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The Row Boat"Had we but world enough, and time..." * Like Onto This3/12/2005 17:45:25For a person who spends any time reading sacred texts, it is easy to begin wondering how easy it would be to simply make all of this stuff up. For nonbelievers of all colors, for those who disbelieve in anybody's revelation, this sensation is implicit. If your text is not truly holy, you must have invented it yourself. The Qur'an has a direct and wonderful answer to this challenge: If you are in doubt of what We have revealed to Our votary, then bring a Surah like this and call any witness, apart from God, you like, if you are truthful. But if you cannot, as indeed you cannot, then guard yourselves against the Fire whose fuel is men and rocks, which has been prepared for the infidels. 2:23-24 trans. Ahmed Ali And this is not the only time such an answer is given to the revelation's truth; if you doubt it, the Qur'an insists, make your own. But don't try calling God as your witness. Suppose a man named Bill decided to answer the challenge. He made a holy text with many theological statements and commandments, the best poetry he could come up with, and avoided talking about God throughout. Maybe it was something like good old Gibran's The Prophet. Filled with wisdom and threats of reprisal. Who would evaluate if he had succeeded? The book would not be the Qur'an, still, or even like it. I propose that the challenge is finally tautological and is answered by history. By this I extend the text of the Qur'an beyond itself, into time and into what it has done, to the history of it and the active meaning of God that it has created. There is nothing like onto the Qur'an. Would we want more? I do not think we can be excused from its fire, though I'm not planning on becoming a Muslim particularly. Another thing history is filled with is practicality. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - |
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