Dare to Speak: Islam vs Free Democracy and Free Enterprise (I)
Chapter 3: Koranic teachings that shape Islamic nations
The state of Muhammad’s world when he revealed the Koran
To start this investigation of Islam’s Holy texts, let us begin by reviewing some basics about Muhammad and the Koran’s revelations: [1] [2]
Muhammad, the man who revealed the Koran, was born around 570 A.D. in Mecca, a trading post in the untamed and tribal Arabian Peninsula. [3] At this time, Mecca and its surroundings lacked the rule of law, and various Pagan, Jewish, and Christian tribes competed ruthlessly with each other for scarce resources.
Aside from the violence between tribes, life within a tribe could be equally brutal. Incest was common, as were polygynous practices that could give a man multitudes of wives, and infant daughters were thought so worthless that parents regularly buried them alive to dispose of them.
Mecca was also the place where Abraham and his son Ishmael were reputed to have built a place of worship called the Ka’aba. This place of worship was used by all Arabic tribes, and they filled it with their idols, as well as icons of Jesus and Mary. Mecca was controlled by a pagan tribe known as the Quraysh, and the Ka’aba was controlled by a Qurayshi clan called the Hashim, into which Muhammad was born.
After Muhammad was orphaned at an early age, he was cared for by his grandfather, Abd al-Muttalib, for several years. When his grandfather also died, Muhammad’s guardianship passed on to his uncle, Abu Talib.
Muhammad would accompany his uncle on trading caravans, and through these travels he established himself as an effective and honest business person. This attracted the attention of a wealthy widow named Khadijah, who hired Muhammad and later married him.
In his caravan travels, Muhammad was exposed to the doctrines of both Jews and Christians. He also learned about Christian doctrine from Khadijah’s cousin, Waraqa ibn Nawfal, who was a learned Christian monk. The beliefs of these people impressed Muhammad and, as a young man, he began the habit of retiring to a cave for prayer and meditation.
One day, Muhammad came home from this cave and told Khadijah of a remarkable event: while he was either sleeping or in a trance, the Angel Gabriel had come to him and commanded him to “Recite!” When Muhammad responded in confusion, the angel clarified: “Recite in the name of your Lord who created Man from clots of blood.” “Recite! Your Lord is the Most Bountiful One, who by the pen taught man what he did not know.”
Muhammad told his wife that, when he awoke, it seemed like these words had been “inscribed upon my heart.”
And so began Muhammad’s ministry, which began humbly, with his wife Khadijah as his first and only convert. For many years, his followers were limited to members of his family. Over time, though, he began to find new followers among the poor in his community.
Muhammad spoke of Islam, which means “submission” (to the will of Allah), as a restoration of the perfect and true religion of Allah, which was imperfectly practiced by the Jews and Christians. His affinity toward Jews and Christians at this time was so great that Muhammad had his followers adopt the Jewish practice of praying in the direction of Jerusalem. Muhammad’s revelations during that time, known as the Meccan revelations, are notably ecumenical and inclusive with regard to Jews and Christians, whom he called “people of the book.” The content of these verses tended toward poetry and preaching.
As Muhammad’s band of followers grew, the pagan tribes began to feel threatened, and started to persecute them. Muhammad responded by sending some of his followers to Christian Ethiopia for refuge in 615. The persecution of his followers continued, though, and in 619 he was devastated by two tragedies: both his wife Khadijah and his uncle Abu Talib died of malnutrition. This loss was even worse because Abu Talib’s leadership in Muhammad’s clan helped protect him for years, and the new leader of Muhammad’s clan was a sworn enemy.
In the face of these disasters, Muhammad had a remarkable dream, which became famously known as the Night Journey. In this dream, the angel Gabriel set Muhammad on a winged donkey named Burak and whisked him to Jerusalem, from which he ascended through the seven heavens and met Allah himself. Interestingly, on the basis of this dream, rather than any physical event, Jerusalem was declared to be the third most holy religious site in Islam.
