The Perplexity of a Muslim Woman (Paperback)

Olfa Youssef

ISBN 10: 1498541712 / ISBN 13: 9781498541718

Published by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, Lanham, MD, 2018

About this Item

Paperback. Using the methodology of modern scholars in the fields of Arabic lexicography, linguistics, and psychoanalysis, Tunisian feminist scholar Olfa Youssef investigates the rulings about inheritance, marriage, and homosexuality in the Quranic text itself and compares them with the interpretations provided by male Muslim theologians and legal scholars from medieval times to the present. In this book, she makes five central arguments: (1) There is a discrepancy between the layered signification in the Quranic text itself and the sutured explanations by religious scholars which have been enacted into law in many Muslim countries today; (2) the plurality of meanings is the quintessential essence of the Quran as evidenced in the absence of any sura over which there was unanimous agreement among Muslim scholars; (3) when male privilege was at stake, male legal scholars, to protect their own interests, ignored the divine text and based their rulings on human consensus; (4) Muslim medieval views on gender and homosexuality were more tolerant than contemporary ones; and finally (5), preferring indetermination and perplexity over the finality and certainties found in the judgements of male theologians, Youssef argues that only God knows the Qurans true meaning. Her job as a Muslim female scholar is only to raise questions over those human interpretations that many Muslim societies mistake for divine will. Olfa Youssef investigates the rulings about inheritance, marriage, and homosexuality in the Quranic text itself and compares them with the androcentric interpretations provided by male Muslim theologians and legal scholars from medieval times to the present, which today inform the body of the sharia law in the Muslim world. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9781498541718

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Perplexity of a Muslim Woman (Paperback)
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, Lanham, MD
• Publication Date: 2018
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1498541712
• ISBN 13: 9781498541718
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

Using the methodology of modern scholars in the fields of Arabic lexicography, linguistics, and psychoanalysis, Tunisian feminist scholar Olfa Youssef investigates the rulings about inheritance, marriage, and homosexuality in the Qur’anic text itself and compares them with the interpretations provided by male Muslim theologians and legal scholars from medieval times to the present. In this book, she makes five central arguments: (1) There is a discrepancy between the layered signification in the Qur’anic text itself and the sutured explanations by religious scholars which have been enacted into law in many Muslim countries today; (2) the plurality of meanings is the quintessential essence of the Qur’an as evidenced in the absence of any sura over which there was unanimous agreement among Muslim scholars; (3) when male privilege was at stake, male legal scholars, to protect their own interests, ignored the divine text and based their rulings on human consensus; (4) Muslim medieval views on gender and homosexuality were more tolerant than contemporary ones; and finally (5), preferring indetermination and perplexity over the finality and certainties found in the judgements of male theologians, Youssef argues that only God knows the Qur’an’s true meaning. Her job as a Muslim female scholar is only to raise questions over those human interpretations that many Muslim societies mistake for divine will.

About the Author

Olfa Youssef is distinguished professor of Arabic, gender studies, and applied Islamology at the University of Manouba.

Lamia Benyoussef (translator) is assistant professor in Arabic studies in the Department of Modern Foreign Languages at Birmingham-Southern College.