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Universality & Internal Diversity of Islamic Jurisprudence

Islamophobic politicians, intellectuals and all sort of people in Europe/West think that Islam needs to pass through the same phase Christianity did in medieval period with its enlightenment and reformation to really 'inhabit the West'. Well, it only proves, as an initial note, the reality revealed by Qur'an that these kuffar would never like Muslims until we become like them. Nonetheless, Shaykh Abdal Hakim Murad in his speech in islamabad talks about these 'absent-minded claims' as simply being products of lack of knowledge of Islam and their own history. Westerns, generally, have always tried to view islam and its ideals from the eyes of their philosophies and mindset, unfortunately modernized muslims are committing the same error. Shaykh Murad talks about a Dutch politician's onslaught on Islam in West who thinks that Islam must be reformed or marginalized:
Fortuyn’s error was to impose a Christian squint on Islam. As a practising Catholic, he imported assumptions about the nature of religious authority that ignore the multi-centred reality of Islam. On doctrine, we try to be united - but he is not interested in our doctrine. On fiqh, we are substantially diverse. Even in the medieval period, one of the great moral and methodological triumphs of the Muslim mind was the confidence that a variety of madhhabs could conflict formally, but could all be acceptable to God. In fact, we could propose as the key distinction between a great religion and a sect the ability of the former to accommodate and respect substantial diversity. Fortuyn, and other European politicians, seek to build a new Iron Curtain between Islam and Christendom, on the assumption that Islam is an ideology functionally akin to communism, or to the traditional churches of Europe.
A talk by Shaykh in islambad, 2002. 

To Bark or To Bite

i entered a home. No one was in the porch. i headed to the main door but the sight of the dog (i's familiar with) stopped me to think before leaping. A motorbike stood like destiny between the two - me and the ferocious German Sheppard dog. The dog turned on the other side, i though it was leaving. It only took a second to realize that it was trying to come over to get my calcium deprived bones. Terrain was such that if i tried to run towards the main door, i'd be in trouble. Hence, i turned back towards the gate. I didn't just turn my back - i ran like an athlete starts a 100m sprint in Olympics. Just before reaching the doorknob i looked back to be aware of the situation and to my vehshat (fear) the dog was madly jumping and running towards me. Those moments between my opening the knob, getting out and sighting the vicious dog were very . . . dreamlike exciting xD because i knew i'd make it...

Pitrus Bukhari, an Urdu writer and MA English, makes a point about this assertion that barking dogs don't bite: how do you know when they stop barking and start biting?

Fear of Enemy

i, compared to my father and elder brother, am a bit coward a person, always diffident when it comes to clashes. Not that i'm a peace loving, hit me on the other cheek guy as well. But, i fear an enemy or oppressor who overpowers me by large proportion, and do not find myself really willing to challenge openly that person or party with shuja or courage. Nonetheless, a single person can overcome many if he fears Allah. i read this translation of a verse of Qur'an that just opened my eyes. It also points to the fact that a  Muslim is never powerless!

13. Would you, perchance, fail to fight against people who have broken their solemn pledges, and have done all that they could to drive the Apostle away,[1207] and have been first to attack you? Do you hold them in awe? Nay, it is God alone of whom you ought to stand in awe,[1208] if you are [truly] believers!
Translation: Muhammad Asad. 

'Recreate, Don't watch people recreating'

People spend hours watching sports, even missing their prayers during live matches. This is totally absurd. Experience recreation, not watch people experiencing it. Playing outdoor games is a serious business. If you're playing football or cricket, there's much more than playing the game. You've to organize people, develop strategies, deal with emotions, conflicts, disagreements and what not. You've keep yourself fit. I've improved my diet playing daily. Major obvious benefit is the health bonus one gets.

But, for a Muslim, he has to purify his intentions even when it comes to recreation. We do not recreate for no good, but are conscious that its a useful activity for human life and can even uplift our eemaan if we follow the morals of Prophets, such as not cheating, not loosing one's control over his emotions, as we often witness huge conflicts resulting from games.

