RE: Pre-Uthman Quran Found in England
July 23, 2015 at 5:36 pm
(This post was last modified: July 23, 2015 at 6:06 pm by Rayaan.)
(July 23, 2015 at 3:33 pm)Minimalist Wrote: Luxenberg is a scholar who has studied this stuff in depth.
Yeah, and the "depth" of his study is so mind-blowing that even Western scholars couldn't help but make hostile replies to his theory.
As remarked in one collection of scholarly studies of the Quran, Luxenberg's revisionist work "excited a great deal of popular and journalistic attention, without for the most part finding a serious hearing among scholars" (Reynolds et al, The Quran in its Historical Context, xi). And yet after more than decade of research and investigation, scholars are generally unconvinced by Luxenberg’s work. Francois de Blois, for example, a distinguished philologist, concludes that Luxenberg’s new reading of the Quran "is a reading that is potentially attractive only in its novelty, or shall I say its perversity, not in that it sheds any light on the meaning of the book or on the history of Islam" (F. de Blois, Journal of Qur’anic Studies, 2003, p. 97).
Similarly, Gerhard Bowering, a professor of Islamic Studies at Yale University, concludes: "Reviewing these recent studies on the Qur'an mainly published during the last decade, it is clear that, despite the clamor in the press, no major breakthrough in constructing the Qur'an has been achieved. The ambitious projects of Lüling and Luxenberg lack decisive evidence and can reach no further than the realm of possibility and plausibility" (Recent Research on the Construction of the Quran p 81, in The Quran in its Historical Context).
In conclusion, whether or not Luxenberg has more credibility than a believer, his credibility in the academic and scholarly spheres is weak, and so ultimately your appeal to credibility is neutralized.
I understand why don't believe in any of the supernatural stuff, but at least be more acquainted with the scholars that you choose to cite.