The Role of Reason and Rationality in ‘The Message of the Quran

The paper will investigate the role of reason and rationality in the exegesis by Muhammad Asad (d. 1992), a prominent Muslim scholar of the 20th century. The tafsir, which addresses the Western intellectual audience, is considered by many to be among the best in the English language. The work inculcates traditional exegesis and traditional hermeneutics, producing a contemporary interpretation. His work is controversial – well received in academia and attributed to ingenious scholarship; criticised by conservative Muslims for alleged neo-rationalistic tendencies. The study of Muhammad Asad’s method is crucial to understanding his modern worldviews and the underlying pattern of scientific and rational thought grounded in his work, which reflected the renewal project of Islam advocated by Shaykh Muhammad Abduh and Sayid Muhammad Rashid Rida in Tafsir al-Manar.