Quran Scholarship

Critic:-

In order to assess the Quran one has to read the results of the research on the Quran by scholars such Luxenberg and Heger.

Comment:-

These are not Muslims and do not practice Islam. As in Science or other subjects, the opinions of those who have no practical experience of the subject they deal with are irrelevant.

To understand anything requires the appropriate perception, motive and action. In order to understand the Quran it is necessary to know how to read the Quran and to undergo the appropriate discipline. These requirements are described in the Quran. In particular one must have the pure motive to understand it and one must give up inappropriate assumptions, those that are not relevant to the subject.

Though Luxenberg, Heger etc. may know much about Syriac and other things, one cannot really give much credence to them when it comes to the Quran which they understand not at all, but apply unjustified speculation based on dubious motives. One cannot give these studies any respect. Even if there is some truth in what they say, their opinions cannot be regarded as useful to Muslims or to non-Muslims, even themselves.

Christoph Heger:-

Speculation about "motives" doesn't excuse one from the necessity to argue on the point and in substance.

Comment:-

The motives determine what you look for, see, select or ignore, and how you interpret and organise data. This is well known in Psychology and it is affirmed in the Quran.

Heger tells us that Quran 25:1 should be translated as follows:-

"Blessed be He, who sent down the (price of) redemption on His servant that he (or it) might be (or: become) a sacrifice for the worlds."

He says, it refers to Jesus and his sacrifice for the redemption of the sins of mankind.

Apart from trying to understand the Quran in Syriac instead of Arabic as the Quran affirms (Quran 12:2), this is taken out of context and goes against the whole thesis of the Quran. The very next verse 25:2 tells us:-

"He unto Whom belongs the sovereignty of the heavens and the earth, He has chosen no son nor has He any partner in the sovereignty. He has created everything, and then given it its measure (proportions)." 25:2

It cannot, therefore, refer to Christian Theology. In fact, it contradicts what Jesus taught:-

"Not every one that saith unto me Lord, Lord shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that does the will of my Father which is in heaven." Matthew 7:21-23

If Furqan means what Heger thinks it means then Quran 2:53 where the same word is used, would imply that redemption depended on Moses before Jesus. In Quran 2:185 it is the Quran that is the source of redemption. In Quran 21:48 it is Aaron. All this could be true. But Quran 3:2-3 makes it clear that the Quran came to confirm the previous scriptures.

Heger:-

Humbug! I don't understand verse 25:1 "in Syriac", only the word "furqân", which undoubtedly is a Syriac loanword in Arabic.

The argument of "context" doesn't work. (1) as everybody knows, the train of thought in the Koran time and again is so leaping that often you hardly can speak of any "context". (2) the transmitted text of the Koran is full of insertions (and arguably omissions) that have interrupted the original context. (3) The original hymn, beginning with verse 25:1, is (presumably with some loss in between) continued after the insertion some verses later.

Comment:-

I have studied the Quran and I do not agree with you. That bias has caused you to misunderstand the whole verse. It is your speculation that the word "furqan" in the Quran is a Syriac word. It is not a "loan word". That is your prejudice. It is arabised. It is connected with the word “farq” which means “difference, to differentiate or discriminate”. It may resemble a word in a different language. This sort of thing is not uncommon and it is well known that the same sounding name has different meanings in different languages.

You are telling us about your understanding not about the Quran. It is you that do not understand the Quran because you have no empathy with it and make inappropriate assumptions about it. It is not at all necessary that the Quran should follow an order that YOU think it should follow.

Some of these scholars are like the person who given an apple to eat confines himself to looking and criticising the skin instead and even that according to his fantasy of what the skin should be. Or like a foreigner who has studied English but when he comes to England and someone says to him, "Your friend is round the bend or up the pole" then he rushes to look for him there. Or like one who is given a text book on science or engineering criticises it for its literary content. This may have some value but not a scientific or technological one. The Quran is a book on religion for the spiritual guidance of Muslims. The opinions of non-Muslims, whether scholars or not, cannot have much religious significance either for Muslims or these non-Muslims, except perhaps political or other secular ones that are irrelevant to the understanding and application of the Quran. This is because the opinions or research is based on inappropriate assumptions, motives and methods. If some real discovery should chance to happen that affects religious understanding then, no doubt, Muslim scholars will be able to assess it.

(a) The Quran was originally a revelation, an insight about reality, the truth about existence and the word "ayat" that refers to the verses of the Quran also refer to the signs of God in nature and the Universe. (b) It was then a recitation that was dispensed in small parts according to their relevance to the events circumstances that arose. (c) It was meant to produce a psychological or spiritual effect on the people, to transmit the original insight. (d) The teachings were explained and demonstrated by the Prophet – this is known as Sunna - and by his close companions to whom he transmitted it. The life of the Prophet and his community of Muslims embody the Quran to various extents. (e) The written Quran and its application in the Hadith is only a record of this and only a part of a complex of which the other two parts are the practices of the community and the oral transmission from teachers to pupils down the ages. The transmission has three interacting streams:- (i) The exoteric or popular stream (ii) The mesoteric which refers to the works of scholars and to written literature. (iii) The esoteric stream which concerns the activities of various schools. These facts have been ignored.

