Bold Transmutations: Rereading Hasan Hanafi's Early Writings on Fiqh
Issued Date: 19 Oct 2008
Abstract
Following Ebrahim Moosa‟s suggestion regarding fresh approaches to the study of religion by relying on other scholarly specializations such as Translation Studies, this article attempts to apply the achievements made in that relatively new field of academic inquiry to the Egyptian philosopher Hasan Hanafi‟s contributions to the radical rereading of uūl al-fiqh. Refracting Hanafi‟s first publication, Les méthodes d‘exégèse, through notions and concepts developed in Translation Studies will demonstrate the boldness of Hanafi‟s innovations. Such an alternative assessment of this early work will also evince that the theoretical foundations for his better-known writings from the 1980s, on “Leftist Islam” and the ambitious “heritage and renewal” project, can already be discerned in this text from the 1960s.