Spectator letters: Interpreting Islam, and Spectator-reading thieves

Chapter and verse on Islam

Sir: Irshad Manji’s generally very sensible article on ‘Reclaiming Islam’ (29 March) suggests using the Qur’an sura 3:7 as a verse to challenge Islamists who claim a fundamentalist reading. She quotes the verse as saying that ‘God and God alone knows the full truth of how the Qu’ran ought to be interpreted’. I don’t speak Arabic, but unfortunately in my English translation this isn’t quite what the verse says. What it says is ‘only God and insightful people know their true meaning’. Sadly then the verse, I suspect, would be next to useless in challenging fundamentalist interpretations — as most Islamists would, I suspect, consider themselves to fall within the category of ‘insightful people’.
Fr David Palmer

Nottingham
 
Sir: I read with interest the article by Irshad Manji and in particular her quote of Chapter 3 verse 7 of the Qur’an which states that God and God alone knows the full truth of how the Qur’an ought to be interpreted.