alternativislam.org

Reasons for looking for alternatives:

There are many obstacles to understanding the Quran. The greatest obstacle is the Muslims' endless trust in the clergy who taught them the religion. When the issue of religion comes up and the exchange of views begins, the defensive verdict we hear usually goes like this:

"This is how imams explain our religion to us"

Imams have been trained for many years and I assume that they have a good command of the Arabic language. It is obvious that the history of religion is no stranger to them. However, what one imam says is different from what another imam says. This situation is no more perfect among religion professors. They also quarrel among themselves, and there is often a 180 degree difference between them.

With a few examples of this disagreement, I would like to draw your attention to why I am looking for an alternate interpretation.

In December 2017, someone I know played a video of a commenter on YouTube. A video with examples from various speeches by several commentators. One of them mentions (Hakki Yilmaz) that the word "Salatun", which is translated as "prayer" in all languages of the world, is used in the old dictionary "Lisan'ul Arab" as "social commitment" is described. And he adds: "I have studied every verse in the Quran that mentions this word and that meaning is more appropriate than the meaning of prayer and is completely compatible with the spirit of the Quran." The professors did not bother to study the Lisan'ul Arab dictionary, so they declared this person to be a candidate for hell. In the final parts of the video, these professors changed their minds and started commenting in a way that confirms the meaning of the word. Docile, as if this comment was theirs:

"Yes, the word Salatun is a word with social content. To reduce the meaning of this word to prayer would be disrespectful to the Koran and the messages would be difficult to understand."

continue your comment. The following term is used in the Quran to refer to such people: hypocrite. Christians know this term from the Bible as "Pharisees". I recommend you read it, nothing has changed in two thousand years!

Religious practices have become so that they are incontestable. The defense is always the same: "This is how our ancestors worshiped, this is how they taught us". The situation with Christians is no better in this regard. They also practice the religion of their ancestors. If the religious practices of the ancestors were accepted practices by Allah, there would be no need to assign Jesus (as) and Muhammad (as).

The Koran we have today contains all the verses revealed by Allah. No verse is missing. However, their places have been changed. Those who were revealed in the city of Medina were brought to the beginning of the mushaf, and those who were revealed in the city of Mecca were brought to the end of the mushaf. As if that weren't enough, some verses from the time of Mecca were put in the time of Medina, and some of the verses from the time of Medina were put in the time of Mecca. This process is one of the greatest obstacles to a full understanding of the Quran.

And as if these other obstacles weren't enough, we have the hadith corpus. When a Muslim hears the word hadith, he thinks that it is a holy word that is indispensable to Islam. Information gathered in the sense of this word is expressed as follows: "The Messenger of Allah said ...". "The Companions x" heard from the Messenger of Allah, "y" heard from him and "z" from him ... 

All right, they must have heard something, but did those names really live during that time? For example:

There are hadiths from Ibn Abbas about the sura of Qiyamah. This sura was revealed in Mecca around 629. Ibn Abbas was not yet born that day. He will only be born in three years. What could this person have heard from the Messenger of Allah? When Muhammad (as) died he was only 10-11 years old. Any healthy person rejects all hadiths ascribed to Ibn Abbas. What about Muslims who can't refuse?

We come to the most important hurdle. The argument of the Muslim who understands that he will lose in the debate:

"Do you know better than other scholars?"

Of course I don't know any better than anyone else. The only difference between them and me is that my brain is open to innovation. I also show everyone the following verse as evidence of my defense:

"... and for every knowledge holder there is a better one" 12 / Jusuf, 76

September 2021