In order to understand anything one needs a framework of Reference. In order to measure things one needs a measuring device. In order to judge things one needs certain standards. The Quran is a criterion by which life and experience is judged. It cannot be judged by other criteria, particularly when these have not been stated. As the Quran itself states, it is to be understood not superficially by the intellect but more deeply through the heart. That is, thought as well as feelings and action are engaged. There is difference between “knowing” and “knowing about” or “knowing of”.

Religion is about transformation and regeneration not about academic scholarship. This requires participation and not indifference. Nothing can be achieved, including understanding without the appropriate motives, assumptions and efforts. Revelations are not understood by means of speculation or interpretation by means of other existing systems and ideas though they may be similar especially if they are true, can be compared with them. and have relevance to them. Religion requires not a horizontal movement but an ascent.

A distinction has to be made firstly between:-

(1) The origin, cause, purpose and circumstances of the arising of the Quran. The discussion of this is part of the theology of the Quran. But the discussion is not the reality, it points to the reality. The verbal discussion uses allegories and symbolism.

(2) The Quran itself. This has four aspects - (a) the sound and rhythm of the recitation, (b) the text, (c) the structure, (d) the effects. The text is in the Arabic language as it was when the Quran was revealed and has six aspects:- letters, syntax, grammar, meaning, idiom, and value. The verses of the Quran are said to have four types of meaning:- (i) literal (zahir), (ii) symbolic (batin) (iii) prescriptive (hadd) (iv) spiritual (matla).

(3) The interpretation of the Quran by human beings. This requires certain criteria that the Quran itself provides. There are 7 aspects to interpretation:- (i) The fundamental notions about the nature of God, Prophethood and man. (ii) Cosmology and the nature of the created world. (iii) the nature of the Quran (iv) Spiritual teachings (v) Allegories (vi) Narrations, historical teaching stories. (vii) Law.

In order to understand the Quran the following features should be noted:-

(1) Though originally a personal experience about the nature of existence, the revelation can only be transmitted to others through the medium of a language. The Quran is in Arabic. There is a translation of reality into experience and from experience to words. The verbal descriptions are, therefore, twice removed from Reality. (i) It must be understood in its colloquial and literary form as prose and poetry but also according to the kind of experiences and ideas that it was connected with. It is experiences that give meaning to words. Words can have multiple meanings depending on context. (ii) Though ideas can be translations into other languages, this cannot be accurately done without explanations that are more than mere literal renderings. These translations are thrice removed from Reality. (iii) Though meant to convey and represent them, verbal descriptions are not the same thing as experiences and experiences are not the same as the reality. Each refers to a small part of the next and can provide a distorted view. An experience is true in so far as it corresponds to reality and a verbal description is true in so far as it corresponds to experience. These correspondences are established by their multiple connections and self-consistency within a comprehensive or expanding system.

(2) The Quran is not systematised but much more like nature where events occur in different contexts and have multiple connections. This allows the creation of several systems that might overlap to different degrees or be mutually exclusive, but they are all parts of a whole, a comprehensive self-consistent system.

(3) It is necessary to understand it as being designed to have a purpose and effect in (i) inducing experiences, (ii) stimulating awareness, motivation and efforts for spiritual development (iii) connecting a person with his inherent nature. The rhythm of the recitation is not irrelevant to understanding.

(4) The instructions of the Quran as to how it is to be read and understood must be followed.

(5) The verses of the Quran have relevance to the events and conditions of life and can be understood with respect to these.

(6) The Quran is a self-consistent system so that the verses can be understood (i) in terms of their context, (ii) by comparison and relation to other verses and (iii) with respect to the whole.

(7) In so far as it contains many similitudes, the verses can also be understood by the use of analogical reasoning.

(8) But the main technique consists of the expansion of consciousness, insight and depth of comprehension through the use of study, meditation, prayer and the other spiritual techniques.

The Quran is unique in literature in style and attitude. It contains its own criteria for understanding. There is nothing like it either before or after it. It is not poetry or prose, but flouts conventions about it, and though unsystematised it is wholly self-consistent in itself and with respect to experience and the cosmos. Being unsystematised like our raw experience of nature, it is possible to create a great number of different systems that might overlap or be mutually exclusive but nevertheless belong as parts to a single comprehensive greater whole.