Comforting our Women

Those women who live in their houses and do domestic work, when as per Islamic fiqh they've no obligation to do so, are doing jihad in the way of Allah that is Equal to the jihad of men in the battlefield. SubhanAllah. And, how do cultural Muslims behave? They treat them like domesticated animals, in fact i've seen many taking more care of their dogs than their wives. This may sound like exaggeration, but by care i do not mean they beat them, or do not fulfill their health or other needs, but in terms of love, intimacy, and kindness. So this mistreatment of women is all cultural thing whereever it is. Yet, i deny that muslims have monoploy over domestic violence which is another subject; Shaykh Hamza Yusuf mentions that killings or violence against women in US alone is cause most by their boy friends or husbands, and they're not Muslims. Moreover, many convert women to Islam talk about a different kind of respect they receive in Muslim societies which is absent in west and that is of bashfulness in Muslim men, which we're losing thanks to the onslaught of westernized media that commoditizes women.

I'm insipred by Prophet Muhammad, s.a.w, hence i take honor in serving my mother and other women with tea or stuff like that. Muslim men have a very hard time understanding that women should be treated well if one wants to be a good, in fact, best Muslim. Its all in Prophetic sunnah and teachings. But, at the same time, in this age we see this tendency that men become slaves of their wives and supersede the instructions of their wives to that of their mother or father. It's happening all around us. It's a dark age we're living in. May Allah protect us from these evils... wa ma taufiqi illa billah

Reflections on my Faith Islam & how Muslims Encounter Faith Today

In the Name of Allah; I seek refuge in Allah from the evil of Satan

[Forgive v poor sentence structures & grammar.]

Like Imam Ghazzali (r.a.) i've immutable belief on 3 things:

- In the Existence of Allah (swt) - is there any doubt about Allah?
- The Day of Judgement
- Truth of the institution of Prophethood

With these beliefs, one may presume that there is no room for skepticism, not that kind which doubts one's own existence. But, that is not the case- one can still have doubts about one's religion with these beliefs. When we're born we become Muslims, Christians, Atheists, etc., if we were born in that particular family. But, its only with the dawn of consciousness, if you might call it, that we're sometimes forced to reexamine our acquired belief, perhaps due to external stimuli or even due to one's own disposition to question things. In this age, former is more true than the later. Nonetheless. Having watched videos/stories of so many converts to Islam - be them atheists, Christians, etc. - it was either of the two, while predominantly external stimuli played a greater role, thanks to 9/11, terrible news about Muslims, new Biblical scholarship that proves almost all the stances of Islam on Christianity such as tehreef or human interference in Bible, etc.

Muslims rarely venture into uncomfortable waters of examination and use of intellect, especially those who're not well trained in traditional Islam, because the students of Qur'an and Sunnah know the proofs, evidences, and narrations of the truth of Islam. Nonetheless, overall atmosphere is that of fear when it comes to talking to people of other belief and to those having no faith at all, except, perhaps, in the desires of their nafs. (I'm not proposing that their kufr is due to following their desires of soul, merely, but perhaps a historical process that led to 'the eclipse of soul and intellect', namely modernity or renaissance, which has very well defined features, that really closed their eyes to Divine Realities.)

This is not how our great scholars of the past behaved. Imam Abu Hanifa used to debate (in most beautiful manner) with atheists in the masjid saying to the effect, "Let's see what you've got." Imam Ghazzali wrote in his autobiography that he had (so deeply) analyzed the skeptics and atheists that they could not hide their real reasons for disbelief. This is very interesting.

It is high time we see/question things logically - because logic can even give us life through Islam or kill us with disbelief. It is only those confused people who're afraid of not talking to other. We've to start from understanding the hidden assumptions of this deen and that of disbelief. Our assumption is that there is an Unseen, and we believe in it, we believe in the ghaib. Why we believe in it and we humanity cannot risk not believing in it - this is the point from where the discussion may start. And, everything that is Islamic worldview is very logical and is very clear. Most of the rational people in US or West who came to Islam came to it because they could not bring an argument against islam that Qur'an or Muslims could not refute or at least provide an equally logical perspective on that.

