Did the Prophet Mohammad put the Qur’ān in the present form before his death? What I understand from the Qur’ān is that:
1. Allah revealed the Qur’ān in stages and according to changing circumstances. Have the circumstances not changed after the demise of the Beloved Prophet?
2. Allah said that He will change the verses and replace it with other better ones. If the need for change was felt even then, then why not now?
3. Allah said that people will forget some verses if Allah pleases. How can we claim that certain verses were not forgotten during the compilation?
4. Allah said that our Prophet (sws) would deliver, preach, teach…. Is there no need of a teacher after the demise of the Prophet (sws) to interpret and teach the Word of Allah?
According to me the Qur’an is a living book and it will be open to interpretation according to the need of the time and the meaning can change, and there is a need of a person who has been chosen by Allah to do so according to the time and age. The Prophet (sws) had said that he will leave behind the Holy Book and his Itrat (ahl-e-bayt) and if we follow both we will not go astray. The book cannot exist without a teacher and the teacher needs to be present at all times to open the message of Allah according to the need of the time. This- the Book and the Itrat will not be separated from each other till they meet the Prophet (sws) at the kawthar.
If I do not agree with you then will you tell that I am not a Muslim? Or will you try to force your opinion on me? Or will you take out a fatwa against me or will you call me a kafir?
Please answer, because I want to follow the Qur’ān as I understand it and I might disagree with you in quiet a number of things. Is it not enough that I have faith in Allah, in the Prophet (sws) and in the Qur’ān? Or is it a must for me to follow what others say and which others say is the true Islam.
Do I have a right to differ?
Answer
You have listed a number of assumptions and have then come up with some conclusions based on these assumptions. There is no point if I start arguing about those conclusions if I do not agree with the assumptions at the first place. So let me go through these assumptions one by one in order to let you know what I think about them:
“Allah revealed the Qur’ān in stages and according to changing circumstances?”
To be more accurate, Allah revealed the Qur’ān according to different phases of the mission of the Prophet (sws) and with addressing specific issues that were happening in those phases.
“have the circumstances not changed after the demise of the Beloved Prophet?”
As I said above, it’s not about changes of circumstances, rather it is about different phases of the mission of the Prophet (sws).
“Allah said that he will change the verses and replace it with other better ones. if the need for change was felt even then, then why not now?”
If we believe that because of different circumstances the Qur’ān needs to be changed (which appears to be what you are suggesting) then we are practically making the Qur’ān redundant. I don’t think any scholar of Islam will support what you are suggesting.
Whatever needed to be changed and replaced in the Qur’ān, have been changed and replaced within the time of revelation of the Qur’ān and the Qur’ān we have now, contains what relates to us, no matter at what time and what circumstances we are living.
“Allah said that people will forget some verses- if Allah pleases, then how can we claim that certain verses were not forgotten during the compilation.”
Nowhere God says that people will forget some verses. What it says is that the Prophet (sws) will not forget a verse and even if he forgets a verse that is because God wants it, which means there is a good reason for which he might forget a verse (87:6,7). The Qur’ān also says that God Himself is the one who collects and protects the Qur’ān in its ultimate shape (75:16-19, 15:9).
So as you see, we do not claim anything, it is the Qur’ān itself that assures us that it has remained intact.
You write:
“according to me the Qur’ān is a living book and it will be open to interpretation according to the need of the time and the meaning can change, and there is a need of a person who has been chosen by Allah to do so according to the time and age.”
If you know any verses of the Qur’ān that tells us that after the demise of the Prophet (sws) there are certain divinely appointed teachers from whom we should learn the Qur’ān then please bring them to my attention. Otherwise what is in accordance to your thinking does not seem to be in accordance to what the Qur’ān teaches us.
On the other hand, I have a question about one of the verses of the Qur’ān. There is a difference of opinion about the meaning of this verse within Shī’ī scholars (as well as Sunni scholars), could you let me know:
1. Where is this God appointed teacher from whom I may ask my question?
2. Why (with such teacher) there is still significant difference of opinion among his followers when it comes to interpretation of the Qur’ān?
You said:
“The Prophet had said that he will leave behind the Holy Book and his Itrat (ahl-e-bayt) and if we follow both we will not go astray.”
I humbly suggest that you never say “the Prophet (sws) said this or that”. After all, we weren’t there at the time. We should remain cautious and always say “it is narrated from the Prophet (sws) that …”.
Second, the ḥadīth you are referring to has been narrated in many different ways:
1.The Prophet (sws) says he leaves behind the Qur’ān.
2.he says he leaves behind the Qur’ān and the Sunnah
3.he says he leaves behind the Qur’ān and that is what we should adhere to and then he reminds us about Ahl Al-bayt.
4.he says he leaves behind the Qur’ān and Ahl Al-bayt and that we need to adhere to both of them and that they do not separate from each other.
From the above four versions, the first two are inline with the Qur’ān and the third one is inline with the Qur’ān and the Sira of the Prophet (sws) from which we understand his in-depth love for his family.
The fourth version is neither inline with the Qur’ān or the Sira of the Prophet (sws), nor it has reached us through reliable narrators.
At the end of your writing you start asking some questions that really baffles me. You ask:
If I do not agree with you then will you tell that I am not a Muslim? [….] And you continue in this line to the length of a paragraph, ending with “do I have right to differ?.”
My dear brother, perhaps I need to remind you that I never contacted you. It was you who contacted us and started asking us questions and follow up questions and sending us articles, etc. We are not in the business of calling other people Non-Muslim etc. We are only trying to share our understanding with those who express interest by sending us questions.
