Brilliant Islamic Writer Karima Omar Joins The Cause

[ONLY THOSE WHO POSSESS INTELLIGENCE WILL COME TO ME. 2:269]

It's funny - more and more Muslims seem to be turning away from hadith, including some very well known and prominent ones. The "Islamic" (dis)organizations seem to be losing many of their sacred cows - I hope some of these people come forth with their views soon, IN SHA A 'ALLAH.

Karima Omar Kamouneh

QUR 'AN:     BACK    TO    BASICS    by       Karima Omar Kamouneh

I was too sleepy to be properly surprised, yet just conscious enough for the late night long distance call to have an impact. It was the moment which I had been waiting impatiently for, courting with carnivorous subtlety, sniffing out and tracking down like a wild warthog on the prowl. At last, an extra-long last, my childhood best friend, my alter(ed) ego from our (slightly) misspent youth, had called to ask about the weather and the meaning of life and actually expressed an interest - maybe she stressed-in this Islam stuff that I'd been rattling on about forever and with which I seemed to be having so much fun.

As I hoarsely answered each question in turn, I found myself repeating a disclaimer like a mantra on a broken compact disc. "This is what Islam says. But Muslims may tell you something entirely different," I yawned, not quite up to the challenge of missionary work fresh out of a sound coma. "Especially with your luck and social contacts."

That didn't surprise her, though given her lifestyle, few things actually could. But she wanted to know how, how to accomplish the Herculean feat of  separating Islam from Muslims, how to weed out the cultural crabgrass of sexism, racism, nationalism and ism-ism from the pure pastures of divine revelation.

How, indeed? I started to pull the stock answer from my cerebral shelves: "By following the Qur'an and the sunna -the example -of Prophet Muhammad."

But the thought of subjecting her to the slings and arrows of hadith methodology, to say nothing of unleashing her on the unsuspecting world of  Islamic jurisprudence had all the charm of a post - anchovy - pizza - Fellini - film -festival -nightmare. Too late, though-the words had already spilled out.

"I have a copy of the Qur'an." Indeed, being. my friend, she

had had little choice in the matter. "But this sunnah. Is this a book? Where can I buy a copy?" She doubted that her local supermarket would carry it in paperback.

"Actually, it's in a lot of books. But not all of them are accepted by all Muslims --all the time."
True to form, she wanted, she had to know why. "I mean, I thought it was just we Christians who couldn't get together on anything."

"Well, it's just that a lot of the sayings were written down after the death of Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him. And some people say that certain narrators in the chains were unreliable and-"

She thought it smacked of the chaos that had chauffer -driven her away from Christianity.

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