What do you regard as the distinction between Christianity and Islam? Are both RELIGIONS? Is one of it authentic and the other a facade of the reality? But they say that both came from the loins of the same father; Abraham. What about their literature, because both have books published to their dogmatic account? My name is Fred. I train people in leadership. At this point,I'm just an inquisitor. Lets walk together into this.
The Bible and the Qur'an are often compared to each other when Christians and Muslims are discussing issues. They are typically compared in the following ways:
1. Preservation of text
2. Formation of canon
3. Teaching about Jesus, women, warfare, etc.
4. Scientific accuracy
5. Contradictions
This type of comparison is something that I myself have done in the past. However, it is actually inaccurate and misleading to compare the Bible to the Qur'an.
There are two reasons for this.
Reason 1. The Context of the Bible and Qur'an
The Qur'an revolves and evolves around Muhammad's life. Muhammad recited the words of the Qur'an in response to various situations in his life, but what these situations were is not recorded in the Qur'an. That is, the Qur'an does not provide its own context or chronology.
Knowing the correct context and chronology is essential to understand the Qur'an. But to know this context and chronology you must go outside of the Qur'an to the Islamic traditions - books like the Hadith or Sira literature. These books provide the context for the Qur'an. The Islamic scholar Habib Ur Rahman Azami clearly states the Qur'an's dependence upon the Hadith and Sira.
It is almost impossible to understand or explain the meaning of a large number of Qur'anic verses if the Traditions are rejected as useless and inauthentic. (Habib Ur Rahman Azami, The Sunnah in Islam, pp. 29-31.)
The Bible, however, is very different. It provides its own context and chronology. Its revelation begins with creation and tells the story right through to the new creation, the age of the resurrection. When the Bible gives various commands or announces the Gospel it does so within a context that it itself has revealed. Thus, to understand the Bible you only need the Bible.
The Bible is self-sufficient, as the word of God should be. Therefore to compare the Bible to the Qur'an alone is misleading and inaccurate.
Reason 2. Practices and Beliefs
The Qur'an does not contain most of the basic practices or many of the beliefs of Islam.
The Sunnah (the example of Muhammad) is the crucial complement to the Koran; so much so, that there are in fact isolated instances where, in fact, the Sunnah appears to prevail over the Koran as, for example, when the Koran refers to three daily prayers (24:58 and 11:116), but the Sunnah sets five. On the other hand, there are cases from the earliest days of Islam of universal practices which appear to contradict express Sunnah. Moreover, the Koran does not make explicit all of its commands; not even all those which are fundamental. Thus it enjoins prayer, but not how it is to be performed: the form of canonical prayer (salah) is based entirely on Sunnah. (Cyril Glassé, "Sunnah", The Concise Encyclopedia of Islam, pp. 381-382)
The obligatory injunction to establish Salah (regular, formal worship) was revealed in the Qur’an as were some of the elements of Salah (like Qiyam, Ruku`, Sujud and Qira’ah). But the actual manner of offering Salah and the order in which the various acts connected with it were to be performed, were not described in the Qur’an. ... Similarly the Hajj or 'Hijja' (pilgrimage to Mecca) was prescribed as a religious duty in the Qur'an but its method and formalities were not defined. The Prophet showed the correct way by performing the Hajj himself. (Habib Ur Rahman Azami, pp. 10-11)
Narrated Al-Irbad ibn Sariyah as-Sulami: ... They gathered and the Prophet (peace_be_upon_him) led them in prayer, stood up and said: Does any of you, while reclining on his couch, imagine that Allah has prohibited only that which is to be found in this Qur'an? By Allah, I have preached, commanded and prohibited various matters as numerous as that which is found in the Qur'an, or more numerous. ... (Abu-Dawud: bk. 19, no. 3044, Hasan)
Islamic Shariah is complete only with recourse to both the Qur'an and the Sunnah. (Habib Ur Rahman Azami, p. 5)
Now, when and what to pray, what to do on Hajj, circumcision, the signs of the hour, in fact most of the essential Islamic practices and beliefs come from the Sunnah (practices) of Muhammad.
