Islam Without Hadith?

By Anouar Majid

I finally got to reading Turkish journalist Mustafa Akyol’s book, Islam Without Extremes: A Muslim Case for Liberty (2011). It is a well-researched book, very smart, and daring in a way I hadn’t considered before. Akyol argues that a Muslim can stay within the boundaries of the faith and still enjoy all the freedoms available in secular Western democracies. All that is required is for him or her to be bound by the word of Allah, as revealed in the Koran. And since the Koran by itself cannot meet all the Muslim’s needs for guidance, a careful use of the Hadith (the authorized collection of sayings about the words and deeds of Prophet Mohammed), one that conforms to the message of the Koran, is acceptable.

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Mecca and the Koran

By Anouar Majid

Do we really know what the Koran says? Most Muslims, especially Arabic-speaking ones, would probably say that they do. Religious leaders, the imams and muftis, as well as memorizers of the holy book, are, in fact, authorities in explaining its inner meaning and vocabulary. Most see it as God’s final word and revelation preserved in a heavenly tablet (lawh mahfudh). Only those who are purified are allowed to touch it. Because the Koran was revealed and written in Arabic, a good knowledge of Arabic and of the Meccan environment are crucial to grasping its words and meanings, especially since many of our understanding of the Koran’s verses (ayat) and chapters (suras) are not part of the Koranic text itself and were grafted onto it much later, often in the 9th century.  

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The Vanishing Christians of Islam

By Anouar Majid

Recently, Tawadros II, the Coptic pope of Egypt, said that “even during the darkest ages” of its history, his church was never subjected to the violence it is now suffering at the hands of Sunni Muslims. Maybe. But what is well known is that the fate of Egyptian Christianity and that of all Christians who found themselves under Muslim domination beginning in the 7th century when Islam emerged as a new religion hasn’t been an easy one.

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Our Idol Abraham

By Anouar Majid

The prophet Abraham plays a huge role in Islam, but his story also suggests that Islam borrowed heavily from the Jewish tradition, that Islam (as suggested in my latest articles) may have originated in the land of Canaan (Levant), not Arabia, and that Arabs rewrote the original story of the patriarch as part of the process of establishing their own religion. As with many things believers take for granted, there is no independent information regarding Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac or Jacob outside of  Jewish, Christian, and Muslim accounts.  And these are clearly the work of humans in history.

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