Slavery in Islam

You concede my central contention: "There [sic] were part of the customary laws of war in those times."

Mohammed owned, bought, and traded in young girls and blacks; Jesus did not. 

Stark was a long time professor of sociology and of comparative religion at the University of Washington now Distinguished Professor of the Social Sciences at Baylor University, co-director of the university's Institute for Studies of Religion, and founding editor of the Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion. 

He is a qualified academic. His views on unrelated issues are irrelevant. I repeat: Eliade was the editor, not the author of the article cited. Ad hominem attacks on scholars do not advance your position. 

"Eliade's encyclopedia of religions is not considered a very good source on Islam by Muslim researchers."

Jews and Christians do not get to choose what is acceptable research according to their faith criteria and Muslims must submit to the same standards of non-sectarian, academic inquiry. 

You are reversing the onus: it is not for me to prove a negative, but to you to prove the contrary. Rodney Stark is a "cultural Christian" most critical of other cultures a who doesn't even accept the theory of evolution. Between the fascist Eliade and Stark, you have curious references.

A commonly accepted translation of Qu'ran 33:50 is:

O Prophet! We have made lawful to thee thy wives to whom thou hast paid their dowers; and those whom thy right hand possesses out of the prisoners of war whom Allah has assigned to thee; and daughters of thy paternal uncles and aunts, and daughters of thy maternal uncles and aunts, who migrated (from Makka) with thee; and any believing woman who dedicates her soul to the Prophet if the Prophet wishes to wed her;- this only for thee, and not for the Believers (at large); We know what We have appointed for them as to their wives and the captives whom their right hands possess;- in order that there should be no difficulty for thee.

Giles Raymond DeMourot And Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.

That's the Yusuf Ali translation. It is about the spoils of war. There were part of the customary laws of war in those times. I gave you references to quotes in the Bible that don't differ in principle. These laws of war were those extant at the tile and had little to do with religion, except they were not challenged by religion -either one.

I never said non-Muslims should be excluded from the debate but you are doing the opposite: excluding Muslims from it, and bringing in commentators whose hostility to Islam is well-known. One is a fascist and Nazi collaborator who left France when placed under investigation and the other one, who teaches at Baylor University and now describes himself as an independent Christian, claims to be a rational thinker but his attitude to the theory of revolution rather puts this into question.

• Eliade is not a reference; he edited the Encyclopedia. The article cited was written by a non-sectarian scholar of Islam, not Eliade. 

  
  

  The problematic case of Bilal can be discussed but slavery for Mohammed included multiple slaves and trading according to a "serious" source, the Qur'an. 

  
  

  “Prophet, We have made lawful to you the wives to whom you have granted dowries and the slave girls whom God has given you as booty.” (Qur’an 33:50)

  
  

  In addition, serious scholars acknowledge Muhammed's slave ownership and slave trading. Rodney Stark argues that "the fundamental problem facing Muslim theologians vis-à-vis the morality of slavery is that Muhammad bought, sold, captured, and owned slaves: "For the Glory of God," p. 338, 2003, Princeton University Press.

  
  

  On the other hand, I grasp the considerable lengths to which sectarian Muslims need to scrub the primary sources of uncomfortable aspects--the owning of "little girls" and "blacks"--of Muhammed's slave holding and trading. 

  
  

  "Muslim researchers" alone do not get to judge what is scholarship. As Max Mueller observed: 'he who knows one knows none.' 

  
  

  If Christian researchers were supremacists then Liberty University, The Pontifical Institute, and BYU could do likewise. 

  
  

  What primary documents can you reference which demonstrate that Mohammed was not a slave master and trader?

  
  
  
  GProphet Mohammed's only slave who was freed, was Bilal. Bukhari contains many weak hadith as modern criticism has shown. 
  
  I can't prove a negative! There is no serious source that Mohammed was a slave trader!
  
  No Eliade's encyclopedia of religions is not considered a very good source on Islam by Muslim researchers. 
  
  There is for a new (2012 I believe) effort in Turkey led by Ali Bardakoglu and Mehmet Görmez to oublish a revised list of hadiths, including Bukhari's. 
  
  Hadiths like “Women are imperfect in intellect and religion", “The best of women are those who are like sheep,” “If a woman doesn’t satisfy her husband’s desires, she should choose herself a place in hell", “If a husband’s body is covered with pus and his wife licks it clean, she still wouldn’t have paid her dues", “Your prayer will be invalid if a donkey, black dog or a woman passes in front of you” have been easily found to be apocryphal.
  
