Tahar Ben Jelloun – A rational reading of the Koran

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CHRONIC. “The Dimension of Time in the Koran” recounts the moment when a literal dogma prevailed over a more open reading of the sacred text.

By Tahar Ben Jelloun

Un crucial question has always haunted and opposed the exegetes of the Koran: this holy book, bringing together the verses revealed to the Prophet Muhammad between 610 and 632, is it created or uncreated? The answer is far from simple.

Let us first recall a historical fact. After the death of the Prophet and until the end of the year 650, there was no “book”, no corpus. The Muslims did not have in their hands the Koran that we know today. This absence is explained by the fact that after the death of the envoy of God, in 632, nothing was planned with regard to the inheritance of his religious heritage. Verses were revealed to him according to historical circumstances or to recall the fundamental and universal values ​​of the last revealed religion, Islam.