FREE Islamic Lecture in Singapore!
The Contextual Qur'an: Understanding Sacred Texts
Explore how the Qur’an can be contextualized historically, examining its interpretation and application by Islamic scholars, and the foundational principles shaping juristic discussions and diverse schools of law.
- Tuesday, 12 November 2024
- 8pm
- Professor Abdullah Saeed
- SimplyIslam, 152 Still Road
Deepen Your Understanding and Love for the Quran Today
This session will explore the different ways by which the Quran can be contextualised. Introducing a historical approach to contextualise the sacred text, Professor Abdullah Saeed will share how Quranic texts have been understood, interpreted, and applied by scholars and jurists within the Islamic scholarly traditions. These lay bare the basic principles and assumptions underpinning Quranic interpretation as Muslims, in classical and contemporary times, make sense of the world in which they live. It will become clear that these principles and assumptions often form the textual basis for key areas of focus in juristic discussions, the similarities and differences between various schools of law, and juristic understandings of how rules should be applied by the state and observed by Muslims in society.
About Professor Abdullah Saeed
Professor Saeed is the Sultan of Oman Professor of Arab and Islamic Studies (since 2004), the Director of the National Centre for Contemporary Islamic Studies and the Convenor of Islamic Studies at the University of Melbourne, Australia. He is an active researcher, focusing on one of the most important issues in Islamic thought today: the negotiation of text and context, ijtihad and interpretation. In addition to his strong research focus, Professor Saeed also teaches Islamic studies at undergraduate and postgraduate levels and supervise postgraduate students. Professor Saeed is also Advisor to the Studies in Interreligious Relations in Plural Societies (SRP) Programme at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Singapore.
He has authored and edited numerous works. His recent publications include:
– Human Rights and Islam: An Introduction to Key Debates between Islamic Law and International Human Rights Law (2018)
– Reading the Qur’an in the Twenty-First Century: Towards a Contextualist Approach, Routledge, 2014, Islam and Human Rights (2012)
– Islamic Political Thought and Governance (2010)
– The Qur’an: an introduction (2008)
– Islamic Thought: an introduction (2006)
– Interpreting the Qur’an: Towards a Contemporary Approach (2006)
and many others