hello again and in this episode i just want to explore a bit further the Bible and
the Quran in terms of where they came from and questions of critical scholarship
particularly when it's applied to the bible and the quran . and the first text i want
to share with you is back to this one " The Quran and the Secular Mind: a Philosophy of Islam " by
Shabbir Akhtar who has said before was a lecturer in Theology at Oxford . and the second book is
this one called " REFLECTIONS " by Gai Eaton . this is the last book he wrote before he said he passed
away . and both pastors are going to read complement each other they are more or less saying
the similar kind of thing but with a different emphasis right they're both of value so
shabbat actor starts off looking at the origins of the hebrew bible and the christian
bible and then compares that with the quran and in a similar way guy eden makes an observation as
well so shabbat actors says unlike the scriptures of other extant historical religions the quran
is a contemporaneous with the faith it established the hebrew bible and the christian new testament
for instance came to acquire belatedly the status of scripture within their communities
groups of churchmen in the case of the greek new testament canonized a set of writings well over
three centuries after the events uh those books and letters allegedly allegedly record actually
for some books it was much later but i'm not going to go there the result is often seen
even by christians and jews as a poorly edited anthology of religious literature the quran status
is different it is self-described as revelation unlike the bible and it single-handedly created
the community that treated it authoritatively not the converse no discipline among the sciences of
the quran corresponds to the critical historical concerns of critical biblical scholarship
a field covering textual criticism as well as form source reduction literary and historical criticism
the muslim reluctance to develop the discipline of critical quranic scholarship is mistakenly thought
to be connected to religious obscurantism in fact there are no materials and no need
for such a discipline the quran unlike the bible not the heterogeneous work of
many hands in several genres in a trio of languages in very geographical locales
stretching over millennia surviving only in uncertain and fragmentary forms
it is a unified canon revealed in just over two decades addressed to a man fully known to his
contemporaries and to subsequent history a man living in only two geographical locations in
the same country it was written in one language in the language of the recipient of arabic obviously
and of the first audience a living language that is still widely spoken the period between its oral
revelation and final authoritative compilation is only about two decades apart from some variant
readings that that do not materially affect the sense the text is invariant defined and fixed
textual emendation editing the text to remove alleged corruptions and errors in copying
was never permitted the text has retained a perfect purity a unique version has always
enjoyed universal currency during the entire history of islam i cannot see borrowing motives
of malice and envy that should have no place in scholarship any grounds for developing a critical
textual scholarship of the koran so that sets up the contrast nicely i think from the muslim point
of view between the genesis of the bible and of the quran and why we can't have uh the same
kinds of textual critical historical analysis of the quran if the quran's claims are true
guy eaton says something similar and there's another comment he makes which i'll just throw in
for good measure which i think is just rather good and he says this leads to two questions which i
and other muslims in the west are frequently asked why in the first place is there no historical
criticism of the quran as there is of the bible here we have a simple misunderstanding the bible
is made up of many different parts compiled over many centuries it is possible to cast
out on one part without impugning the rest but the quran is a single revelation received by just one
man either you accept it for what it claims to be in which case you are a muslim or you reject this
claim and so place yourself outside the fold of islam so basically he's saying the similar things
to uh shabbat akhtar and then he goes on and this is a different subject but fascinating
secondly we are sometimes asked why we hesitate to adapt the quran to the needs of our modern age
the book answers itself itself answers this question there is no changing the words of god
the fact that it was sent down in the 7th century of the christian era
and not the 21st is irrelevant you do not wear down a diamond by constant handling
and the passage of the centuries cannot erode the words of god that after all is the whole point
of a divine intervention in the affairs of this world the act the revelation is located in time
but it is itself timeless and islamic theology always defines the essence of the quran as
uncreated therefore eternal this question is so important in relation to contemporary religious
debate that i hope to return to it later in the talk for the moment suffice it to say that muslims
that as muslims we ask not how the book can be adapted to our lives in the world of today but how
our daily lives can be adapted to the quran that is the real problem says
and this really gets to the heart of many of these debates over specific issues whether it be sexual
morality or how we deal uh with other religions and so on the the churches typically adapt
their scriptures to uh the needs of today so they will delete ignore overlook um or reinterpret
passages so that it fits in comfortably with the walton shoeong the world view and the spirit
of the age the zeitgeist uh usually the western zeitgeist um whereas the quran uh asks in fact uh
states as it's the the eternal word of god the speech of god himself uh it does it cannot be
changed like that there's either submission to the truth of god or one is in rebellion to it
anyway i just wanted to share those two passages with you i think they're they're fascinating
uh whether you believe them or not they they express a key insight into the muslim world view
and how their religion works if you like and i think it's worth sharing for that reason thank you