Black eye? - Check!
Virgin? - You check.
Posted on 08/04/2004 1:44:11 PM PDT by nuconvert
Martyrs, Virgins and Grapes
The New York Times
Nicholas D. Kristof
August 04, 2004
The virgins are calling you," Mohamed Atta wrote reassuringly to his fellow hijackers just before 9/11.
It has long been a staple of Islam that Muslim martyrs will go to paradise and marry 72 black-eyed virgins. But a growing body of rigorous scholarship on the Koran points to a less sensual paradise - and, more important, may offer a step away from fundamentalism and toward a reawakening of the Islamic world.
Some Islamic theologians protest that the point was companionship, never heavenly sex. Others have interpreted the pleasures quite explicitly; one, al-Suyuti, wrote that sex in paradise is pretty much continual and so glorious that "were you to experience it in this world you would faint."
But now the same tools that historians, linguists and archaeologists have applied to the Bible for about 150 years are beginning to be applied to the Koran. The results are explosive.
The Koran is beautifully written, but often obscure. One reason is that the Arabic language was born as a written language with the Koran, and there's growing evidence that many of the words were Syriac or Aramaic.
For example, the Koran says martyrs going to heaven will get "hur," and the word was taken by early commentators to mean "virgins," hence those 72 consorts. But in Aramaic, hur meant "white" and was commonly used to mean "white grapes."
Some martyrs arriving in paradise may regard a bunch of grapes as a letdown. But the scholar who pioneered this pathbreaking research, using the pseudonym Christoph Luxenberg for security reasons, noted in an e-mail interview that grapes made more sense in context because the Koran compares them to crystal and pearls, and because contemporary accounts have paradise abounding with fruit, especially white grapes.
Dr. Luxenberg's analysis, which has drawn raves from many scholars, also transforms the meaning of the verse that is sometimes cited to require women to wear veils. Instead of instructing pious women "to draw their veils over their bosoms," he says, it advises them to "buckle their belts around their hips."
Likewise, a reference to Muhammad as "ummi" has been interpreted to mean he was illiterate, making his Koranic revelations all the more astonishing. But some scholars argue that this simply means he was not "of the book," in the sense that he was neither Christian nor Jewish.
Islam has a tradition of vigorous interpretation and adjustment, called ijtihad, but Koranic interpretation remains frozen in the model of classical commentaries written nearly two centuries after the prophet's death. The history of the rise and fall of great powers over the last 3,000 years underscores that only when people are able to debate issues freely - when religious taboos fade - can intellectual inquiry lead to scientific discovery, economic revolution and powerful new civilizations. "The taboos are still great" on such Koranic scholarship, notes Gabriel Said Reynolds, an Islam expert at the University of Notre Dame. He called the new scholarship on early Islam "a first step" to an intellectual awakening.
But Muslim fundamentalists regard the Koran - every word of it - as God's own language, and they have violently attacked freethinking scholars as heretics. So Muslim intellectuals have been intimidated, and Islam has often been transmitted by narrow-minded extremists.
(This problem is not confined to Islam. On my blog, www.nytimes.com/kristofresponds, I've been battling with fans of the Christian fundamentalist "Left Behind" series. Some are eager to see me left behind.)
Still, there are encouraging signs. Islamic feminists are emerging to argue for religious interpretations leading to greater gender equality. An Iranian theologian has called for more study of the Koran's Syriac roots. Tunisian and German scholars are collaborating on a new critical edition of the Koran based on the earliest manuscripts. And just last week, Iran freed Hashem Aghajari, who had been sentenced to death for questioning harsh interpretations of Islam.
"The breaking of the sometimes erroneous bonds in the religious tradition will be the condition for a positive evolution in other scientific and intellectual domains," Dr. Luxenberg says.
The world has a huge stake in seeing the Islamic world get on its feet again. The obstacle is not the Koran or Islam, but fundamentalism, and I hope that this scholarship is a sign of an incipient Islamic Reformation - and that future terrorist recruits will be promised not 72 black-eyed virgins, but just a plateful of grapes.
More information on book by Dr. Luxenberg....
http://syrcom.cua.edu/Hugoye/Vol6No1/HV6N1PRPhenixHorn.html
Go out and get yourself killed for a bunch of grapes. And god wants women to buckle up. Give me a break.
The problem is Islam, as written. Telling Muslims God didn't realy mean what he said over and over and over in the Koran just isn't going to work. - Tom
I guess coming from the NYT means that no BARF ALERT is needed . . . still . . .
There are a lot of things that are diametrically opposed in the current interpretation. For instance, Mohammad said that Moses and Christ were prophets of God and should be respected. How then does that lead to killing those who follow Moses and Christ? He also says to respect the "people of the book" (meaning Christians and Jews). The only way these dichotomies can coexist is through misinterpretation. Islamic scholarship has been basically dead for a couple hundred years and things have frozen with the early interpretations made by fallible men.
Hell, 72 white grapes don't even constitute a good snack. Doesn't seem worth dying for.
Pong
This article misses one extremely important idea in Islam----the rewards in Heaven are guarranteed and are automatic for every Muslim who murders a non-Muslim. It does not matter what they believe the heavenly reward to be--the main idea is that murder is the sure path to everlasting rewards in Heaven.
Muslims who offend fundamentalists are at serious risk of waking up with their heads missing.
Mr. Kristoff has Christian fundamentalists who argue with him.
Therefore, (wait for it!) Christian fundamentalists are exactly like Muslim fundamentalists.
I'll believe there is a reformation going on when I see it with my own eyes. I don't expect to see it in my own life time!
Kristoff's problems with Christian Fundamentalists isn't the issue.
Yeah, this virgin stuff
is pretty funny, but we
should remember, too,
Western, Christian men
hear young "virgins" calling them
on the internet
only to find out
the voice is some FBI
agent trolling scum . . .
So, yeah, the promise
of cotton candy is strong,
but Christians bite, too . . .
Sorry, but the conflating of Christian fundamentalists who might argue with you and Muslim fundamentalists whose goal is to kill you is indeed a problem. It stigmatizes a large, law-abiding part of our society and it diverts attention from our true enemies.
Sorry, but the conflating of Christian fundamentalists who might argue with you and Muslim fundamentalists whose goal is to kill you is indeed a problem. It stigmatizes a large, law-abiding part of our society and it diverts attention from our true enemies.
Well said. By the definition of the word, "fundamentalism" demands we examine what those adhered fundamentals are.
Fundamentalist Leninism is different than fundamentalist Islam, is different than fundamentalist football, is different than fundamentalist Christianity.
To make "fundamentalism" some sort of pariah is fundamentally absurd.
Black eye? - Check!
Virgin? - You check.
Yes. 73 would be more convincing. :-P
A similar example is the term "conservative." It is meaningless unless you describe what values you are conserving.
A conservative European usually meant a throne and church type, exactly the people the American revolution was fought against. The values of that revolution are what American conservatism fights to protect.
BTW, sorry for the double post.
Yes, but what are they calling you?
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