This is a very good direction. Perennialism lacks coherency horizontally, but biasing any ideology, sect or narrative lacks it vertically. The Qur'an as that which confirms but corrects what came before it, including reminder that messengers (warners) have been sent to every nation, can be the missing centre.
On that note though, can the Qur'an account for what is valid in Vedic, Celtic, Norse, Confucian or Buddhist tradition too, in their "polytheism" and/or "atheism"? Or say the wild success of Indigenous Australian culture in sustaining ethnic and linguistic diversity (re: no empire) amongst overall harmonious and deeply meaningful relations, over tens of thousands of years?
Stripped of misguided loyalty to other narratives, I believe it can.
You should check out Mohamed Chahrour (his books are far superior to the videos on Youtube) as he provides a similar approach to yours, generally speaking, but also expends on the concept of the book in the Quran as well as other misconceptions introduced by brand Islam … I don’t believe he ever cared about brand Islam (in fact he probably despised it just not in public for the obvious reasons being a Syrian living in Syria) and like you he only cared about what the Quran had to say … all of his books and videos are in Arabic which make it challenging for people like me with little or no Arabic background
I do not think there is much "original" in what I write about. There have been currents within and around the Islamic civilisation which conveyed much of what I and others have latterly come to. And when one digs deeply enough, one finds that they have correlates in the Christian and other traditions. The cult of originality which we are bombarded by is a recent invention (where everyone is now so "unique" they are almost identical!).
Many thanks to positivethinker1 for his diligent feedback and identification of typos.
If anyone finds more, please list them in this thread!
Peace,
This is a very good direction. Perennialism lacks coherency horizontally, but biasing any ideology, sect or narrative lacks it vertically. The Qur'an as that which confirms but corrects what came before it, including reminder that messengers (warners) have been sent to every nation, can be the missing centre.
On that note though, can the Qur'an account for what is valid in Vedic, Celtic, Norse, Confucian or Buddhist tradition too, in their "polytheism" and/or "atheism"? Or say the wild success of Indigenous Australian culture in sustaining ethnic and linguistic diversity (re: no empire) amongst overall harmonious and deeply meaningful relations, over tens of thousands of years?
Stripped of misguided loyalty to other narratives, I believe it can.
Peace.
Excellent article!
You should check out Mohamed Chahrour (his books are far superior to the videos on Youtube) as he provides a similar approach to yours, generally speaking, but also expends on the concept of the book in the Quran as well as other misconceptions introduced by brand Islam … I don’t believe he ever cared about brand Islam (in fact he probably despised it just not in public for the obvious reasons being a Syrian living in Syria) and like you he only cared about what the Quran had to say … all of his books and videos are in Arabic which make it challenging for people like me with little or no Arabic background
I do not think there is much "original" in what I write about. There have been currents within and around the Islamic civilisation which conveyed much of what I and others have latterly come to. And when one digs deeply enough, one finds that they have correlates in the Christian and other traditions. The cult of originality which we are bombarded by is a recent invention (where everyone is now so "unique" they are almost identical!).
Peace and best wishes, Sam Gerrans