  (continued)

  5h

• 

  Giles Raymond DeMourot (continued)
  
  Modern Muslim intellectuals have long argued that the hadiths should be revised, but this is the first time in recent history that a central Islamic authority -Diyanet- has taken the dramatic step of deciding to edit them. The media and intellectuals of Ankara and Istanbul largely welcomed the move, which the Turkish government supported. And although there were rumblings of discontent from ultraconservative commentators, they didn't amount to a protest.
  
  The hadiths were compiled two centuries after the Koran, which was transcribed during the prophet's lifetime and canonized right after his death in Medina in the 7th century. By the 9th century, people were constructing such strange stories from the prophet that scholars such as Muhammad al-Bukhari and Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj decided to evaluate and catalogue them. Focusing on the reliability of the chain of transmitters, these scholars created collections of sahih , or trustworthy, hadiths. 
  
  (continued)

  5h

• 

  Giles Raymond DeMourot (continued)
  
  However Bukhari and Ibn Al Hajjaj did not have at their disposal the modern tools of analysis. Mustafa Aykol wrote in the Washington Post that some modern Islamic scholars have felt increasingly uneasy about the inconsistencies and narrow-minded assertions in these collections. There are other hadiths that explain Muhammad's great respect for his wives, for example, and insist on the rights of women. The contradiction implies a need for revision. 
  
  In proposing to create its new standard collection, the Turkish Diyanet intends to look beyond the chain of transmitters to logic, consistency and common sense. In many ways, this is a revival of an early debate in Islamic jurisprudence between rival camps known as the adherents of the hadiths and the adherents of reason -- a debate that ended with the triumph of the former. 
  
  http://wapo.st/1VSFM9B
  
  (continued)

  5h

• 

  Giles Raymond DeMourot (continued)
  
  My late friend Mohammed Arkoun, an Algerian who taught and did research at the Sorbonne in Paris, and had worked with Fernand Braudel, also did work on hadiths which was of interest, including on Bukhari. He showed me for instance for Bukhari to have received the text of two hadith in two different cities at the date he indicated, he should have been able to travel on the Concorde.
  
  To return to Eliade, one of his most influential contributions to religious studies was his theory of Eternal Return, which holds that myths and rituals do not simply commemorate hierophanies (manifestation of the sacred), but, at least to the minds of the religious, actually participate in them. It is not considered as a rational theory.
  
  Eliade left France for Chicago in 1956 after having been placed under investigation for his pro-Nazi actitivities and his membership of Iron Guard during the war (which included writiing hostile pieces on Jews and Muslims). 
  
  (continued)

  5h

• 

  Giles Raymond DeMourot (continued)
  
  Before the war he had been arrested once on July 14, 1938 after a crackdown on the Iron Guard authorized by King Carol II. In 1942, Eliade authored a volume in praise of the Estado Novo, established in Portugal by António de Oliveira Salazar,claiming that "The Salazarian state, a Christian and totalitarian one, is first and foremost based on love". In autumn 1943, he traveled to occupied France, where he rejoined Emil Cioran, also meeting with scholar Georges Dumézil and the collaborationist writer Paul Morand. He was involved in intellectual collaboration with the Vichy regime.

  5

Eliade is not a reference; the Encyclopedia of Religion is a secondary source of contemporary scholarship which documents the veracity of Bukhari as a primary source.

The Quran and the reliable Hadiths are references which document Mohammed as a slave master.

What primary documents can you reference which demonstrate that Mohammed was not a slave trader?

• 

  Bukhari is a compendium of hadiths. Mircea Eliade would not be my reference. The fact of the matter is that Mohammed had a slave, Bilal, and freed him. He didn't abolish slavery, something that had to wait the 19th century in Europe, the US and Brazil, with an abundance of religious justification on both sides of the issue. Slavery was officially abolished in Saudi Arabia only in 1962.
  
  In the 1860s, Southern preachers defending slavery took the Bible literally. They asked who could question the Word of God when it said, "slaves, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling" (Ephesians 6:5), or "tell slaves to be submissive to their masters and to give satisfaction in every respect" (Titus 2:9). Christians who wanted to preserve slavery had the words of the Bible to back them up.

• 

  
  
  Historian James Howell Moorhead of Princeton Theological Seminary points out that other ministers drew on the Book of Revelation and suggested that a Northern victory might prepare the way for the Kingdom of God on earth. Still others preached that God would not allow the North to win until it ended slavery. The Battle Hymn of the Republic summed up such Union beliefs:
  
  "In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea, With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me: As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free, While God is marching on."
  
