Hermeneutics: Understanding Verses from their Rootedness Located in Time and Place

Question: Asalaam Alakum brother Insha Allah Ramadan is going well for you and your family. I
enjoyed seeing the photos of the Iftar that you shared. I'm looking for some guidance, how do we
explain this verse from the Quran to a non Muslim who believes that Islam is violent ? How do you
explain this to a non Muslim ? and kill them wherever you overtake them and expel them from
wherever they have expelled you' or theres' 'then seize them and kill them wherever you find them
and take not any ally or helper'
Answer: When we approach any text, we must keep in mind our approach to it. How do we
come to the text, are we approaching a text / scripture through the lens of preconceived ideas
(here in Britain with non-Muslims, they are approaching the Qur'an with pre-conceived notions
they have garnered - unfortunately - from negative media coverage on Islam.
So the question really is 'how one ought to approach a text' and the name given to this is
'hermeneutics '. We have some interesting academics of this science such as Gadamer,
Schleiermacher, Thiselton and Smith etc. I'm currently getting carried away with this.... back to the
point of Hermenuetics, to understand the verses you've mentioned above I believe it is essential to
read this text from the following hermeneutical approach:
The Rootedness of Texts Located in Time and Place Hence, just to give an example of the
above, there are two beliefs mentioned in the Qur'an about Christians and Jews. The Qur'an's
conception of the Trinity includes, Father, Son and Mary. Here Christians may argue that this is not
true as we believe the Trinity to include 'Father, Son and Holy Spirit not Mary. However, when we
approach the Qur'an from the hermeneutics of The Rootedness of this particular verse as located
in Time and Place we come to the conclusion that the Qur'an in this verse is not speaking to the
entire world population of Christians in all times and places rather here the Qur'an is speaking to
directly certain specific Christian denominations prevalent in the Hijaz (Arabia) during the time of
the Prophet.
Similarly a verse in the Qur'an shuns the Jewish belief that 'Uzair (Ezra) is the Son of God'. Now if we
mention this to Jews today they will certainly and quite rightly argue against it. But again how do
we approach this text? with 'rootedness in time and place'. There were certain Jewish tribes in
Arabia that believed so. Christians and Jews are not monolithic; they are very much diverse and
always have been over time hence these verses cannot generalised and be quoted out of
context.
Now, finally back to the Verse Kill them wherever you overtake them (2:191). We approach this
verse from its very specific rootedness in time and place. From a very simple look at just Yusuf Ali's
translation notes it states...
This passage is illustrated by the events that happened at Hudaibiya in the sixth year of the Hijra,
though it is not clear that it was revealed on that occasion. The Muslims were by this time a strong
and influential community. many of them were exiles from Mecca, where the Pagans had
established an intolerant autocracy, persecuting Muslims, preventing them from visiting their
homes, and even keeping them out by force from performing the Pilgrimage during the universally
recognised period of truce. This was intolerance, oppression, and autocracy to the last degree,
and the mere readiness of the Muslims to enforce their rights as Arab citizens resulted without
bloodshed in an agreement which the Muslims faithfully observed.
Hence, this verse (2:191) is very much referring to a specific time and place as stated above and
cannot there for be applied out of context. One cannot transform a ruling or statement which is
'Khaas' (Specific) into 'Aam' (generalised).
So what happens with non-Muslims approaching the verse is that they approach it either 'literally'
as misguided groups such as ISIS do or come to the text with preconceived notions from the
media and end up reading 'into' the texts as opposed to reading from the text.
I Hope that makes some sense, you can always clarify this on Sunday (today) insha'Allah

Hamid Mahmood
FEC Academy