Assistant Professor of Islamic Theology at the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies, KU Leuven,
Professor of Islamic Studies and Theology in the Department of Theology at Notre Dame
Deputy Head of the Department of Academic Research... Institute of Ismaili Studies
dear Altara..
I am sure views of some these folks if not all have changed on Islam and origins of Islam/Quran... People must realize there are
., off course that is also true to all other faiths ... But Islam takes cake out of them ..
NONE OF THESE FELLOWS WORKING IN WESTERN UNIVERSITIES AS FACULTIES CAN OPENLY SAY ...
Zayd's academic work on the Qur'an led to a lawsuit against him by conservative Muslim scholars. The subsequent a hisbah trial led to him being declared an apostate (murtadd) by an Egyptian court. Since under Sharia law it was not permissible for a Muslim woman to be married to a non-Muslim man, the court also declared he could not remain married to his wife—Cairo University French Literature professor Dr. Ibtihal Younis. This decision, in effect, forced him out of his homeland.
Forced divorce proceedings
In June (April according to another account[11]), the case moved beyond Cairo University when a group of Islamists led by the former state official, Muhammad Samida Abu Samada and including Shahin, filed a lawsuit before the Giza Lower Personal Status Court (family court) in Cairo demanding the nullification of the marriage between Abu Zayd and his wife, Dr. Ibtihal Younis, arguing that Islamic law forbids a marriage between a Muslim woman and an apostate. (The couple were not notified but heard about the case first in the tabloid newspapers.) The court case was filed through personal status law for divorce because in this area "the Islamic Shari'a is still in force" in Egyptian law.
Filing cases of hisbah against Muslims who violated a "right of God" and thus disturbed the public order was at one time the function of an official known as the muhtasib before that function had lapsed. The lawsuit by the Islamists resurrected hisbah and had the advantage that the plaintiffs did not have to be directly affected by a defendant's alleged wrongdoing. The hisbah principles are stated in Article 89 and 110 of the Regulations Governing Sharia Courts in Egypt but were amended in 1998, too late to help Abu Zayd
According to conservative Islamist scholars cited against Abu Zayd by the plaintiffs, the professor was an `ignorant proponent of the Enlightenment `who understand freedom of thought to mean freedom to lead the people to infidelity`. Another called Abu Zayd's work `cultural AIDS` and `intellectual terrorism.` (This critic was himself assailed as an apostate several years later for his own religious writings.)
Death threats
Shortly after the verdict was issued, a group of professors at al-Azhar University, the "theological centre of Egypt", issued a joint statement calling for Abu Zayd's execution. The Egyptian Islamic Jihad organization (which assassinated Egyptian president Anwar Sadat in 1981 and was engaged in a guerrilla war with the government at the time) issued a statement saying the professor should be killed for abandoning his Muslim faith. But calls for his death were not limited to insurgents. Even a newspaper published by the ruling political party of the ostensibly secular anti-fundamentalist regime, The Islamic Banner, declared that `execution` was a fitting penalty if Abu Zayd failed to repent. In addition Abu Zayd received threats in the mail, one promising "No matter how much the police tries to protect you, you will not get away.".
Dr. Nasr Abu Zayd was protected by the police, but belief in his apostasy was so widespread that even a police officer guarding his house referred to him as a "kafir" when asked about the situation by a neighbor of Abu Zayd.............
Works'
Abu Zayd has authored at least fourteen books in Arabic, including works on the Muʿtazila, Ibn Arabi, Al-Shafi'i, and Qurʿanic criticism, as well as books in English and articles in both languages.
Books in ArabicRationalism in Exegesis: A Study of the Problem of Metaphor in the Writing of the Mutazilites (Al-Ittijāh al-'Aqlī fī al-Tafsīr: Dirāsah fī Qadīyat al-Majāz fī al-Qur'ân 'inda al-Mu'tazilah), Beirut and Casablanca 1982, 4th edition 1998.
The Philosophy of Hermeneutics: A Study of Ibn al-'Arabī's Hermeneutics of the Qur'ān (Falsafat al-Ta'wīl: Dirâsah fi Ta'wīl al-Qur'ān 'inda Muḥyī al-Dīn ibn al-'Arabī), Beirut and Casablanca 1983, 4th edition, 1998.
