Abstract
An increasing amount of tafsīr literature has been published during the past few decades in Muslim minority countries such as the United States and South Africa. This paper focuses on some of the interpretations of the Qur’ān that are written in English by contemporary authors of Muslim minority origin. These authors include Amina Wadud, a female African- American convert who wrote Qur’an and Woman: Rereading the Sacred Text from a Woman’s Perspective; Farid Esack, a male South African who studied in Pakistan and wrote Qur’ān, Liberation & Pluralism: An Islamic Perspective of Interreligious Solidarity against Oppression; and Bilal Philips, a male convert to Islam who is Canadian with Jamaican origins, has written commentaries on some chapters of the Qur’ān, mainly based in Gulf countries such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.This survey focuses on how these writers consider the authority of the mufassir, someone who interprets the scripture, in the framework of history of tafsīr from the classical period onward. This study will begin by discussing the traditional theory of the authority of the mufassir in the field of ‘Ulūm al-Qur’ān, in both Arabic and English. It will go on to investigate the attitudes of these three mufassirs regarding the authority of the status of a mufassir, by examining issues of “identity” and “authority.” I will also focus on the three authors’ interpretations of Q.49:13, which concerns taqwā and pluralism. Based on the discussion of the issues of identity and authority, the view will also consider the transformation of the mufassir in Muslim society in this era of globalization, focusing on their common use of ra’y, or personal opinion, in their tafsīr works, although the ‘ulamā’ have traditionally rejected this as a method of interpreting the Qur’ān.
