Page 10

This writer has heard many native Arabic-speaking Muslims acclaim the beauty

of the Qur'an's language style. But most impressive have been similar, though
independent, testimonies of a Scandinavian scholar and a West African graduate student
who acquired competence in Arabic during their adult years and proceeded to memorize
portions of the Qur'an. Despite holding neither religious nor ideological commitment to
Islam at this time, both men spoke of the aesthetic appeal inherent in the spoken/recited
Qur'an and the ease with which they could memorize texts all in a second language
which they never used outside of religious situations.

To the degree that the aforementioned sources represent mainstream, historic

Orthodox Islam, then it will be evident that Christians must grapple with the way
Moslems perceive the nature of their Qur'an if they are to appreciate how its inspiration,
in particular, should be understood. According to George Braswell (1996:53, in part
quoting Richard Martin):

[T]he Islamic tradition offers the most vivid and convincing example of
the active, oral-aural function of sacred scripture in the life of a religious
community and culture. Islam's own view is that there are many
scriptures of which the Qur'an is the final and most complete. The
character of the Qur'an as verbatim speech of God sets it apart. `Whereas
the divine person for the Jew is in the Law [I would contest this claim
jmw] and for the Christian is in the person of Christ, it is in the Qur'an for
the Muslim as a direct encounter with God'.

Form and function appear to have consummated a perfect marriage in the Islamic
doctrine of Qur'anic inspiration. Idea and consequence are virtual bedfellows.

3. ISLAMIC AND CHRISTIAN VIEWS CONTRASTED

Whereas the general concept of inspiration of holy writ seems, at first, to be a

common ground between Christian and Moslem, the definitions of the concept to the
degree that my brief surveys of both religions are fairly representative and accurate are
strikingly different. In addition to what I articulate below, I observe a significant
difference between various Moslems' expressions (in print and in person) of the
impersonability and unknowability of Allah, in contrast to that long and loud
proclamation of historic Christianity as to the Person, and person-like knowability, of
God.

With such a distinctly different starting point (albeit within the strictures of the

limits of human comprehension at the best of times!), it is perhaps not surprising that
sharp points of contrast seem to emerge between Christian and Islamic doctrines of
inspiration, including these four: