Nasr Abu Zayd
| Nasr Abu Zayd | |
|---|---|
| Native name | نصر حامد أبو زيد |
| Born |
July 10, 1943 Tanta, Egypt |
| Died | July 5, 2010 (aged 66) Cairo, Egypt |
Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd (Arabic: نصر حامد أبو زيد, IPA: [ˈnɑsˤɾe ˈħæːmed aboˈzeːd]; also Abu Zaid or Abu Zeid; July 10, 1943 – July 5, 2010) was an Egyptian Qur'anic thinker, author, academic and one of the leading liberal theologians in Islam. He is famous for his project of a humanistic Qur'anic hermeneutics, which "challenged mainstream views" on the Qur'an sparking "controversy and debate." While not denying that the Qur'an was of divine origin, Zayd argued that it was a "cultural product" that had to be read in the context of the language and culture of seventh century Arabs, and could be interpreted in more than one way. He also criticized the use of religion to exert political power. In 1995 an Egyptian Sharia court declared him an apostate, this led to threats of death and his fleeing Egypt several week later. (He later "quietly" returned to Egypt where he died.)
Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd was born in Quhafa, a small village some 120 km from Cairo, near Tanta, Egypt on July 10, 1943. Abu Zayd he went through a traditional religious school system and was a Qāriʾ (could recites the Qur'an with the proper rules of recitation) and a Hafiz (had memorized the Quran completely) from a young age. At the age of 12, Abu Zayd was imprisoned for allegedly sympathising with the Muslim Brotherhood. He was also influenced by the writings of Muslim Brotherhood revolutionary Islamist Sayyid Qutb, who was executed by the Egyptian state in 1966, but moved away from the ideas of the Brethren and Qutb as he grew older. After receiving technical training he worked for the National Communications Organization in Cairo. At the same time, he started studying at Cairo University, where he obtained his BA degree in Arabic Studies (1972), and later his MA (1977) and PhD degrees (1981) in Islamic Studies, with works concerning the interpretation of the Qur'an. In 1982, he joined the faculty of the Department of Arabic Language and Literature at Cairo University as an assistant professor. He became an associate professor there in 1987. From 1985 to 1989, he worked as a visiting lecturer at Osaka University in Japan.
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