Re: Quran, cultural Islam, and what is outdated

salaam Carl it is great to have you on the list. you sound refreshing in
your direct and honest perspective and simple outlook( in the best meaning)
I think some of the unsubscribe are the result of viruses sending us to
other folks as none of the names was familiar to me.It has happened before.
Eileen
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Carl Howard" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, February 09, 2004 9:25 PM
Subject: [Progressivemuslimsnetwork] Quran, cultural Islam, and what is
outdated


> Salaam everyone-
> I am sorry to see that so many people are leaving
> since I am just joining. It seems there should be some
> good discussions.  Since I didn't grow up in a
> "Muslim" culture, I cannot connect to some of the
> issues that seem to be troubling some of the people
> here.  I will not say that I "converted" to Islam
> because when I first started reading the Quran some
> years ago, it just seemed so straight up and right on
> in so many ways.  I simply discovered I was a Muslim
> already but didn't know before to call myself that.
>
> I am not sure what people are saying is "outdated".  I
> am surprised at how much is there that couldn't
> possibly be known 1400 years ago, like the earth being
> egg-shaped and worker ants being female and lots of
> other little scientific factoids about the earth and
> universe and animals and our own biology.
>
> There are a lot of ideas to struggle with, true.
> That's where having others to discuss it and get input
> from is helpful.  Still, I feel that the Quran is not
> a book we read so much as a book that reads us.  Our
> understanding is drawn out from our own hearts, not
> put into us by the words on a page.
>
> Being more a student of natural sciences than of
> social sciences or history, I may be missing some of
> the ideas that seem to be upsetting others.  A lot of
> times I think God is deliberately not telling us the
> more complicated stuff because it forces us to use our
> hearts and minds and eyes to try to find out.  That is
> the way understanding can really be internalized, with
> a lot of effort and really going after wanting to know
> something.
>
> If we cop out and let some human "authority" tell us
> the meaning and just buy it whole cloth, what are we
> learning?  Like suppose I don't understand the meaning
> of some word or verse and I ask some "scholar" and get
> told it means this or that, because all these other
> credentialed folks and traditional ideas says it means
> that.  If all that meaning and tradition comes from
> some other historic culture than I came from and I
> can't identify with it, what is to convince me that
> that is really the meaning?
>
> God said the Quran was sent down to all peoples, not
> just Arabs.  OK, so if I get intimidated by all those
> credentials and agree to that meaning they tell me and
> then go around parroting it, do I understand anything
> yet?  If someone tell me it means so and so, and that
> doesn't draw that understanding out of me as I
> continue to study the passage, then it doesn't have
> that meaning, not to me.
>
> If the discussion with someone else does help connect
> the dots of the ideas and a particular meaning really
> does click and feel comfortable, then I agree I really
> have learned something.  But that learning and
> understanding has been drawn out of me from within,
> not shoved in from the outside.
>
> Maybe I grow and have different experiences and
> awarenesses, and now an old understaning isn't
> comfortable anymore.  God says if all the seas were
> ink they would run dry before the words of God ran
> out.  So maybe there is still a whole lot more meaning
> in those self same words and we are able to read them
> in new ways.  It is that sort of dialog and
> exploration that I am hoping this group would be
> about.
>
> Best,
> Carl
>
>
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