Rahman argued outsiders’ claims about Islam must be acceptable to Muslims

Evidence

Fazlur Rahman (1911–88), a professor at the University of Chicago and author of numerous books on Islam, protested at Western reductionist approaches to his religion, such as ‘the attempt to “explain” Islam’s genesis and even its nature with reference to Jewish, Christian, or other “influences”’. This was an aspect of the West’s cultural arrogance. He also suggested that in order for a statement about a religion to be valid it had to be acceptable to at least some members of that religion, though he did not spell out his reasons for thinking this. — Robert Irwin, For Lust of Knowing, 599

Categorization

• XREF: Rahman’s insider-validity criterion anticipates the emic/etic debates in anthropology and contemporary standpoint epistemology. — connects to: Reland insisted the sole authority on Islam must be Muslim sources.
• DEEPTHINKING: The claim that a statement about a religion must be acceptable to its members is a genuinely paradigm-shifting epistemic criterion that Raham never defends — worth sitting with for its radical implications for all scholarship on belief systems.

Related

• Reland insisted the sole authority on Islam must be Muslim sources. (similarity 0.86)