Islamic Scholar Writes New Chapter on Accessibility

Ignorance about Islam has been lamented by Muslims and non-Muslims alike as they struggle to open interfaith dialogue in increasingly pluralistic societies.

Many non-Muslims know little about Islam beyond that its adherents “pray to Mecca” and that the Koran is its holy book.

Islamic leaders hope that a new work by a Los Angeles scholar will make their religion a bit more accessible.

Fathi Osman, an Islamic scholar, has written a unique English language commentary on the Koran, or Quran, that Islamic leaders say arranges significant portions of the Koran by topic for the first time. Muslims believe that the Koran was revealed by Allah [God] to their prophet, Muhammad, through the archangel Gabriel between A.D. 610 and 632.

“Usually people get the Koran and they really get lost,” said Maher Hathout, spokesman for the Islamic Center of Southern California and chairman of a small Los Angeles publisher that is printing the commentary.

Now if readers want to know what the Koran says about subjects such as human rights, divine law [Sharia], the family, economic justice, worship, angels or relations between people--to name a few topics, they can turn to topical headings in the new edition.

Nonetheless, at 1,000 pages, the commentary, titled “Concepts of the Quran: A Topical Reading,” remains “serious reading” for those motivated enough to inquire, Hathout said. “It is not an entertaining book.”

Still, he and others said Osman’s work represents a breakthrough in Koranic scholarship. Osman has taught at the prestigious Al-Azhar University in Cairo and received his doctorate in Islamic studies from Princeton University.

Reading the Koran has been a daunting task for the uninitiated. There is no chronological or thematic order. And unlike Hebrew and Christian scriptures, there is no narrative story. Instead, the Koran contains epigrammatic sayings, much like the non-canonical Gospel of Thomas, which is a collection of sayings attributed to Jesus.

The Koran’s 114 chapters, called suras, are arranged not by topic but by their length. The shortest and earliest passages of only a few verses, called ayas, are placed at the end of the book. The Koran’s one unifying theme is that God is absolutely just in his governance over creation and that God offers guidance to all for their salvation.

The prophet’s first revelations are said to have occurred in the month of Ramadan, around the year 610 A.D., in a mountain cave near Mecca in Saudi Arabia. Further revelations continued until just before Muhammad’s death in 632. The revelations were collected in their final form, according to tradition, within a generation of his death.

“This commentary tries to get the main topics and collect all the verses relevant to the topic and comment on them,” Hathout said. “When you put verses on the same topic together, you get more insight in what the word of God is intended to do.”

The commentary comes at a time of renewed efforts in Los Angeles to open up dialogue among Jews, Christians and Muslims. There are an estimated 500,000 Muslims in Southern California.

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At the international level, Islamic relations will be one of the principal items on the agenda next July when the world’s Anglican bishops, representing 70 million Anglican Christians, gather in London for their once-a-decade Lambeth Conference.

Salam Al-Marayati, director of the Los Angles-based Muslim Public Affairs Council, said he sees Osman’s commentary as a step toward interfaith dialogue.

“It’s intellectually revolutionary,” Al-Marayati said. “People of all faiths can develop a better understanding of the Koran and its impact on society.”