Islam: A Guide for Jews and Christians - Electric Scotland
Islam: A Guide for Jews and Christians - Electric Scotland
Islam: A Guide for Jews and Christians - Electric Scotland
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102 t CHAPTER FIVE<br />
Three Sacred Books, Three Peoples of the Book<br />
When the Peoples of the Book, the Muslim designation <strong>for</strong> Scripturalists,<br />
are said to “possess” a revelation in written <strong>for</strong>m, it does<br />
not mean merely that they have access to it or follow it or venerate<br />
it, all of which they do; it also signifies that they were its designated<br />
recipients <strong>and</strong> that they remain its privileged guardians <strong>and</strong><br />
interpreters. The Scripturalists are, each of them, also a Chosen<br />
People, <strong>and</strong> the Scripture they possess both records <strong>and</strong> validates<br />
that choice. Chosen People is a unique claim—there are no Chosen<br />
Peoples in the eyes of any of them—<strong>and</strong> so there is an obvious<br />
tension between the plural Peoples of the Book <strong>and</strong> the very singular<br />
Chosen People. There are three sacred books <strong>and</strong> three Peoples<br />
of the Book but only one of them, one of those Scriptures <strong>and</strong> one<br />
of those peoples who possess it, is truly authentic.<br />
The Books in question—the Bible, the New Testament, <strong>and</strong> the<br />
Quran—though looked on as emanating from the same source,<br />
are very different works. The Bible is a complex <strong>and</strong> composite<br />
blend of religious myth, historical narrative, legal enactments, prophetic<br />
admonitions, cautionary tales, <strong>and</strong> poetry composed over a<br />
long period <strong>and</strong> edited at some point into a single Book. The time<br />
span <strong>for</strong> the composition of the New Testament is considerably<br />
shorter, a half-century perhaps, but it too has a very mixed content<br />
of quasi biography, community history, letters, <strong>and</strong>, in some versions,<br />
an apocalyptic Book of Revelation. The Quran, as we have<br />
seen, is also composed of parts, not books but shorter, more chapterlike<br />
units called suras. Though they are <strong>for</strong>mally identical to the<br />
words sent down by God <strong>and</strong> inerrantly reported by Muhammad,<br />
the suras differ materially among themselves in length, style, <strong>and</strong><br />
content. Finally, as we have seen, they all date from a twenty-twoyear<br />
span in Muhammad’s life.<br />
Thus there came into being three sacred books, each in some<br />
sense the Word of God. Each collection has traditionally been regarded<br />
by its faith community as a complete, authoritative, <strong>and</strong><br />
universal statement regulating the role <strong>and</strong> conduct of humankind<br />
vis-a-vis its Creator. Each Scripture was, in addition, the birthright