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Study Quran: A Review by Stephen McTier for the Christ Episcopal Church Library
The
Study
Quran:
A
New
Translation
and
Commentary,
with
a
famous
editor-‐in-‐chief,
Seyyed
Hossein
Nasr,
shows
its
serious
and
dedicated
approach
starting
with
a
gorgeous
navy
blue
cover
with
traditional
Islamic
geometric
star
patterning
in
gold.
Harper
One
asked
Dr.
Nasr
to
create
a
Study
Quran
to
parallel
their
popular
and
well-‐received
Study
Bible.
I
noticed
immediately
the
date
of
publication:
2015,
and
the
many
accepted
spellings:
Koran,
Quran,
or
Qu’ran,
the
last
of
which
is
the
Library
of
Congress
version.
All
is
translated,
all/Allah
will
always
be
mediated
through
human
words,
“perfect”
though
they
may
be,
as
Muslims
consider
the
Quran
the
direct
transcribed
words
of
the
Holy
One
himself
to
his
final
prophet,
the
Seal
of
prophecy,
who
is
Mohammed.
Dr.
Nasr
is
a
very
well-‐known
perennialist,
a
subscriber
to
the
theory
that
all
the
“major”
religions
have
a
common
foundation,
a
core
of
shared
ethics
and
belief
in
what
constitutes
the
good
life.
He
studied
physics
at
MIT
and
became
disillusioned
with
materialism.
He
came
back
around
to
his
Persian
heritage
and
his
lineage
of
Shiia
saints
while
back
in
Iran.
Dr.
Nasr
received
his
doctorate
on
“Concepts
of
Nature
in
Islamic
Thought”
from
Harvard
and
became
a
very
young
professor
at
age
30.
He
now
identifies
as
a
Sufi,
or
a
practitioner
of
mystical
Islam,
and
is
an
expert
in
Islamic
philosophy.
He
is
an
ecologist.
All
of
this
made
him
the
first
choice
of
his
publisher
to
create
this
Study
Quran.
The
general
editors,
all
academic
doctors,
include
an
American-‐born
teacher,
and
a
man
and
a
woman
who
both
converted
from
Christianity.
The
assistant
editor
is
a
respected
Iranian-‐
Canadian
researcher
and
exegete,
who
specializes
in
Sufi
philosophy
and
is
an
expert
on
Henri
Corbin.
This
latter
was
a
beloved
but
highly
controversial
synthesizer
and
researcher
of
Iranian
Islam.
This
does
not
imply
that
the
assistant
editor
can
be
accused
of
New
Age
tendencies
and
exaggerations,
as
Monsieur
Corbin
rightly
is,
but
one
does
ponder
the
industry
made
from
these
specialized
and
somewhat
obscure
medieval
Muslim
theologians
by
the
editors
and
their
mentors.
These
talented
people
are
experts
variously
in
Islamic
history,
law,
gender
studies,
philosophy,
Quranic
exegesis
and
language,
in
addition
to
being
practicing
Sufi
(and
Sunni?—
that
is,
majoritarian)
Muslims.
Dr.
Nasr
considered
this
great
task
a
religious
duty,
a
calling.
First,
he
prayed
to
have
this
honor
and
burden
removed
from
him.
Then
the
clear
calling
of
Allah
gave
him
no
choice
as
a
Muslim,
a
“submitter”
to
the
divine
will.
He
started
the
project
which
became
this
Quran.
One
notes,
however,
that
while
all
of
the
editors
have
written
books
about
Sufism,
which
is
akin
to
Jewish
Hasidism
and
Kabbalah,
meaning
an
ecstatic,
mystical,
poetic
and
musical
tradition,
with
various
charismatic
patriarchal
guides,
and
the
woman,
Dr.
Dukake,
has
written
about
Shiism,
and
two
have
books
about
the
famous
theologian
and
philosopher
al-‐
Ghazzali,
not
a
single
one
is
expert
in
Sunna
Islam,
the
majority
expression
of
the
faith.
