We Are Still on the Shore of the Quranic Knowledge

Was published in Arabic in November 02, 2015

Translated by Ahmed Fathy

 We have been touched by queries raised by a novice among the Quranists, who was for twenty years a university teacher and supervisor of MA and PhD theses within a Sunnite theological faculty in a certain university.

He said to me: Do you find in the Quran all what you need in Islam?

I said to him: Yes, of course.

He said: Do not you need Sunna at all in your research?

I said: No; except when I refute it and expose its falsehoods via the Quran.

He said: Is the Quran enough for all your research? How could you find enough material for all your articles and research papers?

I said: Praised be Our God. As a start, one has to believe in on God with no other partners. "Is God not enough for His servant?"(39:36). A believer ought to believe in only one book in Islam to know all about faith: the Quran. This fact is ascertained in the Quranic text in this rhetorical question plus a following affirmative style in the same verse: "Does it not suffice them that We revealed to you the Scripture, which is recited to them? In that is mercy and a reminder for people who believe."(29:51). The next verse confirms that the Quran is sufficient for a true believer and that the Quran is enough as other books beside it, in faith or creed, are wrong for certain and lead to misguidance in this life and the Afterlife: "Say, "God suffices as witness between you and me. He knows everything in the heavens and the Earth. Those who believe in vanity and reject God-it is they who are the losers."" (29:52). Being content with the Quran is the start of all types of research in Islam you want to make, my friend.

He said: I believe in God and in the Quran.

I said: Believing in the Quran as the only book of Islam is similar to the belief in one God, Our Creator. It is not enough to believe in the One True God; a believer has to deny all other gods/deities invented by human beings. This is the meaning of the testimony of Islam (La Ilah Illa Allah = There is no god but God/Allah). There is no protector or patron saint in Islam; please reflect on this rhetorical question in the Quran: "Say, "Shall I take for myself a protector other than God? …" (6:14). There is no holy thing/person beside God; please reflect on this rhetorical question in the Quran: "Say, "Am I to seek a Lord other than God, when He is the Lord of all things?"…" (6:164). The same notion applies to the Quran; you have to believe in it as the sole discourse in Islam, and you have to deny and discard any other discourses in religion. We draw this notion from the Quran itself again with the recurrent rhetorical question: "…Which message, besides this, will they believe in?" (7:185), "In what message, beyond this, will they believe?" (77:50), and finally "These are God's Verses which We recite to you in truth. In which message, after God and His revelations, will they believe?"(45:6).

He said: But some hadiths (sayings) contain important information, right?

I said: If so, they are part of human, man-made knowledge that reflect their narrators and their age; they are not divine revelation at all and consequently not part of Islam. Accordingly, it is a crime to ascribe hadiths to Prophet Muhammad; this ascription implies accusing him of not delivering Islam unto us and leaving ''parts'' of it to be written in the Abbasid era and other following eras! Believing in the so-called hadiths is denying and refutation of the above-mentioned Quranic verses. This is blasphemy and unbelief. That is why adherents to the such falsehoods called hadiths beside the Quran will never be but more infidels and losers, while believers in the Quran alone as the only discourse of Islam, a tenet of the Quranists as you know, are the ones whose piety and belief increase by the Quran: "We send down in the Quran healing and mercy for the believers, but it increases the wrongdoers only in loss."(17:82).

He said: How one is to get lost by the Quran?!

I said: You tell me; you have your own published books, in which you quote so many Quranic verses. Tell me, how did you use to deal with the Quranic text?

He remained silent for a few moments.

I said: I will answer on your behalf. The falsehoods of Sunna and Sunnite hadiths used to remain inside your memory and psyche. Such lies have been the magnifying glass with which you examine the Quran. You used to quote verses that apparently goes along with your revered hadiths and intentionally ignore the verses that contradict such hadiths, especially fabrications about reasons of the revelation of verses and which ones were ''annulled''!

He said: I did not do just that; I am no researcher. In fact, I confined my work to copy the same quotations of the ancients from the Quranic text and the hadiths on all subjects. I was a copyist not a real researcher. Accidentally, I have come across your booklet titled ''No Punishment for Forsaking Islam". Although it is modestly published, it has shaken me to the core. I have read after it your book "The Quran Is Enough" thrice. I have consulted the tomes of Al-Bokhary to make sure of your quotes. This was the very first time for me to notice that Al-Bokhary has undermined Prophet Muhammad and ascribed to him such calumnies and falsehoods. I have undergone intellectual hell, so to speak; what creed was I following, after all?! I have read your archive of articles in ahl-alquran.com and ahewar.com and I kept wondering how you come up with such an avalanche of ideas from the Quran. You know, I have memorized the entirety of the Quranic verses. Yet, I felt as if I am reading them for the first time in your articles' quotations. I cannot help asking how you understand the Quran without hadiths, dictionaries, ancient books and tomes and volumes of interpretations. Your logic and easy style is away from all complicated styles typical of such books of the ancestors.

I said: Because the Quran is made clear and open to elucidate facts of faith only to those who seek guidance only in it.

