OXFORD THEOLOGY AND RELIGION MONOGRAPHS Editorial Committee J . BARTON M. N . A . BOCKMUEHL M . J . EDWARDS P. S . FIDDES G . D . FLOOD S. R . I . FOOT D . N . J . MACCULLOCH G. WARD OXFORD THEOLOGY AND RELIGION MONOGRAPHS C. S. Peirce and the Nested Continua Model of Religious Interpretation Gary Slater (2015) The Vision of Didymus the Blind A Fourth-Century Virtue-Origenism Grant D. Bayliss (2015) Selfless Love and Human Flourishing in Paul Tillich and Iris Murdoch Julia T. Meszaros (2016) George Errington and Roman Catholic Identity in Nineteenth-Century England Serenhedd James (2016) Theology and the University in Nineteenth-Century Germany Zachary Purvis (2016) Maria Maddalena de’ Pazzi The Making of a Counter-Reformation Saint Clare Copeland (2016) Angels in Early Medieval England Richard Sowerby (2016) Freedom and Necessity in Modern Trinitarian Theology Brandon Gallaher (2016) Intercessory Prayer and the Monastic Ideal in the Time of the Carolingian Reforms Renie S. Choy (2016) Ottoman Puritanism and its Discontents Ahmad al-Rumi al-Aqhisari and the Qadizadelis Mustapha Sheikh (2016) A. J. Appasamy and his Reading of Rāmānuja A Comparative Study in Divine Embodiment Brian Philip Dunn (2016) Kierkegaard’s Theology of Encounter An Edifying and Polemical Life David Lappano (2017) Qur’an of the Oppressed Liberation Theology and Gender Justice in Islam SHADAAB RAHEMTULLA 1 3 Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, OX2 6DP, United Kingdom Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries © Shadaab Rahemtulla 2017 The moral rights of the author have been asserted First Edition published in 2017 Impression: 1 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, by licence or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this work in any other form and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, United States of America British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available Library of Congress Control Number: 2016945386 ISBN 978–0–19–879648–0 Printed in Great Britain by Clays Ltd, St Ives plc Links to third party websites are provided by Oxford in good faith and for information only. Oxford disclaims any responsibility for the materials contained in any third party website referenced in this work. In loving memory of Malcolm X (1925–65) Acknowledgements This book would not have been possible without the loving support of my family. Throughout my education, my parents—Mehfuza and Haiderali Rahemtulla—have been my rock, an unwavering source of comfort and encouragement. It is because of them that I was able to enter graduate school, let alone complete it. I cannot separate this book, which is based on my doctoral dissertation, from the beautiful and radiant face of Sara Ababneh, my life partner and comrade in struggle. This is not only because, throughout the research and writing, I was in a perpetual conversation with her about my work, but also because we met during my very first week in Oxford as a graduate student. Her presence, insight, and love therefore are an integral aspect of my learning. I would also like to express my deepest gratitude to Sara’s family—Mahmoud, Dorothee, Nora, and Hanna— for their friendship and hospitality in Jordan. From the moment I arrived in Amman, they made me feel like a part of their family. Our children Leila and Ali arrived shortly after we moved to Jordan. I cannot express in words the joy that they bring to my life, and I pray that they will grow up to become conscientious human beings committed to the values that lie at the core of this book, namely: justice, compassion, and solidarity. I am truly blessed to have had wonderful teachers. I wish to express my gratitude to Derryl MacLean, Paul Sedra, Thomas Kuehn, and the late William Cleveland, all at Simon Fraser University, and James Piscatori, now at the University of Durham, for their teaching, support, and unceasing encouragement. I am forever indebted to Christopher Rowland and James McDougall, both at the University of Oxford. I could not have asked for more engaging and selfless supervisors. James pushed me in my writing to be as detailed, as exhaustive, as rigorous as possible. If this book is meticulous, it is because of him. Chris was not only an outstanding teacher and mentor, but he is the scholar—indeed, he is the human being—that I want to be. Without words and through his actions alone, Chris taught me what a genuine commitment to liberation means, and that is translating one’s social and political ideals into one’s personal life. viii Acknowledgements The revisions for this book were completed while teaching at the University of Jordan’s School of International Studies in Amman, and I would like to thank all the faculty and administrative staff for their warm collegiality and friendship, especially