This remarkable dream was soon followed by a real event that was nearly as amazing. In 620, Muhammad met a group of traders from Yathrib, a town about 250 miles northeast of Mecca, and their conversation changed the course of history. Apparently, two of the Pagan Arab tribes of Yathrib were disputing among themselves and, in the process, ruining the city. Muhammad’s reputation for honesty led these traders to approach him with a proposal: Would Muhammad consider moving to Yathrib and acting as an arbitrator between the tribes? Muhammad accepted this proposal and, in the process of fulfilling it, moved his followers to Yathrib, where he used his position as arbitrator to make himself ruler of the city. In the process, Yathrib was renamed Medina, which means City of the Prophet. [4] His new authority was officially declared in 622 through a celebrated document known as the Medina Charter (see Appendix A).
As ruler of Medina, Muhammad became concerned with matters of governance, and his revelations assumed new tones. Instead of inspiration and poetics, they were primarily legal pronouncements, war rallies, and threats against political opponents. It is through this transformation of tone that Islam assumed its mandates to conquer and rule. In the process of ruling, Muhammad and his recitations also established Islamic Law.
After becoming ruler of Medina, Muhammad undertook a series of diplomatic and military operations that, by 630, had taken control of Mecca, slain Muhammad’s opponents, and conquered all of the tribes that had formerly harassed Muhammad and his believers. With the submission of Mecca, Muhammad was no longer the ruler of a city, but of a state. Word of his victories and religion spread rapidly, and the appeal of his rule by law drew eager adherents throughout a lawless land.
Two of the tribes that had harassed Muhammad in Medina were Jewish, and it was both their rejection of him as a Prophet and their treachery toward him that soured Muhammad toward Jews. Some of the Koran’s harshest verses come from this period, as did Muhammad’s decision to change the direction of prayer (called the qibla) from Jerusalem to Mecca.
By the time Muhammad died, just two years after his victory over the Meccans, Islam had spread across nearly the entire Arabian Peninsula and was pressing toward the territories of Byzantium and Persia. Rallying around the memory of their beloved Prophet, the conquering Muslims were virtually unstoppable. In 633, the hapless Persian Empire lost Mesopotamia to Muhammad’s successor, Caliph[5] Abu Bakr, and it fell completely in 636, under the sword of Caliph Umar. [6] In 634 Abu Bakr’s troops won a victory over the Byzantines in Palestine, and Umar proceeded to appropriate large chunks of Byzantine territory for Islam, including Syria and Jerusalem. In the ensuing years, Muslims won military victories across North Africa, and by the early 700s they had overrun the Spanish peninsula and even occupied portions of southern France.
Muhammad’s written legacy for his followers is the Koran, as recorded by his scribes (known as remembrancers), and compiled by the Caliphs who succeeded him. Muslims believe that the Koran is a compendium of Allah’s messages, as recited by the angel Gabriel to Muhammad, who then recited them to his remembrancers. To appreciate the Koran’s significance, consider this quote from The Koran for Dummies: [7]
Muslims view the Koran in its original form and language as the literal and unaltered word of God [Allah], preserved for all times to come.
When Muslims say, “God says,” or “the Koran says,” they are in fact using different words to quote one source – namely God himself.
The Koran provides a direct relationship from its source (God) to its audience (humanity).
As such, Muslims have a deep reverence for the Koran. In…traditional understandings of Islam,if you express doubt that the Koran is the word of God, then you have uttered words of disbelief.
With this understanding of how the Koran’s revelations came into being, the issues they were designed to address, and the authority they have over believers, we are almost ready to investigate the message of the Koran and its affect on people today. But before we begin, there is one more question we need to consider: Who are we, as non-Muslim Westerners who are ignorant of the Arabic language, to make such an investigation?
Is it legitimate for a Westerner to critique the Koran?
One of the first things a defender of Islam will say when a Westerner critiques the Koran is that, because the Koran is the “literal and unaltered” word of Allah, any translation from the original language is not the true Koran. At best, it is an interpretation of the Koran. Because translations are not the actual words of Allah, any criticism based on them is invalid.
At first glance, this assertion seems plausible, especially to a Westerner intimidated by a Muslim’s rebuke. However, when challenged, its logic quickly falls apart and reveals that it is nothing more than an attempt to discourage non-Muslims from evaluating the Koran objectively.
