Statutory Warning: All Religions are Equally Stupid
Ever since Osama bin Laden’s henchmen rammed planes into the twin towers of the World Trade Center at 9:00 AM on a September 11 there has been enormous interest in Islam and its holy book, the Quran (a.k.a. Koran).
Both Islam’s staunch defenders and its bitter detractors invariably fall back on the Quran to make their arguments.
The former to aver that Islam is a compassionate, merciful and peaceful religion and the latter to decry that Islam is a violent religion, with its wrath directed mostly against the kaffirs.
We do not hesitate to say that the Quran occupies a bigger place in the lives of Muslims than the various scriptures among the Hindus or the Bible with the Christians.
Professor M.A.S.Abdel Haleem of the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London writes:
The Qur’an is the supreme authority in Islam. It is the fundamental and paramount source of the creed, rituals, ethics, and laws of the Islamic religion. It is the book that ‘differentiates’ between right and wrong….This supreme status stems from the belief that the Qur’an is the word of God.
According to Haleem, law, science, grammar, rhetoric, phonetics and calligraphy all have their basis in the Quran.
As the 15th century writer Suyuti put it aptly:
Everything is based on the Qur’an.
Given so much interest in the Quran lately, we thought it time to read the holy book and see for ourselves what magic lies between its covers.
What is it in the Quran that excites the passions of Muslims and the unyielding ire of non-Muslims. Continue reading »
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