  George Washington rightly observed: "Religious controversies are always productive of more acrimony and irreconcilable hatreds than those which spring from any other cause." 
  
  (continued)

  2h

• 

  Giles Raymond DeMourot (continued)
  
  Peter Wood, emeritus professor of American history at Duke University, suggests that in revisiting the Civil War, we need to remember not only the preaching of white ministers from the North and the South, but also the perspective of African Americans, so absent during the Centennial. "In Frederick Douglass' world," says Wood, "devout black believers — and numerous white abolitionist allies, violent and non-violent — were quick to see slavery as a sin and a defilement of New Testament values that had to be rooted out."

  2

You do not need hundreds of quotes; it should be easy for you. You only need to produce one Quranic quote or reliable primary source exonerating the slave master Mohammed. 

"Recent opinion is inclined to see more hadith as sound, and also recognizes that the Hadith, whether 'true' or not, were a powerful formative influence in Islamic society. Scholars made many collections of 'sound' Hadith, and six of these came to have a kind of canonical status among Sunni Muslims; the earliest of the six where those of al-Bukhari (d. 870) and Muslim (d. 875)." The Encyclopedia of Religion, Eliade, 10:145. 

Muhammed's "black slave" Bukhari 3:43:648
"Girl slave" Bukhari 3:47:765
"Slave girls" Bukhari 4:53:344
"Slave Midam" Bukhari 5:59:541
"Slave girl" Bukhari 6:60:274
"Slave" Bukhari 6:60:281
"A black slave" Bukhari 6:60:435
"Black slave of his" (Mohamed) Bukhari 7:62:119
"Prophet had received a few slave girls" Bukhari 7:64:274
"His (Muhammad) slave tailor" Bukhari 7:65:344-346


Bukhari's hadiths are supposed to be a reference, but modern critics have shown some of them are at best second hand. See for instance Bünyamin Erul in Turkey. With the passage of tile and modern historiographic tools one realizes that the proportion of weak hadiths is higher than previously thought.

Now we can both align hundred of quotes without progressing one inch. Christianity and Islam for a long time did not question slavery as it was part of society as existed then. Christianity turned against slavery earlier than did Islam, but that's rather easy to explain with the social-cultural and religious stagnation that Ottoman domination implied. There were also minor theologians trying to justify slavery before and until the end of the US civil war. 

"These are the names of Muhammad's male slaves: Yakan Abu Sharh, Aflah, 'Ubayd, Dhakwan, Tahman, Mirwan, Hunayn, Sanad, Fadala Yamamin, Anjasha al-Hadi, Mad'am, Karkara, Abu Rafi', Thawban, Ab Kabsha, Salih, Rabah, Yara Nubyan, Fadila, Waqid, Mabur, Abu Waqid, Kasam, Abu 'Ayb, Abu Muwayhiba, Zayd Ibn Haritha, and also a black slave called Mahran, who was re-named (by Muhammad) Safina (`ship')."

Zad al-Ma'ad, pp. 114-116

Muhammad's Maid Slaves "are Salma Um Rafi', Maymuna daughter of Abu Asib, Maymuna daughter of Sa'd, Khadra, Radwa, Razina, Um Damira, Rayhana, Mary the Coptic, in addition to two other maid-slaves, one of them given to him as a present by his cousin, Zaynab, and the other one captured in a war."

Zad al-Ma'ad, pp. 114-116

So Muhammad began seizing their herds and their property bit by bit. He conquered home by home. The Messenger took some people captive, including Safiyah and her two cousins. The Prophet chose Safiyah for himself.

Al-Tabari, Vol. 8, p. 116, See also: Ishaq:511

Narrated Al-Hasan: 'Amr bin Taghlib told us that Allah's Apostle got some property or some war prisoners and he distributed them in the above way (i.e. giving to some people to the exclusion of others) .

Sahih Bukhari 4:53:373

Narrated Jabir: A man manumitted a slave and he had no other property than that, so the Prophet cancelled the manumission (and sold the slave for him). No'aim bin Al-Nahham bought the slave from him. Sahih Bukhari 3:41:598

• 

  Mohammed had one slave, Bilal, which he freed. But he didn't call for the abolition of slavery, neither did Jesus. Among Muslims and Christians, some did condemn slavery. St Augustine is one. Thomas Aquinas in Summa Contra Gentiles justified slavery. He believed that the universe had a natural structure that gave some men authority over others. He justified this by pointing out the hierarchical nature of heaven, where some angels were superior to others. Martin Luther did not condemn slavery. We can go on and on.