This assertion, which implies that the only people qualified to critique the Koran are those who can read it in its original language, is invalid for four reasons:
1. Most of the world’s Muslims do not speak Arabic. [8]
The assertion implies that Muslims who do not speak Arabic cannot understand the true meaning of the Koran. Hence they cannot truly understand their own religion, and they are not qualified to speak about its holy texts. This news may come as a big surprise to those Muslims.
2. The language of the Koran is NOT modern Arabic.
The language of the Koran is Classical Arabic. During the recent rise of Pan-Arabism, this language has ironically been renamed Modern Standard Arabic. Modern Standard Arabic represents the revival of an ancient and nearly dead language from about 1400 years ago. Its condition was somewhat like that of Latin today, and its revival is somewhat like the recent revival of Hebrew.
The difference between Classical Arabic and the Arabic of contemporary daily life, which varies dramatically from country to country, has been likened to the difference between Spanish and Italian.[9]
Therefore, even native speakers of Arabic cannot read the Koran in its original language unless they receive special training, which they receive in school like a heavily promoted foreign language.
This implies that any Koran written in a modern Arabic dialect has been translated. As such, it is interpretation, and not the actual voice of Allah. Just like a Koran written in English.
Classical Arabic has enjoyed a revival in recent years, both because of Islam’s resurgence, and because many Arabic nations believe Arabs can gain political and economic clout through Pan-Arabism. It acts as a Lingua Franca for Arabs living across North Africa and the Middle East, and this facilitates media broadcasts, internet services, and travel.
Because of its long period of non-use by the general populace, and its current use as a sort of unifying second language rather than a primary language, many of its nuances from Muhammad’s time are certain to have been lost. If this is true, then some of the Koran’s nuances are also likely to be lost.
Muslims will claim that this problem has been handled because a sort of dictionary, called The Tongue of the Arabs, was written by Ibn Al-Manthur Al-Afriki shortly after the Koran’s compilation, and it contains a definition written for every word in the Koran. Unfortunately,The Tongue of the Arabs isalsowritten in Classical Arabic. Therefore, it is about as helpful to a reader of the Koran as a French dictionary, written in French, to an English speaker trying to read a French book. Moreover, the dictionary deals only with words, and neglects the meanings of popular phrases in use during Muhammad’s time. These meanings are now lost forever. Do you “get my drift?” If so, you get a “high five.”
Again, this problem is not unique to Islam’s Holy Scriptures. In fact, the Old Testament has an even worse case of this affliction because it was written in Hebrew, a language that was nearly dead for centuries. A quick review of Psalms alone will uncover words such as “shiggaion,”[10]“sheminith,” [11]“gittith,” [12] “miktam,”[13] “maskil,”[14] “alamoth,”[15] and “mahalath,”
[16] that have not been translated to English because no one knows their meaning, other than that they are “probably a literary or musical term.” While many Jews and Christians will claim that Divine Providence made sure that all essential meanings of the Hebrew scriptures were preserved, this claim cannot be proven with certainty. What is certain is that we will have to do the best we can with what we have. Muslims face the same situation.
No one living today can truly speak with complete authority about a language that has been out of popular use for many centuries. This leads to the conclusion that no one living today, not even a Muslim, can truly understand the Koran, and no one living today is qualified to speak authoritatively about Islam. This conclusion would probably surprise everyone!
3. The first Korans were written in a consonant-only script.
Imagine trying to read this book if only its consonants were printed. That was essentially the challenge faced by readers of the first Korans. At the time of Muhammad, Arabic writing was in a formative state. Not only could it not represent vowels; it had only 15 characters for 28 consonants.
Despite these limitations, the Arabic alphabet served the needs of Muhammad’s remembrancers because they were trained in the Koran’s oral tradition, and used writing as a memory aid instead of as a primary means of communication. Unfortunately, as time went on, different oral traditions arose so that, a few decades after Muhammad’s death, no one knew the actual words with certainty. As explained by N.J. Dawood in his translation’s introduction:
owing to the fact that the kufic script in which the Koran was originally written contained no indication of vowels or diacritical points, variant readings are recognized by Muslims as of equal authority. [17]
There are seven authoritative readings of the Koran, based on the recitations of the following eighth-century individuals: Nafi, Ibn Kathir, Abu ‘Amr al-‘ala’, Ibn ‘Amir, Hamzah, al-Qisa’I, and Abu Bakr ‘Asim. Additional readings that are considered less authoritative also exist.