The Systems of Signs: An Introduction to Semiotics ('Ilm al-'Alāmāt), co-editor, Cairo 1986.
The Concept of the Text: A Study of the Qur'anic Sciences (Mafhūm al-Naṣṣ: Dirāsah fī 'Ulūm al-Qur'an), Beirut and Cairo 1991, 5th edition 1998.
The Problematic of Reading and the Tools Of Interpretation (Ishkālīyāt al-Qirā'ah wa-Āliyāt al-Ta'wīl), Beirut and Casablanca 1995, 5th edition 1999.
Imam al-Shafi'i and the Foundation of the Ideology of the Middle Path [Wasatiyya] (al-Imâm al-Shāfi'ī wa-Ta'sīs al-Īdiyūlūjīyah al-Wasaṭīyah), Cairo, 3rd edition 1998.
Critique of Religious Discourse (Naqd al-Khiṭāb al-Dīnī), Cairo, 4th edition 1998.
Women in the Discourse of Crisis (al-Mar'ah fī Khiṭāb al-Azmah), Cairo 1995. See extract in English here : Dossier 17:
Women in the Discourse of Crisis, September 1997, Translated by Marlene Tadros,
https://web.archive.org/web/20060617084215/http://wluml.org/english/pubsfulltxt.shtml?cmd%5B87%5D=i-87-2642Thinking in the Time of Anathema (al-Tafkīr fī Zaman al-Takfīr), Cairo, 3ed edition 1998.
The Caliphate and the Authority of the People (al-Khilāfah wa-Sulṭat al-Ummah), Cairo, 1995.
Text, Authority, Truth (al-Naṣṣ, al-Sulṭah, al-Haqīqah), Beirut and Casablanca 1995, second edition 1997.
Circles of Fear: Reading the Discourse about Women (Dawā'ir al-Khawf: Qirā'ah fī Khiṭāb al-Mar'ah) Beirut and Casablanca 1999.
Discourse and Hermeneutics (al-Khiṭāb wa-al-Ta'wīl), Beirut and Casablanca 2000.
Thus Spoke Ibn al-'Arabī (Hākadhā Takallama Ibn al-'Arabī) The Egyptian National Organization for Books, Cairo 2002
.
Books in EnglishReformation of Islamic Thought: A Critical Historical Analysis. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2006.
Rethinking the Qur'an: Towards a Humanistic Hermeneutics. Utrecht: Humanistics University Press, 2004.
Voice of an Exile: Reflections on Islam (with Esther R. Nelson). New York: Praeger Publishers, 2004.
Articles in EnglishAl-Ghazali's Theory of Interpretation, Journal of Osaka University of Foreign Studies, Japan, 72, 1986, pp. 1–24.
The Perfect Man in the Qur'an: Textual Analysis, Journal of Osaka University of Foreign Studies, Japan, no. 73, 1988, pp. 111–133.
The Case of Abu-Zaid, Index on Censorship, London, 4, 1996, pp. 30–39.
Linguistic Exposition of God in the Qur'an in Fundamentalismus der Moderne, Christen und Muslime im Dialog,
Evangelische Akademie, Loccum, Germany, 75/94, 1996, pp. 97–110.
The Textuality of The Koran in Islam and Europe in Past and Present, NIAS (Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in The Humanities and Social Sciences), 1997, pp. 43 – 52.
Divine Attributes in the Qur'an: Some poetic aspects in Islam and Modernity, edited by John Cooper, Ronald Nettler and Mohammed Mahmoud, I.B. Tauris, London, 1998, pp. 120–211.
Inquisition Trial in Egypt, in Human Rights in Islam 15, RIMO, Maastricht 1998, pp. 47–55.
Islam, Muslims and Democracy, in Religion und Politik, Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, intere Studie Nr. 151/1998, pp. 103–12.
Literature and Heresy–Literature and Justice: The Critical Potential of Enlightened religion in Literatur, Menschenrechte in Islamischen Gesellschaften und Staaten, Evangelische Akademie Loccum 22/96, 1998, pp. 18–32.