I
was
afraid
it
would
read
as
if
A
Study
Bible
were
edited
by
a
Mennonite
minister,
with
help
from
Greek
Orthodox
monks
and
Seventh
Day
Adventist
poets.
The
commentary
would
be
skewed
towards
more
mystical,
esoteric
and
let
us
say
contradictory
and
fringe
interpretations.
The
commentary
would
distort
the
historical
record
and
common
practice
of
Islam.
My
fearful
interest
was
not
realized,
though.
The
commentaries
proved
erudite
but
written
in
a
user-‐friendly
manner,
learned
and
practical.
They
read
as
deep
and
broad,
with
a
great
respect
for
historic
Islamic
scholarship,
theology,
and
even
poetry.
The
comments
also
give
the
alternative,
Shiia
practices
and
readings
their
due.
In
other
words,
The
Study
Quran
is
comprehensive
and
not
fringe
or
extreme
(except
in
its
obvious
love
of
Allah
and
his
prophet
and
the
religion
of
Islam).
So:
amend
my
initial
prejudices
regarding
the
commentaries,
which
frequently
take
up
¾
of
each
page
of
text.
They
read
more
like
insights
from
smart
Jesuits
editing
the
Bible
with
care,
intelligence,
and
beautiful
language.
I,
who
had
never
even
dipped
into
the
sacred
text,
immediately
noted
(and
loved)
the
quirky
breadth
of
the
surahs’
titles,
which
go
from
the
longest
surah
after
Al-‐Fatihah
(the
Opening),
called
al-‐Baqarah
(the
Cow!
How
could
Midwesterners
not
love
a
sacred
book
with
that
as
its
longest
chapter!)
to
the
shortest,
Al-‐Nas
(Mankind),
Surah
114,
which
is
also
a
theological
point.
It
puts
us
in
our
proper
place,
perhaps,
humans
deserving
the
briefest
surah
of
all.
Other
surahs
are:
Women,
the
Spoils,
the
Bee,
Mary
(which,
unfortunately,
has
a
G-‐d
very
interested
in
making
and
winning
theological
points,
very
concerned
that
his
creation
understand
how
wrong,
even
blasphemous,
the
Incarnation
and
the
Trinity
are),
the
Ants,
the
Spider
(Allah
loves
his
insects/all
creation),
the
Byzantines/al-‐Rum
(“Rome”,
what
was
left
of
“the
Christian
empire”
at
the
time
of
the
Revelation),
Sheba,
Smoke,
the
Sand
Dunes,
the
Moon,
the
Jinn
(as
in
wish-‐granting
genies,
like
in
a
bottle
that
you
rub),
the
Dawn,
the
Sun,
the
Fig
(my
favorite
title),
the
Elephant,
and
the
Palm
Fiber.
Whew!
Humans
are
a
minor
part
of
this
panoply
of
plants,
animals,
spiritual
beings,
insects,
and
celestial
bodies.
The
human
names,
ones
we
know
from
our
own
scriptures,
do
take
up
a
good
dozen
or
so
of
the
chapters:
Jonah
(10),
Joseph
(12),
Mary
(19),
Sheba
(34),
Abraham
(of
course,
the
Books”
father
of
all
of
us
the
monotheists),
and
Noah
(71).
Mohammed
(as
a
title)
merits
Surah
47,
a
third
of
the
way
through.
The
Quran
holds
a
similar
place
to
the
Torah
in
orthodox
Jewish
tradition:
the
source
for
art,
literature,
and
law.
The
humanity
of
the
Quran
is
hard
to
place,
however,
in
my
frank
estimation.
Despite
the
many
tolerant
and
even
“progressive”
interpretations
of
the
Muslim
holy
book
we
read
in
The
Study
Quran,
the
humanity
of
Islam,
of
Submission,
is
found
more
in
its
human
practitioners,
Muslims,
and
less
so
in
its
sacred
texts.
The
Quran
would
never
show
Yahweh’s
back
side
and
the
first
patriarch
arguing
with
his
Lord.