Apparently, there was never agreement on the exact wording of the Koran, even among Islam’s earliest followers, despite the fact that they all spoke the Koran’s original language. In places where these seven readings differ, no one can speak with authority as to which reading is truly correct. The remembrancers who fleshed out the Koran’s consonantal script into words performed the same tasks as any translator, and faced the same dilemmas. Their choices of words often reflected their own points of view.
The only thing known for sure about the Koran is that its exact words were not even clear to the people who were living when it was compiled. If an Islamic authority must know the meaning of every word of the Koran, with certainty, thenhow could anyone claim to be such an authority?
4. Twenty-nine of the Koran’s surahs (chapters) begin with sequences of letters that no one understands.
An example of such a sequence is “Alif Lam Mim,” which comes from the beginning of Surah 3, entitled The House of ‘Imran.
These twenty-nine introductory character sequences cannot be interpreted at all by anyone. Among Islamic scholars, they are called “the mysterious letters” (or “the detached letters”). Once again, this leads to the conclusion that if a complete understanding of the entire Koran is required before one can speak with authority on it, then no one has such authority.
Obviously, Muslims would not be happy if their method of dismissing non-Muslim critiques was used on them. Doing so would demonstrate, with multiple proofs, that it is impossible for any living person to speak with authority on the Koran. Muslims would, of course, call this conclusion absurd, and insist that their scholars can speak with authority. But if this is true, then they must also admit that the original assertion, that the Koran cannot be translated effectively into a modern language, is also absurd.
If this assertion is absurd, then we may want to consider the alternative: Perhaps it is possible for a person to understand and critique the Koran on the basis of translations. To support this claim, consider the following:
1. People have been translating books of all sorts into English for hundreds of years with few complaints, and the same can be done with the Koran.
While translators may be unable to preserve all the puns, rhythms, and wordplay of foreign literature, they can do a pretty good job of preserving meaning. Also, popular books are often translated by more than one person, so that readers can compare the interpretations of several translators to get a fuller understanding of the original text. Most importantly, if several translators interpret a passage the same way, a reader can be reasonably confident of its meaning.
2. Everyone who reads the Koran must interpret it when they apply it to their lives.
If a knowledgeable scholar interprets the Koran by translating it, one can be reasonably confident that his interpretation is as good as any personal understanding that a speaker of Classical Arabic might have.
Any reasonable person will recognize that a devout and intelligent person who reads the Koran in English may gain a better understanding of the Koran than an equally devout but less insightful person who reads the Koran in Classical Arabic. Unless Islamic scholars are willing to consign to Hell everyone who does not have a perfect understanding of the Koran, they should be willing to agree that people can gain a useful understanding of the Koran from a good translation to English. Furthermore, because several translations are available, a reader of those translations can gain multiple perspectives of the Koran and thereby learn how different Islamic authorities interpret it.
The bottom line is that it is not necessary to understand the exact words of Allah, in the original language, to understand the Koran. All we need to know is what the Koran means to the people who read it. And, through their translations, numerous Islamic scholars have provided authoritative line-by-line interpretations of the Koran’s meaning.
The tactic of dismissing translations of the Koran does more than discourage critiques by non-Muslims. It also gives Islamic authorities added power over their followers. In fact, the more inscrutable the Koran is, and the more necessary its teachings are for attaining Paradise and avoiding Hell, the more Muslims depend on Islamic authorities for guidance.
This situation is not unique to Islam. In the past, Christianity was just as adamant on the same subject for the same reason. For example, William Tyndale, the first Englishman to translate the Bible into English, was burned at the stake for heresy in 1536. It also took until Vatican II, in the early 1960s, for the Catholic Church to endorse church services in languages other than Latin. [18] Catholicism’s requirement that scriptures be read in Latin was particularly strange because the Bible’s books were originally written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. The Latin Bible, known as the Vulgate, is a translation.
If Christians reject the claim that the Bible cannot be translated, then they should not feel compelled to accept the Muslim claim that the Koran cannot be translated.
Are Westerners qualified to critique the Koran on the basis of translations? Yes.
