ABSTRACT
Islam is a scriptural religion par excellence whose primary reference point is the Quran – according to the Islamic tradition, the collection of revelations that Muhammad received during his prophetic career from around 610 CE until his death in 632 CE. The Quran is full of references and allusions to particular figures, events and practices without providing further detail, assuming that the reader is familiar with them. This chapter introduces exegetical approaches to the Quran of Muslim modernists, Islamists, liberal Muslims and Muslim feminists in the last 150 years. In order to lay the intellectual groundwork for such a socio-political position of Indian Muslims during the British Raj, Sayyid Ahmad Khan engaged in a modernist reinterpretation of Islam which included a Quran commentary. Muhammad Abduh's interpretation of the Quranic verses dealing with the question of polygamy illustrates both his accessible style and his approach to reinterpreting the Quran.
