|
|
The
Quran and the west
  By
Dr Muzaffar Iqbal
11/2/2007
Paths to
the Quran have become restricted for Muslims but they are totally blocked for a
vast majority of human beings who have grown up in the contemporary western
world. This is a calamity not only for those whose hearts have become sealed to
the last and the final message from the Creator, but for the entire humanity
because it creates a fundamental divide between 1.6 billion Muslims who
constitute one fourth of humanity and roughly the same number of other human
beings who live in the large geographical region now home to the modern western
civilization. This includes Europe, North America, the New Zealand, Australia
and parts of South America.
What creates this block is a complex mix. It is made up of numerous old and new
historical events, general perceptions of the Quran created by three centuries
of western scholarship, many deep-seated biases against Muslims, and a number of
other factors arising from within western civilization. Whatever its make up,
this block against the Quran is so solid that very few western seekers of truth
are able to break it and get to the first stage of actually reading a
translation of the Quran. A large majority of those who do so, find it
absolutely impossible to understand, for they encounter a narration unlike any
they have ever read: there is no apparent logical flow in the text, a stylistic
element so essential for the Western mind. In addition, even in the best of
translations, the imagery of the Quran remains utterly foreign for the western
mind not to speak of its vocabulary and its historical sweep. The result is
total incomprehensibility.
All that a sincere western reader of the Quran gets out of his or her first
encounter with the Quran is an overall sense of its awesome alienation.
Thereafter, most westerns stop their further quest of understanding the message
of the Quran. Those who persist, attempt to read various books on the Quran
(such as the Major Themes of the Quran by Fazlur Rahman), and this helps to some
extent, but does not really open direct paths to the Quran.
This dilemma of the western mind is not only due to the inherent linguistic
difficulties or the foreignness of the Quranic vocabulary and imagery, but also
due to certain fundamental assumptions and presuppositions which have become
ingrained in the western civilization. One of these fundamental aspects of the
modern western civilization is its loss of understanding of the phenomenon of
revelation. Modern western civilization is built on humanism and its pivotal
belief in rationalism. Anything beyond reason is, by definition, unreasonable,
hence not worthy of serious attention. Thus it is very difficult for a western
mind to grasp that there might be worlds upon worlds beyond the realm of reason
and rationality. Not only revelation, but even ‘intellect’, which in Islamic
thought is called aql-e kulli, is not fully understood in the west as an inner
human faculty distinct from ‘reason’. (called aql-e juzwi).
As a result, the phenomena of revelation is often confused with inspiration. For
most contemporary Westerns, there is no such thing possible as a direct
revelation from the Creator, all that is humanly possible is inspiration under
which a human being writes. This can be poetic inspiration or religious
inspiration. Shakespeare and Dante are considered great poets because they were
truly inspired in a poetic sense. The four gospels, which make up the New
Testament, are great books because of the greatness of the religious
inspiration, which produced them. The Prophets of the Old Testament were human
beings who wrote accounts of their truly heroic and great spiritual journeys.
This understanding, emerging out of a historical past going back to the
Renaissance, has so colored the Western understanding of revelation, and hence
that of religion itself, that it is well-nigh impossible for most Westerns to
grasp even the basic Quranic claim that it is actually the Word of God Himself,
sent down through the agency of a Noble Messenger (Rasulun Kareem, meaning the
Angel Jibril) to the heart of the Prophet (SAW).
In the absence of this basic understanding, a western reader sincerely trying to
understand the Quran approaches it in the same manner in which he or she
approaches the Bible. This approach blocks are paths to the Quran immediately,
for it is a living Book and when those who do not believe in its Divine origin
approach it, it puts a veil between itself and such readers: We have laid veils
which prevent them from understanding it and into their ears, deafness. And so,
whenever, you mention your Sustainer, the one and only, they turn their backs in
aversion. (al-Isra: 46)
No doubt, there are individuals in the west who have surpassed this difficulty.
These exceptional men and women have left behind certain testaments of their
spiritual journeys and their encounters with the Quran which might be useful for
those who sincerely seek guidance from the Quran. But in general, western
readers of the Quran will not be facilitated in their attempts unless there is a
much greater support from Muslim scholars who can make a major effort to open
certain paths to the Quran for the contemporary seekers of truth. This effort
needs to remain rooted in the Quranic worldview, but made in a style and
language that is accessible to Western readers. Of course, there is no
substitute for a living source and therefore, the best option for a Western
seeker of truth is a person who has already successfully opened paths to the
Noble Quran for him or herself.
The writer is a freelance columnist. Email: quantumnotes@gmail.com
http://www.thenews.com.pk/print1.asp?id=78354
|
