Introduction

In Muslim communities in contemporary South Asia and other Muslim-majority areas, informal religious lesson circles are proliferating rapidly as mass higher education brings more Muslims under the umbrella of standardized, nationalized education systems. These study circles often revolve around the study of compendia of Qur'anic commentary or exegesis, hadith (written records of sayings and acts attributed to the Prophet Muhammad) such as the thirteenth-century Riyad al-Salihin, as well as Qur'anic commentaries and theological texts produced by authoritative traditional religious scholars, contemporary or recent.

While some scholars have discussed contemporary commentaries on the Qur'an and their authors, fewer have focused on the users of these commentaries and of other Islamic literature, or on the specifics of audience engagement with these texts (Eickelman 2004). Thus, for instance, while the works of Sayyid Qutb (which are central to the Muslim Brotherhood, the leading Islamic movement in the Middle East and North Africa) have been analysed by several scholars (see, for example, Carré 2003; Kepel 1993 [1985]; Khatab 2006; and Moussalli 1992), some important questions are left unanswered: How are Qutb's ideas explained to adherents on the ground? What styles of discourse are employed in lesson circles? Which ideas are emphasized and which marginalized, and what kinds of techniques are used to do so? Do lesson circles actually shape how individual members feel, think, express themselves, and act? If so, how, and to what extent? Which groups are reading which texts or selections from texts?