Islam and Scripture: Difference between revisions

{{QualityScore|Lead=3|Structure=4|Content=3|Language=4|References=3}}Islam acknowledges two primary varieties of '''scripture''', the [[Quran]] and the [[hadith]]. The Quran is believed to be directly spoken, eternal, and yet "uncreated" word of Allah, while the hadith comprise reports of varying authenticity from [[Sahabah|Muhammad's companions (the ''sahabah'')]], transmitted through various members of successive generations regarding specific actions, statements, or 'tacit approvals' of Muhammad. The 'tacit approvals' of Muhammad include any event where Muhammad was present or regarding which Muhammad was aware of or made aware of and against which he did not protest - his silence in these cases is held to count as his approval. [[Textual History of the Qur'an|The textual history of the Quran]] is complex and subject to interminable debate, but it is generally agreed that some final version of the Quran was compiled and authorized by the [[Rashidun Caliphs|''Rashidun'' ("rightly guided") Caliphs]] within a decade of [[Muhammad's Death|Muhammad's death]], with all competing versions being outlawed and destroyed. While a select few hadiths were written down in the first century after Muhammad's death, these were, as a rule, not recorded with their chains of transmission (pl. ''asaneed'', s. ''Isnad''). Vastly more hadiths were compiled in writing in the period 150-200 years following Muhammad's death. While Islamic scholars to this day place great faith in the historicity and preservation of the [[sahih]] ("reliable") hadith and especially the Quran, the traditional narrative regarding the preservation of either has been increasingly challenged by professional historians. The hadith in particular have been subjected to wide-ranging criticism and are said to bear the clear marks of early sectarian influence, hagiographic idealization, and the competing fancies of early scholars of [[Fiqh (Islamic Jurisprudence)|Islamic jurisprudence (''fiqh'')]].

The two most authoritative, sahih collections of hadith are [[Sahih Bukhari]] and [[Sahih Muslim]].

:''Main Article:'' ''[[Qur'an]]''

The ''Qur'ān'' (القرآن) is the central religious text of Islam and is held to be the final and perfect guidance for all of mankind.<ref>[{{Quran-url-only|33|40}} Qur'an, Chapter 33, Verse 40]</ref><ref>Watton, Victor, (1993), ''A student's approach to world religions:Islam'', Hodder & Stoughton, pg 1. ISBN 0-340-58795-4</ref> The text in its original Arabic is believed to be the literal word of Allah<ref>[{{Quran-url-only|2|23}} Qur'ān, Chapter 2, Verses 23-24]</ref> revealed by the angel [[Jibreel (Angel Gabriel)|Jibreel (Gabriel)]] to Prophet Muhammad over a period of twenty-three years.<ref>''Living Religions: An Encyclopaedia of the World's Faiths,'' Mary Pat Fisher, 1997, page 338,  I.B. Tauris Publishers,</ref><ref>[{{Quran-url-only|17|106}} Qur'an, Chapter 17, Verse 106]</ref>

===Textual history of the Quran===

{{Main|Textual History of the Qur'an}}The textual integrity of scripture is an important topic in Islamic circles that has been subject to ongoing debate among scholars in both religious and academic circles. Western research on the textual history of the Quran, conducted in the recent past, has reinvigorated these debates and shed unwelcome light on some of the problems inherent in traditional accounts of the Quran's early compilation by bringing details generally ignored by traditional, religious scholarship to the forefront.

{{Main|Diacritical Marks of the Qur'an}}As Arabic writing system was still in development during the time of Muhammad, the Qur'an was originally written without the diacritical and phonetic marks that today appear in virtually all printed versions of the scripture. These markings were added years after 'the final Qur'anic revelation' and Muhammad's death. Historians and critics have continually noted that the late addition of these markings is problematic for a traditional narrative which argues for the preservation of the Quran, since various sets and arrangements of diacritical markings can and do significantly impact the meaning of the Arabic text.

