Pluralism and Perfection

This week our readings focused on the history and origins of Islam, and the two readings I have done so both seem to be speaking from Muslim positions - the introduction to our assigned translation of the Qu'ran and No god but God by Reza Aslan which is a basic apologetic introduction to Islam. Both readings are focused on more modern and less fundamentalist interpretations of the history and sacred text of Islam.

What I'm noticing as I read, especially in the Aslan work, is that the theme of perfection runs throughout Islam. The Qu'ran is the perfect book handed down directly from Allah to the Prophet, the language it is written in is perfect and cannot be translated without losing the quality that makes it scripture to the community of faith (although I am fascinated with the idea that one doesn't need to understand Arabic to benefit from hearing the Qu'ran read aloud) and now as I am being exposed for the first time to the stories of Muhammad it seems to me that this is the perfect prophet, a man without mistakes and beyond blame.  Aslan in particular goes the distance to provide context for some of the stories about the Prophet that seem scandalous in the present day - like the ten wives he acquired in ten years after his first wife died.

I can't help but contrast this with the big time prophets I am familiar with from the Hebrew and Christian scriptures, all of whom are in some way obviously and deeply flawed. Even the New Testament characters associated with Jesus are pretty imperfect individually and as a whole portrayed as a rather clueless bunch.  The one exception in Christianity is, I suppose, Jesus himself. But even Jesus is mediated to us through four very different account of his life, which seems less than perfect. And for Christians he is not a prophet, but part of our Trinitarian God.

I resist the notion of a perfect scripture and perfect prophet.* I think this is natural - I have been socialized to love the quirks of my own religion the best. I suppose that it is ironic that despite all the perfection claimed by Islam the authors I have read so far this week are about the same sort of project that any academic person of faith is about - diligently seeking context and further understanding in order to place and work with a scripture that was produced in a very specific time and place and then put forward as a timeless document meant to guide a community into eternity.


* I do want to note that there are plenty of Christians who wouldn't resist this at all. In fact as I learn more about Islam I am continually struck by how many of their supposedly unique assumptions about God, the supremecy of scripture, and submission as the highest calling of the relgious person are shared and reflected in some of the more dominant Christianities here in this country.