Aurangzeb Haneef
Assistant Professor and Director of the Study of Religion (2024–2027)
My primary research explores the intellectual history of Qurʾānic interpretation in the Formative and Classical periods of Islam. My work examines how Muslims have interpreted, transmitted, and contested the meaning of the Qurʾān across changing historical contexts. Along with Qurʾānic Exegesis (tafsīr), I pay particular attention to ḥadīth transmission, historiography, and manuscript culture. My doctoral work on the 8th-century Muslim scholar, Sufyān al-Thawrī (d. 778 CE), and a unique manuscript containing exegetical reports on his authority, speaks to this interest and expertise. I am currently working to convert my Ph.D. thesis into a book.
Building on this foundation in the early period, I also investigate the movement of exegetical texts and their meanings across temporal and spatial landscapes into the modern period. I have become increasingly interested in tafsīr as a battlefield for Islamic revival and reform, where responses to modernity, in general, and colonialism, injustice, nationalism, identity, ethics, and gender, in particular, are fought out.
My special interests in Religious Environmental Ethics and Religious Conflict and Peacebuilding provide me with two vantage points to analyze how Muslim scholars have responded to these concerns through Qurʾānic Exegesis in the modern period. My ongoing research into the Environmental Ethics of Mawlana Wahiduddin Khan (d. 2024) and Islamic Liberation Theology help me observe and understand the contours of Muslim responses to these modern-day concerns through Qurʾānic interpretation.
Education
Ph.D., Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Edinburgh, 2022
Thesis: “The Tafsīr of Sufyān al-Thawrī (d. 161/778): A study of its provenance, sources, methods, and topics”Master of Theological Studies, Harvard Divinity School, 2009 (Islamic Studies)
International M.A. in Peace, Conflict, and Development Studies, Universitat Jaume I / University of Innsbruck, 2007
Thesis: “Religion and Peacebuilding: Nonviolence and Use of Force in Islam”
Courses Taught
SS-101: Islamic Studies (core)
REL-235: Religion, Conflict, and Peacebuilding
REL-362/HIST-337: Qurʾān and Its Interpreters: Between Text and Context
REL-363: Jihād: Religion and Warfare in the Islamicate Context
Planned course offerings: Interpreting the Qurʾān in the Modern Age; The Sacred Nature: Religion and Ecology; Theologies of Liberation: Justice in World Religions; The Prophetic Word: Ḥadīth in Context
Academic and Other Links
Photography: @AurangzebH
"Islam: A system of Salaam/Peace" in Dietrich, Wolfgang et al (eds.) (2011): International Handbook on Peace: A Cultural Perspective, Palgrave McMillan: London/New York.
"Education in Muslim Societies: Learning from the Past" in Basit, Abdul (ed.) (2012): Global Muslim Communities at a Crossroads: Understanding Religious Beliefs, Practices, and Infighting to End the Conflict, Praeger: Santa Barbara.
"Theory and Practice of Conflict Resolution" in Ahmar, Moonis (ed.) (2005): Different Perceptions on Conflict Resolution: Need for an Alternate Approach, University of Karachi: Karachi.
"Reimagining religious minorities and the national flag," The News on Sunday, September 9, 2012
"Islam and Climate Change: How Fasting makes us Earth-centric," Youlin Magazine, June 14, 2018
Book Review: "Between Islam and the West: The Life of Maryam Jameelah," Books and Authors, Daily Dawn, February 12, 2012
"Engaging with Religion and the Religious," The Express Tribune, November 6, 2013
"Discriminating between the dead: On violence against religious minorities," The Express Tribune, October 11, 2013
Conference paper: "Hamas had a Charter", in International Conference on "New Horizons in Islamic Area Studies: Encounters, Reflections, and Collaborations," November 2013, LUMS
Conference paper on "Tafs?r texts as lecture notes: Reassessing early Tafs?r tradition through exegetical reports of Sufy?n al-Thawr? (d. 778 CE)," British Association of Islamic Studies Annual Conference, St. John s College, Cambridge University, June 30-July 1, 2025.
Conference paper: "Some Issues in Religious Pluralism and the Quranic Perspective," at a student conference, "Conversations beyond Religious Boundaries" at Harvard Divinity School, dedicated to the life and legacy of Krister Stendahl, April 2009.