ABSTRACT
The chapter elaborates one of the central arguments of this book. It contends that studying modern Qur’an commentaries or investigating particular Qur’an projects are not merely significant for the field of Qur’anic studies. It posits that by studying modern Muslim thought on the Qur’an, one can see the difference between how Muslim scholars identified themselves in relation to the past intellectual tradition and how these scholars and their works are theorized in the secular academy, for example, in terms of typologies like traditionalists and modernists. Our study of modern Qur’anic thought challenges these theorizations, which are not only inadequate in their explanatory potential but, in fact, impede our understanding of modern Islam.