Mohammed was a slave master; Jesus was not.

You have conceded my premise; the seven Quranic texts and the slave practices of Mohammed can not be questioned.

I have no need for literalism.

I will interpret the Islamic and Christian practices of slavery in light of later knowledge as you suggest.

One of Master Muhammad's closest companions was Umar, who became the 2nd caliph two years after the Islamic leader died. Umar enslaved black Africans with a Baqt (treaty) that was unchallenged by Muslims for seven hundred years.

On the other hand, a later authoritative Christian leader after Jesus, Augustine, wrote in The City of God: "But by nature, as God first created us, no one is the slave either of man or of sin" (Ch. 15, Book 19).

Interpreted in later practice just after their respective founders Christianity opposed slavery but Muslim leaders continued the slave holding precedent of Mohammed.

The Prophet freed his slave Bilal. A major proportion of the Hadith are "weak", and the Sunna is uncertain in some parts. Only the Qu'ran cannot be questioned, though it can be to a degree interpreted in the light of later knowledge. Beware of literalism. The reality is while neither Christianity nor Islam justified slavery, they initially accepted it as an institution of society. In the US South slavery was often justified with quotes from the Bible, while Abolitionists also quoted the Bible. The title of this thread, "Women slaughter is simply part of their religion", will be offensive to most Muslims including to moderate Islamists. The letter to AB Al-Baghdadi sates that "It is forbidden in Islam to deny women their rights."

Quran (33:50) - "O Prophet! We have made lawful to thee thy wives to whom thou hast paid their dowers; and those (slaves) whom thy right hand possesses out of the prisoners of war whom Allah has assigned to thee." 

Quran (23:5-6) - "who abstain from sex, except with those joined to them in the marriage bond, or (the captives) whom their right hands possess."

Quran (4:24) - "And all married women (are forbidden unto you) save those (captives) whom your right hands possess."

Quran (8:69) - "But (now) enjoy what ye took in war, lawful and good."A reference to war booty, of which slaves were a part. The Muslim slave master may enjoy his "catch" because (according to verse 71) "Allah gave you mastery over them."

Quran (24:32) - "And marry those among you who are single and those who are fit among your male slaves and your female slaves."

Quran (2:178) - "O ye who believe! Retaliation is prescribed for you in the matter of the murdered; the freeman for the freeman, and the slave for the slave, and the female for the female."

Quran (16:75) - "Allah sets forth the Parable (of two men: one) a slave under the dominion of another; He has no power of any sort; and (the other) a man on whom We have bestowed goodly favours from Ourselves, and he spends thereof (freely), privately and publicly: are the two equal? (By no means;) praise be to Allah.' (According to 16:71, the owner should be careful about insulting Allah by bestowing Allah's gifts on slaves - those whom the god of Islam has not favored).

There are seven prescriptive Quranic verses describing how Muslims are to take, treat, and master their slaves to imitate Muhammed's example as a slave master. 

Jesus was not a slave master and Ephesians is a descriptive text of Greco-Roman society. 

In the Hadith and Sira there are of course nineteen more prescriptive passages for Islamic masters to follow and imitate Muhammed's example; in contrast, there are no Christian slaveholding texts for the centuries of patristic literature. 

No, neither does the Quran. Both Holy Books start from the premise that slavery exists, and give advice as to how to treat slaves. Prophet Mohammed freed his slave Bilal who remained his servant. As the letter to Al-Baghaddi says, "The re-introduction of slavery is forbidden in Islam. It was abolished by universal consensus." Not because the Quran said so. The Bible does not say either that slaves should be freed. Slavery had nothing to do with either Christinity but existed in the societies where religion was revealed.

I suggest you read Exodus 21:2-6, Leviticus 25:39-55, Deuteronomy 15:12-18, Ephesians 6:5, Exodus 21:2-6, Deuteronomy 15:12-15, Jeremiah 34:14, Leviticus 25:44-47, Exodus 21:26-27. The Islamic State and its theories do not represent Islam, only some religious-political extremists.

I took your advice and read Ephesians 6:5.

