Why Islamic Thought Needs a Hermeneutical Revolution

 

Why Islamic Thought Needs a Hermeneutical Revolution

By Adis Duderija

In an age where religious discourse is often reduced to soundbites, legalism, or ideological posturing, the edited volume Philosophical Hermeneutics and Islamic Thought (Springer, 2022) offers a bold and necessary intervention. It argues that the future of Islamic thought hinges not on new rulings or apologetics, but on a deeper rethinking of what it means to interpret—indeed, to understand—within a living tradition.

This is not merely a call to apply Western hermeneutics to Islamic texts. Rather, the volume stages a two-way conversation: Islamic intellectual traditions are not passive recipients of European theory but active interlocutors capable of reshaping the very horizons of hermeneutics itself. The result is a rich, multi-vocal collection that spans classical philosophy, Sufism, political theology, and contemporary reformist thought.

At its heart lies a simple yet profound insight: interpretation is not a technical exercise in decoding texts. It is an existential, communal, and metaphysical act. Whether through Avicenna’s poetics, Ibn ʿArabī’s concept of ḥayra (perplexity), or Shabestari’s historically aware Qur’anic hermeneutics, the contributors show that understanding is a way of being that is rooted in tradition, but open to transformation.

This shift has urgent implications. In a time when Islamic legal discourse often struggles to address modern ethical and social realities, the volume’s emphasis on epistemic humility, interpretive openness, and metaphysical depth is a welcome corrective. It challenges both the rigidity of textual literalism and the shallowness of politicised theology. As Syed Mustafa Ali warns, when ontology is reduced to ideology, theology becomes thin—and so does our humanity.

The volume’s concluding provocation, Sylvain Camilleri’s call for a “devilish hermeneutics,” is especially striking. It urges us to resist the comfort of closure and embrace the undecidability that has always haunted sacred texts. This is not relativism. It is a deeper fidelity to the tradition—one that remembers its own internal debates, counter-readings, and interpretive risks.

As a scholar of Islamic thought, I believe two tasks are now urgent. First, we must re-embed hermeneutics in philosophical anthropology and metaphysics. What we think a human being is shapes what meanings we can responsibly derive from scripture. Second, we must engage more deeply with process-relational philosophy, where becoming, relation, and value are not afterthoughts but ontological foundations. This is why I have launched a book series on Islam and Process-Relational Thought—to foster precisely this kind of cross-pollination.

Philosophical Hermeneutics and Islamic Thought is not just a book. It is a manifesto for a more honest, rigorous, and spiritually generative Islamic intellectual future. It deserves to be read widely—not only by scholars of Islam, but by anyone who believes that interpretation is a sacred responsibility.