The Koran has two translations to English that are universally accepted as authoritative by Islamic scholars: The Glorious Koran, by Muhammad Marmaduke William Pickthal, and The Holy Qur’an: Translation and Commentary, by Abdullah Yusuf Ali. In addition, there are several other widely accepted translations[19] that can help validate our critiques. By comparing translations of the Koran’s verses (called ayat[20] in Arabic), it is possible to gain as good an understanding of the Koran as virtually any contemporary Muslim. Such comparisons are easy with the aid of on-line resources designed for this purpose, such as www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/quran. If one compares these translations, one finds a remarkable level of agreement, which adds confidence to the conclusions of this series of articles.
For the sake of readability, this series will not show multiple translations of each quote. It will focus on the translations of Pickthal and Yusuf Ali, and will try to present the version of each verse that is easiest to understand. If you have difficulty with any passage, I invite you to cross-check it yourself using any translation you wish.
For now, however, let us begin this investigation.
References:
[1] There are numerous sources for this history, such as The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Volume II, by Edward Gibbon, published by Random House as part of the Modern Library series, New York, chapter entitled Revolutions of Persia after the Death of Chrosroes or Nushirvan, pages 781-805, and Volume III of the same, chapters entitled Description of Arabia and Its Inhabitants—Birth, Character, and Doctrine of Mohammed, pages 57-131, and The Conquest of Persia, Syria, Egypt, Africa, and Spain, by the Arabs or Saracens, pages 131-209.
[2] Details of Muhammad’s life that were not mentioned in The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire can be found in Islam: A Very Short Introduction, by Malise Ruthven, Oxford University Press, 1997, chapter entitled The Quran and the Prophet, pages 28 – 39.
[3] This book quotes numerous Islamic sources that use C.E., meaning “Common Era,” instead of A.D., which stands for Anno Domini (Latin for “The year of our Lord”).
[4] Arabic for “City of the Prophet.”
[5] A leader of an Islamic polity, regarded as a successor of Muhammad and by tradition always male. — The American Heritage Dictionary, Fourth Edition, ed. Joseph P. Pickett, Houghton Mifflin Company, 2000. Muslims consider the Caliph to be Allah’s vicegerent (administrative deputy) on earth. Also referred to as Calif, Kaliph, Kalif, Khalif, Khalifa, and Khalifah.
[6] Also referred to as ‘Umar or Omar.
[7] The Koran for Dummies, by Sohaib Sultan, Wiley Publishing, Inc., 2004, Chapter 1, section entitled Receiving Revelation Straight from the Source, page 9.
[8] The Middle East for Dummies, by Craig S. Davis, PhD, Wiley Publishing, Inc., 2003, Chapter 22, entitled Language and Literature, page 323.
[9] For an example of the many places where you can find such analogies, see the website http://www.uwgb.edu/dutchs/WestTech/xislam.htm, which is an Islamic website at the University of Wisconsin, Green Bay. Look under its section entitled “The Koran.”
[10] The NIV Study Bible, General Editor: Kenneth Barker, Zondervan Publishing House, 1985, Psalm 7.
[11] ibid, Psalms 6, 12.
[12] ibid, Psalms 8, 59, 81, 84.
[13] ibid, Psalms 16, 57, 58, 59, 60.
[14] ibid, Psalms 32, 42, 44, 45, 53, 54, 55, 74, 78, 88, 89, 142.
[15] ibid, Psalm 46.
[16] ibid, Psalm 53.
[17] The Koran, English Translation, with Notes Only, by N.J. Dawood, Middlesex, England: Penguin Books, 1983, page 10.
[18] The books of the Bible were originally written in several different languages: Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic.
[19] Two translations that are universally accepted as authoritative are: The Glorious Koran, by Muhammad Marmaduke William Pickthal (London, 1930), and The Holy Qur’an: Translation and Commentary, by Abdullah Yusuf Ali (Lahore, 1934, 1937). Other translations that are considered authoritative by many Islamic leaders are: Holy Qur’aan, by M.H. Shakir (published by Tahrike Tarsile Qur’aan, Inc.), The Message of the Quran by Muhammad Asad (Gibraltar, 1980), and The Qur’an: The First American Version, by T.B. Irving (Vermont, 1985).
[20] Koranic verses are known as Ayat in Arabic. Ayat is the plural of Ayah, the word for sign. This is because each verse is considered to be a sign of Allah.
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