Οἱ δοῦλοι, ὑπακούετε τοῖς κατὰ σάρκα κυρίοις μετὰ φόβου καὶ τρόμου ἐν ἁπλότητι τῆς καρδίας ὑμῶν ὡς τῷ Χριστῷ,

The verse does not advocate slavery: it tells Christians who are victimized as slaves, since slavery already exists as a pre-existing social condition, to ὑπακούετε (literally: you obey) obey their earthly masters.

In point of contrast, the Qur'an directs a Muslim to master "those whom you own as slaves."
This is not extreme behavior but it is a Quranic directive.

I made no reference to the Hebrew Scriptures thus the passages have no bearing on Ephesians.

The Christian bible does not authorize slavery: the Quran does. In Islam, no earthly authority trumps Allah. Do not confuse the foibles of human nature, slavery may potentially exist at all times by all peoples and religions; and, on the other hand, the Quranic admonition that slavery is justified. All religions and their subsequent institutions and practices are not the same. As a result, Christians such as Quakers are early abolitionists but Muslims persist long after the Enlightenment to create the Islamic State.

Giles Raymond DeMourot Certainly slavery existed in Islam (as in Christianity by the way), but the document I referred to and authored by the highest authorities in Sunni Islam says: "The re-introduction of slavery is forbidden in Islam. It was abolished by universal consensus."

Mā malakat aymānukum ("what your right hands possess", Arabic: ما ملكت أيمانکم‎‎) is a reference in the Qur'an to slaves.

Bernard Lewis translates ma malakat aymanukum as "those whom you own." Abdullah Yusuf Ali translates it as "those whom your right hands possess", as does M. H. Shakir. N. J. Dawood translates the phrase more idiomatically as "those whom you own as slaves."

Marco: That as nothing to do with Islam. The practices of the Islamic State are known for their barbarity. For the Islamic position from the point of view of the highest authorities in Sunni Islam, read "Open letter to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi":

_6. It is forbidden in Islam to kill the innocent.
_10. It is forbidden in Islam to harm or mistreat—in any way—Christians or any ‘People of the Scripture’.
_11. It is obligatory to consider Yazidis as People of the Scripture.
_12. The re-introduction of slavery is forbidden in Islam. It was abolished by universal consensus.
_13. It is forbidden in Islam to force people to convert.
_14. It is forbidden in Islam to deny women their rights.
_17. It is forbidden in Islam to torture people.

http://www.lettertobaghdadi.com/

Women Slaughter is Simply a Part of Their Religion

Motown Message Songs

Berry Gordy, Jr. was born to the middle-class family of Berry Gordy II (also known as Berry Gordy, Sr.), who had relocated to Detroit from Oconee in Washington County, Georgia, in 1922.^[2] The first Berry Gordy was the son of a white plantation owner in Georgia and his female slave. Berry Gordy, Sr. was lured to Detroit by the job opportunities for black people offered by the booming automotive businesses.^[2] He developed his interest in music by writing songs and opening the 3-D Record Mart, a record store featuring jazz music.^[3] The store was unsuccessful, and Gordy sought work at the Lincoln-Mercury plant, but his family connections put him in touch with Al Green (no relation to the singer Al Green), owner of the Flame Show Bar Talent Club, where he met the singer Jackie Wilson.

In 1957 Wilson recorded "Reet Petite", a song Gordy had co-written with his sister Gwen and writer-producer Billy Davis. It became a modest hit, but had more success internationally, especially in the UK, where it reached the Top 10 and even later topped the chart on re-issue in 1986. Wilson recorded six more songs co-written by Gordy over the next two years, including "Lonely Teardrops", which topped the R&B charts and got to number 7 in the pop chart. Berry and Gwen Gordy also wrote "All I Could Do Was Cry" for Etta James at Chess Records.

Motown Record Corporation

Edit

Gordy reinvested the profits from his songwriting success into producing. In 1957, he discovered the Miracles (originally known as the Matadors) and began building a portfolio of successful artists. In 1959, with the encouragement of Miracles leader Smokey Robinson, Gordy borrowed $800 from his family to create an R&B record company. Originally, Gordy wanted to name the new label Tammy Records, after the song recorded by Debbie Reynolds. However, that name was taken, and he chose the name Tamla Records. The company began operating on January 21, 1959. "Come to Me" by Marv Johnson was issued as Tamla 101. United Artists Records picked up "Come to Me" for national distribution, as well as Johnson's more successful follow-up records such as "You Got What It Takes", co-produced and co-written by Gordy. His next release was the only 45 ever issued on his Rayber label, featuring Wade Jones with an unnamed female backup group. The record did not sell well and is now one of the rarest issues from the Motown stable. Berry's third release was "Bad Girl" by the Miracles, the first release on the Motown record label. "Bad Girl" was a solid hit in 1959 after Chess Records picked it up. Barrett Strong's "Money (That's What I Want)" initially appeared on Tamla and then charted on Gordy's sister's label, Anna Records, in February 1960.

