There is no doubt that every interpreter of the Qur'an has been affected by the geopolitical circumstances of his/her time. From Ibn Taiymiyyah and the Mongol hordes to Ibn Laden and the presence of US troops in Saudi Arabia. Every age looks at the Qur'an as a text beyond time and space to make sense of their world. Violence is justified when people start to see parallels between what they are going through and how the early Muslims dealt with violence during their time.
No one approach of hermeneutics will suffice in today's diverse and complex world. Muslims need to relook at the Qur'an in a literary, linguistic, contextual, historical and Sunnah as well as Sirah- oriented way, in order to get to the spirit of the meaning as intended by the Allah and taught by the Prophet.
The Salafi interpretation of the Qur'an is very literal and they would prefer the letter of the law to the spirit. Salafi hermeneutics concentrates its interpretation on early scholarly writings and ignores as well as criticises Sufi interpretations and writings. In so doing, Salafi get a distorted view of Islamic scholarship which at times becomes harsh and mean impractical in the modern context.
Salafi wish to recreate or fashion the Muslim ummah as it was at the time of the Prophet Muhammad, however, they fail to recognise the diversity of that society and try to portray the early Muslims as monolithic. Sufis on the other hand, concentrate on the spiritual and connection with God, although, many Sufi groups have abandoned traditional Islam for their own rituals and celebrations. Both these groups are extreme opposites to one another in their interpretation of the Qur'an.
It is impossible to be truly objective and thus all exegesis is eisegesis to varying extents. Esack is right when he contends that no interpretation is "value free".
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