The Pope and the Koran

http://www.danielpipes.org/article/3281

Islam and Muslims are expected to be a priority for Pope Benedict XVI, but he has been publicly quite muted on these topics during his first nine months in office. One report, however, provides important clues to his current thinking.
Father Joseph D. Fessio, SJ, recounted on the Hugh Hewitt Show the details of a seminar he attended with the pope in September 2005 on Islam. Participants heard about the ideas of a Pakistani-born liberal theologian, Fazlur Rahman (1919-88), who held that if Muslims thoroughly reinterpret the Koran, Islam can modernize. He urged a focus on the principles behind Koranic legislation such as jihad, cutting off thieves' hands, or permitting polygyny, in order to modify these customs to fit today's needs. When Muslims do this, he concluded, they can prosper and live harmoniously with non-Muslims.

Pope Benedict reacted strongly to this argument. He has been leading such annual seminars since 1977 but always lets others speak first, waiting until the end to comment. But hearing about Fazlur Rahman's analysis, Father Fessio recalled with surprise, the pope could not contain himself:

This is the first time I recall where he made an immediate statement. And I'm still struck by it, how powerful it was. … the Holy Father, in his beautiful calm but clear way, said well, there's a fundamental problem with that [analysis] because, he said, in the Islamic tradition, God has given His word to Muhammad, but it's an eternal word. It's not Muhammad's word. It's there for eternity the way it is. There's no possibility of adapting it or interpreting it.
This basic difference, Pope Benedict continued, makes Islam unlike Christianity and Judaism. In the latter two religions, "God has worked through His creatures. And so, it is not just the word of

God, it's the word of Isaiah, not just the word of God, but the word of Mark. He's used His human creatures, and inspired them to speak His word to the world." Jews and Christians "can take what's good" in their traditions and mold it. There is, in other words, "an inner logic to the Christian Bible, which permits it and requires it to be adapted and applied to new situations."

Whereas the Bible is, for Benedict, the "word of God that comes through a human community," he understands the Koran as "something dropped out of Heaven, which cannot be adapted or applied." This immutability has vast consequences: it means "Islam is stuck. It's stuck with a text that cannot be adapted."

Father Fessio's striking account prompts two reactions. First, these comments were made at a private seminar with former students, not in public. As "Spengler" of Asia Times points out, even the pope "must whisper" when discussing Islam. It's a sign of the times.
Second, I must register my respectful disagreement. The Koran indeed can be interpreted. Indeed, Muslims interpret the Koran no less than Jews and Christians interpret the Bible, and those interpretations have changed no less over time. The Koran, like the Bible, has a history.

For one indication of this, note the original thinking of the Sudanese theologian Mahmud Muhammad Taha (1909-85). Taha built his interpretation on the conventional division of the Koran into two. The initial verses came down when Muhammad was a powerless prophet living in Mecca, and tend to be cosmological. Later verses came down when Muhammad was the ruler of Medina, and include many specific rulings. These commands eventually served as the basis for the Shari'a, or Islamic law.

Taha argued that specific Koranic rulings applied only to Medina, not to other times and places. He hoped modern-day Muslims would set these aside and live by the general principles delivered at Mecca. Were Taha's ideas accepted, most of the Shari'a would disappear, including outdated provisions concerning warfare, theft, and women. Muslims could then more readily modernize.

Even without accepting a grand schema such as Taha proposed, Muslims are already making small moves in the same direction. Islamic courts in reactionary Iran, for example, have broken with Islamic tradition and now permit women the right to sue for divorce and grant a murdered Christian equal recompense with that of a murdered Muslim.
As this suggests, Islam is not stuck. But huge efforts are needed to get it moving again.


Hopeful but not... [30 words]
Kaylan
Jan 17, 2006 16:51

Islam Must Accept the Koran as a Historical Document [164 words]
Jonathan Keiler
Jan 17, 2006 16:42

Endless conflict? [46 words]
David Levinson
Jan 17, 2006 15:43

Rediscover the origions of faith, the seeds of peaceful coexistence. [219 words]
D.
Jan 17, 2006 15:16

Open to Change?? [305 words]
J.S.
Jan 17, 2006 14:54

The incredible task of changing the SHARIA LAWS [85 words]
batya dagan
Jan 17, 2006 14:47

No hope. No redeeming value whatsover. [573 words]
howlin
Jan 17, 2006 14:38

↔ No hope. No redeeming value whatsover. [219 words]
Ianus
Jan 17, 2006 17:10

Vade Retro Me Satana [565 words]
Alo Kievalar
Jan 17, 2006 14:24

What about Maslaha ? [78 words]
Shammai Fishman
Jan 17, 2006 14:23

Physician, heal thyself. [207 words]
John W. McGinley
Jan 17, 2006 13:38

The Pope is right: Islam is stuck. [201 words]
Carl Goldberg
Jan 17, 2006 13:30

Pope's comments echo Rodney Stark [60 words]
Gary Harmon
Jan 17, 2006 12:59

Not the case for the Bible, either [161 words]
Joseph
Jan 17, 2006 12:49

↔ The Catholic Church has real problems with other religions [217 words]
Kenneth S. Besig
Jan 17, 2006 14:32

Pope and Pipes on Revelation [648 words]
Don
Jan 17, 2006 12:43

↔ Which version of the Bible? [45 words]
Mark Garretson
Jan 17, 2006 16:17

↔ You are no better Don [61 words]
John Giannasca
Jan 17, 2006 16:53

Daniel Pipes is right [78 words]
Amitabh tripathi
Jan 17, 2006 12:16

Conversion or dhimmitude [97 words]
David W. Lincoln
Jan 17, 2006 11:56

Just another interpretation...of so many others! [242 words]
EDF
Jan 17, 2006 11:52

The Pope and The Koran [84 words]
Roy Wagner
Jan 17, 2006 11:24

Muslims Modifying the Quran [61 words]
td9
Jan 17, 2006 11:21

↔ Putting a bandaid on a third degree burn. [66 words]
Jeff
Jan 17, 2006 16:57

A 46-year-old forward jump. [214 words]
Geoffrey Lewis
Jan 17, 2006 11:15

Pipes, Pope, Taha & Interpretability of the Quoran [420 words]
JOverton
Jan 17, 2006 11:11

and what happened to Al-Ustazh Mahmud Muhammad Taha? [99 words]
Lactantius
Jan 17, 2006 11:09