Postmodernism and Islam

Postmodernism and Islam
Postmodernism questions the modernist reliance on reason as the basis of certainty, just as modernism questioned the traditional or premodern reliance on revelation. Rejecting neither revelation as such, nor the validity of human reason, postmodernism rejects instead the notion that any human being or group is privileged with the ability to interpret revelation or nature authoritatively for all time and circumstances. 

Postmodernists analyze all texts in terms of their socioeconomic, political, and cultural contexts and assert that all readings are interpretations likewise contextualized and therefore subject to reinterpretation. Contemporary Muslim thinkers using postmodernist theories and methods of interpretation (hermeneutics) characteristically question traditional interpretations of religious teaching, recognizing their relevance to certain historical contexts but seeking interpretations of eternal truths more suitable to changing contemporary realities. This hermeneutic is often identified with the Islamic legal reasoning process known as ijtihad.