Vulnerability
has
no
place
in
the
STUDY
QURAN
it
seems,
at
least
in
a
cursory
look-‐see
of
it,
except
of
the
submitters
themselves.
That
has
been
enough
since
year
One
of
the
Hajira,
the
Muslim
calendar.
The
Quran
revels
in
its
contradictions,
its
paradoxes,
though,
as
the
Introduction
points
out.
G-‐d
is
impersonal
and
personal,
transcendent
and
immanent,
beyond
our
understanding
yet
everywhere
studied,
beyond
us
yet
“nearer
to
us
than
our
jugular
vein”
(Surah
50:16,
Qaf).
Allah
is
just
and
merciful
and
always
majestic
(and
never
vulnerable,
never
a
trinitarian
Holy
One
seeking
friendship
with
us,
his
creation).
Human
beings
are
a
mix
of
male
and
female
the
Quran
surprisingly
and
rather
radically
claims.
It
is
interesting
that
in
the
Shiite
theocracy
of
Iran
there
have
been
legal
judgments
affirming
the
reality
and
benign
fact
of
transgender
individuals,
even
(but
rarely)
upholding
transgender
rights
to
sex-‐reassignment
surgery
as
sharia,
with
the
government
paying
for
it!
but
homosexuality
carries
the
death
penalty.
Men
and
women
have
exalted
and
honored
roles
in
Muslim
society,
but
these
are
quite
separate,
despite
Muslim
women
having
been
and
continuing
to
be
political
leaders
and
scientists.
The
tensions
of
how
to
“be
a
man”
or
“what
is
proper
for
a
woman”
are
current
in
the
orthodox
Jewish
and
Christian
traditions,
too,
of
course.
The
commentaries
of
the
STUDY
QURAN
argue
for
an
inclusive,
open-‐minded
and
openhearted
approach
to
sexual
politics.
This
STUDY
QURAN
revels
in
the
inner
and
the
outer
messages
of
the
text,
its
letters
and
sounds,
very
much
like
Kabbalists
treat
their
holy
texts.
The
ayat,
or
“signs”
that
the
Quran
alludes
to
and
names
include
the
Quran
itself,
with
a
“miraculous”
form
and
language,
unreapeatable
and
the
ultimate
revelation,
according
to
the
scholars
and
everyday
folk
who
use
it
as
the
sacred
book
(xxvi).
The
Quran’s
Holy
One
is
a
god
of
history,
but
also
is
above
it:
“Quranic
sacred
history
is
more
ahistorical”
than
our
own
Hebrew
and
Christian
Bibles,
as
the
Introduction
says.
It
is
a
book
of
prayer,
exhortations,
warnings,
contracts
and
legalism,
but
much
mythology,
too.
The
Quran
mentions
Mount
Sinai,
Makka/Mecca,
Nua/Noah,
Musa/Moses,
as
in
history
and
mythology,
but
glancingly
reads
much
more
generally
as
a
series
of
allegories
and
ethics
lessons
with
theological
points
than
sacred
stories
with
beginnings,
middles,
and
ends.
It
is
poetry
and
prose
more
than
narrative
or
novels.
The
big
exceptions
are
the
“most
beautiful”
extended
stories
about
the
lives
of
Yusuf/Joseph
and
the
Prophet,
Mohammed
himself,
and
his
mission
to
reveal
the
Revelation
through
the
Archangel
Gabriel.
Through
these
intermediaries,
the
Quran
is
the
literal,
verbatim
word
of
Allah.
Even
the
sounds
and
words
are
sacred
as
such.
The
first-‐time
reader
marvels
at
the
Criterion,
the
Guide,
the
Recitation,
and
as
it
is
also
called,
simply,
the
Book
(as
the
Bible
means
the
Book(s)),
and
its
awareness
of
HaShem’s
ubiquity.
The
Holy
One
is
everywhere,
you
cannot
escape!
What
a
blessing!
It
also
includes
the
most
mundane
law
and
economics
discussions,
what
we
call
“family
law”:
who
can
inherit
and
get
married,
but
includes
cosmology
and
angelology,
too.
