Jots on Islam

Although the Koran --oh, sorry, the Qur'an-- is a very hard slog to read, one thing I do like about it is the chapter names. Quite poetic, some of them. Like the 99 Names of God.

The Quran is not really the Moslem --oh, sorry, Muslim-- Bible. Even actual conservative Christians accept as a matter of course that God inspired the many writers of this one-volume library, compiled over centuries, but that they spoke in their own voices. And the process of choosing and collecting which documents belonged was a combination of legal decision and spontaneous tradition.

But the Quran is considered by Muslims to be the direct Arabic words of Allah, with Muhammad merely being the channel. So while in Christianity, the Word of God becomes Flesh, in Jesus, in Islam, the Word of God becomes Text, in the Quran. Hence, the reaction of Muslims to Koran burning, etc. It's not that far different from how Catholics would respond to a desecration of the consecrated bread and wine of the Eucharist.

And oddly, Muhammad --though he functions much like Christ in actual Islam-- is really more like the Virgin Mary: one who, though not divine herself, gave birth to an incarnate divinity.

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