Muhammad, the Qur’an & Islam [PDF]

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Over the centuries, much research has been done on the life of Muhammad, the text of the Qur’an and the development of Islam.

Almost no works, however, have sought to systematically integrate the various results of the research in these areas. The discrepancies, for instance, between the biographical (Sira) traditions about Muhammad and the inherent witness of the Qur’an have certainly been known to those familiar with both of these sciences. What is not well known, though, is why no one has tried to generally reconcile these discrepancies.

Muhammad, the Qur’an & Islam [PDF] Free Download

One prominent Western biographer of Muhammad, for instance, has openly defended his own neglect of research into the direct “sources” of the Qur’an by appealing to the example of Shakespeare’s work Hamlet and reasoning that:

• 1 “the study of sources does not explain away the ideas whose sources are found, nor does it detract from their truth and validity.”

• 2 “Shakespeare’s play of Hamlet remains a very great play even after we have found the ‘source’ from which Shakespeare derived the outline of the story.”

• 3 “No more does our knowledge of the source tell us anything of importance about the creative processes Shakespeare’s mind.”

Muhammad, the Qur’an & Islam [PDF] Free Download