In the end, i'd like to say that because of our heedlessness in acquiring both Islamic worldview and modern sciences, our own brothers and sisters are becoming mental victim of a Dajjalic civilization that is based on the idea and force of deception and deceiving people from seeing things the way they actually are. Biggest enemies of Islam are living within us, and they just like us, but it's logical fallacies they're really a victim of; a lack of clear understanding of world, matter and soul.

wa ma taufiqi illa billah

Writer's Block: Need ideas for new blog posts

I'm facing writer's block these days. I need cool ideas for short or medium range blog posts. Tags would be welcoming too...

Looking forward to your cool ideas in the comments section.

Musa & Ibraheem of Islam


Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) said: "Umer is like Musa (P) & Abu Bakr [Siddique] is like Ibraheem."

Nothing has Changed: New & Old Pharorahs

When i read Qur'an about the states and conversations of False people of past, i can see the same arguments and states in today's "modern jahiliyya" even if they sound very intellectual. Similarly, Shaykh Hamza Yusuf in this part of his speech, Western Ailments & Islamic Medicine, has compared oppressors of past with today's oppressors.

Western Ailment & Islamic Medicine: Part 3.


(You may have to wait for that comparison to start which will last till end.)

Defend your Property

i used to wonder that if i die defending my property, home, family, etc., would i be martyr or what. Literally that. And, to my amazement, i've found the answer in an article of the murder of an Arab military office as a civilian in US by a couple of young looters outside a shopping store. Hamza Yusuf in that article mentions a hadith that if someone dies protecting his property, he's a martyr. SubhanAllah.


Moreover, when i wondered on how i got the answer, i forced to praise Allah for how he guides people and their curiosity gets fulfilled from unexpected places. This is not the first time this has happened with me....

M Asad's Trans. of Quran Online

I's looking for an online copy of M Asad's famous The Message of Qur'an; i had its hard copy, but its placed in a school founded by my father away from the city, in the midst of villages. i wish to get it back when i go there.  But alhamdulilah, i've found an awesome online resource: Online Quran Project. Its very accessible; you can click on the chapter button, and a small window shows all the chapters you can select from. There's also a button for going to the ayahs. What's more, it also has the commentary linked in. That's lot better than a PDF copy which has the benefit of being available offline.

Two Bogeys Unidentified

This pair of pigeons were found in the morning in the outer side of the window. This was their initial position. They seem very curious and purposely sitting here looking for something.


In this close-up shot of suspected dossiers, you can see what they're up to.


Due to the noise of camera shot the bogeys fled away taking a defensive position on the top hill for heavy artillery fire at ground troops.

Semantic Madness: Equal Hes & Shes

Shaykh Hamza Yusuf mentions in his talk on Women and Islam that he was attending a Philosophy class and the instructor said that to use pronouns as "he/she" combined so that both male and female pronouns occur at the same time. He asked, why do they need to do that? And, the instructor said not to invoke gender biased. Shaykh said, "What about genetic coding?" On being asked about it, he replied, "Male chromosome has both X & Y, representing male and female, but female has only her's. So is nature being biased here?" This is true for word he because it includes both sexes. He also mentioned that British have resisted this 'semantic madness', they don't wanna change their language - which as other languages is not biased.

Creating a Mosque-like Environment at Home

i don't question the possibility of the proposition in the title - i so want it to be true. Prophet said that offer some part of your prayers in the home so that you don't end up turning into a graveyard! Imagine the spiritual implications of the hadith: Its not amassing worldly objects in a home that can lighten the spirits of life, rather the remembrance of Allah and sanctification of space and time through canonical prayers...

Dr Martin Lings said that our homes should be like mosques. If you've any concrete ideas how we can do that, please post, although it doesn't need great intellect to know that...

Buy the best scent

Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w) was frugal in other matters, but he used the best scent. Hence, ulema say that buying scent is not excessive spending, because when you use scent you're giving a sadaqa, which means you do it for others. It reminds us of paradise and needless to say has positive effect on souls.

'Restructuring (my) Time'

This post is inspired by this post by this bloggerJazakAllah for sharing the excerpt. 

****

i've 1 month of holidays left before college starts again... Here's my attempt to sturcture my timetable so that i don't act like cattle and keep doing whatever comes up in mind or as a whim of my nafs. I pray to Allah that he never leaves me and all of us for one instance to our nafs e Ammara. Aameen...

