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Old 02-19-2008, 04:31 AM   #1
Archaea
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Default Islamic Hermeneutic

One Thing Christians can learn from Muslims and Jew is hermeneutic.

For reasons irrelevant here, I've grabbed my English version of the Qu'ran, one from Indian/Pakistani, Abdullah Youssef Ali, to understand what the world's largest religion has to offer. And it has many intersections with Judaism and Christianity.

One of the fascinating aspects is Muslim's fascination with the Qu'ran in Arabic. It is similar or exceeds a devout Jew's belief of the Tanakh in Hebrew.

For example, in the Second Surah, which is the longest "chapter" of the Qu'ran, 109 ayat, or verse, there is a footnote, 110, where the words of "forgive" are translated from 'Afa meaning to obliterate from one's mind, Safaha translated to "overlook", means to turna awayfrom, to ignore, toreate as a matter as if it did not affect one and Ghafara means to cover up something as Allah covers up our sins in His grace, one forgives again and again. See also footnote 120.

Muslims try to get back to the original meaning just as Jews do in Hebrew, and New Testament Greek speaking Christians do to a lesser extent. Muslims in essence "worship" Arabic, classical Arabic. There is a hierarchy of interpretation, starting with the Companions of the Prophet, or ashab, who spoke to the Tabi'un, who only spoke with the Companions, not the Prophet. Out of these relations grew the Hadith, or traditions, one of which was called exegesis or Tafsir. In order to try to understand the original meaning Muslims also try to get to the Prophet's Quraysh tribe in order to get close to Allah's word.

I insert this, not to show knowledge of which I have little, but as an introduction to create context.

It is interesting how all three religions of the Book, try even after centuries to get back to the "Original" truth of their religion, through the words in "original" form.

Mohammed is not said to have written but merely recited the Qu'ran, and I believe it was one of the Companions that actually wrote it.

The Tanakh is the result of the efforts of post-exilic scribes, and the New Testament is the compilation of copies of autographs for Greek speaking Jews originally.

Yet all three at times aspire to scientific dissection of the words.
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