The Sunnah is essential to Islam but it does not come from the Qur'an but the Hadith and Sira. Again, this is not the case with the Bible. The Bible has everything a Christian needs. The Bible fully declares what God has done to save us and bring glory to himself and how we are to live. It is the basis for our wisdom and defines our liberty. Therefore to compare the Bible to the Qur'an alone is misleading and inaccurate.
A More Accurate Comparison
It should be clear now that to compare the Bible to the Qur'an is irrelevant because while the Bible is the foundation of Christianity, the Qur'an is not the foundation of Islam, rather Islam is founded on the Qur'an, Hadith and Sira. If you want an honest and accurate comparison between the books of Christianity and Islam then you must compare the essential books of both religions of which, and i stand to be corrected, one is a religion, while the other is not.
Some facts on the Hadith.
The word "hadith" means an account or news about something. A hadith can vary in length from a sentence to a full page. In Islam the main subject of the Hadith is what Muhammad did and said, that is, the Hadith contain the Sunnah. There are many large collections of Hadith. Prof. Masud-ul-Hasan explains what the main collections are:
The recognised collection of Hadith on the "Musannaf"
1] pattern are the collections of:
a. Al-Bukhari (dated. 870 C.E.) [A collection of 7658 hadiths (ahadith).]
b. Muslim (dated. 875 C.E.) [A collection of 7748 hadiths.]
c. Abu Daud (dated. 875 C.E.) [A collection of 5276 hadiths.]
d. Al-Tirmizi (dated. 892 C.E.) [A collection of 4415 hadiths.]
e. Al-Nasai (dated. 915 C.E.) [A collection of 5776 hadiths.]
f. Ibn Maja (dated. 886 C.E.) [A collection of 4485 hadiths.]
The collections of Al-Bukhari and Muslim rank high and are known as "Al-Sahihain" i.e. authentic and authoritative.
The best known collection on the "Musnad"[
2] pattern is the collection of Ahmad ibn Hanbal (dated. 855 C.E.).
The Shia works on do not merely refer to what the Holy Prophet said or did, they also refer to what the "Hadith", Shia Imams said or did. The Shia works on Hadith are the collections of:
a. Muhammad ibn Yakub Al-Kulluni (d. 939 C.E.)
b. Muhammad Al-Hummi (d. 991 C.E.)
c. Tahir Al-Sharif Al-Murtaza (d. 1004 C.E.)
d. Muhammad Al-Tusi (d. 1067 C.E.) (Prof. Masud-ul-Hasan, History of Islam, vol. 1, p. 613) There is also the important collection of the Muwatta of Malik.Ibn Sa'd
Ibn Ishaq
Some facts on the Sira.
The Sira are the biographies of Muhammad's life. These provide the context and chronology of his life, and thus the context and chronology of the Qur'an.
The two oldest Sira are:
a. Muhammad ibn Ishaq (d. 773 C.E.) via ibn Hisham's (d. 840 C.E.) recension, Sirat Rasul Allah. (English translation 798 pages[3].)
b. Muhammad ibn Sa'd (d. 852 C.E.), Kitab al-Tabaqat al-Kabir, (English translation, 1097 pages[4].)
As you can read and see, there are a lot of other essential books in Islam than just the Qur'an, and they are all much bigger than the Qur'an. Both Bukhari and Muslim contain more hadiths than the Qur'an's 6236 verses. I have been told by an ex-Muslim Islamic scholar that Islam is 10% Quran and 90% traditions (Hadith and Sira).
The Quran is like the frame of a picture. It sets some boundaries, but the details of the picture are provided by the traditions.
Some Application
1. Do not think that the Qur'an and Bible are the same. The Qur'an does not provide the context for what it says or have the essential practices of Islam; these come from other books. The Bible however has everything for Christian belief and practice.
2. If Christians and Muslims want to compare books regarding the preservation of the text, the formation of the canon, teaching on various subjects, scientific accuracy and contradictions, then the Hadith and Sira must be included in this comparison for it to be accurate and meaningful. If you see an Islamic leader comparing the Bible to just the Qur'an then have the courage to explain why this is inadequate and misleading.