Planning to Succeed: An flexible timetable

- i's supposed to do a project with sir of transcribing certain audio recordings [totally classified], home-based. The equation goes as:

Daily workout = Full time project work (that means after i subtract all other variables) + prayers + domestic home work + 1 hour cricket game (i love bowl and lead team) + 6 hours sleep = 100% preoccupation.

Unfortunately, the project hasn't started yet because of a delay - not from my side.

- If that occurs: post-Fajr best because everybody asleep, and no domestic work

Plan B - :D


Let's suppose I never get to work on the project, Allah na karay. Then, the problem arises and proposed solution goes as following:

- Post Fajr: 6 - 8
        Khanacadmy.org mathematics lectures [anytime i get liesure time]
        Qur'an memorization
        Islamic lectures online (limited time offer - i listen too much, act upon too less)
- Domestic work till Zuhar
- Lunch
- Qailoola / domestic work
- Asr
- Game, game, game
- Maghrib
- Take deep breaths and restore hydration
- Domestic work help
- Earning gold in the night from 9-12 after Isha
- Deep sleep inshaAllah


Compensation for the Weak

Its a significant historical event that in this age we've all resources of all spiritual and religious traditions for us to compare, choose and comply to. Green Sufi mentions in his blog that just few decades ago we had only 5 copies of Sahih Bukhari in Dehli. Unfortunately, this age is literally opposite of almost all previous ages, seemingly, where you've all the Texts and resources available, which were rare back then; but you don't have people putting much into practice as they used to do before, says Shaykh Hamza Yusuf in his commentary on Vision of Islam by William Chittick, et al - click on this phrase to download/listen online all CDs of the lecture

New Interface of Blogger

I'd recommend prospective bloggers to choose blogger because of its really intuitive and smooth interface. Just because its another Google product! They've completely changed their old interface into a sleek, smooth and easy to access (at mental level) an interface...

Of Glad Tidings: Islamic Economics


For all those interested in Islamic Economics there’s an interesting academic development that is very significant - including for those many (Muslims) who’re absolutely cynical and doubtful not only about Islamic Economics, but all things Islamic and are ‘more at home with all things Western’, from its toiletries to ideologies.

Whenever I try to talk to people especially those Muslims who work(ed) in banks about the prohibition of interests and evils of interest based banking systems and also those are more inclined towards interest-free economy and had been caught up in this web due to unfortunate series of events, inquire: Why do not ulema(traditional, religious scholars) come up with an alternative plan? Firstly, it is appreciable, they are not sarcastic & cynical, and want a genuine interest free system; I sincerely pray to Allah to forgive their previous sins and open their heart’s eye and ‘inspire them with the Vision of Islam’. Secondly, their rhetorical objection shrouded in the question starting from the phrase, why don’t they/you… has seen light of the day putting a stop mark to their repetitive objections, as if they were free of all blames – none of us is free from blame except those strive in the way of Allah for no worldly gains.

I was listening to this lecture on broad, immutable principles of Islamic Economics by Dr Israr Ahmed (May Allah forgive his sins and increase his rank). In the end, an economist spoke very briefly before asking his question (which i‘ll mention in the end). Sort of a glad tiding for me actually: He said that recently [few years back] some Muslim economists who had gone to western universities to do their PhDs in Islamic economics had their theses approved. Their theses had been about the comparison between interest based economic systems versus Islamic interest-free system. Purely based on ‘economic reasoning’ their theses have proved the ‘superiority of interest free system of islam over Western interest based system’. Their supervisors were Christian economists and they’ve accepted the superiority of Islamic system at theoretical level. Many other Western economists have also started to accept same proposition, he added. However, the supervisors and economists say that they do not want to implement Islamic system because for them interest system is quite simple as compared to (apparently) ‘complicated profit sharing’ system of Islam. The scholar, who to my mind is perhaps Dr Asad Zaman [check out his personal website which features his articles and papers], lamented that we as Pakistanis have wasted decades of freedom in which we could’ve implemented the theoretical model of Islamic economics and could've easily shown the world that it’s not complicated and can be implemented in West too.