{{Main|Organization of the Quran|l1=Organization of the Qur'an}}Excepting the first surah, [[Al-Fatiha|''al-Fatiha'']] ("The Opener"), the [[Surah|surahs (chapters)]] contained in the Quran are, broadly speaking, arranged in order of diminishing length. The longest sura is surah 2 (''al-Baqarah'', "The Cow") and the (second) shortest is surah 114 (al-Nas, "The People"). While standard prints of the Qur'an make no distinction between passages revealed to the prophet in [[Mecca]] or [[Medina]], Islamic scholarship and professional historians generally agree that a part of the Qur'an was revealed before and a part after the prophet's hijra, or flight, from Mecca to Medina.

{{Main|Chronological Order of the Qur'an}}This page lists the chronological (or revelational) order of the Qur'an. Whereas the earlier Meccan verses of the Qur'an focus on matters of belief and general behavior, the later, Medinan verses of the Qur'an, revealed during the prophets political and military campaign in and reign over Arabia, focus a great deal more on matters of Islamic law and jihad. In this order, over time, the revelations also shifted from a poetic and morally exhortative style in Mecca to a more prosaic and often aggressive style in the later years in Medina.

The messages of later Medinan Qur'anic revelations frequently changed, contradicted, and revised earlier Meccan ones. As a result the Qur'an, read in its non-chronological organization, appears at surface-level to support a wide variety of doctrines, many of which are mutually exclusive (such as the complete prohibition of alcohol, partial prohibition of alcohol, and outright praising of wine-producing vineyards). To reconcile these differences, drawing on {{Quran|2|106}} and similar verses, developed the doctrine of Abrogation (''Naskh''). While the specifics and application of the doctrine have been and continue to be widely contested by Islamic scholars, with some denying it outright (including, most recently, Sh. Jasser Auda<ref>{{Citation|author=Jasser Auda|title=A Critique of the Theory of Abrogation|publisher=Kube|year=2019|isbn=978-0860377306}}</ref>), it is accepted by most Islamic scholars as operative at at least some, minimal level, since it is difficult to otherwise justify the contradictory messages found throughout the text.

====Revelational circumstances====

:''Main Article:'' ''[[Asbab al-Nuzul (Revelational Circumstances of the Quran)]]; See also: [[Convenient Revelations]]''

When discussing the applicability of the commands of the Qur'an in modern times, some modern Islamic scholars have argued that the less agreeable verses contained in the Quran apply only to their original revalational circumstances. However, such ideas regarding the evolution and changing of Islamic law are generally considered heresy in traditional formulations of orthodox Sunni Islam, which adjudicates that the relevance and applicability of Quranic verses is 'by the generality of the word (''umoom al-lafdh'') and not by the specificity of the circumstance (''khusus al-sabab'')". With more than a millennium of tradition militating against this revisionary perspective, it is perhaps unsurprising that the overwhelming majority of Islamic scholars have been unwelcoming to attempts at historicizing parts of the Quran.

====Parallelism with Extra-Biblical stories====

{{Main|Parallels Between the Qur'an and Late Antique Judeo-Christian Literature}}The thematic and narrative contents of Islamic scripture (and hence Islam) draw heavily on the Abrahamic tradition as it existed in and around Arabia in late antiquity. Where the contents of scripture diverge from or even directly contradict (at times pointing out the disagreement) this heritage, Islamic scholars hold that this is due to the [[Corruption of Previous Scriptures|corruption of the previous scriptures]] which Muhammad's revelation only seeks to correct. Historians, however, do not see the Islamic scriptures as in any way correcting the biblical narratives so as to make them more historically accurate (Indeed, the stories that comprise the Abrahamic tradition are, for the most part, of very limited historical merit to begin with). Instead, historians hold that Quran makes use of relatively late extra-Biblical sources (stories found in Judeo-Christian apocrypha and legends, the Talmud and Mishnah, and Syriac Christian homilies), adaptating them to the theological stance of its author.

