Reading the Qur'an and a "text with no context"

Submitted by dhimmi no more (United States), Apr 28, 2007 at 08:51

Maybe you can post what you have in mind so we all can learn something new or we can teach you something that you do not know.

You make a good point and that is the Qur'an can be re-read and explained based on the old saying: "al-tafseer lel sahaba wa al-ta'weel lel fuqaha/3ulama/jamii3"

But this would mean that;

1. We really do not know what the Qur'an is really saying. And this is not just the tafseer but also we must admit that the masorites made things up (eg: is MLK in surat al-Fatiha maaliki or is it maliki), and that almost all of the Quranic allusions have no meaning (eg: Q66 Was there indeed a Mariya al-Qibtiya or did Muhammad eat some bad 3Asal nahl or honey and is there "no compulsion in religion" or is it "kill the polytheists" as it cannot be both (as the context thing is bogus) , or should we be mature adults and admit that we really do not know what Q66 Q2:256 and Q9:4 are saying). These are choices that muslims have to make.

This also means that either the Quranic material pre-dated Muhammad or that the Quranic logias and pericopes wer not canonized until the 3rd century of Islam and by then no one had a clue what the Qur'an is really saying but these facts detaches Muhammad from the Qur'an and Islam from the Hijaz!

What is strange thing here is when the Egyptian Prof. Abu Zaid suggested a literary appraoch to reading the Qur'an he was declared a kafir so Muslims have a long way to go.

2. The hadith must regarded as bogus 3rd century literature that only reflects the legal, economic and spritual aspirations of the Muslim community in the 3rd century of Islam and that no hadith can be linked to the historical Muhammad.

3. The sira and the maghazi literature are unhistorical

4. islam is the product of the great debates that pre-occupied the great civilizations of the Middle East in the late antique period and the rule of the arabs in islam was marginal at best. This also means that the pre-occupation of the Qur'an with polemics against Jews and Chirstians and polytheists (eg: Hindus and Buddhists) much be seen as 7th century polemics and a new respect for other religions must take place. See below.

5. We must all admit that the Qur'an, as Peters have siad, is a "text with no context" We really do not know very much about the Qur'an except from what the Persians and mesopotamians told us in the 3rd century of islam and that for example the idea that sura 9 was the last revealed sura is bogus and that the doctrine of al-nasikh wa al-mansukh is illogical and cannot be the wish of a logical God. and in this case one can very much say that Q2:256 (la ikra fi al-deen or there is no compulsion in religion) has not been abrogated by ayat al-sayf or Q9:4 and that islam preaches tolerance and harmony and not killing the polytheists

6. But this also means that muslims must admit that islam according to the Qur'an is the religion of the Arabs only and that the idea of spreading islam in peace or by force is a wrong idea. If someone wants to become a Muslim and an Arab that is his choice but this also means that the likes of tablighees will be out of a job. Hard choices indeed.

7. Muslims also must admit that the Arab invasion in 633CE was a crime against humanity and that the atrocities committed by the likes of Mahmud of Ghazni against your ancestors was a major crime against humanity. This is how we all heal.

And you know what? This is the way islam will be heading like it or not. You know Ibraham Lincoln once said: "You can fool some of the people some of the time" And you know the rest.

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