Revelation: Principles And Tools 1/2

A fundamental aspect of the Islamic tradition is the recognition of the accomplished cycle of prophecy and all the prophets who preceded Muhammad. And one can only understand their meaning and function in human history if one has a clear idea of the Islamic conception of humankind. Revelations come, all through time, to reawaken the original breath, to make it possible for humankind to stay faithful to the original covenant, and to respect the divine commandments that ensure that they will live in His light and walk in His path in a way appropriate to the time in which they live. It is in this context, according to Islamic teaching, that the Qur’an, confirming the essential message of the Revelations that came earlier, goes back to the sources of fitra and confirms it, reviving the original impulse in humans and making them live by recalling it. To reveal, in fact, is to recall the closeness of the faith of Eve, Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Mary, Jesus, and all the prophets; to reveal is to revive the light that is dormant in the heart of each of us and that forgetfulness often dims or stifles.

The first function of Revelation is to recall and confirm what went before, which, according to Islamic tradition, may be summed up in four fundamental principles: 1. There is one God who has no associates (tawhid al-rububiyya); 2. Human beings are linked with the Creator by an original testimony and covenant; 3. The Transcendent has sent Revelations and prophets throughout history to call humankind back to the testimony and the covenant and to tell them about the requirements of religious ritual and morality that are laid upon them; 4. To be with God is to be for Him and to free oneself of all idols—material, fantasy, and even emotional—in order to live in His presence and respect His commandments (tawhid aluluhiyya).

From the revealed Pages of Noah (suhuf), to the Psalms of David, to the Torah of Moses, to the Gospel of Jesus, and up to the Qur’an of Muhammad, each Revelation has as its first purpose to confirm these four fundamental principles. The second purpose of each of the Books has been to put right what was forgotten, modified, and sometimes corrupted by human interventions in the previous Revelation. These two first functions are on the level of general principles. The last function has then been to reveal to humankind the religious practices they should follow from then on, the specifics of moral teaching that were relevant to them, and, finally, the patterns of interpersonal and social relations that they should establish and respect. The second level determines the newness or uniqueness of the religion in question.

In the consciousness of Muslims, the Qur’an is clearly active at these two levels. Considered by them to be the final Revelation, Islam presents itself at the first level of general principles as a natural religion that goes back to the source of all the messages. The terminology itself carries an echo of the “return to the source”: the last of the monotheisms is called islam, expressing the natural act of recognizing the order created by the Only One and surrendering to His peace. To be a Muslim is to pronounce the declaration, al-shahada, which recalls the original testimony of which we have spoken, while the path of faithfulness, the way to the source, alsharia, expresses the requirement to be faithful to the original covenant. As for the second level, concerning religious practices and specific judgments, we find a series of verses directly referring to this and in fact defining and circumscribing Islamic practice as well as Islamic ethics regarding individual and collective behavior more generally.

The status of the Qur’an is, for Muslims, a question of greatest importance. Here there are a great number of misunderstandings and narrow ideas expressed even by some Muslim faithful. The Qur’an is the word of God revealed in small parts over a period of about twenty-three years. It is a text, revealed at a given moment in history, in a certain context, and presented first to the intelligence of women and men of faith. It must be said over and over again that the Revelation of a Book, of a Text, would have no meaning if intelligence, human reason capable of grasping its meaning, were not taken for granted. There can be no revealed Text unless there is human intellect up to the task of reading and interpreting it. One must also add that recourse to reason, though essential, is not the only and sufficient approach to be adopted in the realm of faith. The Book must also be approached in awareness of that “need of Him” of which we have already spoken, with that state of humility that opens up the meaning, the spiritual power, and dimension of the Text more extensively and deeply than the lights of rational understanding alone. This is how one can understand the very beginning of the story of the Qur’anic Revelation: when invited to read and recite, the Prophet three times declared himself unable to do it because he was not “one who could read.” Being illiterate, he expressed a logical inability. He could read only when the spiritual nature of it—“in the name of your Lord”—gave him access to other lights and another dimension of knowledge. Which is not nothing.