[Lapsiks]

Salaams does anyone know anything about this 'Quran scholar' and whether he actually is an authority on the Quran

Thanks

[Lapsiks]

Salaams

anyone??

[gdjfhdf]

Gerd Puin is quoted as saying that:[1]


My idea is that the Koran is a kind of cocktail of texts that were not all understood even at the time of Muhammad. Many of them may even be a hundred years older than Islam itself. Even within the Islamic traditions there is a huge body of contradictory information, including a significant Christian substrate; one can derive a whole Islamic anti-history from them if one wants. The Qur’an claims for itself that it is ‘mubeen,’ or clear, but if you look at it, you will notice that every fifth sentence or so simply doesn’t make sense. Many Muslims will tell you otherwise, of course, but the fact is that a fifth of the Qur’anic text is just incomprehensible. This is what has caused the traditional anxiety regarding translation. If the Qur’an is not comprehensible, if it can’t even be understood in Arabic, then it’s not translatable into any language. That is why Muslims are afraid. Since the Qur’an claims repeatedly to be clear but is not—there is an obvious and serious contradiction. Something else must be going on


from wikipedia

[Nupbeaupeteew]

Never heard of him but judging by the extract bro Ahmed quoted he seems to be just anoter Dutch (?) right wing, islamophobic 'Qur'an basher'...

[didrexx]

Gerd Puin is quoted as saying that:[1]

I am a bit surprised because I heard that German orientalists were not obnoxious.
My idea is that the Koran is a kind of cocktail of texts that were not all understood even at the time of Muhammad. Very typical on an orientalist.
How can the cocktail nature be denied - the Glorious Qur'an quotes verbatim from Injeel, it talks about Torah and Zaboor. What else is a cocktail? But the insinuation is that it is artificial book, a human amalgamation of past ideas - may Allah(SWT) forgive and grant us refuge.

And the second point is also difficult to communicate to the detractors - there were certain things that were not understood at the time of beloved Prophet (PBUH). The example of Discrete Letters is a case in point. The mystical verses are the clear cut example of that. But here again the orientalist is implying something else - he wants people to believe that the Noble Qur'an is an ad hoc jumble of facts and ideas - may Allah(SWT) forgive us and grant us refuge.

Many of them may even be a hundred years older than Islam itself. The Noble Qur'an clearly quotes from older scriptures to emphasize the continuation of Divine message but the insinuation by the author again is the old orientalists paradigm that beloved Prophet (PBUH) learned the rudiments of Judaism and Christianity from his environment and prepared an amalgam - may Allah(SWT) forgive and grant us refuge.
Even within the Islamic traditions there is a huge body of contradictory information, including a significant Christian substrate; one can derive a whole Islamic anti-history from them if one wants. He says so because he is looking for contradictions. A sincere person would like to make sense of the evidence at hand. West developed a method of inquiry which they have used effectively to analyze their own history and archeology. Unfortunately when it comes to the matters related to Islam and Muslims the objectivity flies out of the window. By the grace of Allah(SWT) colonialism busted a few decades ago and neo-economic-colonialism is breathing its last. Time is ripe for Muslims to put their house in order and take all precautions to defend Islamic heritage from vandalism.
The Qur’an claims for itself that it is ‘mubeen,’ or clear, but if you look at it, you will notice that every fifth sentence or so simply doesn’t make sense. Apart from Mubeen=Clear the Noble Qur'an also asserts that have faith on the Cryptic Verses. A man who does not have faith will talk exactly as this person is talking.

Mubeen part is there in the Noble Qur'an and the Cryptic part is there. Former is to be acted upon and later to be believed. It is so simple. Example of Mubeen - Allah(SWT) asks us to spend from what He (SWT) has given us. Now is this not very clear? A man is capable of taking , or arranging, 35000 thousand photographs after restoring old manuscripts and he is capable of doing all the technical part but can not understand the Mubeen part - strange indeed. And it is immaterial whether 20 % is cryptic, the number is a clear lie, what matters is to act upon the 80 % that is, by his own admission Mubeen=Clear.

Example of Cryptic - Allah(SWT) had told Fira'n that He (SWT) will preserve Fira'un's body for future generations. For thirteen centuries the generations were not allowed a glimpse of his body. Only generations belonging to last hundred years have got a view of the body of Ramses-II. The author, researcher is witness to this but it is ignored as an evidence. And even if this evidence is presented to him then too it is not likely that he will be convinced. This is a matter of guidance and we have not been informed by Allah(SWT) that everybody will be guided - Allah(SWT) guides who so ever He (SWT) wishes. The scary thing is that we do know clear cut examples who were not called by Allah(SWT) towards the right path - owing to their own actions.
Many Muslims will tell you otherwise, of course, but the fact is that a fifth of the Qur’anic text is just incomprehensible. It is clear that he does not know as to what Muslims say - Muslims do accept that there are Cryptic and Mystic Verses in the Noble Qur'an and they love and honour it more because of that - it only increases their faith, belief and imaan. It is strange that how a given thing can bring a Muslim closer to Allah(SWT) while the very same thing lead an unbeliever farther away! One more surprising thing is that the information about Mubeen and Cryptic Verses are there in the same book - the Noble Qur'an. Is the researcher reading only those paragraphs that suit his purpose?
This is what has caused the traditional anxiety regarding translation. If the Qur’an is not comprehensible, if it can’t even be understood in Arabic, then it’s not translatable into any language. That is why Muslims are afraid. Since the Qur’an claims repeatedly to be clear but is not—there is an obvious and serious contradiction. Something else must be going on. Another attempt misinterpretation of facts. Muslim assertion about translation being difficult is not restricted to the Noble Qur'an. Translation of Shakespeare is a translation and it is not Shakespeare. Period.
The same goes about the translation of the Noble Qur'an.
It is surprising that the author does not know, or he is trying to put it under the carpet, that when you read any work in the original language, even if you are very new to that language, you capture much more of that work as compared to the translation.
Anyway like the Bible the Noble Qur'an has been translated into hundreds of languages.
And the number of languages into which the Bible has been translated may be more than the number of languages into which the Noble Qur'an has been translated but Bible can not claim that it has been translated into English more than hundred times. The Noble Qur'an does have that distinction. Han then the Noble Qur'an has been translated into Urdu hundreds of time by different people. Not the Bible.
Wassalam

PS: This person ate Yemen's salt and then betrayed them - not very endearing.