Why is there such a lack of scholarly higher criticism of Islam and the Quran?
Wіth thе truckloads οf books dealing wіth early Christianity frοm a historical-critical perspective, maybe scholars аrе going simple οn Islam. Whу dο уου rесkοn thіѕ іѕ οr іѕ nοt thе case?
I took fοr granted thаt much сουld bе known аbουt Muhammad аnd thе origins οf Islam, bυt further reading suggested thіѕ іѕ very uncertain. Bυt, unlike wіth Christianity, thеrе seems tο bе small scholarly investigation tο work wіth.
There has been application of tradition,literary and form criticism to the Quran and it has shown multiple authorship and redaction
Traditioal Muslims ,like Protestant Fundamentalists, attack this and can be threatening
Because anytime anyone criticizes Mohammed or Islam, their lives are threatened. They are worried adn therefore spend their time criticizing peaceful religions like Christianity. Some Muslims seem to reckon that Allah is weak and doesn’t have the power to kill anyone he wants to. This is a major flaw in their religion. A few Muslims reckon that they are more powerful that Allah.
That’s because any kind of criticism on Muhammad or Islam is really forbidden in Islamic countries. Those who kill the critics won’t be blamed there. Islamic countries really lack religious freedom. If there were any books that criticized Islam, they are certainly from the scholars living in the West.
Muslims proudly say that Muhammad was just a human like us. But, that “human” is never to be criticized, even by those who don’t belong to the Islam faith. So in fact, Muhammad is pretty much like playing God, just like the Wizard of Oz. That’s one of major contradictions you will find in Islam.
Really there is alot of scholarly research into the life of Muhammad, and the origins and development of Islam. Much of it exposes Muhammad as being either a sadistic fraud or a deranged person with mental illness. C’mon, the Judaic Angel Gabriel chatted with and mentored Muhammad over the course of 23 years? What was Muhammad really smoking during those 23 years?
Let me suggest that you google the keywords of your question and read the research, and then participate in the blogs that discuss the issues.
Dread nothing and forget the PC, but let me suggest you keep the discussions civil and open minded, and non-directly insulting to the indoctrinated fundamentalist Muslims. They are in a catch-22 regarding their brainwashing and are forced to ‘submit” regardless of all evidence that may help them.
Ok, we know we don’t make each other and we don’t come to this world from nowhere because when we die we must be going somewhere as well, hence there must be God, if there were many Gods, they would have fought over what to be made and what not to be, probably over who to die and who to live at the same time… so it’s gotta be one God… if that God made us then there must be a reason… could we figure it out on our own? God made it simple and sent us messengers and prophets to show us the way and tell us why… so all the messengers and all the religions are from the same only God, so they’ve got to be complementary to each other, not opposing each other!!! then God must have said His final words in the last message, what is the last message? and how do we know it’s the last one? I guess that would be the religion that believes in all messengers and all books equally… is there such religion? really yes, Islam does
A Right Muslim (man or woman) gets his reward for obeying Allah’s orders (Allah means The God in Arabic) by going to heaven, where he/she are indulged forever in all the excellent things that were on earth and more, things no one ever dreamt of or heard about. The Holy Quran tells Muslims (men and women) there will be excellent food, excellent wine and sex in heaven for all, but not in the bestial way you may reckon of, but rather in a way that is satisfactory for everyone and better than what was on earth. Heaven is no heartbreak or injustice land.
Right Muslims are no terrorists, and Islam never calls for that, Islam means peace, it bans violence unless you were fought so you fight back, it only doesn’t require Muslims to be cowards, and right Muslims know this very well and never attack civilians.
Islam is the only religion that accepts freedom of religion and questions men to treat women gently like queens.
It’s all in the Holy Quran and the right teachings of prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him).
If some people behave otherwise, then it’s because people behaviour doesn’t necessarily reflect the rulings of their religion always, for example, we can’t (and don’t) judge Christianity by Hitler or Madonna.
And that is another reason why there is heaven and hell after we die, heaven for the obedient and hell for the disobedient and/or oppressor, it’s all going to be chose on the day of resurrection and judgement.
To be a Muslim, you must believe God is only one with no spouses or offspring, believe in his angels (servants not males or females), believe in all his religions, messangers and books equally, the day of judgement, heaven and hell and that everything is in God’s hands and because of his will (excellent or terrible).
Muslims believe God is the only divine who never dies, the creator who deserves to be worshiped, all prophets who came to earth are human messangers sent by him.
Muslims don’t deny christianity, judaism, Jesus or Moses. They believe in them as the noble prophets and messangers of God, like and respect them so much.
We believe the birth of Jesus (messanger of God) was a miracle from God to us, being born by a mother only and with no father. God is the creator, he can do anything.
We believe Jesus (peace be upon him) is NOT dead till today; he wasn’t even murdered or crucified as most people reckon. God (most glorified) made the man who betrayed Jesus be killed instead by switching their looks for a moment. Jesus was left up to live in heaven until the end of days when he will come back to earth again, with no new teachings or messages but just to make justice prevail instead of oppression, fight the imposter who will claim to be God and (most vital) to perform his last prayer with the Muslims announcing he’s too a follower of the last prophet (Muhammad) as all people should… then he really dies like other Prophets and be buried (peace be upon them all). So we’re waiting for you Jesus, Messenger of God, to bring the world peace and pray with us. That’s what prophet Muhammad told us and this is what I believe in, I’m a Muslim
so how do we know it’s right? what is said in the last message and what should we do? read the following, and you’ll figure out for yourself:
no this is not the case
it is just islam with its book -which god promised to keep it never change by any human- is hard criticize the book or the Qur’aan itself still amazes scholars from everywhere.. alazhar university in egypt -which is the largest islamic university in the islamic world- has scholars from multiple nationalities coming from everywhere from this world
try to check how many miracles learned till now in the Qur’aan
http://www.miraclesofthequran.com/
anyone who succeeded to criticize did it on followers on fake hadith anything but Qur’aan and authenticated hadith (words from the prophet) they cannot find anything negative
the missing ring here is to publish the huge research efforts in the english language to let people know more about the real islam because the majority of muslims have the arabic language as their native language that’s why there are a hell of misconceptions and nonsense about this fantastic religion
it is a way of life more than a religion .. a religion and prophet came as a mercy for all mankind where a muslim is considered a muslim when he doesn’t harm anyone even by his mouth!
muslims had different culture from the entire world after mohamed that’s why you say further reading show things are uncertain they used to knew everything by heart, write it and transfer it as it is to next generations those guys were different let’s see why they remembered everything clear and didn’t miss with it they were muslims there were no option for committing sins even small ones they never drink …and it is a long tale and complicated one the earth has no generation like those guys..
i guess you are right about scholary higher studies but criticism no even if someone tried it they criticised it based on unsufficient knowledge because he should study a mix of other related sciences for example any scholar needs to study:
- the arabic language
- the arabic culture and history now and then
- Qur’aan telawa (reading) and interpretation
- Hadith (what told by the prophet)
- and other
i tried to search for comparative studies between islam and other religions i found some (some free and some are not)
http://sfs.scnu.edu.cn/hhzhang/stugdn/euro-culture/03Europe/A%20Comparative%20Study%20of%20Christianity%20and%20Islam.doc
http://www.irf.net/islam_hinduism.doc
http://www.adishakti.org/pdf_files/islam_and_yoga_(sites.netscape.net).pdf
http://www.onlineislamicstore.com/b4487.html (not free)
http://store.alislam.org/chisamreacos.html (not free)
A comparative study of Islam & other religions / by Syed Muzaffar-ud-Din Nadvi http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/81218 (not free)
excellent luck