How Civilizations Die: (And Why Islam Is Dying Too)

by David Goldman

Samir Khalid Samir, S.J., an Arab Christian who advises Pope Benedict XVI on Islamic matters, argues that the divinity of the Koran freezes Islam in time. Unlike the Magisterium of the Catholic Church, or the Oral Torah of observant Judaism, there is no human agency with the authority to interpret the text: The notion of the promise or covenant with Abraham, like that of the “history of salvation,” which is common to Judaism and Christianity, is practically absent in Islam. For Muslims, the Qur‘an can be compared to Christ: Christ is the Word of God made flesh, while the Qur’an—please forgive my play on words-is the word “made paper.” If the Qur‘an was indeed “sent down” by Allah, there is no possibility of a critical or historical interpretation, not even for those aspects that are evidently related to the customs of a particular historical period and culture. In the history of Islam, at a certain point, it was decided that it was no longer possible to interpret the text.... The weight of the tradition and, above all, the fear of questioning the acquired security of the text have created a taboo: the Qur’an cannot be interpreted, nor can it be critically rethought.