small book review: Coherence in Quran
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Coherence in Quran
By Mustansir Mir.(as recommended to me by mquran)
You can check it out on amazon or google, there are plenty of people selling it, and its quite cheap (~$10).
The book basically analyses the concept of there being coherence in Al Quran, i.e. instead of the commonly heard claim its verses seem disjointed and they dont really discuss the same theme/subject throughout a chapter.
Well, the author discusses people who have thought differently, such as Islahi and discusses what they have to say and analyses their approach and examples to see if they are true.The examples given are quite a few and are very interesting. They made me realise that Al Quran does indeed have coherence and I should consider this when extracting my understanding.
The major drawback of this book is it is a an academic thesis, thus its language reflects this. To be fair, thats what it says it is right from the start but that did not stop me from finding it annoying to read. (I felt like giving mquran some verbal abuse for not mentioning this to me wink
If you dont mind the language, then I recommend it. It should open your thought process a little wider. I must admit, in parts I was like o "i never saw that before", and those moments were just enough to make me recommend it.
Hopefully mq can chip in with some comments.
Wakas
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Hey man, glad you finally read it.
Agreed, those little things which make you go 'hey, i've never seen that before' really changed my reading. Seriously, I wont be exaggerating if i said that the effect of 'coherence' still reverberates in my reading.
Having said that, Mustansir limited himself by clinging stubbornly to sunni interpretations. If he didn't, all the hints the quran gives about its concepts, like salaat for example, would be prominent to him. Imagine what he could have come up with if he thought 'al-bait' was god's living system instead of the kaaba in mecca!
Glad you enjoyed it, man. And for the price of you reading it, i'll take the verbal abuse any day of the week D
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peace bro,
Having said that, Mustansir limited himself by clinging stubbornly to sunni interpretations. If he didn't, all the hints the quran gives about its concepts, like salaat for example, would be prominent to him. Imagine what he could have come up with if he thought 'al-bait' was god's living system instead of the kaaba in mecca!
That is a good point and I agree. Perhaps you can email him, tell him your view (I believe he works at Ohio university).
What did you think of the work of Islahi? I was quite impressed by his overall commentary & understanding.
Wakas
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That is a good point and I agree. Perhaps you can email him, tell him your view (I believe he works at Ohio university).
Well, before I do that, I should have a coherent system of my own. Not nice to deconstruct the man without an alternative.
What did you think of the work of Islahi? I was quite impressed by his overall commentary & understanding.
Well, I've read islahi's fatiha commentary, methodology of dawa of the prophets and purification of the soul and i wasn't too over the moon with them. Having said that, there're some gems at
http//www.amin-ahsan-islahi.org/
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Peace be upon you,
Good stuff, thank you for sharing it.
