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THE HERMENEUTICS OF INTER‐FAITH RELATIONS: RETRIEVING MODERATION AND PLURALISM AS UNIVERSAL PRINCIPLES IN QUR'ANIC EXEGESES
Author(s) -
Afsaruddin Asma
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
journal of religious ethics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.306
H-Index - 20
eISSN - 1467-9795
pISSN - 0384-9694
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9795.2009.00389.x
Subject(s) - faith , pluralism (philosophy) , righteousness , moderation , theology , religious studies , muslim community , sociology , philosophy , islam , epistemology , social psychology , psychology
This article discusses the exegeses of two Qur'anic verses: Qur'an 2:143, which describes righteous Muslims as constituting a “middle/moderate community” ( umma wasat ) and Qur'an 5:66, which similarly describes righteous Jews and Christians as constituting a “balanced/moderate community” ( umma muqtasida ). Taken together, these verses clearly suggest that it is subscription to some common standard of righteousness and ethical conduct that determines the salvific nature of a religious community and not the denominational label it chooses to wear. Such a perspective offers the possibility of formulating universal principles of ethical and moral conduct, which may contribute to the formation of a genuinely pluralist global society today. Through a close study of Qur'anic exegeses of these verses from the late first/seventh century to modern times, I retrieve some of the most prevalent Muslim understandings of “moderation” through time and dwell on their contemporary implications.