WHO IS THE SPEAKER IN THE QUR'AN

Submitted by salah ali (Norway), May 10, 2009 at 15:19

Dear Friends and Colleague,

Very many thanks for your answer. Of course, we cannot counteract sweeping generalization with similar sweeping generalizations. Much of what is said in the Qur'an is subsumed under metaphor and allusion. And, it is by no means my position to defend what can be proved wrong. but Islam is not a scientific experiment that can be either accepted, modified or discarded depending on results. It is a sort of comprehensive way of life and of seeing the universe.It is too broad and diverse to brief in bad and good terms.

I have studied the qur'an for over thirty years now and it was partly my MA topic. My focus was on language first but I moved to epitemolgy and phenomenology in my efforts at understanding the VOICE in the Qur'an: WHO TALKS? Muhammad or God, and what kind of God is there in the Qur'an. We cannt use a political term like fascism in describing the Muslems because simply Fascism cannot be multinational phenomenon which can be sought under ideological banners not religious ones. And to the best of my knowledge it was Christian Arabs who originally called for ideologies like the Baath.

The speaker in the Qur'an cannot be Muhammad. The Education it has, the wisdom it preaches and the insight it harbours falls beyong the lifespan of a single man even if he combines the minds of Marx, Gibbon, Haldane and Bernal. I tried for instance to follw the harmony and see if any departure from the rhythm exist in any chapter of the Qur'an, I couldn't find any. Its logic lies beyond that of Whitehead's, karnab's or Russel.It is simple but unique and though it is down to earth in various imagery and stories, it comes back soon to cosmic rhythm. I am a scholar and have written much on various topics and I believe in the brotherhood of man, friendship and tolerance. Islam has always been one of the most tolerant religions and medieval science testifies to that.

If muslems however, understand the Qur'an in depth they would smile at seeing the profet smiles at what has come out of humanty specially in the West whereI live now: Permissiveness that creates in the name of democracy a third and fourth sexes of human beings, disregard of basic code of manners as the West turns women into consumer goods and dogs into first class citizen. Islam has tabooed so many bad things as wine which leads to perversion and bigs which lead to various diseases.It stresses the cleanliness of the heart. We have in islam a term for spiritual cleanliness (tahara) and spiritual dirt (rajs)... The language of the Qur'an is not vocalik. Its consonants are so expressive and powerful that only Arab readers can fathom the spirituality and might in it.

I'd rather talk more on my discoveries in the Qur'an which has nothing bad or wrong in it and it is the world of a divine spirit who is impersonalised but present. i feel the existence of this spirit when I read the qur'an and I wish you continue dialogue in the hope you embrace this religion which preaches tolerance, cleanliness and justice.

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