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 113<br />
many of these Hebrew anthropomorphic expressions in their passage<br />
into Greek, but other students of the Bible still had to resort<br />
to an “other reading” (allegoria), a sense residing behind or under<br />
the literal meaning, in order truly to explain Scripture.<br />
The earliest Muslim concern about the “reading” of Scripture<br />
was along a crucial fault line to which the Quran itself had drawn<br />
attention, that between the “categorical” (mukhamat) <strong>and</strong> the<br />
“ambiguous” (mutashabihat) verses in the Quran (3:7). The Arabic<br />
words describing the verses are themselves somewhat ambiguous,<br />
as was the possibility of underst<strong>and</strong>ing these latter, whether<br />
by God alone or also by “those firmly rooted in knowledge,” that<br />
is, the experts. They pointed, in any event, to some type of distinction<br />
within the verses of the Quran, <strong>and</strong> exegesis was bound to<br />
follow where the arrow pointed.<br />
The Quran thus openly warns of its own ambiguities, <strong>and</strong> so<br />
Muslims have not hesitated to attempt to unravel the obscurities of<br />
the sacred text; indeed, they have devoted enormous energy to the<br />
task of tafsir in all the same types practiced by the <strong>Jews</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Christians</strong>.<br />
These exegetical ef<strong>for</strong>ts eventually ranged from detailed <strong>and</strong><br />
sophisticated study of the lexicographical <strong>and</strong> syntactical problems<br />
posed by the Quran to driving the meaning into the sometimes<br />
remote regions where sectarian preferences or mystical longings<br />
wished it to go. But not perhaps from the very beginning.<br />
Since the Quran was not a historically conditioned revelation, but<br />
rather was thought to reflect an eternal heavenly archetype composed<br />
of the very same words, the so-called Mother of the Book,<br />
the Muslim approach to its exegesis was initially quite different<br />
from that pursued by the other Peoples of the Book. The Quran<br />
did not easily suffer either translation or paraphrase. On the Christian<br />
premise, Jesus was his own revelation: he could teach its significance<br />
with authority <strong>and</strong> pass on that teaching to his disciples<br />
in a <strong>for</strong>mal <strong>and</strong> imperative fashion. Muhammad, in contrast, was<br />
the conduit of God’s revelation, much as Moses was, <strong>and</strong> during<br />
his own lifetime there was no question that he <strong>and</strong> only he was<br />
the authoritative interpreter of that revelation <strong>for</strong> the Muslim<br />
community.