taking statements as absolute and to their extreme...

[Wakas]

peace All,

Recently, I've been thinking about how far to take statements wthin al quran and I've noted a few things

I've been studying the food issue recently, because I was unsure about one aspect the statement which says we are forbidden from eating that which is dedicated to other than The God. Normally when I try to work things out in my head, I "attack" a statement such as this and wonder what it could mean, thinking over the possibilities. Now, one possibility I thought of (which I believe, symtacs also noticed) was that what is considered other than The God? Is nothing other than The God? Because in most slaughter houses, I'm sure they dont say anything over the animals when they are slaughtered, thus 'dedicating' it to nothing? (I do realise the verses may not be specific to meat, but food in general) Anyways, I realised that this possibility was not conclusive, it wasn't solid. So I relied on al quran to tell me how far I could take this statement. After reading the following article as well as the one on free-minds, I realised the evidence against this possibility was significant.
This in turn led me to scrutinise this possibility and I realised that I had over-thought it. In a slaughter house, if nothing is said or no ceremony takes place, then clearly, no dedication has taken place. If there is no dedication, this nullifies this possibility, imho.
I tried to think of an analogy, and this is what I came up with... say there are two rooms (A & B) and they have a door that links the two. Now if I make a rule and say "the only correct way to pass through the door into the other room is by placing one's hands on their head as they go through the door" then lets say a person stays in the room and does not pass through the door, I cant turn around and say this person went through the door incorrectly, because no-one passed through the doorway. Thus the event did not take place, thus the rule is not applicable. Similarly, no 'dedication' took place, thus its not applicable. If this is coupled with the information given in al quran, the conclusion is clear (or more obvious). The bracket is more accurate wink

In addition, when The God states there is no change in His system/method (sunna), I wondered, how far can I take this statement. What does this mean? 100% or the foundation/essentials/principles of the system? After a little research, which happened to coincide with my study on the food issue I noted that the Children of Israel specifically had certain foods restricted to them by The God (to be fair, I knew this before but I couldn't remember the verse, and also I never really linked the concepts), thus it seems unlikely that every single thing has remained identical for every single person/community.

Another example, when The God states the Reminder or this Quran is preserved, I thought what does this mean? How far can I take this statement? Every single letter? vowel marking? message?

etc.

Its interesting to note (although this is perhaps stating the obvious to some), one can use al quran's internal flexibility and/or its internal principles as a barometer/indicator... letting it define itself, which I guess why its called The Criterion.

From dictionary.com

criterion A standard, rule, or test on which a judgment or decision can be based.

Wakas

ps - the food article above is very good, and deserving of a free-minds listing, imho.