university president Azmi Mahafzah and deans Abdullah Nagrash, Faisal Al-Rfouh, and Zaid Eyadat. A special shout out goes to my brilliant and inspiring stu- dents, including (but certainly not limited to) Ayesha al-Omary, Wesam Wekhyan, Rita Adel, and Laila Meloelain. Having now written a monograph, I have come to appreciate the truly exacting work that goes into the production process. I want to express my gratitude to everyone at Oxford University Press and beyond: Tom Perridge, Karen Raith, Kavya Ramu, Francesca White, Joy Mellor, Martin Noble, Hannah Chippendale, and Diarmaid MacCulloch, the chair of the Oxford Theology and Religion Mono- graphs Committee. I am grateful to Diarmaid for inviting me to be a part of the series. I am indebted to the anonymous external reviewer at OUP, whose perceptive and deeply learned comments significantly improved the manuscript. This book would not have been possible without the funding that I received for my doctorate. I thank the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the Clarendon Fund at the University of Oxford for their scholarship support. Finally, I would like to thank the intellectuals studied in this book—Farid Esack, the late Asghar Ali Engineer (may he rest in peace), Amina Wadud, and Asma Barlas—for doing what they do, for being who they are. While I have striven to be critical of their work, I have learned immensely from their insights. They have opened up new horizons for me, giving me a language, a vocabulary, a space with which to bring together the two callings that lie closest to my soul: faith and social justice. For this, I thank them from the bottom of my heart. OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 24/12/2016, SPi Table of Contents 1. Introduction 1 Ontology as Methodology 4 The Study 7 2. Theology of the Margins: The Reading of Farid Esack 10 Introduction 10 Historical Context 11 Interpretive Method 13 The Order of the Texts 13 Contests over Contexts: From Scholarly Project to Liberating Exegesis 15 Islam and the Task of Liberation 23 On Divine Justice 23 Esack and the Exodus: A Critique and a Proposal 25 Towards a Comprehensive Justice: Prophetic Solidarity 31 Interfaith Solidarity and a Commitment to the Margins 40 Beyond Dialogue 40 Islam as a Theology of the Margins 45 Conclusions 49 3. From the Hereafter to the Here and Now: The Reading of Asghar Ali Engineer 53 Introduction 53 Historical Context 54 Islamic Texts and Sacred Authority 56 Qur’an First 56 Between Exegesis and Essentialism 60 On Authority 62 A Revolutionary Faith 66 Islam and Liberation Theology 66 Karbala: An Islamic Paradigm of Liberation 72 An All-Encompassing Justice? Class, Gender, and Pluralism 75 Secularism, Modernism, Peace: Three Critiques 80 Communal Violence and the Secular Alternative 80 Reason and Literacy: A Modernist Hermeneutic 85 Is a Theology of Liberation Necessarily a Theology of Peace? 88 Conclusions 92 OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 24/12/2016, SPi x Table of Contents 4. Gender Justice as a Way of Life: The Reading of Amina Wadud 96 Introduction 96 Language and its Discontents 97 Historical Context 98 Hermeneutical Approach 101 A Qur’anic Discourse 101 An Exegesis for the Present (and who has the authority to do it) 105 Between Praxis and Application 110 Qur’an and Gender Justice 113 Women Reading as Women 113 The Origins of Humankind 114 The Justice of Divine Judgement 119 The Final Abodes 121 Polygamy, Veiling, and Seclusion 123 The Family: Then and Now 127 Saying No to (the Literal Letter of) the Text 129 On Gender Mainstreaming and Male Solidarity 131 Paradigms of Struggle: Tawhid and Khilafa 137 Justice for All 140 Liberation for Whom? 140 On Race and Religious Pluralism 142 Class and Global Politics: A Problematic Analysis 147 Hagar: The Complexity of Oppression Embodied 152 Walking the Walk: Justice as a Way of Life 154 Conclusions 156 5. Against Patriarchy: The Reading of Asma Barlas 161 Introduction 161 Historical Context 162 Methodology 165 The Primacy of the Word 165 How to Read the Qur’an: Hermeneutical Strategies 170 Qur’an and Gender I: Traditional Patriarchy 178 Reading for Justice: A Different Approach 178 The Infinite Justice of the One God 180 Our Father who art in Heaven 183 Fathers: Earthly Surrogates of God? 185 Prophetic Paradigms: Abraham and Muhammad 187 A Hermeneutical Irony 190 Qur’an and Gender II: Modern Patriarchy 191 OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 24/12/2016, SPi Table of Contents xi From Biological Sex to Politicized Gender 191 On Mothering, Polygamy, and Veiling 193 Revisiting a Difficult Verse 199 Critical Interpretation or Apologetic Argument? 204 Islam: A Double Critique 207 Between a Rock and a Hard Place 207 9/11 and Empire 209 On Class and Race 212 Twin Fundamentalisms 215 Conclusions 220 6.