Change Through Continuity: A Case Study of Q. 4:34 in Ibn ʿĀshūr's al-Taḥrīr wa'l-tanwīr

In the context of ruptures and continuities in modern Qur'anic exegesis, this article brings attention to a modern tafsīr that has received scant attention in western scholarship, Muḥammad al-Ṭāhir b. ʿĀshūr's al-Taḥrīr wa'l-tanwīr . The significance of his tafsīr lies in its employment of premodern, philological hermeneutics to reach new interpretations, representing a unique approach in modern typologies of tafsīr , in that it seeks change through continuity with the tradition. As a case example, this article explores Ibn ʿĀshūr's ability to leverage premodern hermeneutics to reach an unprecedented interpretation of wa’ḍribūhunna , the last of three disciplinary measures prescribed for women who are guilty of nushūz in Q. 4:34. My findings dispel the common assumption that modern exegetes who utilise ‘innovative’ methods bring forth new interpretations, whereas those who do not employ such methods do not. Al-Taḥrīr wa'l-tanwīr counters intellectual currents within modern tafsīr that bypass the exegetical tradition by reviving the genre's classical, philological methods and employing them to reach new opinions for changed realities.