3. In the media, Islamic leaders, and others, often say that certain practices, like female circumcision, are not authentic Islam because they are not in the Qur'an. However, statements like these are either ill-informed or deliberately misleading because authentic Islam is not based on the Qur'an but on the Qur'an and Sunnah. It is true that the Qur'an does not mention male or female circumcision, but this does not stop circumcision from being an authentic Islamic practice because it comes from the Sunnah.
4. Islam is a complex religion because it is based on so many books, each of which have their own method of study and critical issues. It is very difficult, if not impossible, for most Muslims to be familiar with all these essential books. This means that Muslims must depend upon their scholars to make the complex simple. However, it is possible for a Christian to read and be familiar with the whole Bible. When we invite you to become a Christian we are only asking you to accept the Bible.
Endnotes
References
Sulaiman Abu Dawud, Sunan Abu-Dawud (translator: Prof. Ahmad Hasan).
Habib Ur Rahman Azami, The Sunnah in Islam, U.K.: UK Islamic Academy, 1995.
Prof. Masud-ul-Hasan, History of Islam, Delhi: Adam Publishers & Distributors, 2002.
Cyril Glassé, The Concise Encyclopedia of Islam, San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1989.
Monday, March 8, 2010
The impossibility of the revelation of the Qur’an
I have of late began diving into the intricacies of understanding world religions and the basic construct of their philosophies and what I am finding is quite interesting. I thought I'd post this for your digestion first and foremost. Fred. For the RESTORATION, and THE LIFE COMMUNITY, THIKA.
The Qur’an presents the concept of Allah in a way which makes the Qur’an’s revelation itself impossible. To understand this, let us have a closer look at one Qur’anic verse:
“… nothing is like him, he is the All-hearing, the All-seeing” (Q. 42:11).
To begin with, if we consider the characteristics of Allah that the Qur’an displays and the way Muslims have dealt with them, we find that they are meaningless words. The author of Nahj Al-Balagha, defining Allah’s characteristics, says:
The foremost in religion is the acknowledgement of Him, the perfection of acknowledging Him is to testify Him, the perfection of testifying Him is to believe in His Oneness, the perfection of believing in His Oneness is to regard Him Pure, and the perfection of His purity is to deny Him attributes, because every attribute is a proof that it is different from that to which it is attributed and everything to which something is attributed is different from the attribute.
Thus whoever attaches attributes to Allah recognises His like, and who recognises His like regards Him two; and who regards Him two recognises parts for Him; and who recognises parts for Him mistook Him; and who mistook Him pointed at Him; and who pointed at Him admitted limitations for Him; and who admitted limitations for Him numbered Him. Whoever said in what is He, held that He is contained; and whoever said on what is He held He is not on something else. He is a Being but not through phenomenon of coming into being. He exists but not from non-existence. He is with everything but not in physical nearness. He is different from everything but not in physical separation. He acts but without connotation of movements and instruments. He sees even when there is none to be looked at from among His creation. He is only One, such that there is none with whom He may keep company or whom He may miss in his absence. (Source)
Ibn Ishaq Al Kindy says: “Allah, may he be blessed and exalted, is absolutely one, and does not allow any multiplicity or composition. He is beyond description, and can not be described by any category. (The magazine of the University of Umm-Al-Qura, Vol. 6, p. 123)
This makes all talk of Allah meaningless, not to mention that it gives rise to self-reference paradoxes like: Allah, who cannot be described by any category, is in the category of that which is not composite. Or, Allah is in a category all his own, namely, the category of that which cannot be categorized. Or, Allah may be described as that being which cannot be described.
Muslims may say that those who have such views are not the people of the Sunnah. But the views of Sunni Muslims hardly represent an improvement upon the views just mentioned. The doctrine of Sunni Islam relating to the names and characteristics of Allah states: “The names of Allah –may he be exalted– depend on the Qur’an and Sunnah, without addition or subtraction; and because reason cannot comprehend the names which Allah is worthy of, it is unavoidable to solely depend on the text. (Al-Majla Sharh Al-Akeeda Al-Muthla – Ibn Otheimeen 1:8)
At this point the Sunni Muslims would tell us that they are confirming what pertains to Allah according to the Book and the Sunnah. But this does not explain anything; we had already admitted that those characteristics are there. The problem is that by viewing them in the light of the Muslims’ doctrines they are mere empty words.
