Two implacable obstacles to a Muslim reformation
Re: “Extremism and Islam”, Letters, December 23, and “Is Islam on the cusp of a reformation?”, Comment, December 24.
Once more JC Wilcox beats the drum of wishful thinking with his call for a reformation of Islam. Cathy Young cheers him on with her approval of “Islamic arguments that mitigate the harsher and more intolerant aspects of the Koran”.
No one would be happier than I to see an Islamic reformation. As Mahatma Gandhi perceptively observed about Western civilisation, “It would be a good idea.” But there are two obstacles to such a happy consummation.
First, Muslims believe that Allah dictated the Koran verbatim to Muhammad through the angel Gabriel. This makes every dot and stroke of it the unalterable word of God. All the “Islamic arguments” in the world cannot make a dent in the thinking of Muslims so long as they hold to this adamantine belief.
Second, Muslims believe that Muhammad was the “seal of the prophets” – that is, the last, the final and the definitive prophet, whose words cannot be cancelled, superseded or revised by the words of anyone who comes after him. If anyone were to claim to be a new prophet, or even the Mahdi (the Islamic Messiah), and if he were to present a new revelation professing to be from Allah and professing to supersede the revelation given to Muhammad, that person would be rejected by all orthodox Muslims. This is what happened to Baha’ullah, founder of the Baha’i Faith, and to Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, founder of the Ahmadiyyah movement. Orthodox Islam rejected both of them, and their movements became separate.
When Wilcox, Young, Sam Harris and Maajid Nawaz can tell us how to neutralise the Muslim beliefs that Allah dictated the Koran and that Muhammad is the last of the prophets, only then will we be able to take seriously the hope for an Islamic reformation. Until then, all such efforts will result only in splinter movements.
Not a Fan of Islam