The Tamla and Motown labels were then merged into a new company, Motown Record Corporation, incorporated on April 14, 1960. In 1960, Gordy signed an unknown singer, Mary Wells, who became the fledgling label's first star, with Smokey Robinson penning her hits "You Beat Me to the Punch", "Two Lovers", and "My Guy". The Miracles' hit "Shop Around" peaked at No. 1 on the national R&B charts in late 1960 and at No. 2 on the Billboard pop charts on January 16, 1961 (No. 1 pop, Cash Box), which established Motown as an independent company worthy of notice. Later in 1961, the Marvelettes' "Please Mr. Postman" made it to the top of both charts.

Berry Gordy House, known as the Motown mansion, in Detroit's Boston-Edison Historic District^[4]

Gordy's gift for identifying and bringing together musical talent, along with the careful management of his artists' public image, made Motown initially a major national and then international success. Over the next decade, he signed such artists as the Supremes, Marvin Gaye, the Temptations, Jimmy Ruffin, the Contours, the Four Tops, Gladys Knight & the Pips, the Commodores, the Velvelettes, Martha and the Vandellas, Stevie Wonder and the Jackson 5. Though he also signed various white acts on the label, he largely promoted African-American artists but carefully controlled their public image, dress, manners and choreography for across-the-board appeal.

Motown Message Songs
 
Valadiers

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SYDWLGGHFDg

“Greetings” appeared nearly a decade before Motown allowed Marvin Gaye’s protest anthem “What’s Going On” to hit the airwaves on January 20, 1971.

Gaye’s masterpiece followed on the heels of such politically charged hit singles as the Temptations’ “Ball of Confusion” (May 7, 1970) and Edwin Starr’s “War” (June 9, 1970), which paved the way for Gaye’s effort.

Islam vs. Crusades Compared Visually

Visual

Critical Thinking College

can-colleges-truly-teach-critical-thinking-skills

Visme Interactive Infographic How To

visme interactive infographic

Bad Robots

Bad

Hidden Job Market

 Use LinkedIn (or similar sites) to search for people in the same position you might be interested in. Contact them and ask if they can help you better understand "what do you do each day?", "what are the greatest challenges you face in this position?", "what skills are needed to be successful in this position?", what do you like the most/least about this position?". Also ask who is your manager and who else do you know that I may talk with to learn more about XX (the company, similar positions, etc.). Eventually, you'll find someone that says "you should talk with Sam, I think he's looking for someone with your experience." don't get discouraged if this takes weeks or months though. However, when you are successful in locating that next position, you will have developed a solid network of professionals that you can tap in the future. Always be open to reciprocating for those that helped you (pay it forward).

Imprimis: Negative Metoo Movement

the-negative-impact-of-the-metoo-movement

Reading, Context, Interpretation, Quran

READING: THE IMPORTANCE OF CONTEXT FOR INTERPRETING THE QURAN

As we will see during this course, the diverse approaches that Muslims have used to interpret the Quran and the corpus of hadiths (accounts of the actions and sayings) attributed to the Prophet Muhammad, which together form core scriptural texts for most Muslims, are intricate and complicated.One source of these complexities is the question of the relationship between the Quran and the context in which it was revealed. On the one hand, the Quran is considered to contain a message for all of humanity, which will be valid for all subsequent times and places, and not simply for 7th-century Arabia. On the other hand, in many respects the Quran has a clear connection with that context. As preparation for our engagements with the Quran in the rest of this course, it is therefore important to consider the ways in which the context of the emergence of the Quran is relevant for the interpretation of this text, whilst also bearing in mind that there are other approaches to interpretation that are not so context related in this way.

1. The Arabic Quran: On several occasions the Quran refers to itself as ‘an Arabic Quran (recitation)’. The Quran is composed of the Arabic of 7th century Arabia, including turns of phrase that are specific to that period of the language. Muslim philologists from early in Islamic history devoted much attention to developing sciences of Quranic grammar, lexicography and rhetoric so that the literal meaning and emotional force of the Arabic of the Quran as it would have been heard by those to whom Muhammad taught it could be preserved. One often sees detailed linguistic and grammatical discussions in commentaries (tafsīr) on the Quran for this reason.