The text of Sura 42:11 tells us that, “He is the All-seeing, the All-hearing.” But what do those words mean according to the belief of Sunni Muslims? The reason for considering only the Sunni belief is the fact that others have exempted us from this discussion by their own admission, as the Shia, for example, put it: “the perfection of His purity is to deny Him attributes,” and in fact, “He cannot be described by any category.” As for the Sunnis, they confirm the characteristics, but they say the fundamental belief of the Sunnis is that Allah is to be described by what he described himself or by what the Messenger of Allah (SAWS) described him without any comparison or likening, or interpretation and nullification.
The confirmation of this characteristic of Allah and other characteristics does not necessitate any attempt to liken them to the characteristics of humans. In fact they are not similar to the characteristics of human beings but rather characteristics that befit his majesty and glory: “nothing is like him, he is the All-hearing, the All-seeing” (42:11).
In order to understand a certain thing we need to know what is the meaning of the terms used.
Likening: to believe that any of Allah’s characteristics is like the characteristics of human beings.
Analogy: to believe that Allah’s characteristics are analogous to human characteristics.
Nullification: to deny Allah’s characteristics or attribute completely.
Interpretation: it means to try to understand the words in another way than the obvious meaning, like to say "hand" means power or "eye" means care or any thing of that sort.
Under these definitions it is impossible to understand any word whatsoever. Suppose we ask about the meaning of “the All-hearing, the All-seeing”. The answer should be, ‘they mean “the All-hearing , the All-seeing”’. However this meaning - according to Muslims - should not be associated with any picture perceived by human reason. Their scholars stressed this to the extent to say: “it is impossible that Allah -glory and power to him- would have in himself and his characteristics anything imagined or perceived by humans, because Allah is different from anything you could think of.” (The Explanation of the Tahawi’s belief – Saleh Al Al-Sheikh – a lecture on Saturday 13 Thee Al Kaadeh, 1417 H - quoted from the Comprehensive Encyclopaedia; source, page (1/168))
But if such words cannot be defined, then what is the difference between saying that Allah is “the all-hearing” and Allah is “the all-seeing”? On such an approach, all such “characteristics” of Allah collapse into one meaningless “characteristic”.
Even when the characteristics of Allah agree in wording with the characteristics of creatures, they do not mean the same thing according to Muslims. Thus they say: “it is not permissible for a man to say: Allah is knowing and I am knowing, Allah is existing and I am existing, Allah is living and I am living, Allah is capable and I am capable. I should not say this in a free manner but rather specifying that Allah’s knowledge, capacity, existence and life are different from our knowledge, capacity, existence and life.” (The Essence of Explaining the Islamic belief - the subject of Allah’s characteristics; source, 3rd point: The un-likeness to creation)
If we consider the above discussion logically we would find out that the Islamic doctrine makes the revelation of the Qur’an impossible.
The Qur’an says about Allah “nothing is like him”.
This means that Allah is other than anything that comes to your mind about him.Muslims believe in the doctrine of "Mukhalaft مخالفة" ‘unlikeness’, which means there is no likeness whatsoever between Allah, and his characteristics, on one hand and all that pertains to creatures on the other.
The Qur’an is Allah’s word which is not like human words. (Arabic source for the fourth point.)The above demonstrates that it is impossible to use human language to talk about Allah. That means if the Qur’an is credible in what it tells about Allah’s nature and characteristics, then it cannot be a revelation from that Allah. In other words, if it is false, it is false; if it is true, it is also false; therefore, it is false.
This teaching of the Qur'an leads to the impossibility of using human language to define Allah.
Therefore, since the Qur’an is written with human language, it can not be an expression of Allah, it cannot be a revelation from him, nor can it be his word.
That is to say if the Qur’an is true about who Allah is, it cannot be true about what the Qur’an is, and vice versa.