Though it contains ideas and stories that are familiar from other scriptures, the Quran has its own selection, emphasis, formulation and elaboration. For instance, no other scripture describes God in such great detail and refers all other ideas to that one central idea so as to provide a comprehensive world-view. It is meant for people of all degrees of understanding, from the simplest to the highly intelligent.

It was created to stimulate consciousness, conscience and will, but it also appears to have been created to confound and confuse those who have a rigid and traditional mind full of assumptions of what to expect or those who bring a hostile or insincere attitude to it. It is certainly designed to break up entrenched mental habits and create the flexibility that intelligence and adaptability require. It does this, apart from instructions to seek knowledge, understanding and awareness, by employing several methods that are incorporated in the style itself - in the language, the rhythm and the structure - to shock the system out of its complacency. These techniques include the sudden changes in tense, person, theme, emphasis, rhythm and grammar; terse and long sentences, repetition of some themes in various contexts; ideas that are simple and complex, explicit and implied, clear and ambiguous, precise or with multiple meanings, naive or sophisticated, essential or accidental, particular or general, focussing and distracting; truncated sentences with missing words while others appear to contain superfluous ones, fragmentation and overlapping, narrations that are cryptic, segmented, economic and skeletal, smooth or interrupted.

It uses statements of fact, meaning and value, instructions, monotony and shock, identification and connection, arguments, narration, imagery, similitudes, symbolism, threats, accusation, praise, approval and disapproval, rewards, incentives, encouragement, reinforcement, warning, forgiveness, comfort, diagnosis, prognosis, prophecy, promise, accusation, appeal, ridicule, sarcasm, irony, direct and indirect reference, suggestion, allusions, invocation, examples, illustrations, embellishment, thesis, antithesis and synthesis, attention drawing and focusing, emphasis, elaboration, reduction, explanation, interpretation, description, exclamation, enigma, problems and solutions, innovation, adaptation, imprecation, reminders, admonition, exclusion and inclusion, command, prohibition, recommendation, permission, rhetoric, humour and pathos, excitement, passion, sobriety and indifference.

The Quran deals with existence and with life as part of it in all its aspects in a unified comprehensive and self-consistent manner. It has spiritual, psychological, social, philosophical, scientific, ethical, aesthetic, political, economic and legal aspects, though it is not a text book in any of these subjects. But as it co-ordinates all these, it deals with them in a manner that is different from that which is seen from a fragmented, disintegrated point of view. This means that the parts are understood and effective mainly with respect to the whole and not in isolation. The effect and purpose of the system is to facilitate (a) inner psychological integration and harmony (b) social unity and harmony (c) harmonious adjustment to reality in thought, motivation and behaviour.

Seven levels or stages should be recognised in the understanding of the Quran:-

(1) As the Word of Allah, the Quran is part of the creative force which is intended to create an effect and is to be recognised by that effect. It is a Book in Heaven, part of the Universal Blue Print, so to speak, according to which the world unfolds and evolves.

(2) It is a revelation, an insight by the Prophet and this is described as a message from the Spirit, Gabriel. As a revelation of the Word, it refers to Objective Truth directly discerned, and is not to be interpreted by means of any influences from existing environmental systems.

(3) It is then a recitation by the Prophet according to their relevance to the circumstances that arose. It enters into human affairs at this point. The recitation will be (a) in terms that people can understand as to their language, culture and experiences, (b) but in so far as its purpose is to transform it also has unfamiliar elements that will require effort to comprehend and (c) it brings a new formulation designed to bring new insights and consciousness.

(4) This is then memorised and written down by people. This may or may not be wholly identical with the original and there may be slight variations in wording and rhythm.

(5) It was later gathered, arranged and recorded in a written and published book under the Caliph Usman. This not only standardised the Quran and preserved it in that condition but also ensured that the complete form was available rather than different sets of parts. However, it could be that some verses were lost and other verses were included more than once. There is no evidence of any great protest that there was any selective inclusion or exclusion. Given the fact that ideas are repeated it is unlikely that anything is lost. The comprehensiveness and self-consistency of the Quran provides a Framework of Reference that also ensures that other ideas that will fit into the scheme can also be accepted.

(6) The book is explained and demonstrated by the Prophet and applied to the conditions of life and events that existed around him. As to its meaning and significance, the Quran is, therefore embedded partly in the life of Muslims.

(7) It is understood to various degrees by Muslim saints and scholars who have live by it.

(8) An eighth level of Earth can also be described as that in which the Quran is understood to various degrees by ordinary Muslims according to how they study and apply it.

In order to understand the Quran it is necessary to start with the last step and move upwards vertically. One has to reach the third and then the second stage before one can reach the first. This is like climbing a ladder sent down from heaven for that purpose.

"Nay, but it (the Quran) is a clear revelation in the hearts of those who are endowed with knowledge, and none deny Our revelations save the wrongdoers (or unjust)." 29:24

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