Jinns,
aka
genies,
or
tricksters
and
spiritual
beings,
are
frequently
mentioned.
Like
the
Hebrew
and
the
Christian
Bible,
it
reflects
the
ethics
and
customs
of
its
historical
context,
the
desert
nomads
of
the
Arabian
Peninsula,
whose
paradise
was
a
well-‐watered
garden
attended
by
beautiful
virgin
women,
and
who
maintained
a
powerful
oral
tradition
of
legends
and
customs
that
the
Quran
makes
use
of.
Muslims
believe
the
Quran
“descended”
to
earth,
however,
and
existed
before
Mohommed’s
recording
of
it.
The
rest
can
only
be
commentary,
and
in
this
Study
Quran,
mainly
is.
This
mix
of
previous
tradition,
legend,
myth,
and
folk
stories,
with
G-‐d
as
the
main
protagonist,
is
not
unique
to
Islam.
Judaism,
the
tradition
of
Issa/Jesus,
certainly
references
the
earlier
cultures’
creation
stories
and
legends
of
giants
and
angels
roaming
the
earth.
Some
orthodox
Jews
also
see
the
Pentateuch
and
Torah
as
“descended”
from
heaven,
pre-‐existing
and
the
literal
word
of
G-‐d.
We
know
literalist
Christians
abound
in
21st
century
America,
too,
with
a
whole
bubbleworld
of
websites
and
radio
shows
to
keep
their
traditions
current.
In
a
holy
book
with
chapters
named
“The
Palm
Fiber”,
“The
Fig”,
and
“The
Sand
Dunes”,
one
is
not
surprised
that
it
often
speaks
of
nature,
especially
as
ayat/signs
and
symbols
of
the
wonder
and
glory
and
power
of
the
Creator
seen
in
his
creation.
The
“cosmic
Quran”
can
only
be
understood,
according
to
tradition,
through
the
written
Quran.
Like
in
Judaism,
Islam
is
an
intensely
bookish
religion,
despite
and
including
its
many
and
manifold
mentions
of
nature
in
the
book
itself.
Islam
is
“natural”
and
learned.
Islam
is
green.
The
Quran
is
the
origin
for
not
only
the
umma’s
(the
Muslim
community’s)
religion,
but
its
science,
too.
Thomas
Aquinas
and
his
Summa
owe
a
lot
to
Muslim
scientists,
which
is
to
say,
the
Quran.
It
is
not
coincidental
that
algebra
and
algorithm
are
Arabic,
and
much
European
cosmology
has
connections
to
Muslim
scientists
who
consider
all
scientific
sources
coming
from
The
Source,
the
Quran
(xxxviii).
If
the
Revelation
as
culture
and
practice
is
too
often
an
Arabization
of
customs,
with
Uighur
men
sporting
scraggly
beards,
Malay
women
in
the
tropical
humidity
wearing
tight
hijabs,
and
the
Nation
of
Islam
claiming
blue-‐eyed
people
are
akin
to
Iblis
(a
specifically
blue-‐eyed
devil),
it
is
good
to
know
the
acculturation
can
be
salutary,
too.
We
must
remember,
as
Issa/Yeshua/Jesus
knew,
that
there
is
an
outward
meaning
(“zahir”
in
the
Muslim
tradition)
as
well
as
the
deeper
inward
meaning
(“batin”)(xxvi).
Many
Muslim
historic
leaders
agreed
that
the
Quran
has
two
levels
of
meaning.
This
implies
midrash,
a
communal
and
collective
process
of
finding
meaning
in
the
holy
words
and
stories,
and
applying
their
lessons
to
our
everyday
lives.
Reading
and
reciting
are
never
solo
acts.
Allah
is
called
the
Legislator,
Al-‐Shari,
whence
al-‐Sharia,
the
Law
determining
truth,
beauty,
and
goodness,
basic
attributes
of
himself,
rather
tautologically.
The
Law
and
the
Prophets
are
with
us.
