Turkey in Radical Revision of Islamic Texts

Turkey in Radical Revision of Islamic Texts

news.bbc.co.uk

Turkey is preparing to publish a document that represents a revolutionary reinterpretation of Islam - and a controversial and radical modernisation of the religion.

The country's powerful Department of Religious Affairs has commissioned a team of theologians at Ankara University to carry out a fundamental revision of the Hadith, the second most sacred text in Islam after the Koran.

The Hadith is a collection of thousands of sayings reputed to come from the Prophet Muhammed

(visit the link for the full news article)

Wow. This is quite a daring move by the Turkish.

It seems quite relevant actually as there have been a couple of threads here where one of our ATS Muslims, Phoenix, has been arguing the Hadiths are not to taken as a source of Law above the Koran, which is quite often the case these days and it is the source of Sharia law.

It will be good to see where this goes..

news.bbc.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

EDIT: Here is the link to the thread with the discussion over the Hadiths between two Muslim ATS members:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

[edit on 26/2/08 by stumason]

I would have thought this would garner a bit more attention...

Here's a bump, anyhoo...

Actually, I just found this through the back door of another thread, and I am also a bit askance that this thread hasn't gotten more discussion.

This could be a new avenue for moderate Muslims to use. Any alternative to the hate mongering, kill everybody, preaching of a small miority of this religion must be a good thing.

I wonder when this will be finished and put out for public consumption?

reply to post by stumason



Seeing as major countries under islamic law use the Hadiths
will this make a diffrence for them?

The Quran sets out basic princibles of how one should live his/her life
unlike the Hadiths which was changed and edited to suit the power hungry leaders the Quran has stayed the same and pure from manipulation.


i am woundering what Turkey hope to achieve?
Make things more clear to others the verses in the Quran. show what each part means in its true contenxt?

i know there is many sites that do this already but this would mean a greater expsure to the true meaning to more people?

and hopefully take away some fuel from people who would use it to expand on their properganda?

reply to post by bodrul


I've come to realise that the Hadiths appear to form the basis of Sharia, even though they differ considerably from the Qu'ran and were written some 200 years after the death of Mohammed. If you ignore the Hadiths and just use the Qu'ran, then Islam becomes quite pleasant and not the "religion of death" it is portrayed as by some sections of society.

It's the Hadith's, written by men centuries after Mohammed, that have set the tone for the extremists to follow, not the Qu'ran.

So the accuracy of these writings is akin to the gospels, where they detail the life of Jesus, but each one can tell the same story entirely differently and be interpreted as so. Add that to the fact the council of Nicea deemed what was to be in the Bible and what wasn't and you have a religion that is manipulated by man for his own ends.

It seems to me this has happened in Islam as well. Hopefully, the Turks can attempt to correct this, or at least provide a platform for debate over the hadiths, many of which appear to be culturally orientated, rather than Islamic

Its about time their are some parts of islam that are just not compatable with modern times.
I think all muslims in the UK should have to do the same thing and remove offensive parts of the Koran. Or move to an Islamic country where they can practice it properly.

Originally posted by NGC2736


This could be a new avenue for moderate Muslims to use. Any alternative to the hate mongering, kill everybody, preaching of a small miority of this religion must be a good thing.

I wonder when this will be finished and put out for public consumption?

And if the same was done with the bible then the world would be a much nicer place and we could focus on the other demons, the politicians and big business.

Im all for the revision but since noone else has asked the question-

If you have to revise it doesn't that mean it wasn't perfect in the first place?



[edit on 02/10/08 by karl 12]

reply to post by threelions


This is quite a horrible thought and I know how it extrapolates: nobody should alter a religion just because it does not fit "modern life" or a "modern lifestyle". The test of faith is how well believers stay with their religions in trying times.

The point to remember is most religions are not against modern life or change in lifestyles or man's advancement. Religions show a way to God as shown to prophets as they demonstrated to their fellow men and women. They explain why some things are right and others are not right. Religions help people whom are unable to separate an action and event from the principles that determine right and not right. They also offer hope. Religion stipulates a relationship to God and the means to build that relationship. Only men build other things about religions and interpret them (and imply interpretations) that serve them not God.

