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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GOD’ S WAY t 163<br />
ambiguity or contradiction, on the face of the text. All else must be<br />
extracted from beneath the received words.<br />
Very little of the Quran was given over to what might be thought<br />
of as legal matters: by one count, only 350 verses, or somewhat<br />
less than 3 percent of the received quranic text, is legal in content.<br />
These verses have been further broken down, with some disagreement<br />
on details, into 140 on the regulation of prayer, fasting,<br />
pilgrimage, <strong>and</strong> the like, 70 on questions of personal status (marriage,<br />
divorce, inheritance, etc.), 70 more on commercial transactions<br />
(sales, loans, usury), 30 on crimes <strong>and</strong> punishments, another<br />
30 on justice, <strong>and</strong> a final 10 on economic matters. This is merely a<br />
material description. Nor are all these verses in the <strong>for</strong>m of explicit<br />
comm<strong>and</strong>s or prohibitions, <strong>and</strong> there are overlaps <strong>and</strong> even contradictions<br />
among them, the latter of which have to be resolved<br />
either by exegetical harmonizing, that is, by showing that the contradictions<br />
are only apparent, or else by invoking the principle of<br />
abrogation, whereby, as we have seen, a later comm<strong>and</strong> cancels an<br />
earlier (contradictory) one.<br />
Instruction from On High: The Prophetic Reports<br />
There was more to <strong>Islam</strong> than the Quran, as it turned out. Muhammad,<br />
like Jesus, spoke with authority, not his own, to be sure,<br />
but God’s <strong>and</strong>, at times, with God’s very own words. The Quran<br />
was understood by Muhammad’s followers as the ipsissima verba<br />
Dei, <strong>and</strong> we must assume that in this case too God’s Prophet both<br />
volunteered <strong>and</strong> was requested to explain the sometimes opaque<br />
meaning of God’s words <strong>and</strong> will, <strong>and</strong> even to give direction in<br />
other matters that were treated more generally, or perhaps not at<br />
all, in the Scripture. Muhammad, it is not difficult to believe, was<br />
<strong>Islam</strong>’s first <strong>and</strong> most authoritative exegete <strong>and</strong> jurisprudent. Nor<br />
is it unreasonable to imagine that his respectful <strong>and</strong> perhaps awestruck<br />
contemporaries remembered his words of personal guidance<br />
<strong>and</strong> explanations with some of the same fervor <strong>and</strong> fidelity as<br />
they remembered his announcement of the words of God.<br />
We can only guess how the Muslims conducted their legal affairs