Our Own Shadow: Quranists and the Term ‘Quranists’

The term ‘Quranist’ was first made known to me by Anwar Goins. He uninhibitedly used the term ‘Quranist’ a few years ago and his website is appropriately called ‘www.quranists.com’ . I was more apprehensive at the time, thinking the term ‘al-muslimeen’ was the stated name given by Allah and that’s the name we should stick by. Anwar however believed that we are not to be called Muslim. Perhaps I misunderstood him at the time but I disagreed.

Fast forward a few years and some experience under my belt, I find myself changing my mind. Calling myself ‘Muslim’ is not untrue. I am Muslim but stating that I am Muslim without any ‘footnotes’  is an answer which gives my audience a completely different perception of who I am. When someone asks you ‘what religion are you’ and you say ‘Islam’ or ‘I am Muslim’, you almost always (or in my experience, always) get the following perception:

1. That you believe in the 5 pillars of Islam (I don’t)
2. That you believe in the Quran and the traditions of the Prophet (I don’t)

Even the Shia who are about 10 percent of the Muslims will get these wrongful perceptions. They don’t believe in traditions of the Prophet so much as they believe in the authority of the Ahl-Al-Bayt. So even they will have to correct the perception of the audience. What more the Quranist? The Quranist is perhaps no more than one percent of Muslims in the world. What chance has he got that he will be correctly perceived on the first go?

This term Quranist is objected by some Quranists and I can understand their objections. However, I believe its due to some misperceptions of what the terms represent. Below are their objections and my rebuttal:

1. Allah has named us al-muslimeen so we can’t create another term.

When we say He named us ‘al-muslimeen’, what does it mean exactly? Does it mean that when I meet someone, and he asks ‘what is your name?’ , I say ‘I am muslim?’. Well if Allah has named me Muslim, I would not be telling a lie if I said that. But clearly that’s not the point. Allah named us muslim in a particular context. That context isn’t our name. We do not all have to change our names to ‘Muslim’ or ‘Muslimah’.

What is that context? That context, if one reads all the ayat about islam and muslim from Quran, is a description of our personal beliefs and actions. These beliefs and actions aren’t even limited to the people in the world we know as ‘Muslims’. Many, many people have them even if they have never opened Quran or use the term Muslim. One will see in Quran that the only acceptable deen is islam (3/19) yet many personalities have nothing to fear nor grieve (2/62 and 5/69). Why is this the case? Because ‘islam’ is not a name in the labelling sense, it’s an attitude or personality type.

This leaves us with the question, where does the term ‘Quranist’ operate? Quranists are, as common perception goes,  grouped with  ‘Muslims’. However, when we say ‘Muslim’ here, we are not talking about Muslims in the Quranic sense. These Muslims have a whole other criteria to be ‘Muslim’ and it is this  criteria we as Quranists reject. This is why we need the term ‘Quranists’. It is a free space which helps relate who we are in a religio-cultural sense. Among Muslims (religio-cultural Muslims that is) we are not Sunni or Shia but Quranists. We need this term because they already used Sunnis and Shia.

2. You are creating another sect.

Firstly, let us acknowledge that none of us think alike. With Sunnis and Shia there are already differences in how they think but with Quranists, our differences are even wider. Say we drop the term Quranists altogether and call ourselves Muslim, will we then be uniform in our thinking? Of course not.

The good news is, the differences aren’t what makes us a sect. Quran talks about this sectarian attitude in 30/32 and uses the particular term ‘hizb’. ‘Hizb’ in the Quran is a very polarised term which shows a confrontational attitude. 

Sectarianism isn’t what being Quranist is about at all. Quranism describes our methodology. We all believe Quran is the sole source of Islam and therefore we act accordingly. I have personally no hostility for the Sunnis or Shia and I do believe they can reach salvation as much as anyone else. Had I not believe that and reserved salvation for myself and my brand of Quranists (lets not delude ourselves into thinking we are a uniform group!), then I would be sectarian

3. We are Monotheists but they are not. We are the only ones rightfully calling ourselves Muslim.

Once again, we must go back to Quran to understand how it thinks. Quran does not use the term ‘muwahiddoon’ (monotheists) in any verse at all. Rather it uses the term ‘millatu ibrahim haneefa (2/135, 3/67) to denote a state where all the false images are destroyed. This is not a confessional state which means its not something one simply says. Ibrahim actually destroyed the false gods in his life.

We do not become Monotheists by simply professing Quran alone. There is still the shirk of worshipping the hawa (delusions, mentioned in 25/43 and 45/23). This is not to impute that any one are idol-worshippers but rather to say that the Quran doesn’t free us from shirk by simply professing the Quran alone. We may want God alone but do we actually have God alone? That is the question.

Having said all of the above, I deeply respect why my fellow Quranists (even those who disdain that term) have deep  reservations about this term.  What I believe is however that we are creating a new identity within the cultural entity of Islam. This new identity is what is needed for people to recognise that Islam is not monolithic but has endless variations. If we can create this new culture, we can thereby draw people to Quran. These people need to know what they are being called to. Let them not feel as if they are cheated if they later discover that this is not the Islam they sought in the first place. Let us be clear about who and what we are.

Advertisement