai, in Key Terms of the Qur’an, explains that this phrase means that the revelation came “all at once,” rather than piecemeal (Sinai, 2023, p. 283).

Sinai reviews commentary by the Iraqi scholar al-Alusi and the Syrian scholar al-Biqa’i before turning to Rashid Rida’s interpretation (Sinai, 2024, pp. 140–141). Premodern commentators made significant efforts to characterize the overall theme of Surah al-An’am and explain how it complemented neighboring surahs (Sinai, 2024, p. 141). Rida also reproduces a passage from al-Suyuti’s famous manual of Qur’anic sciences, Al-Itqan fi ‘Ulum al-Qur’an, which lists Medinan additions to Surah al-An’am. Rida, however, is careful to state that such traditions should be treated cautiously. Although he does not completely dismiss the possibility that verses 6:151–153 were Medinan additions, he ultimately remains convinced by the jumlatan wahidatan tradition (Sinai, 2024, p. 143).

Rida, after arguing that Surah al-An’am is a literary unity, next describes it as an “exposition of the doctrines of religion” (Sinai, 2024, p. 143). There are several interesting themes throughout the surah. Surah 6:39 states, “Those who reject Our signs are deaf, dumb, and in total darkness. God leaves whoever He will to stray and sets whoever He will on a straight path” (Abdel Haleem, 2005, p. 82). This passage contains themes that resemble the Christian theological concept of Calvinism, in which God guides whom He wills and leaves others astray. Ibn Kathir, a famous exegete of the Qur’an, similarly stated, “(Allah sends astray whom He wills and He guides on the straight path whom He wills.) For He does what He wills with His creatures” (Ibn Kathir, n.d.).

Sinai ends the article with an interesting statement that should be considered by any student of tafsir, Islamic history, or exegetical history. He notes, “Scholarship on modern tafsir ought to resist the temptation of being interested in its object primarily or even exclusively insofar as exegesis can serve as a forum for debating the fraught relationship between Islam and modernity” (Sinai, 2024, p. 151).

The study of Qur’anic exegesis should not be limited to verses that can or cannot support the concept of modernity, and such an approach misses the full range of hermeneutical developments related to the Qur’an.

References

Abdel Haleem, M. A. S. (2005). The Qur’an. Oxford University Press.

Crone, P. (2004). God’s rule: Government and Islam. Columbia University Press.

Encyclopaedia Britannica. (n.d.). Rashid Rida. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Rashid-Rida

Encyclopaedia Britannica. (n.d.). Sayyid Qutb. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sayyid-Qutb

Ibn Kathir. (n.d.). Surah 6. Al-An’am: Ayah 37–39. Alim.org. https://www.alim.org/quran/tafsir/ibn-kathir/surah/6/37/

Khan, A., & Kendall, E. (Eds.). (2024). Reclaiming Islamic Tradition: Modern Interpretations of the Classical Heritage. Edinburgh University Press.

Nasr, S. H., Dagli, C. K., Dakake, M. M., Lumbard, J. E. B., & Rustom, M. (Eds.). (2015). The Study Quran: A New Translation and Commentary. HarperOne.

Sinai, N. (2023). Key terms of the Qur’an: A critical dictionary. Princeton University Press.

Sinai, N. (2024). Reading Surat al-An’am with Muhammad Rashid Rida and Sayyid Qutb. In A. Khan & E. Kendall (Eds.), Reclaiming Islamic Tradition: Modern Interpretations of the Classical Heritage (pp. 136–151). Edinburgh University Press.