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| Olde Tyme Religion |
| Understanding Islam |
| 2016-07-24 |
| His earliest specialty was hadith, or the words and deeds of the Prophet Muhammad, which form the basis of Islamic laws as well as guidelines for the daily life of devout Muslims. Over those years, he uncovered a long-forgotten history of female Islamic scholarship, blotted out by centuries of cultural conservatism: a tradition of women religious authorities stretching back to the days of the Prophet. As I recall, the New Testament is much nicer to women than the twelfth-century Church. Power-hungry men spinning what most could not read for themselves. Or understand. He'd discovered nearly 9,000 women, including some who lectured, dispensed fatwas, and traveled on horse- and camelback in pursuit of religious education. The Sheikh's work on women scholars challenges bigots of all types. The Taliban gunman who shoots a girl for going to school. The mullah who bars women from his mosque. The firebrand who claims that feminism is a Western ideology undermining the Islamic way of life. The Westerner who claims that Islam oppresses women, and always has. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Everybody knows the crayon is jam-packed with hatred of the infidel. "Sheikh," I opened hesitantly, "I've never actually read the Quran." I've read most of the Bible, at least once, and there is a lot of killing in the Old Testament. "Most Muslims haven't read it either," Akram said brightly, buttering his scone. "And even if they have, they don't understand it. The Quran is alien to them. Usually, they'll just go to the books of law. Or if they're interested in piety or purifying the heart, they'll read Ghazali"-a philosopher-"or Sufis like Rumi." Like reading Barclay's Bible Commentaries. I knew, of course, that many graduates of the Muslim world's lesser seminaries hadn't really read Islam's scriptures. The boys in village madrasas, rocking back and forth, lisping lines from the Quran in classical Arabic, a language they didn't understand, might have been literally reading, but not much more. The suicide bombers and jihadist foot soldiers who had been promised a reward of seventy-two virgins in paradise were duped. Nowhere does the Quran mention such rewards for murder. Right. It's 72 Virginians. With baseball bats. Starting with Jefferson. "Even people who go to good madrasas don't necessarily know it as well as they should," said Akram, briskly brushing scone crumbs off his khakis. "In fact, the Quran is often the weakest part of the madrasa curriculum. Far more effort and class time is given to the texts of jurisprudence or hadith." The branches of Islamic knowledge that came after the Prophet's death, like law and philosophy, had only made the Muslim world's injustices and divisions grow, he continued. They'd moved mankind further from the source. The message of the Quran and the sunna, the example of the Prophet Muhammad, had been buried by a mountain of academic debate. But the fatwas are all rooted in the crayon, not in the minds of fallible men! Right? Why not just go back to the Quran? "People can be lazy." Consulting scholars and obeying their rules was safer and easier, said the Sheikh. "You don't need to read, or question, or think. You've got other people thinking for you. If you become open, it's a challenge." Chortle. They'd rather be democrats. "You see, Carla, what's happened, really, is that we in the Muslim world have destroyed the whole balance. We've become obsessed with these tiny details, these laws. What does the Quran keep repeating? Purity of the heart. That's what's important! Why has cutting off a thief's hand-something it mentions once!-become of such importance to some people?" Akram smiled conspiratorially. "People are really very shocked when I tell them that the four schools of law aren't really that important," he said. "If people would just read the Quran, most of these differences would finish." Sure, all the Bible scholars agree on everything! Re-examining beliefs-most importantly, your own-lies at the heart of the Western secular tradition It's from a book, a non-fiction Pulitzer-prize finalist. But it's still an opinion. |
| Posted by:Bobby |
| #8 The sheikh is being intellectually dishonest. That's a tautology. Look up Ilm al-Kalam. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2016-07-24 17:50 |
| #7 The sheikh is being intellectually dishonest. There are many, many violence inducting parts of the Koran and then about an order of magnitude more of them in the hadith. The sheikh mentions the medieval philosopher (or you could call him an anti-philosopher) Ghazali. At the time Ghazali was alive, there was a philosophic movement to try to harmonize the Quran and Aristotle (sort of like Thomas Aquinas and interpreting the violent phrases more humanly. Ghazali wrote a book saying they were distorting the Koran and that was then end of that. |
| Posted by: lord garth 2016-07-24 17:36 |
| #6 The damage and destructiveness visited upon the world in the name of this religion is great and growing and those who do know the true meaning of the Quran (if there is such a thing) are not speaking out. How can one believe anything to be true about a religion that embraces and sanctions lying to infidels by its promoters? |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2016-07-24 17:32 |
| #5 I believe I found the perfect quotation "I have never understood the gangster mind -- I simply know what to do about gangsters." LL |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2016-07-24 14:31 |
| #4 The key word mentioned above is "lazy". As long as you are willing to get down on a rug and bang your head against the floor three times a day, you feel that effort which no other religion does is sufficient. The Imam handles the various Muslim doctrine interpretations for you each Friday afternoon at the local Mosque. And they are good at preaching passion for banging your head on the floor and leaving the rest of the brain washing up to them. |
| Posted by: Unelet Protector of the Sith2424 2016-07-24 14:02 |
| #3 Ideology serves people, not vice versa. Now imagine people who lost the ability for empathy, and can only cooperate with relatives. Now, I wonder, if they invent a religion - what it be like? |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2016-07-24 11:52 |
| #2 If the ulema and the ummah move in this direction, that would be lovely. But as Sheikh Mohammed Akram said, most people don't read the Koran...and very few of those that do will allow themselves understand it the way he does. Or ...taqqiyah. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2016-07-24 11:18 |
| #1 The bottom source line should be considered. Would anyone in their right mind believe for the briefest of seconds that the God of Abraham would take Moohamhead (piece of pork be upon him) as a prophet? A child rapist, mass murderer, sex slaver, common caravan thief and moon god worshiper who finance his hordes with stolen good taken from the local Jews, Christians and even pagans who refused force conversion or death? Hence the moniker "the pedophile for profit" accurately describes Shelkh's Mohammad. Studying past writings of his Islam is a moot point designed to justify its fraudulent existence. |
| Posted by: Michael Mann 2016-07-24 10:59 |