[O]The opening paragraphs of Hind's paper draw attention to the following points: (1) The all-encompassing nature of the qur’anic discourse. Its scope encompasses (i) the human faculty of perception in all its dimensions, cognitive, emotive or affective, (and ‘symbolic’?) . It speaks to the human mind through the sum total of human faculties of perceiving, conceiving, grasping, ascertaining, discerning, apprehending and comprehending, understanding and ...judging. So that at any specific level of emphasis, the sum total of other faculties are stimulated, alerted, and engaged into attentiveness. In this sense, it constitutes an incisive, percolating, and evocative discourse.

 

This calls to mind the significance of some of the rituals associated with how to approach the qur’an, or how to launch your journey into its universe: the injunction to preface with the formulaic “in allah I take refuge from the al shaitan al rajeem” in anticipation of beginning the beguiding audience with “bismillah ar rahman ar rahim” - For this not only assures me a dedicated and undistracted reading, but it seals me off from the incursions of the devious and the devilish, and opens up, or sharpens, my dispositions to receive the message, and perceive the light, the guidance that is sought in the presence of the moment. In other words, it alerts us to the premises, or conditions and requisites of the ‘reading’ in view, and makes us equally aware of the double fact that the light of the divine is never unmediated, but always comes through a filter: beginning with the filter instantiated in the reader as active subject. And equally sensitizing us to the fact that a filter calls for its own requisites to adjust its function: ie. It needs to be cleaned, as part of attuning the faculties to responding to their call. Here then, from the perspective of the reading, the active-subject, we encounter the first of the many facets of the all-encompassing nature of the qur’anic discourse.

 

Next, (ii) we come to the situation, or the context, of the discourse. At any given moment of the encounter, the subject is called to an audience round a topic, that constitutes the object of the discourse. The situation changes, and with it the scope of the discourse. And every situation is constituted of a complexity of forces and is acted through a complex dynamic. It is of the nature of the encompassing discourse to evoke nuances of shades of that complexity and multifacetedness: tuning into its intangibles as much as in its concrete and formal attributes and elements. It trains us into an awareness of what might be situation specific, and what may be more general, or situation generic: and it is the situation generic that evokes the universality of the qur’anic discourse, both in addressing the formal or tangibles of the situation, and in evoking aspects of the intangible that inhere in it, whether at the moral, spiritual, psychological, or symbolic contingents.

 

In this sense she has chosen well in drawing attention to the verses quoted in surahs al Zumur(:23), al Nisa-’ (8), & al Sajda. (6-9).

 

 

 

 

 

# However, one should also draw attention to the fact that the qur’anic discourse is not simply engaged in ‘directing’ or guiding and instructing human conduct by way of a ‘rule making’ capacity; but, we should equally, and even more, be aware of the manner in which this discourse shapes our very perceptions and faculties: its impact on our conduct is not confined to instructing us in how to go about outcomes, and deal with situations, but primarily, the uniqueness in the guidance that flows from revelation, is in its ability to engage our faculties at the source: such that it attunes our very perceptions, and our faculties of understanding and judging, as well as attuning our will unto its chosen course.

 

 

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[0] This deals with cultural bearings in a tawhidi projection: namely the dialectic that propels the vertical and horizontal axes in charting the individual and collective orientations in the ummah. It tells us (i) that in this episteme, the socio-ethical, the psycho-moral, is grounded in an ontic relationship that draws on belief and its consequences for the human-God relationship. And that (ii) for every such attribute on the vertical axis, there corresponds an equivalent that impacts the inter-human, or the horizontal bearings in its orbit. This postulate and procedure could provide us with a concrete measure for the ‘esoterics’ or the inner

dimensions that flow from the ‘faith-iman’ act and profession. Then too, such a central concept as ‘taqwa’ could be given some tangible measure, and used for analytical purposes. The implications that are summed up at the end of the next paragraph, namely that the sum total of human categories disliked of Allah in

consequence of their specifically demeaning type of conduct, coincide with categories and actions that are morally detrimental to the wellbeing of the community, denying of the spirit and purpose of’umran. We are indebted to a vision of socialized spirituality’, or a socio-moral ethos that is rooted in the spiritual realm.

 

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Agency, Morality & Responsibility as a qualifying frame for rethinking human action and relationships, including Pairing in Marriage.

 

The entire paragraph here resonates with my approach in my 1997 AAA paper on Sexuality and Spirituality in Islam: Normative Dimensions! Its Arabic formulation though recalls style, wording and approach of Dr. Taha. I wonder what are is the background literature you consulted in preparing for this paper...At the

same time, the passage is certainly a useful reminder on the sources to include in drafting the conceptual matrix for an inquiry into women and the qur’an...

