Muhammad, the Qur\'an & Islam

Muhammad, the Qur'an and Islam

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were more acquainted with the non-Arabic languages of the Middle East,
the Bible and Judeo-Christian traditions.

Whereas biographers of Muhammad's life have generally favored the Sira
traditions at the expense of Qur'anic research, scholars of the Qur'an have
pretty much done the opposite in favoring Qur'anic research over Islamic
tradition. Early Muslim scholars were the first to try to arrange the Qur'an's
suras chronologically, and although this established the^12 broadest link to
the Sira traditions, the results of this research were not implemented in
conjunction with them. Later, Western sura orderings were also
constructed, which were more or less "chronological" by virtue of their
dependence on the chronological Islamic orderings. Never^13 theless,
Western scholars also did not attempt to integrate these findings generally
with the Sira traditions.

It is the view of the present author that the most accurate understanding of
the Qur'an, the biography of Muhammad and the earliest developments in
Islam is obtained by attempting to reconcile the widest spectrum of
information about them.

Unfortunately, modern Western research of Islam seems to be approaching
the limit of historical skepticism. Many of the critics of Islamic tradition,
for example, have concluded that there is practically nothing reliable to be
found in tradition, and some have maintained that the most (if not only)
trustworthy Islamic source is the Qur'an. In the field of Qur^14 'anic research,
however, the notion of "chronological sura orderings" has been
abandoned, and the Qur'an is said to have been revealed in p^15 assages from
indefinite time periods. At least one Western scholar clai^16 ms that the
"standard text" of the Qur'an "as implied in the `Uthman recension
traditions" could hardly have predated the 3rd century AH.^1718