When Jason Caywood asked me to read and comment on his 'Summary of Islam', I took the issue so seriously. Jason is an assistant pastor at a Protestant Church, and a dear friend of mine who has always proved to be honest and deep both in his perosnal relations and academic enedevours.
Jason wrote that the fact that prophet Ibrahim, or Abraham, was mentioned in the Qur'an only after Muhammad immigrated to Medina could, according to some scholars, mean that Muhammad sought to be friends with the Jews of Medina, and it was thus necessary for the Qur'an to establish the basis of this friendship in terms of a common ancestor that is revered by Muslims and Jews alike.
After a short discussion Jason and I agreed that there is no evidence for this point of view, which most Wester readers would interpret that Muhammad wrote the qur'an, because if you believe that the Qur'an was revealed by God, then it's very reasonable that Ibrahim should be mentioned only at the right time and in the rigt context, that is the context of addressing the people of the book in Medina.
A few days after all this was over, I realized that there was a serious problem with the discussion. We kept discussing the ramifications of the fact, but never really addressed the problem of whether the fact is factual. I did some research, and not surprisigly, found that Ibrahm was mentioned at least 4 times in the Makki Qur'an, that which dates back to the period in which Muhammad was in Makka, before he immigrated to Medina.
I checked with a friend of mine who told me that these ideas were first raised by a Dutch orientalist who was discredited by his fellow Dutch orientalists, but the ideas crept into many of the Western books while the discrediting somehow did not make it.
The story above is a daily incident, we listen to many facts, and start discussing the consequences of the fact without first establishing how factual this fact might be. And this seems to a human thing. Back in Egypt, when a few friends of mine and I, all with a strong background in Islam and Arabic, began discussing the false facts in our books, Friday sermons, and the speeches by many so-called scholars, we were confronted by the fact that the more you know, the less welcome you become.
It seems to me that the problem is that the concept of establishing evidence is not so evidently established in our educational systems. We take almost everyting for granted, and get deterred once we start asking how or why. I cannot forget it when a friend of mine was termed 'the enemy of Islam' because he corrected the popular sheikh. The people who called him 'kafir', or disbeliever, may not have noticed that we had just finished the prayer together.
It seems that mollycoddling the sheikhs is much more important the the truth. The is the BITTER TRUTH.
P.S. Thank you Jason for expressing your willingness to go back and check.
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Emad was very kind in his words about me--thank you, my friend. I was glad that we could have converse with intellectual honestly and genuine respect for one another.
A couple of notes on the post:
First, the discussion of Abraham and him being mentioned in the Quran was based on a seperate article which we discussed. Emad's generousity to me in reading my paper (which attempts to give an general but accurate introduction to basic aspects of Islamic history, beliefs and practices for Christians)led us through multiple points at which I realized I needed to make corrections. For this I am grateful.
Second, for the record, I am not yet an associate pastor in a Protestant church; rather I am still in training to be recognized and serve in this capacity.
Overall, I think that Emad's point about the importance of sources and carefully checking for both the quality and quantity of evidence when making or challenging claims about texts is right. I seek to do this myself as far as I am able and have extended this to the study of religious traditions other than my own.
For I know, as a Christian, what kind of damage scholars who have agendas motivating them to undermine the truth claims of the biblical writers can do to people's perceptions of the Bible and Christian faith. Evidence seems not to matter to such learned persons and those who implicitly trust their judgments are usually closed to any evidence that is contrary to their conclusions.
For this reason I can appreciate the frustration and sense of injustice you expressed regarding how Muslims who speak of the facts to other Muslims and yet are branded as unbelievers. Christians have often done this to each other and it is evil in God's sight. For God wants all to know the truth and truth requires us to engage the facts of history as well as use our capacity to reason as we think about the things of God.
Thank you Emad for your friendship and I look forward to many more fruitful exchanges with you.
Jason
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