Likewise,
one
sees
the
bismallah,
the
basic
pronouncement
“In
the
Name
of
G-‐d”,
and
reminders
of
al-‐shariah
on
many
public
buildings
and
in
the
laws
of
most
Muslim-‐
majority
countries.
Calligraphy
is
an
honored
and
beautiful
tradition
even
in
the
strictest
Wahabi/literalist
and
reactionary
Muslim
societies.
The
Study
Quran
is
a
great
source
of
the
Source,
the
Law
and
understanding
its
Legislator.
Many
Muslims,
especially
women,
are
illiterate,
though,
but
the
Book
itself,
al-‐Kitab,
is
held
(if
held),
with
extreme
reverence
and
as
a
kind
of
eucharist.
Just
pronouncing
the
words,
even
if
Arabic
is
not
your
native
language,
is
akin
to
worship,
and
serves
as
worship
in
many
masjid
(places
of
prayer:
mosques).
“For
Muslims,
Quranic
Arabic
is…,
in
the
deepest
sense,
like
the
bread
and
wine…both
are
embodiments
of
the
Word
of
God”
(xxx).
Like
Marx,
Submitters
understand
history
is
dialectical:
a
message
is
sent
through
a
chosen
messenger,
the
people
gradually
forget,
there’s
a
“Divinely
willed
calamity”
to
usher
in
a
new
messenger
and
prophet.
Muslims
understand
Mohammed
to
be
the
final
incarnation,
the
seal,
of
this
dialectic.
The
Introduction
notes
this
dynamic.
The
Quran
sees
Jesus
and
Abraham
as
part
of
this
process,
as
“submitters”
to
the
Will.
In
other
words,
Jesus
was
Muslim.
He
submitted
and
surrendered
to
his
father,
Allah,
if
we
will.
If
you
are
Muslim,
you
cannot
escape
Islam,
even
for
those
who
would
not
claim
its
revelation.
Unlike
the
Good
News
as
Christians
understand
it,
the
Quran’s
message
is
one
“of
glad
tidings
and
also
of
warning”
(xxix).
Of
course
the
Torah
and
Gospels
contain
both,
but
can
be
read
as
emphasizing
either.
This
unique
Quranic
mix
of
the
cosmic
and
the
mundane,
is
specifically
Arabic,
in
that
particular
tongue,
and
echoes
the
specifically
Hebrew
revelation
of
our
Jewish
forebears.
But,
Islam
more
so,
more
its
language:
its
medium
is
its
message.
The
Hebrew
Yahweh
speaks
in
Hebrew,
Aramaic,
signs,
stories
(in
different
languages),
in
human
and
natural
wonders,
in
nature,
in
a
talking
donkey,
through
a
prophet’s
harlot
wife,
in
and
with
and
from
a
mute,
crucified
savior.
The
Quran,
in
contrast,
is
exclusively
Allah’s
words,
the
one
Holy
One
in
the
one
language,
which
is
Arabic.
Heavily
“Quranic”
languages
such
as
Farsi,
Urdu,
Turkish,
and
Berber
don’t
count.
Jesus
is
our
Word,
and
the
Quran
is
Allah’s
words.
Hence,
Indonesian
mullahs
learn
Arabic,
Persian
soldiers
study
Arabic,
and
Turkish
imams
are
tested
in
Arabic.
“(Arabic)
must
be
compared
to
the
role
of
the
body
of
Christ
in
the
Christian
tradition”
(xxx).
Those
are
strong
words!
This
is
why,
in
a
very
basic
sense,
the
Quran
is
untranslateable.
Or,
to
put
it
inversely,
The
Quran
is
only
translated,
is
necessarily
a
translation.
It
can
only
be
commentary
if
in
an
English
version.
“The
eloquence
of
the
Quran
is
in
fact
considered
to
be
miraculous
and
beyond
the
possibility
of
imitation”
(xxxi).
That
acknowledged,
this
must
be
one
of
the
best,
most
faithful
(in
all
senses
of
that
word),
and
truest
English
version
of
this
quintessentially
Arabic
revelation.
