{"id":30528,"date":"2015-03-13T01:00:36","date_gmt":"2015-03-13T05:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=30528"},"modified":"2015-03-08T10:02:42","modified_gmt":"2015-03-08T14:02:42","slug":"qotd-what-is-the-quran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2015\/03\/13\/qotd-what-is-the-quran\/","title":{"rendered":"QotD: What is the Qur’an?<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Qur\u2019an<\/em> is, according to Islamic thought, a perfect copy of a book that has existed eternally with Allah<\/strong>, the one true God, in Paradise: \u201cIndeed, We have made it an Arabic Qur\u2019an<\/em> that you might understand. And indeed it is, in the Mother of the Book with Us, exalted and full of wisdom.\u201d (43:3-4). According to Islamic tradition, the angel Gabriel revealed it in sections to Muhammad (570-632), an Arabian merchant. Like Jesus, Muhammad left the written recording of his messages to others.<\/p>\n

Unlike Jesus, Muhammad did not originate his message, but only served as its conduit. The Qur\u2019an<\/em> is, for Muslims, the pure Word of Allah.<\/strong><\/p>\n

They point to its poetic character as proof that it did not originate with Muhammad, whom they say was illiterate, but with the Almighty, who dictated every word<\/strong>. The average Muslim believes that everything in the book is absolutely true and that its message is applicable in all times and places.<\/p>\n

This is a stronger claim than Christians make for the Bible<\/em>.<\/p>\n

When Christians of whatever tradition say that the Bible<\/em> is \u201cGod\u2019s Word,\u201d they don\u2019t mean that God spoke it word-for-word and that it\u2019s free of all human agency \u2014 instead, there is the idea of \u201cinspiration,\u201d that God breathed through human authors, working through their human knowledge to communicate what he wished to communicate.<\/p>\n

But for Muslims, the Qur\u2019an<\/em> is more than inspired.<\/p>\n

There is not and could not be a passage in the Qur\u2019an<\/em> like I Corinthians 1:14-17 in the New Testament, where Paul says: \u201cI am thankful that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius; lest any one should say that you were baptized in my name. (I did baptize also the household of Stephanas. Beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized any one else.)\u201d<\/p>\n

Paul\u2019s faulty memory demonstrates the human element<\/strong> of the New Testament, which for Christians does not negate, but exists alongside the texts\u2019 inspired character. But in the Qur\u2019an<\/em>, Allah is the only speaker<\/strong> throughout (with a few notable exceptions).<\/p>\n

There is no human element. The book is the pure and unadulterated divine word.<\/p>\n

Allah himself tells him this, in the Qur\u2019an<\/em> itself: \u201cAnd indeed, it is a mighty Book. Falsehood cannot approach it from before it or from behind it; [it is] a revelation from a [Lord who is] Wise and Praiseworthy.\u201d (41:41-2). It is \u201can Arabic Qur\u2019an<\/em>, without any deviance that they might become righteous.\u201d (39:28). In short, \u201cit is the truth of certainty.\u201d (69:51). Allah, speaking in a royal plural that does not, according to Muslim theologians, compromise his absolute unity, proclaims that \u201cindeed, it is We who sent down the Qur\u2019an<\/em> and indeed, We will be its guardian.\u201d (15:9).<\/p>\n

Robert Spencer, “A Worldwide Must-Read: Robert Spencer\u2019s Blogging the Qur\u2019an”, PJ Media<\/em><\/a>, 2015-03-03.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Qur\u2019an is, according to Islamic thought, a perfect copy of a book that has existed eternally with Allah, the one true God, in Paradise: \u201cIndeed, We have made it an Arabic Qur\u2019an that you might understand. And indeed it is, in the Mother of the Book with Us, exalted and full of wisdom.\u201d (43:3-4). […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,370,41,11],"tags":[360,47],"class_list":["post-30528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-middle-east","category-quotations","category-religion","tag-christianity","tag-islam"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hpV6-7Wo","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30528"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30528\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30529,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30528\/revisions\/30529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}