The Concept of Human Rights, the Process of Modernization and the Politics of Western Domination, in Politik und Gesellschaft: International Politics and Society, Herausgegeben von der Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, 4/1998, pp. 434–437.
The Modernization of Islam or the Islamization of Modernity, in Cosmopolitanism, Identity and Authenticity in the Middle East, ed. Roel Meijer, Curzon Press, England 1999,pp 71–86.
Islamic Cosmology and Qur'anic Exegesis, in Religion Wandel der Kosmologien, edited by Dieter Zeller, Sonderdruck 1999, pp. 217–230.
The Sectarian and the Renaissance Discourse, translated and introduced by Mona Mikhail, ALIF, Journal of Comparative Poetics, The American University of Cairo, no 19, 1999, pp. 203–222
The Image of Europe in Modern Egyptian Narrative, in Colonizer and Colonized, Eds. Theo D'haen and Patricia Krüs, Rodopi, Amsterdam-Atlanta 2000, vol. 2, pp. 627–643.
The Qur'an: God and Man in Communication: Inaugural Lecture for the Cleveringa Chair at Leiden University (November 27, 2000)
http://www.let.leidenuniv.nl/forum/01_1/onderzoek/2.htmThe Qur'anic Concept of Justice, Polylog, forum for Intercultural Philosophizing', No. 3 (June 2001): Website address:
http://www.univie.ac.at/wigip/ http://www.polylog.org/them/2.1/fcs8-en.htmThe Qur'an, Islam and Muhammad, Reset-Dialogues on Civilizations, website address :
http://www.resetdoc.org/story/00000022039Heaven, Which Way? Al-Ahram Weekly, issue No. 603.
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2002/603/sc16-17.htmThe Dilemma of the Literary Approach to the Qur'an, ALIF, Journal of Comparative Poetics, the American University Cairo (AUC), No. 23, Literature and the Sacred, 2003, pp. 8–47.
Spricht Gott nur Arabisch? (Does God Speak Arabic?), in Michael Thumann (ed), Der Islam und der Westen, Berliner Taschenbuch Verlag, Berlin 2003, pp. 117–126.
Entries in the Encyclopædia of the Qur'ān, Brill, Leiden-Boston-Köln:
Arrogance, Vol. I (2001), pp. 158–161.
Everyday Life: Qur'an In, Vol. II (2002), pp. 80–97.
Illness and Health, Vol. II (2002), pp. 501–502.
Intention, Vol. II (2002), pp. 549–551.
Oppression, Vol III (2003), pp. 583–584.
Islam in Europe/Europe Against Islam! Europe, Open Your Eyes, in: Robertson-von Trotha, Caroline Y. (ed.): Europe: Insights from the Outside (= Kulturwissenschaft interdisziplinär/Interdisciplinary Studies on Culture and Society, Vol. 5), Baden-Baden 2011, pp. 67–73.
Book reviews in EnglishBeyond The Written Words: Oral Aspects of Scripture in the History of Religion by William A. Graham, Die Welt des Islam, E.J. Brill, Leiden, 1995, 35, 1, pp. 150–152.
Muslims, Jews and Pagans: Studies on Early Islamic Medina, by Micheal Lecker, Bibliotheca Orientalis LV No. 1 / 2, January–April 1998, Column 275–8.
Paradise Lost: Reflections on the Struggle for Authenticity in the Middle East by C.A.O. van Nieuwenhuijze, Bibliotheca Orientalis LVI No. 3/4, May–August 1999, Column 510–513.
Image of the Prophet Muhammad in the West, A Study of Muir, Margoliouth and Watt, by Jabal Muhammad Buaben, Bibliotheca Orientalis LVI No. 3/4, May–August 1999, Column 518–522.
Reforming the Muslim World, by M.A. Shoudhury, Biblitheca Orientalis, LV11 No.1/2, January–April 2000 columns 221–224.
Islamic Banking and Interest: a study of the Prohibition of Riba and its Contemporary Interpretation by Abdullad Saeed, Bibliotheca Orientalis, LV11 No. 5/6, September–December 2000 column 736–739.
and NONE OF THESE PROFESSORS COME CLOSER TO WHAT Dr. Zayd contributed in understanding Islam and origins of Islam.,,
oh well life goes on...
Topic: Qur'anic studies today