Like
Genesis,
The
Opening/Al-‐Fatihah
is
“one
of
the
earliest”
but
not
the
earliest
scripture
of
the
Scriptures,
despite
coming
first.
Like
the
Pentateuch,
there
are
two
main
sources
of
the
Book/Al-‐Kitab:
there
are
Makkan
surahs
and
Medinan
ones.
The
Opening
(which
is
not
technically
the
first
surah
or
chapter)
is
the
Mother,
“the
synthesis
of
the
Quran’s
message.”
Its
revelation
is
tripartite
(Trinitarian?).
The
Opening
reveals
the
nature
of
G-‐d,
the
relationship
between
Creator
and
created,
and
the
different
states
of
humans.
One
notices
immediately
that
this
STUDY
QURAN
uses
Thee
and
Thou,
Lord,
and
Master
of
the
Day
of
Judgment:
all
caps,
antiquated
formality.
The
Opening,
The
Seven
Oft-‐Repeated
(verses),
and
the
opening
of
the
Opening:
the
bismalah
(“In
the
Name
of
G-‐d”)
encapsulates
the
whole
Quran.
These
seven
short
verses,
The
Seven
Oft-‐Repeated,
of
three
English
sentences,
merit
8
½
pages
of
commentary.
As
the
opening
commentary
of
the
Opening
points
out,
there
is
a
sub-‐genre
of
Quranic
exegesis,
of
many
books
of
hundreds
of
pages,
which
focus
exclusively
on
the
Seven
Oft-‐Repeated
(verses,
remember)
(5).
What
does
the
opening
reveal?
G-‐d
is
the
Compassionate,
the
Merciful,
Whom
we
praise
and
pray
to
for
guidance.
As
the
first
Shiite
Imam
and
fourth
Sunni
Caliph,
the
son-‐in-‐law
of
the
Prophet,
Ali
ibn
Abi
Talib,
proclaimed,
the
first
surah
is
the
whole
Quran,
and
the
first
surah
is
the
bismallah,
and
the
bismallah
is
its
opening
letter,
and
the
first
letter
ba
is
the
jot
under
the
letter.
G-‐d
is
the
jots
and
tittles
of
the
Book
and
the
Creator
of
the
cosmos
too!
As
the
Talmud
proclaims:
one
person
is
all
humanity,
if
you
save
an
individual
you
save
the
world,
and
HaShem
is
in
all,
for
all,
caring
for
sparrows
and
people,
his
cattle
and
camels,
and
makes
the
jot
under
the
letter
ba
an
integral,
necessary
part
of
his
revelation,
to
stretch
my
metaphors
and
mix
Islam
and
Judaism
(why
not,
if
Paul
mixed
Greek
logos-‐logic
and
eschatological
Judaism?).
The
obvious
secret
is,
naturally,
that
the
origin
stories
are
not
very
original,
in
any
of
the
Judeo-‐Christian-‐Islamic
traditions,
plural.
And
they
don’t
need
to
be.
G-‐d
is
faithful
to
us,
Allah
is
faithful
to
the
umma,
even
if
we
do
not
reciprocate!
The
first
word
of
the
Opening
of
the
Book
is
the
preposition
“in”,
which
argues
for
an
interior,
soulful
comprehension
of
its
message,
more
than
an
incarnational
enactment
of
that
revelation,
about
opening
soup
kitchens
and
maintaining
hospitals.
One
of
the
five
obligations
of
Muslims,
I
must
point
out,
is
to
give
to
charity,
which
includes
kitchens
and
hospitals
for
the
poor
(Muslims).
Allah
is
in
all
things,
begins
all,
starts
all,
if
we
understand
properly.
Allah
means
only
One,
one
Thing
Who
is
not
a
thing,
but
acts
and
is
in,
in
us
and
in
the
created
world
without
being
the
same
creation.
He
is
not
a
pagan
nature
god.
The
al-‐Ilah,
or
“The
Divine”,
is
HaShem,
similar
to
the
orthodox
Jewish
understanding,
the
Name
which
stands
for
the
names
and
attributes
which
are
uniquely
those
of
al-‐Ilah/Allah,
but
maybe
related
to
El/Elohim
(singular/plural).
