Answering Islam 3815

You have to take either of two views on that - a Muslim or a non-Muslim one. If you're a Muslim (and there are no half measures in this) then Muhammad was God's mouthpiece and everything he said in the Qur'an came from God, or you take the non-Muslim view that Muhammad composed it. If you take the latter view, then there's no doubt that it is a remarkable document for one man to produce. There will be some, of course, who doubt that one man could have done so.

When Muhammad made pronouncements, they were recorded immediately after by scribes or professional remembrancers (kinda human tape recorders with the aural eqivalent of photographic memory), but as I said it wasn't all written down in one book and rationalised until the time of the 3rd Caliph (and that was in living memory of people who knew Muhammad.) How accurately the words in the Qur'an reflect the words that came from Muhammad's mouth is an article of faith. The Muslim believes they are the true word of God through Muhammad. Non-Muslims will have other ideas. In my view each is enbreastled to their own opinion on that and no-one has the right to demand of either than they change their mind. If either tries to ram one or other view down my throat and demand that I accept it, they can bugger off.

Different interpretations have one virtue - flexibility. It allows for different interpretations in different places. Islam does have that flexibility, but some Muslims, like some others, refuse to accept that. So in some schools of Islamic thought, end, for example, is acceptable in some circumstances, whereas to others it isn't. (Just like Christianity!)

No Muslim will say that the Qur'an is wrong - they will say that they don't agree with an interpretation of it.

Words are good servants but bad masters. Like statistics, they can be turned around to mean just about anything. Trust neither words not statistics. Trust no person who is dogmatic about what words mean.

Rifty -- Academic and Computing Help