:''Main Article:'' ''[[Contradictions in the Quran]]''

===Scientific errors===

{{Main|Scientific Errors in the Quran}}A common criticism of the [[Quran]], [[Scientific Errors in the Hadith|as with the Hadith]], is that it contains numerous [[Islam and Science|scientific]] and historical errors, with no obvious attempts to differentiate its understanding of the natural world and historical events from the common folklore and misconceptions of the people living in 7^th century Arabia. Modern responses typically appeal to metaphor, alternative meanings, or [[w:Phenomenology (philosophy)|phenomenological]] interpretations of such verses. They also argue that the wording needed to be acceptable to people of its time. Critics typically argue that an all-knowing, perfect communicator would nevertheless have been able to avoid statements in the Quran that reinforced misconceptions of the time, caused future generations to have doubts about its perfection, and on a scale that critics contend is an overwhelming weakness.

{{Main|Misrepresentations of Islamic Scripture (English)}}Critics have argued that interpretations of the Quran in English in general, and particularly in evangelical and interfaith contexts, have distorted the plain meaning of the most controversial and troubling verses in the Quran while at the same time idealizing those verse which, when read a certain way, appeal to modern values, presumably to make it appear more acceptable to a Western audience.

Academic and Islamic modernist scholars have argued on the other hand that medieval Islamic scholars sometimes misinterpreted the original meaning of certain verses or claimed that they had been abrogated in order to fit the imperial political context of the emerging empire.

===Mistranslations of the Quran in English===

{{Main|Mistranslations of Islamic Scripture (English)}}In some cases, published English translations of the Quran have opted for incorrect translations. Critics have suggested that this is for the same evangelical and interfaith-based reasons for which the scripture is often misrepresented in the first place. Translations with apparently deliberate errors include well known editions, such as the Yusuf Ali, Rashad Khalifa, and Muhammad Asad translations. Whereas scripture, critics argue, is frequently misrepresented in various contexts in the name of various levels of expedience, published mistranslations tend to deliberately err only in those instances where the original text poses a very acute challenge to Western values and sensibilities, particularly with respect to human rights and science. The verses most often distorted in published translations include {{Quran|4|34}} (which regards wife-beating), {{Quran|67|5}} (which regards the nature of stars, meteors, and/or comets), {{Quran|86|7}} (which regards the origin of semen), {{Quran|21|91}} & {{Quran|66|12}} (which regard the birth of Jesus), {{Quran|3|52}} (which describes Allah as 'the best deceiver'), and the various verses which employ the word ''qatal'', which means 'kill', 'massacre', or 'slaughter'.

The pages listed below cover some of these mistranslations individually:{{col-float|width=25em}}

*[[Wife Beating in the Qur'an]]

*[[Mistranslations_of_Islamic_Scripture_(English)#.2867:5.29_Shooting_stars|Mistranslations of Qur'an 67:5]]

*[[Quran and Semen Production|Qur'an and Semen Production (Qur'an 86:7)]]

*[[The Meaning of Qatal|When Fight Means Murder (Qur'an various)]]

*[[Virgin Conception of Jesus in the Qur'an|Virgin Conception of Jesus in the Qur'an (Qur'an 21:91 & 66:12)]]

==The hadith==

:''Main Article:'' ''[[Hadith|Hadith]]''

The ''Hadith'' (الحديث ahadith, plural) are traditions of Muhammad which provide information about him and his life. They are usually narrations about a certain incident in which he said, did, or tacitly approved of something. Unlike the Qur'an, the books that contain them are usually arranged in some logical fashion. The majority of Islamic law and belief derives from the hadiths. The hadith are said to be of varying authenticity according to the Islamic tradition, with some considered to be so reliable that to reject them would be tantamount to disbelief. Historians are less certain about the reliability of the hadith, as they were supposedly transmitted orally and written down, for the most part, some 150-200 years after Muhammad's death.