The only way, for Muslims to solve this dilemma is by considering that all words of the Qur’an are other than facts and that they are not equivalent to any human concept even if the wordings of both agree. Expressed differently, those words actually mean nothing, they are in fact only empty words.
Thus, the Muslims’ teaching that Allah is other than what comes to our minds logically means that if we have understood what the Qur’an said about Allah, He is other than what the Qur’an has said about him.
Footnotes
1 Ibn Ishaq Al Kindy was not a Shiite. He was a Muslim philosopher influenced by Mutazilite theology. For more information, see the Wikipedia entry on Al-Kindi.
2 I.e. various other sects of Islam, the Mutazilites being the most prominent group besides the Shia.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
© Answering Islam, 1999 - 2010. All rights reserved.
The Qur’an presents the concept of Allah in a way which makes the Qur’an’s revelation itself impossible. To understand this, let us have a closer look at one Qur’anic verse:
“… nothing is like him, he is the All-hearing, the All-seeing” (Q. 42:11).
To begin with, if we consider the characteristics of Allah that the Qur’an displays and the way Muslims have dealt with them, we find that they are meaningless words. The author of Nahj Al-Balagha, defining Allah’s characteristics, says:
The foremost in religion is the acknowledgement of Him, the perfection of acknowledging Him is to testify Him, the perfection of testifying Him is to believe in His Oneness, the perfection of believing in His Oneness is to regard Him Pure, and the perfection of His purity is to deny Him attributes, because every attribute is a proof that it is different from that to which it is attributed and everything to which something is attributed is different from the attribute.
Thus whoever attaches attributes to Allah recognises His like, and who recognises His like regards Him two; and who regards Him two recognises parts for Him; and who recognises parts for Him mistook Him; and who mistook Him pointed at Him; and who pointed at Him admitted limitations for Him; and who admitted limitations for Him numbered Him. Whoever said in what is He, held that He is contained; and whoever said on what is He held He is not on something else. He is a Being but not through phenomenon of coming into being. He exists but not from non-existence. He is with everything but not in physical nearness. He is different from everything but not in physical separation. He acts but without connotation of movements and instruments. He sees even when there is none to be looked at from among His creation. He is only One, such that there is none with whom He may keep company or whom He may miss in his absence. (Source)
Ibn Ishaq Al Kindy says: “Allah, may he be blessed and exalted, is absolutely one, and does not allow any multiplicity or composition. He is beyond description, and can not be described by any category. (The magazine of the University of Umm-Al-Qura, Vol. 6, p. 123)
This makes all talk of Allah meaningless, not to mention that it gives rise to self-reference paradoxes like: Allah, who cannot be described by any category, is in the category of that which is not composite. Or, Allah is in a category all his own, namely, the category of that which cannot be categorized. Or, Allah may be described as that being which cannot be described.
Muslims may say that those who have such views are not the people of the Sunnah. But the views of Sunni Muslims hardly represent an improvement upon the views just mentioned. The doctrine of Sunni Islam relating to the names and characteristics of Allah states: “The names of Allah –may he be exalted– depend on the Qur’an and Sunnah, without addition or subtraction; and because reason cannot comprehend the names which Allah is worthy of, it is unavoidable to solely depend on the text. (Al-Majla Sharh Al-Akeeda Al-Muthla – Ibn Otheimeen 1:8)
At this point the Sunni Muslims would tell us that they are confirming what pertains to Allah according to the Book and the Sunnah. But this does not explain anything; we had already admitted that those characteristics are there. The problem is that by viewing them in the light of the Muslims’ doctrines they are mere empty words.
The text of Sura 42:11 tells us that, “He is the All-seeing, the All-hearing.” But what do those words mean according to the belief of Sunni Muslims? The reason for considering only the Sunni belief is the fact that others have exempted us from this discussion by their own admission, as the Shia, for example, put it: “the perfection of His purity is to deny Him attributes,” and in fact, “He cannot be described by any category.” As for the Sunnis, they confirm the characteristics, but they say the fundamental belief of the Sunnis is that Allah is to be described by what he described himself or by what the Messenger of Allah (SAWS) described him without any comparison or likening, or interpretation and nullification.
