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SOPHIA OF WISDOM III - QURAN
PICTURE BELOW
THE LIBRARY OF SOPHIA OF WISDOM III
THE SOPHIA OF ALL SOPHIA OF WISDOMS
AKA
CAROLINE E. KENNEDY, JR.____________________________
JAN 29, 2007
RE: QURAN
****NOTES FROM SOPHIA OF WISDOM III.......
During our Bat-Kol we were told only the Quran will be excepted because it is a way of life with no black magic involved.....
Origin and development of the Qur'ân
The neutrality of this section is disputed.
Please see the discussion on the talk page.
Main article: Origin and development of the Qur'an
Some modern Western historians have concluded that Muhammad was sincere in his claim of receiving revelation, "for this alone makes credible the development of a great religion." [23] Modern historians generally decline to address the further question of whether the messages Muhammad reported being revealed to him were from "his unconscious, the collective unconscious functioning in him, or from some divine source", but they acknowledge that the material came from "beyond his conscious mind" [24]
According to the Qur'ân:
"This Qur'ân is not such as can be produced by other than Allah; on the contrary it is a confirmation of (revelations) that went before it, and a fuller explanation of the Book - wherein there is no doubt - from the Lord of the worlds. Or do they say, "He forged it"? Say: "Bring then a Sura like unto it, and call (to your aid) anyone you can besides Allah, if it be ye speak the truth!"10:37&38 "
Some non-Muslims say that the Qur'ân originated and derived from the Bible. Although the Qur'ân itself confirms the similarity between it and the former books (the Torah and the Gospel)3:3, it tells that:
"We know indeed that they say, "It is a man that teaches him." The tongue of him they wickedly point to is notably foreign, while this is Arabic, pure and clear. 16:103"
The Qur'ân attributes this similarity to their unique origin and says all of them have been revealed by the God.2:285 Based on Islamic traditions and legends, it is generally believed that Muhammad could neither read nor write, but would simply recite what was revealed to him for his companions to write down and memorize. According to the Qur'ân
"And thou wast not (able) to recite a Book before this (Book came), nor art thou (able) to transcribe it with thy right hand: In that case, indeed, would the talkers of vanities have doubted.29:48 " "Say: "If Allah had so willed, I should not have rehearsed it to you, nor would He have made it known to you. A whole life-time before this have I tarried amongst you: will ye not then understand?"10:16 "
However some scholars - (Christoph Luxenberg, Maxime Rodinson, William Montgomery Watt, etc.) - have argued that this claim is based on weak traditions and that, in regard of many aspects concerning Muhammad's biography and teachings, it is not convincing:
"The Meccans were in general familiar with reading and writing. A certain amount of writing would be necessary for commercial purposes ... In view of this familiarity with writing among the Meccans particularly, both for records and for religious scriptures, there is a presumption that Muhammad knew at least enough to keep commercial records ... The probability is that Muhammad was able to read and write sufficiently for business purposes, but it seems certain that he had not read any [religious] scriptures." - W. Montgomery Watt in "Muhammad's Mecca"[25]
"Whatever Arabic tradition may have assumed from a wrong interpretation of a word in the Koran, it seems certain that Muhammad learned to read and write. But except for a few vague and unreliable pointers in his life and work we have no way of knowing the extent of his learning." - M. Rodinson in "Mohammed"[26]
Adherents to Islam hold that the wording of the Qur'anic text available today corresponds exactly to that revealed to Muhammad himself: words of God said to be delivered to Muhammad through the angel Gabriel. The Qur'ân is not only considered by Muslims to be a guide but also as a sign of the prophethood of Muhammad and the truth of the religion. Muslims argue that it is not possible for a human to produce a book like the Qur'an. According to the Qur'ân
"And if ye are in doubt as to what We have revealed from time to time to Our servant, then produce a Sura like thereunto; and call your witnesses or helpers (If there are any) besides Allah, if your (doubts) are true. But if ye cannot- and of a surety ye cannot- then fear the Fire whose fuel is men and stones,- which is prepared for those who reject Faith. "2:23&24
Some non-muslim scholars accept a similar account, but without accepting any supernatural claims: they say that Muhammad put forth verses and laws that he claimed to be of divine origin; that his followers memorized or wrote down his revelations; that numerous versions of these revelations circulated after his death in 632 CE, and that first Abu Bakr ordered its compilation and then Uthman ordered the collection and ordering of this mass of material circa 650-656. These scholars point to many attributes of the Qur'ân as indicative of a human collection process that was extremely respectful of a miscellaneous collection of original texts.
Other scholars have proposed that some development of the text of the Qur'ân took place after the death of Muhammad and before the currently accepted version of the Qur'ân stabilized. Western academic scholars associated with such theories include John Wansbrough, Patricia Crone, Michael Cook, Christoph Luxenberg, and Gerd R. Puin.
Another scholar, James A. Bellamy, has proposed some emendations to the text of the Qur'ân.
[edit] The language of the Qur'ân
The Qur'ân was one of the first texts written in Arabic. It is written in the classical Arabic which is also the Arabic of pre-Islamic poetry including the Mu'allaqat, or Suspended Odes. With the coming of the Qur'ân, the Arabic language reached its pinnacle.
Soon after Muhammad's death in 632 CE, armies led by his followers burst out of Arabia and conquered the Near East, Northern Africa, Central Asia, and parts of Europe. Arab rulers had millions of foreign subjects, with whom they had to communicate. Thus, the language rapidly changed in response to this new situation, losing complexities of case and obscure vocabulary. Several generations after the prophet's death, many words used in the Qur'ân had become opaque to ordinary sedentary Arabic-speakers, as Arabic had changed so much, so rapidly. The Bedouin speech changed at a considerably slower rate, however, and early Arabic lexicographers sought out Bedouin speech as well as pre-Islamic poetry to explain difficult words or elucidate points of grammar. Partly in response to the religious need to explain the Qur'an to Muslims who were not familiar with Qur'anic Arabic, Arabic grammar and lexicography soon became important sciences. The model for the Arabic literary language remains to this day the speech used in Qur'anic times, rather than the current spoken dialects.[citations needed]
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