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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THE MUSLIM SCRIPTURE t 105<br />
Who Wrote Scripture?<br />
The Bible is not merely God’s direct speech—indeed, examples of<br />
such direct discourse <strong>for</strong>m only a small percentage of the whole—<br />
but is a composed narrative framework within which actions as<br />
well as speech unfold, <strong>and</strong> most often it is the speech of mortals.<br />
The <strong>Jews</strong> understood that the biblical books had authors—Moses,<br />
<strong>for</strong> example, <strong>and</strong> David, <strong>and</strong> Ezra—<strong>and</strong> to that extent they were<br />
linguistically conditioned, though nonetheless inspired. The Quran,<br />
in contrast, seems to present itself as the ipsissima verba of God,<br />
<strong>and</strong> in “manifest” or “convincing” Arabic (Quran 16:103, etc.).<br />
It has no framing narrative, however, no authorial signature or<br />
presence. In the Muslim view, Muhammad is not even a transmitter;<br />
he merely announced with absolute accuracy what he himself<br />
had heard. The consequence, then, is that the Quran contains<br />
the precise words of God, without human intervention or conditioning<br />
of any sort; that God had spoken, <strong>and</strong> Muhammad had<br />
heard <strong>and</strong> reported, Arabic speech. Finally, both <strong>Jews</strong> <strong>and</strong> Muslims<br />
use the text of Scripture as the essential base <strong>for</strong> their liturgical<br />
prayers. Though the Mishnah explicitly allows the use of the<br />
vernacular (“any language”) <strong>for</strong> the central liturgical prayers, the<br />
pull of the original tongue is strong among <strong>Jews</strong>, whereas among<br />
Muslims the practice of using Arabic in liturgical prayer is practically<br />
universal.<br />
<strong>Islam</strong> did not have, then, or did not recognize, an author or a<br />
multiple-author problem. God had spoken in this instance to one<br />
sole messenger, Muhammad, <strong>and</strong> the Quran is, in effect, his Torah;<br />
it is, in its entirety, God’s Word, without the addition of either the<br />
Books of Kings or Job. Muslims, moreover, will distinguish rather<br />
sharply the “inspired” Muhammad, whose word was Torah, from<br />
the man of Mecca <strong>and</strong> Medina who offered explanation, advice,<br />
<strong>and</strong> wise counsel. These latter were not in the Quran but were<br />
collected in a kind of deutero-canonical <strong>for</strong>m in the “Prophetic<br />
reports,” or hadith (see chapter 7). Some non-Muslims have argued<br />
that the hadith are a kind of Muslim apocrypha, the sayings<br />
pool out of which the Quran was selected <strong>and</strong> anointed as revela-