Qur'an and The Modern World

AbdurRaheem Green

The problem with judging any given book or scripture only on its morals and laws is that morals and laws in general are far from universal. For example, something that may seem like a harsh punishment in one culture is considered soft in another.

 Limited polygamy might seem like an unreasonable restriction in a society that relies on marriage as means of social security for women and practices unlimited polygamy. To them monogamy might seem like madness, especially to the women who rely on polygamy for security. The self styled ‘civilized free world’ is itself constantly changing its moral and ethical stance on many things. Things that were bad ten years ago are acceptable today and vice versa, yet some spokespeople for the values of the ‘free world’ talk about their morals and values as if they were some sort of divine writ, which of course they are not. In fact the opposite is true.

The point here is that the biggest problem that people tend to have with Islam is actually not really a valid criterion by which to judge it. Rationally, one should take the position that if one can establish convincing evidence of a book’s divine origin, then one should accept that the Creator of us knows what is best for us. In fact, it is quite likely that humans would choose morals, laws and values that they feel comfortable with rather than those which are actually good and beneficial for them, or that some humans (like those with authority and control) devise a system and moral order that keeps them in power! The fact is, there are many things that are good for us that we don’t like and many things we like that are actually bad for us. So we should put this issue of the so called incompatibility of Islam with modern life aside as a red herring (or perhaps as another man in red underpants!)

Quran is guidance from the Creator

Now, this may be time to swallow the bitterest pill of all so far. Time to accept what for some of us might be the hardest truth; that the Quran just might possibly be that guidance from the Creator, and that Mohammed is a Prophet. 

At least we should put our prejudice aside and try to openly examine the reasoned argu­ments put forth in favour of the Quran’s claim to be that guidance. After all, it does already have a few things in favour of this claim. Let’s go over them again. Firstly, what it teaches about the Creator matches what can be understood rationally by everyone every­where, i.e. that there is One Creator that is unlike the creation. There are lots of verses in the Quran that expound this idea. For example:

“Say: He is God, the One and Alone, God the one whom every­thing needs and who Himself needs nothing, He is not born, nor does He beget, and there is nothing that can be compared to Him.”   

[The Quran; Chapter 112 – The Purity, verses 1-4]

Some people question the use of ‘He’ in the Quran. Does this mean that the Creator is a man? The Creator, according to these verses, is not like anything. It’s just that in Arabic, the original language of the Quran, like many other languages, there is only male and female, no neuter. Even in English, saying ‘it’ doesn’t re­ally seem an appropriate way to talk about God. ‘He’ just happens to be the gender term that is used in the Quran, but it does not imply or necessitate that God is a man or male.

The second thing in Islam’s favour is that the scripture has been preserved in a remarkable manner. The history of this preservation is itself worthy of some study, but for brevity I’ll just relate some comments of various scholars on this matter, for example:

The orientalist Richard Burton writes that the Qur’an we have today is ‘the text which has come down to us in the form in which it was organized and approved by the Prophet….What we have today in our hands is the mushaf [text] of Muhammad.’ Kenneth Cragg describes the transmission of the Qur’an from the time of revelation to today as occurring in ‘an unbroken living sequence of devotion.’ Schwally writes in Geschichte des Qorans that ‘As far as the various pieces of revelation are concerned, we may be confident that their text has been generally transmitted exactly as it was found in the Prophet’s legacy.’They certainly seem convinced of the Quran’s authenticity.


The third reason we should sit up and take notice is because the message of Islam claims to be a universal one, that is, for every­body regardless of race or status, and indeed makes clear that the Creator does not look at a person’s colour, race, tribe, wealth or status, but rather at a person’s heart, goodness and deeds.

shocking conclusions

What follows is going to lead you to a conclusion that for some might come as a shocking truth. Others might have suspected it already. One thing is for sure, once you know the truth your life can never be the same. It will always be with you. However hard you want to escape you can’t run away from yourself.

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

So back to where we left off…

That pretty much leaves us with two contenders. Zoroastrianism and Islam.

There are a couple of reasons why Islam has the ups over Zoroas­trianism. Firstly, Islam claims to be a universal religion for every­body. Contrary to what some people might think, and contrary to how some of the followers of Islam might behave, Islam is not an Arab/Pakistani/Indian religion. It’s just as much for English speak­ing white people as it is for Arabs, Africans or Eskimos.

It’s also interesting that the word ‘Islam’ is an Arabic word that has a meaning, and that it is a descriptive term that means ‘sub­mission’ or ‘surrender’ to the Creator. A Muslim then is one who claims to obey and follow the Creator’s guidance. It also claims that this basic message of believing and following the One, Unique and transcendent God is the basic message that the Creator has always revealed through special chosen people referred to as Prophets or Messengers. The name of this religion is not con­nected to a particular person or place. Judaism (Juda), Christianity (Christ), Buddhism (Buddha), Hinduism (India), Zoroastrianism (Zoroaster), are all connected to a person or place. So, for ex­ample, if one lived in some remote location and never heard that a man called Jesus, who is also God and God’s son, died for one’s sins, there is no way at all that one could come to the realisation of this through one’s mind or through experience. You could never reason it. Someone would have to tell you. This is not the case with Islam. The basic idea of Islam, that there is a Unique Creator whose guidance we should follow, is something anyone anywhere could figure out. As an idea, Islam, submission to the One God, is truly universal.