The Poor-Man's Guide to Modernity - Independent Media Center

Footnotes
[1] An early version of this article was submitted as comment for the article to the anon
website: http://lwtc247.wordpress.com/2011/06/09/jesus-isa-alahi-salam/#comment-5241
[2] http://print-humanbeingsfirst.blogspot.com/2009/12/morality-from-intellect-isenslavement.html
[3] http://faith-humanbeingsfirst.blogspot.com/2011/08/islam-why-is-quran-easy-to-hijackpt2.html
[4] A straightforward exposition can be found in Murtada Mutahhari, Understanding the
Uniqueness of the Qur'an, http://www.al-islam.org/al-tawhid/unique-quran.htm albeit with the
characteristic presuppositions common to all ingrained sectarian socializations already
examined in Part-I of Islam: Why is the Holy Qur'an so easy to hijack? http://faithhumanbeingsfirst.blogspot.com/2011/08/islam-why-is-quran-easy-to-hijack-pt1.html
This fact
of socialization is unfortunately not acknowledged by Mutahhari in his exposition even though it
is embedded in the teachings of the Holy Qur'an in its emphasis on the separation of righteous
beliefs (haquq Allah 42:10) from righteous acts (haquq-al-ibad 5:48). The Holy Qur'an calls
itself Al Furqan, the criterion, by which to judge both for one's own strivings in the path of
“haq”. That lack of recognition fortunately does not detract from Murtada Mutahhari's sensible
examination of how to study the Holy Quran despite that fact that he does lend an a priori
conclusion to such study based on his own socialization which is amply in evidence in his
exposition. It is in fact hard to find a scholar of any religion who fervently believes in that
religion, who would be immune to such a priori conclusions even as he might endeavor to
teach others how to study the religion and letting them arrive at their own conclusions AFTER
that study! This appears to be the inherent nature of socialization and of the subjectivity, and
hence the religiousity, conferred to it by the right-half brain. This is perhaps why the Holy
Qur'an while accepting socialization as a human fact, has also laid so much emphasis on
striving for “haq” under all conditions for everyone among mankind whereby, striving for
overcoming the nafs, the personal inclinations due to proclivity and socialization, is termed the
greater jihad and a co-requisite to the reflective study of the Holy Qur'an. See Part-II of Islam:
Why is the Holy Qur'an so easy to hijack? (Ibid.) for some inherent impediments in its path.
The Poor-Man's Guide to Modernity 196 / 334 Zahir Ebrahim