Interpretation of the Holy Quran

All educated ordinary Muslims cannot also carry around a voluminous collection of Tafsir or Sunnah with them, especially now that they are spread around the world. The interpretation of the verses which had a limited meaning and application when Allah first bestowed it to the Prophet (pbuh) is not of much use in any case. Digging into the Tafsir means restricting more and more the interpretation ( as a trained Mullah is supposed to do) looking into the past, whereas the verses are crying out to be of universal import and application if Islam is to be a truly world religion. Of course, some verses cannot be universally applicable for instance if a paragrah starts with the words, 'Oh you desert dwelling Bedouins,..' then such a paragraph ( without further modifications) should not be applicable to a Muslim of, say, Bangladesh. Enforcing such application (by trained Mullahs ) will cause enormous physical and philosophical problems and the grandeur of Islam will be lost thereby.

So although Commodore Alam is correct as to the strict interpretation and applicability of the verses quoted, I agree with Mahfuzur Rahman that many 'modern Muslims would personally interpret the Sharia in light of present day reality and seek to regulate secular life and try to find their place in a pluralist world'.

We must not lose sight of the fact that not only the Holy Quran is of divine origin, but you, I, and we all are also divinely created as is Time. So we must seek a dynamic interpretation applicable to a modern time and place and not be satisfied with only a restricted and static interpretation in a Tafsir. If one only knows and preaches the latter surely universality of Islam is lost. The two interpretations ( static and dynamic) are not in opposition but are complementary to each other and both have their correct places of application.