2. The Social Significance of Language – Poets and Prophets: From what we know about pre-Islamic Arabia, the importance of language can hardly be overestimated. Eloquence was deeply respected, and poets were respected professionals whose crafted words might make or break the reputation of an individual or a tribe. Battles always began with the recitation of war poetry, and there are even legends that bloodshed might be avoided if a poetic defeat was definitive. The most famous pre-Islamic poems are the ‘Hung Poems’ (mu‘allaqāt), which were hung in the most revered place of all, on the Kaaba itself. The Quranic clearly distinguishes itself from both poetry and the speech of soothsayers inspired by jinn; the scripture contains numerous claims that its language proves its divine origin, even challenging deniers to produce something like it. (We will look at the issue of the inimitability of the Quran in more detail in Day 5.) Distinguishing the Prophet Muhammad from these poets and soothsayers, the Quran speaks instead of prophecy, which seems to have been a concept that had significant currency in pre-Islamic Arabia. According to Muslim accounts of the Prophet’s biography (sīra), while a child Muhammad was travelling with a trade caravan to Syria. The caravan stopped at a hermitage of a Christian monk named Bahira, who upon seeing certain signs, including physical features of Muhammad, predicted that he was to become the awaited prophet. Such accounts give us some context as to how Muslims have conceived of the context in which the Quran was revealed, and illuminate many of the Quranic statements about its own, very particular, form of language.

3. The Walking Quran: As we have mentioned before, the most important aspect of contextualizing the Quran is the Prophet Muhammad himself, who came to be considered by Muslims to embody the message he revealed.  Hence he came to referred to as “the Walking Quran” or “the Quran on Two Feet.”  His sayings and actions (recorded in the hadith literature) are the most important resource for understanding the meaning of the Quran, and the imitation of the Prophet, the cultivation of his character traits, is considered by many Muslims to be the key to gaining access to the deeper meanings of the Quran.

4. ‘Occasions of Revelation’ (asbāb al-nuzūl): A significant number of Quranic verses respond directly to particular events in the life of the Prophet Muhammad or to questions posed to him. There are sometimes differing accounts of these occasions of revelation, and commentators may weigh them against each other or even question the extent to which they are relevant to interpretation. For example, regarding the verse “To God belong the East and the West, so wheresoever you turn, there is the Face of God, verily God is All-Encompassing, Knowing,” (2:115) some commentators will interpret this verse as a legal pronouncement, arguing that the occasion of revelation was when a group of travelers, who had been unable to determine the direction of prayer at night time and in the morning realized they had got it wrong, asked the Prophet whether their prayer was invalid. However, other commentators, particularly Sufis in this case, have suggested that this verse is simply a statement of fact, a metaphysical truth, and the reported occasion of revelation is irrelevant, or that it is both a legal pronouncement regarding the status of mistakes in prayer and a metaphysical statement.

5. Meccan and Medinan Periods: Given the connections of many Quranic verses with particular occasions of revelation, scholars have endeavored to associate various parts of the Quran with different periods of the 23 years during which Muslims believe that the Prophet received revelation. The most important categorization here is between verses (or whole chapters/suras) that were revealed in Mecca, and those revealed in Medina, after the Hijra ( his emigration from Mecca to Medina in the year 622 CE). The social situation of the Prophet and his followers while in Mecca as opposed to the period in Medina were quite different. For example, the Meccan chapters, which, despite being earlier, are mainly located at the end of the Quran, contain a striking lyricism and intensity, instructing the oppressed and deeply committed group on the spiritual truths of the meeting with God and the urgency of turning toward Him. During the Medinan period on the other hand, the community had become an established social and political entity, and in these passages, to give just a few examples, the Quran lays down regulations for communal life, whilst also warning of those who have joined the community simply for material and social benefit. An interesting illustration of this difference is seen in Sura 73, which begins by addressing the Prophet (and his committed Meccan following) “O thou enwrapped! Stand vigil at night, save a little, half of it or reduce it a little, or add to it; and recite the Quran in a measured pace. Truly We shall soon cast upon thee a weighty Word. Truly the vigil of the night is firmest in tread and most upright for speech.” (73:1-6, Trans. The Study Quran, SQ) But it ends with verses added later, said by some to date from the Medinan period, which lightens the burden of worship for the believers for a community that was now less elite: “Truly thy Lord knows that thou dost stand vigil well-nigh two-thirds of the night, or a half of it, or a third of it, as do a group of those who are with thee; and God measures out the night and the day. He knows that you will not keep count of it and has relented unto you; so recite that which is easy for you of the Quran…” (73:20, SQ) At this juncture, it should also be noted that the modern editions of the Quran, whether in the Arabic or any other language, have arranged the chapters/suras roughly in order of verse length: the longer suras are placed in the beginning (save the first one, the Fātiha), and the shorter suras are placed at the end.