I’m in search of at least the abstract of the PhD theses. I will try contacting Dr Asad about it, if he ever replies =)

Professional Education: Who am I?

In October this year i'll enter in the last year of my college education in business, specifically operations management. What a waste of time had been these past 3 years! Absolute delusion. Its professors are as confused about the program as its students. It is not a very useful program: this is true for most of the university programs imported from West. Apart from core social sciences, most of the hot programs are delusions, whose etymology is as confused and useless as its practitioners. I don't wanna go into debate about it right now. i'm concerned with the fact that how do i define myself professionally. After a lot of introspection which stem from feelings of depression caused by the study of past 2 semesters, i've come to the conclusion that i must wake up and spend more than half a decade in a technical (and useful) program that has a greater impact factors in terms of value creation and huge capacity for research and innovation.

I admit i'm more at home with social sciences which are very important. Its all about ideas these days. Pakistan has the one of the strongest armies in the world, and one of weakest social science base that is authentically rooted in its own Tradition, i.e., Islamic world view. It has been able to re-engineer its F-16s for up-gradation; build local aircrafts and tanks, but its universities have failed to free themselves from the idols of Western ideologies which reappear with different names, yet having the soul of secular fundamentalism in it.

There are other plans that can save the day: joining civil service not for power or social glory. It's something that i dislike doing. Yet, i've been called to the task of performing jihad by an elder brother, a doctor, a civil servant and a mentor ('these' are 1 person). But, if you go into this hell with no technical background people will manipulate you. In that case, you're either CS or you're nothing, and they will exploit you. Perhaps that's why don't allow a doctor to be CS anymore - Allah knows best.

If that plan fails, and there are no parental obligations, i'll pursue the limitless fields of engineering which will form the power base for social science knowledge. Remember knowledge these days is tied with Power.

A Perennial Fact

Muslims who want to live as authentic Muslims - rooted in Traditional Islam, not as defined by RAND - and do not want to betray their Tradition to the whims and shallow slogans of secular fundamentalism, must keep in mind the Qur'anic message to enhance their confidence: Non-believers would never, ever like you unless you become like them.

Think about it... Every time you leave a meeting for prayer, or do not listen to certain sounds, or do not do various unIslamic or unnatural things - hypocrites and disbelievers are going to frown. You're mocking them, they think. Well, they should realize that hubris and arrogance.

Unfortunately this is an age of one-eyed vision. People always take one thing and forget the other part. The statement above - i hate making disclaimers - in no way means we've to hide ourselves in a closet, or become rude to non-Muslims, because that's against sunnah or way of Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him. Arab non-Muslims were rude to him; but he never returned their rudeness with rudeness. He used to give back something good and better to eliminate evil. That's our Tradition.

We're saying, "You follow your way; we follow ours." This doesn't mean you have to necessarily frown at us and be divided amongst ourselves. Our tradition teach us that are all people are children (in purely metaphorical sense) of Allah, and we've to be kind to them. We'd always praise and enjoin if a disbeliever or whoever does a good deed. This is how we operate. Is this way of life not worth living?

Islam 'and' Terrorism

A college friend - not secular or modernized at mental level - in perplex-ion (discernible from his looks) asked, "Why does Islam promote terrorism? OR, does it?" Fairly shocked by his first statement perhaps that made him to question his question. He was pointing to the atrocities of terrorist Muslims. I couldn't give a satisfactory answer to myself then. Its been few months when he asked. Now i wonder on the utter lack of luminosity and falsehood of the very question. Is there any doubt that Islam is the religion that's most civil when it comes to protecting and preserving life and environment even in Wars? When people talk about terrorism, i hope they only mean indiscriminate violence. Then by that standard if you compare European/US codes of violence ethics to Islamic, Islam would stand out as most chivalrous and just and peaceful and harmonious to life and environment. Couple of facts for the confused:

