Reddit reply in r/AcademicQuran: why do so many analysts find the quran — January 26, 2025 · m9ak99y | Ali Shukri Amin

\>Why does it seem that way. I just said that a text we both agree is not poetry, is not epic poetry.

\>You also have not answered my question concerning the focus here on epic poetry in your comparisons between the Bible and the Qur'an. There is indisputably a huge amount of poetry in the Hebrew Bible covering many genres. And I've cited some specific academic works on the topic of music in the Bible that says, well, there is some epic poetry here.

I was demonstrating the place the Quran occupies in the minds of believers from an anthropological and religious studies perspective. Muslims don't have an Odyssey or Paradise Lost that is some shared epic poem which contains the cultural hallmarks of their civilization. The closest might be the Shahnameh but this is exclusive to Persia and is still post-Islamic.

\>From a stylistic perspective, it's rhymed prose. From a content-perspective, at face-value stories of prophetic lore like this are very common in Christian and Jewish literature. You could say it's in the genre of Syriac homily, as argued by Paul Neuenkirchen in a 2022 paper. \[https://journals.openedition.org/mideo/7712\](https://journals.openedition.org/mideo/7712)

I think it's hard to argue that it's rhymed prose, stylistically it's closer to an epic poem. It doesn't have long rhymed passages, but I can look into this paper.

\>Why? No offense but have you heard of canon law? Or the many influences it has had on the emergence of many key philosophical principles in Western law, like the ones discussed by Nelson's The Hebrew Republic?

Canon law isn't directly Biblical law as far as I understand. They're derived from the early churches and are primarily designed to describe the behavior/function of the church. I'm not an expert in this area but I don't see the analogy with Quranic law.

\>What do you mean the Qur'an discusses law at length? The Qur'an is already a short book, and only a very small percentage of that short book is legal in nature. And even then, many of its legal passages concern topics like dietary regulations. The hadith is not just lengthier than the Qur'an when it comes to law — it is multiple orders of magnitudes lengthier and more used in the context of establishing Islamic law. Saying the Qur'an is the primary legislative document is not really true if by primary you mean what is used the most (or even close to the most). I mean, if the Qur'an was so fundamentally primary in lawmaking in the Muslim world, can we get a number on what percentage of Muslim countries throughout history have not used interest? Because the Qur'an forbids interest.

The Quran discusses aspects of ritual worship and governmental law along with providing broader prescriptions that formed the basis of all of the historical caliphates/sultanates. I don't know of a single Islamic empire or sultanate that allowed interest as a matter of law, although people definitely broke the law and that often included sultans themselves. Adherance to a law is different than legislating it.

The Quran is the primary source for Muslims on marriage and divorce laws, for example. Hadith are used to clarify the passages but the primary rules come from the Quran.

The same is true for inheritance.