6. Abrogation: Given that the verses of the Quran are believed to have been revealed over a 23-year period, in which the social conditions of the Muslims were constanlty changing, one finds within the Quran certain verses that provide differing instructions on a single issue. Perhaps the majority of interpreters hold that later verses have the capacity to abrogate, or invalidate, the legal rulings contained within previously revealed verses. This, they would maintain, is not to say that ‘God has changed His mind’, but rather that differing social conditions necessitate differing causes of action. One example of this is the gradual prohibition of wine (and hence other intoxicating beverages) that one can trace in different Quranic verses. For example, the verse “O you who believe! Draw not near unto prayer when you are drunken until you know what you are uttering,” (4:43 SQ) obviously contains instructions that are less restrictive than the verse, “O you who believe! Wine, and gambling, and idols, and divining arrows are but a means of defilement, of Satan’s doing. So avoid it, that haply you may prosper,” (5:90 SQ) which is considered the last verse revealed regarding wine.

7. Reactions to Pre-Islamic Practices: The Quran contains a range of responses to different pre-Islamic practices, from confirmation of certain types of practice, such as fasting and pilgrimage, which were given new forms, to outright rejection, such as the harsh criticisms of pre-Islamic Arabs for idolatry and burying alive female new-borns. Many commentators in the modern period have argued that the social message of the Quran should be understood in the light of pre-Islamic practices. For example, some argue that slavery was a social institution in pre-Islamic Arabia that was so entrenched that it would have been impossible to ban it outright, so instead the Quran places great emphasis on the virtues and rewards associated with freeing slaves.

These considerations already suggest some of the complexities associated with interpreting the Quran, complexities that will only become more apparent as we turn to other aspects and genres of Quranic interpretation. However, this complexity should not be discouraging. While it seems practically impossible to say once and for all that one has ‘understood’ a particular Quranic verse, it is more helpful to think of understanding as possessing degrees of intensity, like a spectrum of light. Although, many Muslims believe that complete understanding belongs only to God, or to the Prophet, or to Prophet and the Imams, depending on the group, all Muslim scholars, indeed all Muslims have been engaged in the attempt to gradually deepen their understanding of the meaning of the verses of the Quran. Throughout the tradition, and especially in the pre-modern period, one repeatedly comes across the sentiment ‘and God knows best’, as the author endeavors to present the best interpretation possible given their means. Likewise, although one may not know Arabic and may not have mastered the body of knowledge associated with Quranic interpretation, one can continuously increase in knowledge by becoming acquainted with diverse Muslim interpretations of the Quran and gaining understanding of the methods by which these interpretations were attained, the contexts that shaped them, and the reasons for their diversity.

Islamist Slave in Texas

politics/guinea-president-labor

World War II

World War II

Harvard Censors Art of Mohammed

Censor

Ambient Music and John Cage

Ambient and John Cage

Call Northside 777

Mother

Call Northside 777 is a 1948 documentary-style film noir directed by Henry Hathaway and starring James Stewart.[2] The picture is based on the true story of a Chicago reporter who proved that a man in prison for murder was wrongly convicted 11 years before. The names of the real wrongly convicted men were Majczek and Marcinkiewicz for the murder of Chicago Traffic Police Officer William D. Lundy.

Stewart stars as the persistent journalist and Richard Conte plays the imprisoned Frank Wiecek. Wiecek is based on Joseph Majczek, who was wrongly convicted of the murder of a Chicago policeman in 1932, one of the worst years of organized crime during Prohibition.

Post-War America

Videos

Tariq Ramadan Rape Victim

french-author-henda-ayari-accused-tareq-ramadan-rape-recounts-i-thought-i-was-going-to-die

Colleges Fit Survive

https://www.wsj.com/articles/after-decades-of-growth-colleges-find-its-survival-of-the-fittest

President Sends Troops to the Border

Border Troops

Beatles and John Cage

Beatles and John Cage

Description of Revolution #9

Carnival of Light

Revolution #9

Bix Beiderbecke 78 Gramaphone

Bix

Cutting a 78 Record

Cut