The confirmation of this characteristic of Allah and other characteristics does not necessitate any attempt to liken them to the characteristics of humans. In fact they are not similar to the characteristics of human beings but rather characteristics that befit his majesty and glory: “nothing is like him, he is the All-hearing, the All-seeing” (42:11).
In order to understand a certain thing we need to know what is the meaning of the terms used.
Likening: to believe that any of Allah’s characteristics is like the characteristics of human beings.
Analogy: to believe that Allah’s characteristics are analogous to human characteristics.
Nullification: to deny Allah’s characteristics or attribute completely.
Interpretation: it means to try to understand the words in another way than the obvious meaning, like to say "hand" means power or "eye" means care or any thing of that sort.
Under these definitions it is impossible to understand any word whatsoever. Suppose we ask about the meaning of “the All-hearing, the All-seeing”. The answer should be, ‘they mean “the All-hearing , the All-seeing”’. However this meaning - according to Muslims - should not be associated with any picture perceived by human reason. Their scholars stressed this to the extent to say: “it is impossible that Allah -glory and power to him- would have in himself and his characteristics anything imagined or perceived by humans, because Allah is different from anything you could think of.” (The Explanation of the Tahawi’s belief – Saleh Al Al-Sheikh – a lecture on Saturday 13 Thee Al Kaadeh, 1417 H - quoted from the Comprehensive Encyclopaedia; source, page (1/168))
But if such words cannot be defined, then what is the difference between saying that Allah is “the all-hearing” and Allah is “the all-seeing”? On such an approach, all such “characteristics” of Allah collapse into one meaningless “characteristic”.
Even when the characteristics of Allah agree in wording with the characteristics of creatures, they do not mean the same thing according to Muslims. Thus they say: “it is not permissible for a man to say: Allah is knowing and I am knowing, Allah is existing and I am existing, Allah is living and I am living, Allah is capable and I am capable. I should not say this in a free manner but rather specifying that Allah’s knowledge, capacity, existence and life are different from our knowledge, capacity, existence and life.” (The Essence of Explaining the Islamic belief - the subject of Allah’s characteristics; source, 3rd point: The un-likeness to creation)
If we consider the above discussion logically we would find out that the Islamic doctrine makes the revelation of the Qur’an impossible.
The Qur’an says about Allah “nothing is like him”.
This means that Allah is other than anything that comes to your mind about him.Muslims believe in the doctrine of "Mukhalaft مخالفة" ‘unlikeness’, which means there is no likeness whatsoever between Allah, and his characteristics, on one hand and all that pertains to creatures on the other.
The Qur’an is Allah’s word which is not like human words. (Arabic source for the fourth point.)The above demonstrates that it is impossible to use human language to talk about Allah. That means if the Qur’an is credible in what it tells about Allah’s nature and characteristics, then it cannot be a revelation from that Allah. In other words, if it is false, it is false; if it is true, it is also false; therefore, it is false.
This teaching of the Qur'an leads to the impossibility of using human language to define Allah.
Therefore, since the Qur’an is written with human language, it can not be an expression of Allah, it cannot be a revelation from him, nor can it be his word.
That is to say if the Qur’an is true about who Allah is, it cannot be true about what the Qur’an is, and vice versa.
The only way, for Muslims to solve this dilemma is by considering that all words of the Qur’an are other than facts and that they are not equivalent to any human concept even if the wordings of both agree. Expressed differently, those words actually mean nothing, they are in fact only empty words.
Thus, the Muslims’ teaching that Allah is other than what comes to our minds logically means that if we have understood what the Qur’an said about Allah, He is other than what the Qur’an has said about him.
Footnotes
1 Ibn Ishaq Al Kindy was not a Shiite. He was a Muslim philosopher influenced by Mutazilite theology. For more information, see the Wikipedia entry on Al-Kindi.
2 I.e. various other sects of Islam, the Mutazilites being the most prominent group besides the Shia.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
© Answering Islam, 1999 - 2010. All rights reserved.
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