From: ghbr@fmg.bt.co.uk (Hossein Bagherzadeh Rafsanjani)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.iranian
Subject: Re: Ali ("Dorood bar oo bAd")
Date: 9 Apr 92 09:19:48 GMT
Organization: British Telecom

In article <1992Apr8.144219.14490@rdg.dec.com> hakim@bigq.enet.dec.com (Kamran Hakim) writes:

> In article <1992Apr7.170250.12653@fmg.bt.co.uk>, ghbr@fmg.bt.co.uk (Hossein 
> Bagherzadeh Rafsanjani) you write:

> KH> It is perfectly reasonable to supply a theological answer to a theo-
> KH> logical question. 

> HBR>But wait a moment.  The question "Why Islam uses a lunar calendar?" is not
> HBR>theological, is it?  Islam is a religion.  It has its theological concepts and
> HBR>it also has its social, cultural, political etc. aspects.  Not everything 
> HBR>about
> HBR>Islam is theological. 

> There is a Hadith from Prophet Muhammad which reads as follows:

> "We the concourse of prophets say one thing and by it mean seventy
>  and two meanings."

> Granted that Islam has different aspects. I appreciate the approach you
> have adopted in looking at Islam, however, I can -but rest assured that
> I am not going to :-)- extensively quote for you the usage of time and
> calendar in the Qur'an, sayings of Prophet Muhammad and those of the 
> Imams in the context of Islamic prophecies. You might not care about 
> one out of the multiple (i.e. 72) intended meanings associated with
> these references, namely the association of the Islamic Lunar calendar 
> system to the issue under discussion, however, such an undertaking is 
> not that foreign to Muslim theologians and scholars.

Just to make one point clear.  My point about the question of calendar not
being theological doesn't imply that the lunar calendar is not mentioned in
Qor'aan or hadith.  Quite the opposite.  But that does not make it a
theological matter.  Both Qor'aan and hadith refer to many things physical.
One prime example is the "seven skies" or "seven heavens" in Qor'aan.  ("And
certainly We made above you seven heavens." The Believers, 17.)  But this can
only reflect the common belief of the society in which Islam was born.  

The same is true of the questions of creation, history, geography, movements of
heavenly bodies (earth, sun etc) etc etc of which you will find plenty of
examples in Qor'aan and hadith -- many of which have either been refuted or put
in doubt by scientific discoveries.  Then any believer trying to sanctify these
references as "words of God" (presumably the "All Knowing and Infalliable") or
similar, would have a hard task reconciling it with the realities of today.

-hossein

p.s.  NO RELIGION has ever added to the common knowledge of humanity whatever
its divine claims and its source being the "All Knowing and Infalliable" being!
They (that is, their followers) have only managed to prolong the refuted old
ideas beyond their natural life.  The history is full of religious persecution
of scientists and discoverers whose only crime was to refute old theories about
physical world which happen to be mentioned (and sanctified) in some religious
texts.  Just look at the anti-darvinism movement in the Bible-belt of USA
today.  

Note that this statement is about religions in general.  It is a statement
about the NATURE of religions.  I know that some are "better" (or "worse") than
others in this respect.  So, please donot bombard me with examples of how
glorious was the Islamic middle-ages while in the West inquisition was in
progress.  Or that some modern religions haven't had this (yet!)  Or similar.
I am awrae of all these facts.