Ismail Ibrahim - The preservation of the Quran and apostasy: the blame game
Apostasy has many reasons:
lack of comprehension
half-baked knowledge
family problems
lack of sense of community (compensated by far too much time on the internet)
prior festering doubts
psychological problems
external influences especially from Orientalists
and yes – considering the faith to be embodied in one person who then changes their view on xyz, so this poor soul thinks the entire faith has changed and therefore isn’t worth investing any effort in it anymore.
But let’s talk about a real cause of apostasy. They are the narratives that everyone would be advised to unlearn sooner rather than later – elements of which include:
that “Quran = Qira’at”,
that every letter and dot of the Qira’at is from the Divine,
that the Rasm never influenced recitation of the Qurra,
that nobody ever criticized the Qira’at of the 7/10,
that the Rasm is divine,
that Ibn Abi Dawud’s al-Masahif is full of weak and unacceptable narrations and therefore can be dismissed in its most part,
that somehow later scholars got right what early scholars got wrong,
that Ibn Masud never had a spat with Uthman over Zayd, the Masahif and the Quranic chapters,
that the Quran we recite in Salah is based on Qira’at that are Mutawatir and no less will do…
and I can go on. Someone who is fed this narrative to the point of obesity, ever since they were in nappies, are destined for failure. When they then hit university in their late teens with superficial supplementary Islamic knowledge, or go online as curious individuals would so – in a sincere endeavour I must add – and are provided with another story of the Quran altogether, by Orientalists who quite easily debunk the above myths through our own Muslim primary sources but give Islam the usual negative spin in the process, these curious individuals start asking questions and do more digging. The seed of apostasy has been planted right there as most scholars aren’t equipped with the answers, and those who are are sticking to the usual narrative.
seems to be a clever chap but I wonder why people like him don't make the logical leap to question the whole Islam narrative? maybe it goes back to his first list of apostasy reasons, ie emotional/psychological triggers are more potent than rational thinking.
Topic: Yasir Qadhi vs ExMuslim