The Qur’an is the sacred book of Islam. In the view of Muslims it speaks to all humanity (not just those who believe) but its message is often hard to grasp. Its unconventional structure makes it unlike any other book and its 114 suras (chapters) are not arranged in chronological order but according to their length. Its literary style is considered by Arabic speakers to be neither prose nor verse but something unique.
Each week, writer, broadcaster and cultural critic Ziauddin Sardar blogs a different verse or theme of the Qur’an. Guardian columnist Madeleine Bunting helps frame the debate.
This week Humanity and Community are explored in verses 49:13, 30:32, 23:52, and 17:70.
“Why isn’t this kind of astonishing insight more widely evident within the Islamic world?” The answer has two components. First, the Muslims are good at quoting the Qur’an but not very good at living up to it. Second, the current political conditions in Muslim societies, where despotism is the norm, and fanaticism is deeply entrenched, does not permit more enlightened interpretation of the Qur’an to come to the fore.
Equality is a recurrent theme of the Qur’an. All human beings are “the children of Adam” and have been “honoured” and made to “excel” (17:70). Furthermore, as God’s creation we become truly human because each of has the breath, or spirit of God, breathed into us. Therefore, we all deserve to be treated with equality and dignity.
But the Qur’an goes on to make some more explicit points. All human beings, whatever their creed, race, class, and culture, are equal, we are told. And it is not just the individuals who deserve respect. The “diversity of your tongues and colours”, we read in 30:20, are “his signs”. So discrimination is forbidden not just on the basis of colour, but also on the basis of language and culture. The Qur’an insists that all languages and cultures are equal, equally important for maintaining diversity, and have to be valued equally. Thus Arabic is as important as, say, Swahili and Urdu, one language cannot claim superiority over the other. And the culture of, for example, Australian Aborigines is as important and deserving of respect as European cultures. One cannot assimilate the other; or relegate the other to the margins
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