Equal before Allah, unequal before the prophet? Ongoing discourse on matn criticism and its influence on feminist Muslim thought [Conference Abstract]

Abstract

İn recent years, the question of whether Müslim scholars critically evaluated mutun has sparked considerable scholarly interest, leading to a vigorous debate vvithin Islamic studies. Pioneering orientalists like Goldziher, Schacht, and Juynboll argued that early muhaddithin did not critically engage vvith mutun, focusing instead on rigorous scrutiny of asonid. Contemporary Müslim academics, such as Muştafâ al-Sibâ'i, Misfir al-Dumayni, and Tâhir al-Jawâbi, counterthis narrative by asserting that matn criticism has alvvays been integral to text verification in Islamic history. This perspective is further supported by Western scholars like Jonathan Brovvn, vvho discovered nevv data on early matn criticism. Other researchers have revisited the claims of early muhaddithin engaging in matn criticism, particularly after Mu’taz al-Khatib's doctoral research suggested that matn criticism was mainly the domain of the uşüliyyün. Conversely, Hatim al-'Awni argued that the methodologies of muhaddithin and uşüliyyün are complementary ratherthan opposing. İn the realm of Feminist Müslim thought, such divergent vievvs are often deemed to have limited influence. Feminist Müslim thinkers underscore a substantial lacuna in matn criticism, advocating for innovative approaches such as the tawhid\c paradigm and the ûur'anic-based value analysis. İn orderto provide a more nuanced analysis, this paper proposes a nevv categorization ot matn criticism, distinguishing betvveen /snöd-based matn criticism and text-based matn criticism. Utilising a qualitative research methodology, it elucidatesthat, although nevv evidence has been uncovered from the genre of "ılal and mowdü'ât, it is insufficientto conclusively affirm that matn criticism was employed as a methodology. The latter part explores the impact of classical matn criticism methodologies on contemporary feminist Müslim thought, analysing vvorksthe likes ofAmina Wadud, Riffat Hassan, HidayetTuksal. Significantly, this paper representsthe inaugural scholarly effort to comprehensively delineate and juxtapose contrasting perspectives on matn criticism, offering a unique contribution to the ongoing discourse.