{{Main|Quranism}}The Qur'an, often presented as the exclusive domain of God's commands, also contains numerous injunctions from Muhammad himself, and indeed commands obedience of Muhammad. Traditionally, therefore, the hadiths have been viewed as an Islamic scripture of fundamental importance, without which Islam as it is known could not exist, since the Quran contains a relatively paltry amount of legal, ritual, and doctrinal content when compared to the hadith literature.{{Quote|{{Quran|4|80}}|'''He who obeys the Messenger, obeys Allah''': But if any turn away, We have not sent thee to watch over their (evil deeds).}}In recent times, a small minority of Islamic thinkers and modernists identifying as 'Quranists' have tried to reinterpret Islam from the ground up relying only on the Quran while at the same time disqualifying the hadith effectively wholesale, either on the basis of their historical questionability or on the basis of their at times troubling content. This has vexed traditionalist scholars, who consider the hadith to be of fundamental importance and without which, they point out, Muslims would have no solid epistemological grounding for such integral items as the rituals of the daily Islamic prayer, among other things.

===Uswa hasana===

:''Main Article:'' ''[[Uswa Hasana]], See also [[Qur'an, Hadith and Scholars:Muhammad|Muhammad's Sunnah]]''

{{Main|Daleel}}Daleel (دليل, pl. ''adillah'') is an Arabic word meaning evidence or proof, and in the terminology of [[Islamic jurisprudence]], the word refers to anything that is used to deduce and justify a ruling or [[fatwa]] from the [[Shari'ah (Islamic Law)|Shariah]], or [[Islamic Law]]. While there exist numerous specific types of daleels arranged in a hierarchy, as understood variously by the different schools of Islamic law, all generally agree today that among the most important daleels are, in order, the [[Qur'an]], [[Hadith]], Ijma (consensus of Islamic scholars or [[Muhammad]]'s [[companions]]), and some form of Qiyas (analogical reasoning).

{{Main|Contradictions in the Hadith}}While the sheer vastness of the hadith literature coupled with the large percentage of it that is admittedly inauthentic virtually necessitates the presence of contradictions, critics and historians have pointed out that even among those limited number of traditions graded as very reliable by Muslim scholars, there exist contradictions which can only be resolved through the most inventive hermeneutical techniques, which, needless to say, strain credulity. Historians have referenced these contradictions to argue that traditional system whereby Islamic scholars have tried to ascertain the reliability of hadiths is itself not reliable.{{Quote|{{Muslim|41|7005}}|

Ibn Umar reported that Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him). made a mention of Dajjil in the presence of the people and said: Allah is not one-eyed and behold that Dajjal is blind of the right eye and his eye would be like a floating grape.}}{{Quote|{{Muslim|41|7010}}|

===Scientific errors===

{{Main|Scientific Errors in the Hadith}}A common criticism of the [[Hadith]], [[Scientific Errors in the Quran|as with the Quran]], is that they contain numerous [[Islam and Science|scientific]] and historical errors, with no obvious attempts to differentiate their understanding of the natural world and historical events from the common folklore and misconceptions of the people living in 7^th century Arabia. Modern responses typically appeal to metaphor, alternative meanings, or phenomenological interpretations of such hadiths. They also argue that the wording needed to be acceptable to people of its time. Critics typically argue that an all-knowing, perfect communicator would nevertheless have been able to guide the avoidance of statements in the Hadith that reinforced misconceptions of the time, caused future generations to have doubts about its perfection, and on a scale that critics contend is an overwhelming weakness.

