The Potency of Qur'anic Linguistics
After spending a few minutes leap-frogging across sites to look at images of missiles and a mobile electromagnetic catapult, my thoughts took me elsewhere.
Years ago, I managed a volunteer tree for a Genghis Khan exhibit at our city's art center. This required me to also function as a docent, knowing all aspects of the exhibit in case one of my volunteers did not arrive for their assignment. I gained a measure of respect for the warriors; albeit would not want to be on the receiving end of their wrath. With the simple mastery of catapults and perfecting the dynamic of releasing an arrow from the bow while traveling at swift speed on their horses, and their ability to stand upright in the stirrups, the Mongolians proved a force with which to be reckoned. When I traveled to the steppes of Mongolia with a medical mission, I retain a most vivid image of a young boy, perhaps no older than 5-6 years of age who traveling along the steppes alone at break neck speed, riding bareback, with his jet black hair cascading across his shoulders.
So viewing a mobile electromagnetic catapult today does little to impress me. Give me that Mongolian kid.
What does impress me is world history. And beyond the evolution of arts and humanities... the evolution of the healing arts and concurrent inhumane atrocities of mankind... my interest in the evolution of linguistics as a signal for enlightenment remains part of my own journalism journey. Words matter. How they are deployed in private and in the public square also matters. And in Enlightened societies we tend toward the richness of Croesus - were wealth to be attributed to linguistics.
Such is not the case with Qur'anic linguistics because of the tendency of the intellectual class (many times educated within our Western universities) to attempt to make palatable the primitive thoughts of their Prophet by using linguistic gymnastics. The predominant flaw within the Muslim psyche, is that while many can identify existing realities, there is a distinct unwillingness to acknowledge the historical realities which have brought the Ummah to this place in history.
Abstract thought can be subjected to a narrow focus on Qur'anic linguistics with signaling words such as Tawhid, shirk, zalimun, shahid, munafiqun, ibadah, etc. and/or the signal of ayat. When such a small mirror provides the reflection for this finite experience known as life and when linguistics are inflexible to evolving concepts of modernization, Muslims continue to lag behind as they dwell in the obscurity of their book. For some, pure Islam, is only that which was practiced by the first three generations: The Sahabah, their followers, and their students. The rest of us can just go to hell.
Problematic is the undeniable clash of civilizations. In Islam, the State presents as the world's largest cult of zealots. Let that lil' thought sink in and germinate that seed of thought.
Within the Enlightened nations of the West, it is strikingly different. The duty of the state is to make sure that religion does not become the duty of the state! At this moment, Germany and England are teetering toward chronic civil unrest, because they have forgotten their primary duty.
In America - this place which I call "Blessing" - we have the whole thing figured out; or better stated, we believe that our Constitution is practically a living, breathing giant which continues to guard our way of life. Religion - can be a "freeing" experience - when it involves individual practice. But when religion makes collective demands of the other, it enslaves.
By example, if a small town in Texas named Kermit, Happy, or "Luck Don't Live Here" - one of those small towns with eighty mobile homes, a gas station and a Dollar Store votes to place a wooden Cross by the sign that informs you are entering a town of 500, the citizens have voted for it, and the rest of us do not abridge their voting right. But if the residents of "Luck Don't Live Here" demand a Cross for every town in Texas - not on our watch!
Now if a group of linguistically-challenged Muslims determine they want to build a community near Josephine, Texas based on the model used by the Ottoman Sultanate - a model which colonizes into a small Islamic Waqf - our Governor, Greg Abbott, is going to shut down their aspirations. This is damn sure- not on our watch. Not in Texas.
The duty of the State is to make sure that religion does not become the Duty of the State. We are Americans. This is not Tehran.
I tire. Really, I tire of crap like this:
And can Muslims in the West learn to enjoy Macbeth, the paintings of Delacroix, the lush earthiness of the poetry of John Donne or Pablo Neruda? Can they ditch the Sunnah which informs an old man he can stick his finger in the vagina of his young wife, if he can no longer satisfy her? And can they learn to be freedom-loving Americans?
Can Muslims keep their religion private, their aspirations high, and their gratitude consistent with their welcome to live in Enlightened societies? Or - do they want to keep their linguistics, and the primitive aspects of their religion clutched tightly to their chests? Do they want to keep their women in bondage to the male-and-the-veil? This is the question which I leave you with tonight, on this last day of 2025.
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