Reading the Qur'an in the Twenty-first Century: A Contextualist Approach, by Abdullah Saeed (London & New York: Routledge, 2013), vi+196 pp., ISBN: 978-0-415-67750-9, £85.00 (hb)

Abstract

linguistic and macro context (p. 5). He divides the macro-context into categories. The macro context is the context during the period in which the Qur?an was revealed. The macro context includes issues such as marriage, divorce, inheritance, the positions of men and women in society, slaves and slavery, and the status of non-Muslims in Muslim societies . Such texts are directly related to the context in which the Qur?an descended . The macro context also signifies conditions during the lifetime of the exegete, as well as social functions and contemporary religious and cultural norms. Pursuant to the contextualist approach, it is appropriate to primarily comprehend and explain the provisions of the Qur?an on its own historical ground, before interpreting the actual value of these provisions in today's world by leaning on the original, determinate meaning