- Prophet Muhammad forbade the killing of women, children, elderly, farmers, monks, destruction of environment in war
- Homicide and suicide are two greatest sins in Islam
- Taking a life without Right (clearly defined rules which i will compile soon) is equal to killing whole of humanity - that's in Qur'an as well
- Prophet of Islam forbade use of fire to punish a human - Allah has the right to do that
- Prophet said that never desire to encounter your enemy; but you do so be steadfast and patient (or something to that effect)
- Everyone knows the level of benevolence and protection that has been shown to all kinds of minorities including Jews, who're the greatest enemies of Prophet of Islam, through centuries - would journalists ever mention that? When Pakistan came into being there were only few thousands Christians, now they're in millions (whether its good or bad that's another matter)

Now let's glance over the war ethics of great, humanistic Western world police and war mongers:

- Who invent word collateral damage and accepted it as a natural outcome of war between good (West) and evil (Non-West, these days Muslims)?
- Who use fire bombs in Afghanistan and Iraq?
- Who kill millions of Iraqis only by food sanctions?
- Who kill around 5 lac innocent civilians recently in Iraq - that's from Wikileaks?
- Who kill women and children in AFG and then in a press conference apologize over the 'loss of precious lives' and not even punish their soldiers?
- Who want to impose a mono-culture of secular fundamentalism on whole world - destroying not only natural habitat but local and primitive cultures?

The list will go on and on. Suffice to say if you really wanna know who is causing mischief on Earth and claiming that they're only doing good (Quran) read Confessions of an Economic Hitman. Its factual authenticity is far beyond doubt. IN fact on its official website, they've given parallel documented proofs confirming the statements of the author who had spent his life exploiting developing nations.

A response to objections on Quranic text's authenticity

Please watch this video in which they show a German researcher raising objections on the authenticity on the Quranic text that we read today with proper punctuation. There's a quote by someone in the end which takes no intellect to be seen as pure intellectual blindness, prejudice and lack of knowledge.




Brother Shakeeb replied to this video in detail on request. I am posting his response below:


"To be honest with you, I don't think myself to be capable of framing a scholarly response. So if you find any scholarly response, please feel free to share it with me too! But nevertheless, I do have a personal perspective on things which I will share with you. Fortunately, none of the claims made in the video are erudite enough to require detailed citations from classic text. Here it goes:



1) The genius who made this video and perhaps the researcher himself (based on how he is presented) is unaware of the fact that the books written on Uloom ul Quran by Muslim scholars already mention that the first generation of manuscripts used to be written without any dots, a'rabs and punctuations. The only thing startling here, if it must be put that way, is that his discovery (pun intended) corroborates the consistent account of Muslim historians about the development of Quranic print throughout.



2) Then he is concerned that it leads to 5 possible identities of the words. What he conveniently forgets here is the oral tradition of Quran which spread at a far greater scale in parallel with the written manuscript simply because it was an era preceding the invention of press. He seems to be under the delusion that just like our times when we simply lend over a book to someone to read, back in those days Quran also used to be handed over to people to read and figure. The fact, however, is that from the very beginning to-date there always has existed this very strong culture of having full-fledged schools and study circles for teaching Quran organized by scholars who had learned it directly from their previous generation until companions of the prophet. It is not without any reason why the second caliph Umar had sent one of his very close aides and foremost scholars of Quran Abdullah bin Masood to Kufah for institutionalizing the teaching of Quran there. Written text in the beginning could only mean to correct any lapses appearing in the memorized part and not to be used as the sole source of information on Quran. In fact, this trend has lasted even today in the sense that people rather than understanding Quran completely on their own prefer to study it at least with the help of a brief Tafseer (now that there is no more ambiguity in the rules of writing) if not directly from a teacher. This process of learning from people who learned it in their turn most likely from the close companions of the prophets ensured that the imagined possibility of five different words in one place never materialized at least to a sustainable level. Those guys who wrote the script knew about its shortcomings as well as us now and it is quite arrogant to completely ignore the aforesaid method of teaching the book and insinuate that their was no mechanism in place to guard against its weaknesses.



