or when Islam meets Mormonism
In this article we review message-discovery, a substitute for revealing the message but without a messenger, and we will show that the role of the messenger in receiving and spreading the message is crucial. The position of the messenger in religion is already precious and does not need us innovating Hadith to become worthwhile.
Message-Discovery
The next problem would be that the physical tablet does not have eternal life; if not by human wars, the tablets would be eventually destroyed by natural erosion. The most that will be left for the next generations is a copy of tablets and historical testimonies of them being close to what tablets said. This is the same destiny that came to Moses's stone tablets containing the ten commandments. Thus for the next generations it does not make a difference whether the message was carved on tablets by a human or by a divine miracle, whether the message-discoverer has read the message on a physical tablet or has received the message through revelation. From this point of view, message-discovery has no advantage over the practiced approach of revelation.
After the message-discoverer is informed of the significance of the message, the next challenge would be convincing the people of the region of the importance as well as authenticity of the message: the message-discoverer needs an approach to attract attention of its people. A known approach is miracle: the God gives the message-discoverer the power to make supernatural changes into the natural environment; the people of the region observe such supernatural changes with naked eyes and gain faith in importance and soundness of his mission [7:120]. The problem then would be that generation by generation the amazement of the miracle declines and a time will come that the future generation who has not directly witnessed the miracle asks itself: did the miracle actually happened? [16:24] The scope of the miracle is therefore limited to the people of the region and perhaps a couple of generations after them, and its expiration date will arrive sooner or later.
Message-discoverer = Messenger
The elegance in the Islam's way of messaging
Advantages of gradual revelation of Quran
Second, the gradual and situation-specific revelation of Quran highlights this important point that the details of the commands mentioned in Quran was closely weaved into the specificities of the time and place in which Quran was being revealed and hence are not necessarily global nor eternal. For example Quran includes some small details about inheritance rules (which apparently were revealed after the corresponding questions were asked by the people of the region [4:176] [2:215]). The fact that such rules were revealed upon a specific question or event, and the fact that Quran discourages people of the region from asking unnecessary question about details [2:71] [5:101], leads us to understanding that such details are not the core of the religion and are closely weaved to a specific time and culture.
Third, a seed with highest potentials for perfection have no chance to grow in a salt marsh and will get nipped in the bud. If it was not for sacrifices of Muhammad for spreading the message to its people [26:3], and if it was not for obedience of a group of its people [4:59], there would be nothing left from that message so that our generation seek guidance through it. The gradual revelation of Quran helped to nurture a new generation [9:124]. This profound start although was perverted soon after the death of Muhammad, was strong enough to ensure preservation of the message for future generation.
Summary
Appendix I: Mormons
Appendix II: Quran and History
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Witnesses
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Mormon
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qira%27at
[4] http://submission.org/verify_preserving_and_protecting_Quran.html
This article is also on Facebook. Use this link to share directly from Facebook.