Negotiative Hermeneutics as a Framework for Interpreting Religious Arabic Texts: Reconstructing Khaled M. Abou El Fadl's Perspective

Abstract

This study examines Khaled M. Abou El Fadl’s negotiated hermeneutics in relation to the interpretive character of Arabic religious texts. Previous studies have focused primarily on Islamic law, religious authority, and the interpretation of the Qur’an and Hadith, while the relationship between negotiated hermeneutics and the linguistic and interpretive characteristics of Arabic religious texts has received relatively limited attention. This study employs a literature-based method using a conceptual approach and a descriptive-analytical framework, focusing primarily on an analysis of Speaking in God’s Name: Islamic Law, Authority and Women and other relevant scholarly literature. The findings indicate that negotiated hermeneutics can be reconstructed as a conceptual framework for explaining the openness of meaning in Arabic religious texts. This openness is associated with linguistic complexity, the historicity of texts, and the reader’s involvement in the construction of meaning. The study makes a theoretical contribution by connecting this interpretive openness with dialogical, contextual, and ethical principles while preserving textual authority against tendencies toward authoritarianism and interpretive relativism.