“Many British Muslims do not Understand the Quran”
Article in ‘The Guardian’ [Dated 15 July 2005]
The Light (UK), November 2005 Issue (p. 5)
In The Guardian (daily newspaper, London) an article on 15 July 2005 carried the sub-heading as above. Written by one Ehsan Masood, it shows convincingly that both the Muslim extremists who advocate violence in the name of Islam and the anti-Muslim opponents of Islam use exactly the same distortions of the Quran and Hadith to prove that Islam urges its followers to physically attack all unbelievers. The writer then adds:
“Not one Muslim commentator I know has bothered to tackle this issue with the forensic detail it demands.”
And why not? Because, says the writer:
“… it is incredible, but most non-Arab British Muslims do not understand what is in the Quran. Children in British Muslim families are taught to recognize Arabic letters from a young age, and can even recite Arabic words fluently; but few have any grounding in the language, which means they have no idea what it is they are reading.”
The result is that when the Muslim militant organizations or their counter-part anti-Islamic groups
“use isolated sentences from the Quran to argue that the faith is a violent one, few Muslims (including imams) have the detailed knowledge of Quranic history to set the record straight”,
says the writer.
“The author goes on to write:
“The situation is not much better in the rest of the Muslim world. Sunni seminaries, in particular, encourage scores of young men to memorize the entire Quran and the recorded words of the prophet (known as Hadith).
“This emphasis on rote learning stems in part from the widespread belief that simply reciting words from the Quran will put you in God’s good books and reserve your place in heaven. Meaning and context are a secondary, and neglected, matter.
“In many (particularly south Asian) households, copies of the Quran are found not on bookshelves, but carefully wrapped in bespoke cloth covers and perched on an elevated surface such as the top of a wardrobe. This is in keeping with the idea that the Quran is a sacred object, rather than a book to be read and engaged with. … And many Muslim biographers have helped to perpetuate the myth of Muhammad as a warmonger by concentrating on his military successes, which occupied a small part of his 23-year ministry.
“All of this needs reforming, and will take time.”
We agree with the writer but wish to point out that the publications of the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement do
“tackle this issue with the forensic detail it demands”,
as he wishes to see, and have been doing so for more than ninety years in this very country of U.K. By making translations of the Quran with commentary and analysis available, this Movement has done more than any other to dispel the idea that the Quran is only to be treated as a sacred object, and not as a book to be read, studied and understood.