As pointed out by our friends above, the Hadiths are not the Koran they are the sayings of the prophet that are used to determine right and not right. I can't validate that because I'm not Muslim but I've read Stumason's posts on many boards and those I've read tend to point to his knowing the subjects he talks about. So I trust him. If you need to find out about the Hadiths then may I suggest some Google research.

All said and done, life and lifestyle has really never changed throughout the whole of human history. Remove the dressings and props and man and society will look and feel the same no matter the time of day or night. Man is still Man.

i suspect this will change little, turkey at least compared to other islamic countries have always been more modernist, the whole problem with islam is that those who choose to accept the extream translation will continue to do so, those who have always tried to live a peaceful existance will also continue to do so. extreamism is a choice there are the youth who are brought to this mindset by individual imams etc and that also will not change.

islam has no real central authority you have 100's of 1000's of teachers all preaching their own personal interpretations and vandettas so nothing Turkey does will change that, about the most that will happen is that other islamic countries will condemn turkey for what they perceive as corrupting the teachings of islam especially those who dont agree with the revision.

All religions get updated... they've all been through some drastic changes over the years... I'll bet not one religion is still practicing what it preached when it started, not by a long shot.

Religious texts are like program code... if you screw it up, or don't update it, you become just another piece of obsolete, malfunctioning hardware the world could do without.

Now, if only they'll be so kind as to revise the current edition of the bible while they're at it... maybe we can put a stop to this madness.

God/Gods/Nature/Chance knows Nigeria could do with a break.

[edit on 30-11-2008 by johnsky]

As if this is going to matter,
Those that use the book to preach hate and murder will not simply ignore that interpretation because another group revises it.

if your willing to kill and be killed for allah, your more than likely to kill the turkish, if they revise this.

Sunnis and Shias already have different views on which Hadiths are "accurate" and which aren't, and since the Hadiths are non-canon, this won't make too much of an impact for Muslims who didn't read them in the fist place.

Originally posted by karl 12
If you have to revise it doesn't that mean it wasn't perfect in the first place?

You're correct, the Hadiths were never perfect. No Muslim will dispute that. It is well known that there have been verses added hundreds of years after Muhammad's death, by Christians, Jews, Athiests, Pagans, and so on, with verses being put in there to corrupt. Many Muslims who still read the Hadiths claim that these corrupt verses are taken out, but there's no 100% guarantee, to be sure.

Since the Hadiths are all written after Muhammad passed away, from oral stories of people who claim to have heard what someone said about Muhammad, their authenticity can never be taken as truth.

[edit on 30-11-2008 by DJMessiah]

As a Muslim myself all I have to say is, it's about bloody time.

I do not think that this will change the minds of extremists though. I do hope it will drastically reduce their numbers.

Originally posted by karl 12
Im all for the revision but since noone else has asked the question-

If you have to revise it doesn't that mean it wasn't perfect in the first place?

[edit on 02/10/08 by karl 12]

Karl, i believe they are talking about the Hadith's not the Quran. From what i understand, the Quran itself is not up for revision. The Hadith's are a completely different cup of tea and as one of the earlier post's outlined, they are narratives or sort written well after the Quran and for that matter the death of Mohammed.

listen i know you mean well, but i live in a town in england that has got a large muslim community and to put it lightly the english community and muslim community dont get on.

Certain views about women, and young girls and a whole host of other things are simply not welcome in this day and age and especially in a western country.

peace

reply to post by threelions

Same where I live. The Christian and Muslim community are completely segrated, housing and schools. It's getting more segrated the last ten years, I never saw a burqua 'til like 2000, now it's common place. Lots of friction round here, there is like a culture within a culture very quickly being created. One day I just wonder, (Bosnia style crap) if you know where I'm coming from?

Will this not just further anger Muslim extremists? Wouldn't this be considered a sin, to be so arrogant to rewrite the word of Allah?

I think the next generation will see less muslim terrorism from this change, but I don't know how happy the super fundamentalists right now will take this.