The Critical Qur'an

Explained from Key Islamic Commentaries and Contemporary Historical Research

Robert Spencer

• Publisher: Bombardier Books
• Year: 2022
• ISBN:
  9781642939507
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Islamic Theology

A unique resource for understanding the Islamic Holy Book. As Islamic terrorism becomes a distressingly common feature of life in North America and Europe, it has become increasingly important for non-Muslims to be aware of the ideology that animates and motivates jihad violence and Sharia oppression of women and others—an ideology that's rooted in Islam's holy book, the Qur'an.English-speaking people, however, have found attempts to understand the Qur'an and Islam impeded by unclear, densely worded translations and explanatory notes written by Islamic apologists attempting to conceal, rather than reveal, how Islamic jihadis use the texts and teachings of the Qur'an to justify violence and supremacism, and to make recruits of peaceful Muslims. The Critical Qur'an, in contrast, makes clear the passages that are used to incite violence. Historian and Islamic scholar Robert Spencer elucidates the Qur'anic text with extensive references to the principal tafsir, or commentaries, that mainstream Muslims use today to understand the Qur'an, showing how interpretations that sanction violence are unfortunately not outliers, but central in Islamic theology. The Critical Qur'an is the Islamic counterpart to numerous critical and skeptical editions of the Bible that have appeared over the last century and more. It is the one edition of Islam's book that doesn't shy away from elucidating why the holy book of Islam is so frequently quoted and referred to with reverence by people who commit and/or justify acts of violence. It is a basic resource for everyone who wishes to understand the persistent phenomenon of Islamic terrorism, and the peculiar provenance of this most provocative book.

SURA 1

The Opening

Al-Fatiha

Introduction

Al-Fatiha (The Opening) is the first sura of the Qur’an and most common prayer of the Islamic tradition. A pious Muslim who prays the five requisite daily prayers of Islam will recite the Fatiha seventeen times in the course of those prayers.

According to a hadith, the Muslim prophet Muhammad said that “Allah, the Mighty and Sublime, did not reveal in the Torah or the Gospel anything like Umm Al-Quran,” that is, the Mother of the Qur’an, which is another name Islamic tradition gives to al-Fatiha.¹

Another hadith has the angel Gabriel giving this chapter singular status. As the angel sat with Muhammad, the story goes, he heard a sound, looked up, and said: “This is a gate which has been opened in heaven today. It was never opened before.”² Then an angel came through the gate, and Gabriel continued: “This is an angel who has come down to earth. He never came down before.”³ The unidentified second angel greeted Muhammad and said: “Rejoice with two lights given to you. Such lights were not given to any Prophet before you. These are: Fatiha-til-Kitab (Surat Al-Fatihah), and the concluding Ayat of Surat Al-Baqarah,” that is, the Qur’an’s first sura and the last verse of its second.⁴ “You will never recite a word from them without being given the blessings it contains.”⁵

Besides bringing blessings, this sura is said to have spiritual powers. On one occasion, according to Islamic tradition, “a lunatic fettered in chains” was cured by the recitation of al-Fatiha.⁶

Al-Fatiha also efficiently and eloquently encapsulates many of the principal themes of the Qur’an and Islam in general: Allah as the “Lord of the worlds,” who alone is to be worshiped and asked for help, the merciful judge of every soul on the Last Day.

As this sura is the foundation of Islamic prayer, most Islamic scholars hold that it was revealed in Mecca, early in Muhammad’s career. One tradition has Ali ibn Abi Talib, Muhammad’s son-in law, one of his earliest followers and his rightful successor in the eyes of Shi‘ite Muslims, saying: “The Opening of the Book was revealed in Mecca from a treasure beneath the divine throne.”⁷ The eleventh-century Islamic scholar al-Wahidi relates a tradition in which the Fatiha, rather than the famous demand from the angel that Muhammad “recite,” which is enshrined in sura 96, was the first revelation of the Qur’an. Al-Wahidi adds, “This is also the opinion of Ali ibn Abi Talib.”⁸ This belief persisted to the extent that the twelfth-century Persian Islamic scholar and jurist Zamakhshari states that most Qur’an commentators at the time he was writing believed that the Fatiha was the first sura to have been revealed.⁹

The idea that the Fatiha was the beginning of Qur’anic revelation, however, is a minority view, with mainstream Islamic scholars today holding that sura 96, or at least the beginning of it, was the first revelation to come to Muhammad.