He said: I need guidance as well as to be a Quranist researcher.

I said: Guidance is available for all, in accordance to this Quranic verse: "…Whoever hopes to meet his Lord, let him work righteousness, and never associate anyone with the service of his Lord.""(18:110). Anyone can be a Quranist researcher as well.

He said: How?

I said: After the Quranic guidance, one has to be shun and reject other books by men in creed and faith

He said: I believe now in the Quran alone as the only discourse of Islam.

I said: This entails removing faith and belief and reverence of all other books (in creeds, doctrines, the so-called theology…etc.) from your mind and heart.

He said: I have read once in your articles that the Sunna and hadiths are Satanic and devilish revelations. I could not possibly refute this view that is based on Quranic verses. 

I said: When you reject and deny such devilish revelations, I mean you have to remove all Sunnite, Shiite, and Sufi hadiths totally from your faith and belief. Once this happens, your heart and mind will be ready to be touched by the Quranic discourse: let us remember that "It is a noble Quran. In a well-protected Book. None can grasp it except the purified." (56:77-79). You have to purify your heart and mind from the devilish revelation in order to grasp the meaning of the Quranic text; otherwise, the Light of the Quran cannot reach you.

He said: What else should I do to be a Quranist researcher?

I said: to be a real researcher in any given field one has to be cultured and well-versed.

He said: What do you mean?

I said: I mean to critically read in general cultural fields with a focus on the branch of knowledge one specializes in. you have to be well-verses in the field you are going to research, and one has to collect all references and volumes/tomes on the desired topic/field. One has to read all that with a critical eye before getting information from them then lastly you will order the facts and figure out how to relate them to one another to come out with new discoveries.

He said: This applies to any researcher in any branch of knowledge.

I said: The Quranist researcher will do the above; a general culture and knowledge of life plus reading in specialized topics hinted at within the Quranic text: Quranic stories, history, sociology, and general facts of natural sciences as well as a good command of classical Arabic and its differences in comparison to the Quranic language and terminology. Another branch of knowledge is all heritage of the Muhammadans in thought, tenets and dogmas of their creeds, as well as their doctrines and legislations (of all types: Sunnite, Shiite, and Sufi), preferably with a fair knowledge of classical Arabic literature of the past. Then, one has to read the Quran while asking for Truth and guidance and the will to reject any notion of faith of belief that runs contrary to the Quran. Truth seekers ought to be patient; see Chapter 103 in the Quran.

He said: Let us suppose that I want to research the Quran on the topic of planet earth, what shall I do?

I said: Without presupposition on your part, you have to collect together all verses that contain the world ''earth'' in all general and special contexts and…

He said: Sorry to interrupt you, but what is the difference between general and special contexts?

I said: Quranic terminology change in significance according to the general context whereas there is the special context of a given verse within the following and preceding verses. The general context includes the topic and its recurrence in the entirety of the Quranic text.

He said: One has to memorize the whole of the Quranic verse, right?

I said: You tell me; you lalready memorize the Quran by heart.

He said: Yes, but without understanding.

I said: From personal experience, memorizing the entirety of the Quran makes research a lot easier in the process of getting all verses that tackle a certain topic or issue.

He said: Could you further explain this to me?

I said: A researcher has to collect all verses tacking a certain topic in all their general and special contexts as well as related verses. In your example, you have to get all verses that contain the world ''earth'' and all related verses of every verse you collect. One has to differentiate between compact verses and some similar verses that affirm certain other ones. One has to make sure if the verse is a simile or metonymy or other rhetorical figure of speech or a verse with a fact written in the form of statement. You have to examine all this objectively within a methodology, while seeking fervently to obtain guidance from God the Almighty. Later on, you will write your research based on a personal vision that might be wrong or right. The Quran is the absolute truth, but our understanding and conclusions are relative due to one's culture, linguistic level, and the degree of one's faith.

He said: I see that you have applied all this in your article and books. How can you assess them after all these years until now?

I said: We are still on the shore of Quranic knowledge since we have begun – for the very first time in the intellectual history of Arabs – the scientific reading of the Quran and the process of researching it from within its text without heritage volumes and tomes of any type. I seek only guidance with the preparation to sacrifice everything and paying every price. Thank God, the awareness of Quranism as a trend is raised now among people despite all obstacles from within Quranists and from non-Quranists among the Muhammadans.

He said: What is your vision of the future?

I said: My only concern is continuity; this is the responsibility shouldered now by all Quranists worldwide. I want all of you to go on carrying the Light of Quranism to all people after my death. "…A light from God has come to you, and a clear Book. God guides with it whoever follows His approval to the ways of peace, and He brings them out of darkness into light, by His permission, and He guides them in a straight path." (5:15-16). You, Quranists, have chosen the honor of proselytizing the Quran as the only true Islam, away from the false creeds of Sunnite, Wahabi, Salafi, Shiite, and Sufi Muhammadans. This is the responsibility, noble cause, and present and future of all Quranists before the Almighty in the Day of Judgment.