But for the sake of argument, let us assume that teaching Quran by the scholars in parallel with distributing the transcript was inadequate and the early generations were indeed confused into having five separate readings of Quranic verses on average (yes, not five different versions of the whole text!). As a consequence, there must have been diverse narrations of Quran at least found in geographically dislocate regions much larger in numbers than the diversity found in the narration of a particular incidence in Ahadeeth (although it is due to different reasons altogether.) And this diversity should have then remained in the versions of Quran compiled by the later generations as well. What we see here, however, is an astounding unanimity over the identity of the text accepted by Islamic scholarship as well as masses from Arabian peninsula itself to far eastern countries in the Africa to Spain in the west. Mind you, I am not denying mistakes made by lay people and possibly by individual experts which are not uncommon in our times too despite the availability of Quran in black and white. But do the community at large begin to take an individual's or even publisher's mistake for the confusion in the correct version of Quran? Or all these isolated aberrations die out in the process of mass-transmission from one generation to another?



If that is not enough, then consider two further scenarios. Just like there are various sects and schools of thoughts based on disagreements over the interpretation of Quran as well as the acceptance of different traditions of hadeeth, there must have been far major differences over the acceptance of various identities of the words in Quranic text itself. It should not take a genius to figure that a disagreement of this kind over the reading of Quran would lead to fissures in various strains of Islamic scholarship far greater in magnitude than what could ever arise due to differences in the interpretation of the text or Hadeeth literature. But where is it? If not, what does this imply? The next curious point is to remember that Quran used to serve as the fundamental basis of Islamic law from the very beginning of Islamic state in Medina until the pre-colonial era. Since we are asked to believe that in the early days there was a great deal of ambiguity in the reading of Quran, we should understand as a natural corollary an extreme chaos in the functioning of the legal system of Islamic state. To imagine what I mean, just think of Pakistan's penal code used in our courts with the same level of uncertainty in the identity of the words in addition to the interpretation which is quite natural. It is trivial to visualize the utter dysfunctional-ization of any legal infrastructure this will necessarily lead to. And so if it did happen to the practice of Islamic law, how did everything converge to just one word instead of five or even more? Again, why weren't there any disagreements? How did muslim historians manage to mention the lack of punctuations, dots and a'rabs in the early manuscripts which amusingly he is discovering in the twentieth century but wrote off the consequences? Again, why did it not lead to differences in juristic schools? Why? Why?!



As this guy is challenging a well established historical narrative, it is his responsibility to explain away existing realities by filling up all the gaping holes which appear as natural corollaries of his narrative as I pointed above. For starter, he should explain when five different identities of wrods were possible, how come only one survived? What made a society as huge as that to agree on one reading? How can an event as massive as the convergence to a single word fail to find seat in histories written by any sect in Islam whatsoever?



And nobody here can counter it by citing disagreements about the completeness of Quranic text as it is purportedly claimed by minor/major groups in shiite tradition. For one, even shia theologians both past and present almost completely, if not absolutely, abandoned this position. For another, it was about certain portions of Quran failing to find their place in the widely accepted manuscript. It was never a dispute about choosing one of the five possible words written in the text.



Before leaving, I should point out here the issue of seven "qira'at" of Quran which is a well discussed topic in the Islamic scholarship. Since he is claiming something unknown here, I believe his work does not relate to that either and hence we don't need to talk about it.



3) It yet again makes a disappointing case for a ground-breaking discovery that the newly-found text of Quran was overwritten on something else. Why is it so surprising? Why cannot the same parchment, leaves, bones or whatever form of paper in vogue at that time be reused for something else? Please, why is it so significantly surprising at all? As it can very well be a personal copy of a student, instructor or any common man for that matter, why can't it even include some personal notes scribbled in between? Why can't we get real for a while?



4) This last point takes the cream. The guy who made this video could not have been more ignorant of his own ignorance. He presumes that the differences in translations are somehow explainable by this so-called discovery. It is amusing how he digs out from oblivion an unknown researcher in Germany (?) but didn't bother to check out with someone familiar with Quran's translations to inquire about the apparent diversity. Ignoring all the general liguistic issues in translating a literary work from one language to another, Arabic language itself allows for multiple meanings (not identities) of the words placed in one sentence. On occasions, some of these meanings are all plausible simulataneously while at others only one or two can be valid given the overall context of the discourse. This leads to differences in understanding which sometimes find its way into the translations too. It has got nothing to do with any ambiguity about the identity of words themselves."


In the end, i just like to say what Quran says: they want to destroy the noor (light) of Allah with their breaths, uttering only falsehood...
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