(Please
don’t
let
my
Muslim
or
Hasidic
friends
know
I
wrote
that!).
It
takes
many
words
to
describe
the
One
who
is
irreducible
and
beyond
words!
I
noticed,
as
one
does,
that
the
Quran
is
written
in
a
disconcerting
third-‐person
narration,
a
tautological
theology
by
the
theo
himself,
a
Most
Self-‐Confident
G-‐d
Who
yet
needs
to
praise
Himself
repeatedly,
a
redundant
One,
as
the
commentary
notes
more
discretely
and
less
critically.
This
Allah
(putting
it
that
way
would
get
me
in
trouble
in
the
theocracies
of
Iran
(Shiite)
and
Saudi
Arabia
(Sunna))
is
rabb
(related
to
rabbi,
Lord,
a
teacher
to
be
obeyed),
of
“all
worlds”,
rather
buddhistic,
warning
and
admonishing
the
various
beings
and
forces:
djinns,
humans,
animals,
angels,
devils,
thoughts,
desires,
emotions,
past,
present,
future.
He
is
Lord
of
all
worlds.
(I
am
more
of
a
perennialist
than
I
realized).
As
the
commentary
says,
Allah
shows
and
is
Loving
Mercy,
one
of
the
Divine
Names
which
only
HaShem
(the
Name,
in
Hebrew,
to
mix
monotheisms,
rather
perennially),
qualifies
for.
Al-‐Rahman,
the
Merciful,
is
the
Sun
of
loving
warmth
whereas
our
al-‐Rahim,
mercy,
is
a
single
sunbeam,
to
use
the
metaphor
in
this
theology
of
inevitable
metaphors
(7).
V.
5
starts
a
second-‐person
address
to
Allah,
an
I-‐Thou
relationship
needing
no
intermediary,
no
priesthood,
no
cohonim,
but
a
connection
available
to
“all
believers”,
who
worship
Love
in
love
and
with
love,
not
out
of
fear
or
for
what
He
can
do
for
us,
as
an
employee.
Again,
like
Buddhism,
Islam,
in
its
scripture,
says
we
must
sojourn
a
middle
way,
“the
straight
path”.
This
middle
way,
as
the
notes
say,
is
neither
ascetic,
a
via
negativa,
nor
worldly
and
hedonistic,
a
via
positiva.
Like
John
the
Baptizer,
Muslims
are
enjoined
to
follow
the
straight
path
down
its
middle.
The
submitters
must
adhere
to
outer
and
inner
laws,
of
the
commandments
and
a
deep
inner
spirituality.
Muslims
must
not
be
falsely
humble
and
self-‐
punishing
nor
indulge
in
worldly
pleasures,
both
showing
low
egotism
of
the
immature.
It
is
an
adult
spirituality.
We
must
take
the
via
media—words
to
warm
and
warn
an
Anglican’s
heart!
We,
too,
are
called
to
be
Muslims,
if
not
followers
of
the
Mohammedan
path,
but
the
path
that
likewise
does
not
go
to
the
side
of
the
idolaters,
who
make
idols
of
people
and
things,
nor
to
the
other
side
of
the
hypocrites.
The
idolaters
and
hypocrites
are
the
ones,
we
recall,
most
condemned
by
Issa,
our
own
rabb.
The
Quran
condemns
the
same
sinning
most
harshly.
Unfortunately,
many
submitters,
Muslims,
do
not
see
the
spirit
of
the
Law,
but
interpret
the
“side
paths”
to
refer
to
Judaism
(idolaters)
and
to
Christianity
(hypocrites—or
is
that
the
other
way
around?).
We
know
the
Truth
sets
us
free,
going
down
the
middle
way,
following
the
Spirit
(of
the
Law).
We
can
be
confident,
too,
that
this
beautiful,
necessary
Study
Quran
will
help
other
submitters
to
the
Truth,
which
is
one,
perennially.