While there have been some creative and successful attempts by contemporary Muslim scholars to apply insights from philosophical hermeneutics¹ to Islamic legal theory, in general, and to qur’anic hermeneutics, in particular (e.g., Fazlur Rahman, Farid Esack, Naṣr Ḥāmid Abū Zayd, and Felix Corner),² less attention has been given to applying theoretical insights from contemporary literary theories to the same.³ This is particularly true with respect to reception theory and its branches, such as reader-response criticism, although isolated voices have recognized their significance.⁴ In this chapter, I continue the efforts of these contemporary Muslim scholars to engage with (post)-Enlightenment theories of...