Islamic Studies and Quranic Research in the Contemporary World

Islamic Studies and Quranic Research in the Contemporary World

Text/Contextualism of Islamic Interpretations in the Horizon of the Cambridge School; Re-understanding of the Muslim Interpretative Tradition Based on Skinner's Thoughts

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
Rahele Amiri 1
Fathieh Fattahizade 2
Sayyad Mohammad Hady Gerami 3
1 PhD. student in the Department of Quranic Studies and Hadith, Faculty of Theology, Alzahra University, Tehran, Iran.
2 Professor of the Department of Quranic Studies and Hadith, Faculty of Theology, Alzahra University, Tehran, Iran
3 Assistant Professor of the Department of Quranic Studies, Institute of Humanities and Cultural Studies, Tehran, Iran.
10.22034/iscw.2025.2039173.1086
Abstract
The contextualism that Skinner and the Cambridge School offer in reading past texts has aroused great enthusiasm in various universities around the world for decades. In addition, it seems necessary to achieve new interpretations of the Quran in the light of contemporary knowledge in various fields of humanities. The following article addresses the question of what is the status of Islamic interpretations in terms of textualism and contextualism based on Skinner's views. The research method of this article is to describe, explain, and analyze Skinner's approach and common interpretations among Muslims. In this research, it was seen that the types of interpretations among Muslims, despite their ability to understand and interpret theological, philosophical, abstract, and mystical concepts, are still far from contextualism. Also, Skinner's approach, due to its simultaneous attention to the text, context, and author's intention, creates numerous epistemological capabilities for interpreters. From the perspective of intentionalism, unlike Muslim interpreters and jurists, he does not look for the author's intention only in the midst of the text's words, but also in the interaction between the text and the context. The set of epistemological and methodological advantages of this approach allows for the solution of some interpretive problems and more historically accurate readings. This approach can be combined with various type of Muslim interpretations, especially thematic interpretation. At the same time, Skinner's method has some limitations; since Skinner is a historicist, the application of his method is in cases of historical, social issues, and in the case of abstract, philosophical, and mystical concepts, only their historical nature can be studied with this method.
Keywords
Contextualism
Intentionalism
Islamic interpretations
Quentin Skinner
Textualism
Subjects
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Islamic Studies and Quranic Research in the Contemporary World
Volume 4, Issue 2 - Serial Number 8
February 2026
Pages 1-37

  • Receive Date 20 August 2024
  • Revise Date 28 May 2025
  • Accept Date 11 August 2025
  • First Publish Date 14 October 2025
  • Publish Date 21 January 2026