wocihac2011_human_development

Islam Between Human Inspiration And Divine Revelation: A Counter-
Argument To The Theory Of Cultural Vacuum By Hourani
Zulkarnain Mohamed
Introduction
Albert Hourani in his work entitled Islam in European Thought
(1991) proposes a state of cultural vacuum, in which the Arabs
before Islam were, as a theory on cultural formation to “establish”
that Islam was inspired by various human cultures or religions of the
non-Arabs, mainly of the Christians, Persians and Hindus. The
theory implies that Islam was a human inspiration, and this is
contradictory to the Islamic sources of the Qur’an and Hadith
including the opinions of the Muslim scholars. This study is a
counter-argument to the theory and it is intended to argue that the
theory is based on perception or allegation, which is outward, not
directly related to the essence of the subject of criticism or analysis,
i.e. the essence of Islam which is inward and more reliable. Besides,
this study is intended to assert that any analysis of Islam should be
based on the textuality of the main Islamic source, the Qur’an. This
study adopts textual analysis, which is related to the Qur’an,
besides a historical study of the developments of the religions or
cultures that are said to have shaped Islam and especially the
Qur’an. To conclude, this study argues that the Qur’an, as the main
essence of Islam was not influenced by other contemporary cultures
or religions, the Qur’an cannot be identified with the cultural and
religious influences. Thus it is divine, far from human senses of
knowledge and perception because it breaks the barriers of the
human senses.
Keywords: the Qur’an, human inspiration and divine revelation
Islam in European Thought (1991) by Albert Hourani is an echo of the traditional
western view that regards Islam as humanly inspired religion unlike Christianity
and Judaism that are said to be related with divine scriptures and prophets.
Besides Hourani’s work, there are many other works that can be grouped together
because they come to the same conclusion as proposed by Hourani in spite of
their diverse views. This diversity can be summarized in three interests of study,
i.e. prophecy, scripture and culture as can be seen in the works of Reynold A.
Nicholson (1930), Clement Huart (1966) and H.T. Norris (1983). The interests
were then developed into two grand ideas of establishing a school of thought
Currently Senior Lecturer in the Dept. of Arabic Studies & Islamic Civilization, Faculty of
Islamic Studies, the National University of Malaysia, interested Islamic literature and
Influence and Counter-influence of Western and Islamic Literature.
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