| 09 December 2009
Bismilllah ir rahman ir raheem
Authoudibillah imina ashaytain ir rahjeem
The non-Muslim skeptics I encounter every day are fond of telling me "But Cherie.. you have an advanced degree in literature...you've read hundreds of books, maybe thousands....
Authoudibillah imina ashaytain ir rahjeem
The non-Muslim skeptics I encounter every day are fond of telling me "But Cherie.. you have an advanced degree in literature...you've read hundreds of books, maybe thousands....
"HOW CAN ANY WRITTEN TEXT, ANYWHERE, POSSIBLY CONTAIN THE TRUTH FROM GOD?"
If you are coming from the perspective of the bible, it's a reasonable question. Since at least the 19th century, (look up "Higher Criticism" for starters) scholars have acknowledged that the bible and the tradition which bases itself on that set of texts, is rather...well, in large part a human construct.
And then, there is the Qu'ran.
People who aren't familiar with it assume that the Qu'ran is just another version of the bible: a text containing perhaps some truth, some divine "inspiration," but certainly not dictated word for word from God, whether through the agency of an angel or not. But certainly, simply the works of man. Human intelligence (such as it is) produced all these sacred texts, they say, and then custom legitmated them and institutionalized them.
But to claim a book was given to us directly from GOD?
Things like that just don't happen, the skeptics say.
Because if we already know it didn't happen that way with the bible, the reasoning goes, why would it happen this way with Qui'ran?
This is generally where I get a very disgusted look, and am told that I of all people should "know better." One of the things that MAKES ME ABSOLUTELY CRAZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZYYYY
I hate it when someone attempts to brainwash a person that way. If I "knew it" why would I be saying the opposite?? Are you calling me a liar?
I may be many things, eccentric and a bit wacky among them... but lying has never been one of my major failings. Quite the opposite: I routinely get myself into trouble by this habit of compulsive truth-telling. Anyone who knows me even a little knows this. Therefore, to say that I am lying makes YOU a liar.
Yes, I've read a lot lot LOT of books in my time. Yes, I certainly have.
But I've never read a book that makes such an outrageous set of claims about ITSELF.
"This is the Book....in which there is no doubt...."
The Qu'ran says that it is a Book "in which there is NO DOUBT."
You're kidding me, right?
What book or author would ever DARE to make such a claim??? That's just inviting challenge. It is an incredibly arrogant and foolish claim to make. Just asking for trouble.
Unless of course it happens to be TRUE.
"This is the Book in which there is no doubt...."
No DOUBT??? At ALL?
When I read that line the first time, I said to myself, "This guy had to have been a madman...."
But then, as you read through the Qu'ran, you notice a few things. First thing you MAY notice as a person from a Christian background is how much of the teachings contained in the Qu'ran are nearly identical to Christian teachings. Nearly, but not completely identical.
The places where the Qu'ran diverges are....well...actually....
Then you bump into what I call the Weird Science in the Qu'ran. I call it that because the idea that a 7th century caravan merchant knew about these things on his own--in the SEVENTH CENTURY--is just a bit too much to swallow.
"This is the Book in which there is no doubt...."
A Book that corrects and restores the original faith of the Jews, that claims heritage from Abraham through Ishmael... which confirms the "earlier scriptures." That it does. It does confirm the earlier scriptures, and, oddly enough, corrects them where they go off the track. Off the track in whose view? Off the track in the view of the Jews AND Christian or post-Christian scholars. That's who.
But any text that makes such an outrageous claim about ITSELF... any text THAT self-referential, with the unmitigated gall to say that it contains "no doubt".... well, that has to be the work of a madman...or, the claim it makes is the truth.
There is too much just plain ordinary COMMON SENSE in this Book for it to be the work of a madman.
There is also too much Weird Science in it.
Most of all, how odd, isn't it, that theologically it makes the SAME CORRECTIONS that scholars have been trying to make for a century or two.....
The Qu'ran makes some audacious claims about itself.
It challenges the reader to test it all out for himself, and try to prove it wrong.
Definitely an occupation worth your time.