Footnote: Very brief introduction to al-Tabari and the canonization of the Qur'an part 2

Submitted by dhimmi no more (United States), Sep 14, 2020 at 15:13

M Tovey you wrote:

>but whose 'Masoretic' dissertations are truly 'canon' for the purposes of determining if the actions of the UAE are considered 'apostate,' requiring action from proper adherence to Islamic law?

May be I did not make things clear. Islam is "stuck in 7th century Arabia" and this is a fact and a serious problem.

Having said the above, what is really "Masoretic exegesis" in Islam? Wansbrough defines it in page 202 in his book "Quranic Studies" and here is a link to the book.

https://www.amazon.com/Quranic-Studies-Sources-Scriptural-Interpretation/dp/1591022010

Wansbrough uses Hebrew technical terms (Masoretic exegesis, Halakhic exegesis etc...) nonetheless he defines what is meant by "Masoretic" in Islam in the above reference.

He also believes that masoretic exegesis can be dated to the late 2nd and early 3rd century of Islam when al-Tabari wrote his exegesis of the Qur'an and he is correct it was al-Tabari that can be credited for exploring and therefore canonizing Qur'anic text through "lexical explanation, grammatical analysis and an agreed apparatus of variant reading etc..."

How can a holy text be canonized without having to go through masoretic exegesis? The community will not canonize it (the Qur'an) unless the community agrees, as well as understand, what the text is really saying.

al-Tabari is for sure Allah's Editor in-Chief and he is the one that gets the credit, be it good or bad, for sorting out the language of the Qur'an and therefore the canonization of the Qur'an

Now, the Qur'an is supposed to be the word of Allah 1400 years ago and today in 2020. All al-Tabari did is to provide the Islamic community with a text that the community can agree on and the meaning of معاهدة and هدنة
1400 years ago is the same as in 2020.

Nothing is simple in Islam

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