Yasir Qadhi and the preservation of the Quran
Posted: Tue Aug 23, 2016 5:13 pm
The issue of the preservation of the Quran has been covered extensively by Muslim scholars within an Islamic paradigm. In other words they have no doubt in promise of Allah. “Verily We: It is We Who have sent down the Dhikr (i.e. the Quran) and surely, We will guard it”. The divine nature and preservation of the Quran is a self-evident truth that no true Muslim would dare to question.
Thus issues such as the recording and arrangement of the Quran in the time of the Prophet (salalahu alaihi wa sallam), and in the era of Abū Bakr and ‘Uthmān, the causes of variant readings, the slight differences in letters in the early musaahif, the evolution of the Arabic script (dots, diacritical marks) etc – all of these have been covered extensively by Muslim scholars as Dr Qadhi know well.
What Dr. Qadhi is doing is to re-examine the issue of the preservation of the Quran within an Orientalist paradigm. The orientalists insist that the Quran is not a revelation from Allah, and that Islam is a social construct which evolved out of the interaction of the Muslims with other civilizations, cultures and philosophies.
The orientalists approach the Quran in the same way they approach the Bible; a fluid text that evolved over centuries. They have an ulterior motive when they study our noble Book – to cause us to doubt its authenticity, and thus destroy the very edifice of Islam. To quote Dr. Gerd Joseph Puin who researched Quranic manuscripts in Yemen; “So many Muslims have this belief that everything between the two covers of the Koran is just God's unaltered word,…The only way to break through this wall is to prove that the Koran has a history too”.
So when Dr. Qadhi is talking about reinterpreting the preservation of the Quran, such a futile endeavour can only be done within an orientalist (and mainly atheistic) paradigm. And it’s going to lead you down a dangerous path Dr Qadhi. As Muslims we have no need to reinterpret the preservation of the Quran. Its preservation is self-evident.
Thus issues such as the recording and arrangement of the Quran in the time of the Prophet (salalahu alaihi wa sallam), and in the era of Abū Bakr and ‘Uthmān, the causes of variant readings, the slight differences in letters in the early musaahif, the evolution of the Arabic script (dots, diacritical marks) etc – all of these have been covered extensively by Muslim scholars as Dr Qadhi know well.
What Dr. Qadhi is doing is to re-examine the issue of the preservation of the Quran within an Orientalist paradigm. The orientalists insist that the Quran is not a revelation from Allah, and that Islam is a social construct which evolved out of the interaction of the Muslims with other civilizations, cultures and philosophies.
The orientalists approach the Quran in the same way they approach the Bible; a fluid text that evolved over centuries. They have an ulterior motive when they study our noble Book – to cause us to doubt its authenticity, and thus destroy the very edifice of Islam. To quote Dr. Gerd Joseph Puin who researched Quranic manuscripts in Yemen; “So many Muslims have this belief that everything between the two covers of the Koran is just God's unaltered word,…The only way to break through this wall is to prove that the Koran has a history too”.
So when Dr. Qadhi is talking about reinterpreting the preservation of the Quran, such a futile endeavour can only be done within an orientalist (and mainly atheistic) paradigm. And it’s going to lead you down a dangerous path Dr Qadhi. As Muslims we have no need to reinterpret the preservation of the Quran. Its preservation is self-evident.