{{Main|Qur'an, Hadith and Scholars: Remarkable and Strange Islamic Traditions}}The Islamic tradition is truly vast, and covers an impressive number of different topics, often including surprising stories, anecdotes and injunctions. Some of these traditions are truly strange or noteworthy in their own right. As with contradictions, historians and critics (who also cite the scientific errors), have argued that the presence of absurd anecdotes among those hadiths that have been graded very reliable by traditional scholars directly undermines the traditional method of grading hadiths.{{Quote|{{Muslim|30|5654}}|Jabir b. Samura reported Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) as saying : I recognise the stone in Mecca which used to pay me salutations before my advent as a Prophet and I recognise that even now.}}{{Quote|{{Bukhari|5|58|188}}|Narrated 'Amr bin Maimun: During the pre-lslamic period of ignorance I saw a she-monkey surrounded by a number of monkeys. They were all stoning it, because it had committed illegal sexual intercourse. I too, stoned it along with them.}}

==Other important texts==

{{Main|Tafsir}}Tafsirs are commentaries written by scholars, generally relying on the hadith collections, to explain the meanings of verses in the Qur'an (as the Qur'an itself does not provide the context of its verses). The most respected and widely used being the ''Tafsir ibn Kathir''. Modern Islamic scholars often deflect criticism from the Qur'an by arguing that it must be read in conjunction with an authoritative tafsir. Critics have argued, in response, that referencing traditional and authoritative tafsirs often renders the passages of the Quran an even less acceptable light.

{{Main|Sirat Rasul Allah}}Sirat Rasul Allah (<small>Arabic: سيرة رسول الله, Romanization: ''Sīrat Rasūl-Allāh,'' Abv: ''Sirat''</small>), or Biography of the Prophet of Allah, refers to the collected biographies of [[Muhammad]]. It is also the title of one of the most important early Siras, namely that of Ibn Ishaq. In addition to the [[hadith]] (oral account of [[Muhammad]]'s statements and actions), the Sirat provides an integral foundation to the [[sunnah]] (example, customs, and practices) set forth by [[Muhammad]]. Throughout Islamic history, the Siras and [[Sunnah]] have established the foundation of much of [[Islamic Law|Islamic Law (Shariah)]] and [[Fiqh (Islamic Jurisprudence)|Jurisprudence (Fiqh)]], including but not limited to the [[Five Pillars of Islam|Five Pillars of Islam]], societal code, and dietary standards. The biggest contribution of the Siras to the hadith is in their serving as a reference point whereby an attempt can be made to chronologize the events reported piecemeal in the hadiths.

===Books of fiqh===

{{Main|Fiqh}}Books of Islamic jurisprudence (فقه‎ Fiqh) are complimentary expansions of the Shari'ah (Qur'an and Sunnah), written by Islamic jurists (experts on Islamic law). ''Reliance of the Traveller: The Classic Manual of Islamic Sacred Law'' (''Umdat Al-Salik''), for instance, is the traditional handbook on Shafi'i law. Translations of these texts in English have been problematic, as translators have often mistranslated the texts where the prove objectionable to modern sensibilities.<ref>An example of such a mistranslation is argued for [http://www.answering-islam.org/Sharia/fem_circumcision.html here], which should be read alongside the full entry for بَظْرٌ in Lane's lexicon available [http://lexicon.quranic-research.net/data/02_b/137_bZr.html here].</ref>

==Muhammad in other scriptures==

{{Main|Muhammad in Other Scriptures}}The figure of Muhammad and the religion he founded is often depicted negatively in religious scriptures that post date him.

And in the Kālachakra Tantra, a ninth century Tibetan Buddhist text, Muhammad is referred to as a demonic incarnation and a "false impostor". Muslims are described as invading "barbarians", bringing with them the barbarian religion ("mleccha-dharma"), a religion of violence ("himsa-dharma") that also advocates savage behavior ("raudra-karman").

==See also==

*[[Qur'an, Hadith and Scholars]] - ''This section of WikiIslam lists quotations from the Qur'an, Hadith and Islamic Scholars''

*[[The History of al-Tabari]]

[[Category:Hadith]]