In order to bring Islamic values in line with modern human-rights values, I believe, Muslims should view the Quran as scripture in a somewhat different light than it is now. There is good support in Islam's own history and tradition to supporting such a view. Refer, for instance, to the 'created' versus the 'uncreated' Quran debates of the 8th/9th centuries of the Common Era between the Mutazilite group of theologians and the Asharite.
Taking off from those debates - which, incidentally, were never frowned upon by the then orthodoxy (proof if one were needed of the general atmosphere of tolerance that prevailed) - we should begin to see the Quran as consisting of two parts - one of
binding spiritual truths laid down for all time, the other of
non-binding this-worldly provisions such as those concerning the semi-equal status of women and harsh, even brutal, forms of punishment prescribed in the Quran's text for certain heinous or common crimes and, if approved by the umma, subject to amendments.
Would some such proposition meet with the approval of today's ulema as a first step towards an Islamic Reformation that is still to come? I would like to invite a discussion on this suggestion by other bloggers.
Posted by Rasheed Al-Talib (retired Muslim Journalist, writing from India).
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