The historical Bible might offend
The recent digitization and availability of the Codex Sinaiticus- described rather breathlessly by some people as the world’s oldest bible- represents a watershed moment in the history of Biblical scholarship. Cynics would no doubt pounce on the fact that the ancient manuscript furnishes further proof of the Bible’s tampering. As Uzi Silber puts it, the [...]
The inward voyage and the fate of Islam
There is a scene in the French film, Monsieur Ibrahim and the Flowers of the Koran, in which Moise, a Jewish boy, holds up the Quran and confesses: “I don’t understand anything.” To which his friend, a Muslim, answers: “When you want to learn, you don’t pick up a book. You talk to someone.”
Similarly, [...]
Innovation hotheads are like Ivan Petrovich Pavlov’s dogs
If the world of Islam is put into a snow globe, and an outsider peers in, he might be forgiven for thinking that those little people walking about on the streets are Pavlov’s dogs. Every time the outsider whispers the word bida, the people inside would go insane and start beating one another with shoes, [...]
The divorce that made Muslim disunity possible
The noble jurist, Imam al-Shafi’i (767-819 AD) clearly regarded the Quran and Sunna as forms of prophetic revelation (wahy) in Islam. In al-Shafi’i’s legal magnum opus, Risala, the Quran is termed “revelation recited”, or wahy matlu, while the Sunna is termed “revelation not recited”, or wahy ghayr matlu. The distinguishing feature of wahy ghayr matlu [...]
Funny evangelical games
I am amused by the efforts of some Muslim evangelists who use the Bible to prove to Christians that their religion is wrong.
Muslims like to assert that only linguistic experts and specialists in various disciplines can fully understand and draw out the splendor of the Quran. They charge that Orientalists with little or no [...]
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