 

 

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[0]Pairing as cosmic principle In addition to presenting human pairing as an affirmation and projection of a universal principle that constitutes creation in all its variable categories, there is something about the manner in which human pairing, and the institution of marriage, is embedded in the cosmic order. It is this embeddedness that contributes to making us humans feel at home in the universe: it institutionalizes the

ligaments of “belonging” in a manner that brings out the spiritual and the moral or the intangible, and can therefore reinforce your concept of a vital moral-spiritual space and dimension in which human interactions and institutions, in this case marriage as the arch pairing centered human institution, can flourish.

 

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Calling a Spade a Spade You need to be wary of this fragmentation: the tendency to break down and individualize relationships and interrelations without regard to the nuclear or framing entities that lend

them coherence: eg - referring to women and marriage here while marginalizing the fundamental group unit against which the web of relations is addressed (ie- the family as precisely defined through that web of

relations and interactions that are the subject of regulation and valorization. ) Again, to refer to a network of ‘human relations’ without regard to the purpose and ends against which the normative injunctions are

projected: namely: ‘community building’ - Again, language and terminology is significant: you don’t refer to ummat al Muslimeen, which relativizes and distantiates: while the qur’anic discourse takes this

community for a standard against which it establishes its founding discourses with regards to kinship and community: so we speak of “al ummah” -- as the focus for group formation and identification in an internal discourse. Note too that this ayah you quote here establishing the parameters of ihsan and ma’ruf across a web of diverse categories and relations is actually articulating the fundaments of solidarity in the moral

community. The Moral Community is defined as the Compassionate Community.

 

Here, I believe, is ample material for a Muslim ‘feminist’ sensibility that can contribute to an Ethic of Care and Responsibility!

(Or. Is it more of the One-sided Paradigm that has afflicted our turath?)

 In this aspect as well as in many others, we should be aware of the limitations of habit and convention that have constrained the manner in which we engage the qur’an... We should for example, be aware of the impact of a paradigm of Muslim learning that has been largely conditioned by the fiqhi mindset, and has inclined us to see religion in terms of its ‘regulatory’ or ‘disciplinary’ consequences for patterning our actions. Not in terms of a spiritual and foundational enlightenment that encompasses and expands our life, and its life-enabling senses. Only in the latter sense can religion serve its ennobling and uplifting momentum and end in our existence: only then, can it go beyond the formalities of ruling our outer lives, our ‘social’ being, to inspiring our being, whole and entire, relating and integrating the multiple facets of our existence as the noblest species that has been privileged through creation.

Hence, in rethinking the qur’anic discourse and in reconstituting the parameters of its engagement, we should be aware of the benevolent and multidimensional aspect of divine guidance to humans in the here-and-now, in such a way that we may rise up to the challenge of the nobility or takrim with which we as a species have been honored.

  

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Further Illustrations of the all encompassing nature of the qur'anic discourse. Beyond setting the terms of a trust, it socializes in the roles and conditions a process and interaction.

 

[01 Rather, ...beyond the morality of dealing with the financial aspect of a trust, the morale of the injunction entails a redefinition of the nature and parameters of the role of trustee in its entirety: it draws attention to a role and a relationship that continue through a certain period, a timed period, and that entails a certain type of interaction that includes, but does not stop at the wealth of the orphan or trustee, or at the material charge in trust. The warden is expected to conduct his trust in the spirit of mentorship and care for the moral and character development of his ward. The key terms in exploring this relationship lie in ‘ibtalu’ and ‘anastum’ - with the first engaging the physical development of the charge, his or her physical process of growing up and maturing into adulthood, qualified by their aptitude for marriage. The other engages the moral and rational or mental dimensions of maturing into adulthood by signaling an aptitude for exercising sound judgement. In both instances, the guiding discourse is defining the course of a relationship within the parameters of enjoined responsibility. The grounding consciousness for such remains ultimate and immediate as through all the moral and ethical discourse in the quran: it draws on a God-centeredness that hinges in this instance on the attribute of the all pervasive Reckoner.

 

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On the limits of Legislation - Also, the need to distinguish the source from its tributes or Output.

 

The point lies in the instrumentality of the law - the fact that the rational targets the formal and procedural, and addresses the specific. Legal justice is partly contingent on the formulation of the law, and the law is designed to redress or target observed conduct, not its ethos - As distinct from positivist or canon law, shari’ah targets an act and its wherewithal including intent, mode and ends. So, you need not be tentative about the limits of the law, for these inhere in the premise of legality.

 

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[OlAgain, the point is not the limits of human perception, or an intrinsic human fallibility, but the limits are in the nature of a task! So far, it would seem that you are writing with the legal / fiqhi paradigm in mind, and that you are not able to give yourself wholly to engaging the qur’anic text I discourse in its own terms. This is partly due to the absence of the relevant matrix - or the ‘manzuma’ against which you might pursue your thematic excursions.