Yet in an indication of the fluidity of the Qur’anic text in the early days of Islam, Abdullah ibn Masud, one of Muhammad’s companions, did not even have this sura in his version of the Qur’an. Other early Islamic authorities also expressed reservations about its inclusion.¹⁰

To be sure, this sura does not fit in with the rest of the Qur’an, in that it is in the voice of the believer offering prayer and praise to Allah, not Allah addressing Muhammad. Islamic orthodoxy has it that Allah is the speaker in every part of the Qur’an, so with al-Fatiha, the believer must accept that the deity is explaining how he should be prayed to, without explaining directly that that is what he is doing.

The Opening

¹IN THE NAME OF ALLAH, THE COMPASSIONATE, THE MERCIFUL.

²Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the worlds,

2. In Islamic theology, Allah is the speaker of every word of the Qur’an. Some have found it strange that Allah would say something like “Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the worlds,” but Islamic tradition holds that Allah revealed this prayer to Muhammad early in his career as a prophet (which began in the year 610 AD, when he received his first revelation from Allah through the angel Gabriel—a revelation that is now contained in the Qur’an’s 96th sura), so that the Muslims would know how to pray.

Instead of “Praise be to Allah,” the seventeenth-century Shi‘ite scholar Muhammad Baqir Majlisi has, “We greatly praise Allah.”¹

³The compassionate, the merciful.

3. Instead of “the compassionate, the merciful” (ar-rahman ar-rahim), a variant seen in Cairo by the Qur’anic scholar Arthur Jeffery (1892–1959) has “the sustainer, the merciful” (ar-razzaqi ar-rahimi).²

⁴Master of the day of judgment,

4. Instead of “master of the day of judgment,” the Warsh Qur’an has “king of the day of judgment.”³

⁵You do we worship, you do we ask for help.

⁶Guide us to the straight path,

⁷The path of those whom you have favored, not of those who have earned your anger, or of those who have gone astray.

7. Islamic scholars have often identified “those who have earned Allah’s anger” as the Jews, and “those who have gone astray” as the Christians. This is such a commonplace understanding that a translation of Sahih Bukhari, the collection of reports (hadith) of Muhammad’s words and deeds that Muslims consider most reliable, adds identifying glosses into a story in which Muhammad quotes this verse of the Qur’an: “Say Amen when the Imam says not the path of those who earn Your Anger (such as Jews) nor of those who go astray (such as Christians); all the past sins of the person whose saying (of Amin) coincides with that of the angels, will be forgiven.”⁴

Another hadith in the same collection compiled by the imam Bukhari (810-870) depicts the pre-Islamic monotheist Zaid bin Amr bin Nufail, who died in 605 (five years before Muhammad is said to have begun getting revelations), traveling to Syria in search of the true religion. Encountering a Jewish scholar, Zaid told him: “I intend to embrace your religion, so tell me something about it.”⁵ The scholar replied, “You will not embrace our religion unless you receive your share of Allah’s anger.” Appalled, Zaid asks him if he knows of another religion, to which the Jewish scholar responds: “I do not know any other religion except the Hanif,” that is, “the religion of (the prophet) Abraham who was neither a Jew nor a Christian, and he used to worship none but Allah (alone).” Traveling on, Zaid then happens upon a Christian scholar and tells him also that he wishes to embrace his religion. The Christian states: “You will not embrace our religion unless you get a share of Allah’s curse.” Again unwilling, Zaid asks him about another religion and is once again told about the Hanif, which he duly adopts. Islamic theology considers Islam to be the true embodiment of that pure religion of Abraham, who worshiped no others, as do Jews and Christians (see 9:30). On hanif, see 2:135.

The repetition of this identification in Bukhari is an indication of how strong the identification is of those who have earned Allah’s anger with the Jews and those who have gone astray with the Christians.

The classic Qur’anic commentator Ibn Kathir explains that “the two paths He described here are both misguided,” and that those “two paths are the paths of the Ch...