The Quran
Several Critics:-
The Quran is naïve, repetitive, inconsistent, uninspired and uninspiring and badly written.
Comment:-
Many people think that the Quran is amazing in the following respects:-
(1) It the greatest piece of literature
(2) It has greatest truth about the nature of the universe and man
(3) It has the most sophisticated value system.
(4) It has a great spiritual discipline.
(5) It contains all the good things other religions contain but rectifies the errors and misinterpretations in them.
(6) It creates a comprehensive unified self-consistent way of life containing a social, political, economic, legal, educational, spiritual system all combined.
(7) It also contains guidance for the personal inner and outer problems which individuals may face in daily life.
But only those who read it correctly with reverence and pure motives with desire to understand and apply it can understand it correctly. The miscreant, depraved and hate-ridden cannot.
Critics:-
Several people have quoted various Hadith to show that the verses of the Quran were collected to form the present book under the Caliphs AbuBakr, Omar and Uthman, that some of the original verses were lost and that the Quran was standardized by removing all variations. Therefore, they argue, we do not have the original Quran and it was not preserved as the Quran claims. This, they say, makes the Quran as unreliable as any other scripture.
Comment:-
The answer is as follows:-
(a) There is no evidence that it contains anything other than what was revealed.
(b) Quran means recitation. The Quran is not, in essence, a material book, but refers to the truths to which it refers.
(c) Many of the ideas in it were repeated several times and this can be seen even in the present version. The loss of some verses does not, therefore, imply any loss of ideas.
(d) The verses of the Quran are intended to have multiple meanings and meanings at several levels. Variations refer to this.
(e) They are meant to make listeners or readers aware and to stimulate them to make the efforts to understand, not to spoon feed with details.
(f) The critics get their ideas from Islamic sources. Obviously this knowledge did not make them abandon Islam. The Hadith are well known as having various levels of reliability and there is a whole Science of Hadith concerned with the reliability and significance of the Hadith. Critics ignore this but select, accept and quote these in accordance with their prejudices. They have little significance even for the hostile as it leaves them where they were.
(g) The Quran was also memorized and incorporated into the life of the people. Everything required for the religious life remains fully intact in Islam.
So the criticisms in hostile articles can be dismissed.
The fact is that ultimately it is a question of perception and understanding. This often depends on motives whether they are positive and receptive or negative and hostile.
Critic:-
In fairness, I totally agree. What I want to know is why we are supposed to take at face value the Quranic verses that supposedly agree with science and therefore are miraculous. But the moment that we find some areas where it disagrees with science, it is immediately said that we don't know what those verses mean, they are a mystery.
Comment:-
(1) Truth is always truth and
(2) There can be no contradiction between truths.
(3) But people can see and interpret things differently.
(4) The Quran has a depth of meaning and different people understand it differently to different depths.
(5) It is an axiom that the Quran is from God and therefore true. This means that if there is a contradiction between how the Quran is understood and something else such as Science then there are only four possibilities:-
(a) That other idea is false.
(b) The Quran has been misunderstood.
(c) That other idea has been misunderstood.
(c) Whether or not it agrees with science there are still deeper meanings in the Quran.
Critic:-
But it never seems to have many meanings when it agrees with science. We always seem to know what it is really talking about when it appears to agree with science. But when it disagrees, then surely those verses must have other hidden meanings. How do you live with this sort of subjective duplicity? It is simply because the Quran MUST be true. Why is the Quran true? Because it has to be true. How does that sound to you?
Comment:-
Read your criticisms in the light of what I have just written above. Do not your objections sound wholly absurd?
As you agreed, it is a question of perception. Given the perception that the Quran is from God, the Islamic position is wholly self-consistent. But you, who have not experienced this fact, cannot see it because you are wholly trapped in superficial verbal formal thinking. You see why Muslims think it is futile to argue with disbelievers? There is a seal on their hearts. Quran 2:6-7
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