Özet:

The Qur’an which is the centre of Muslim faith and religious experience had been perceived by Christians as the product of the events of the life of the Prophet Muhammad in response particular needs of his own community and not God’s revelation to him. But, after the second half of the twentieth century, this negative and prejudiced attitude towards the Qur’an started to leave its place to a more positive and scholarly understanding. There are two significant reasons if this change: (1) The increasing number of scholarly and comprehensive studies on Islam, and specifically on the Qur’an in the light of new scientific developments. (2) The Increasing Muslim presence among Christians in Europe and United States of America from the 1960’s. In addition to these developments, in the area of the comparative study of religions has been indicated that a sacred text (book) is sacred for those who regards it divine, keeps it with respect and considers it normative for their religious beliefs and practices. In this article, we have examined the views of Canadian History of Religions W. Cantwell Smith who evaluate the status of the Qur’an according to this principles. Smith rejects the Western studies on the Qur’an up to his time by considering them as deficient and prejudiced. Since, according to him non of the statements of the Western student of the Qur’an is not right unless it is accepted by Muslims as true. By taking this principe into account, Smith is not interested in searching for the authenticity of the Qur’an by applying the modern scientific methods to it. Instead, in the light of the phenomenologicl approach, he gives priority to what Muslims say about the Qur’an and how the Qur’an serves them as the Word of God by contributing to shape and to develop the Muslims civilisation. By doing this, unlike many other Christians student of the Qur’an, he regards the status of the Qur’an as the Word of God for Muslims. After arriving this conclusion, Smith calls those who want to study the Qur’an do this in the light of phenomenological approach by acknowledging it as the Word of God for Muslims. Then, he argues that to do justice to the nature of the Qur’an it would be better to avoid using modern scientific methods which have been applied to the Bible in the Wester academies in the last three hundred years. To defend the necessity of the phenomenological approach to the Qur’an, the leading Muslim scholar Hasan Askari stresses that unlike the other approaches it starts with the conviction that there are phenomena, strictly religious, which cannot be reduced or turned into merely social, economic and psychological paradigms. As a conclusion, Smith’s stress on the meaning of the Qur’an in the heart of its followers rather than in the literary significance of its text can lead both Christians and Muslims to understand its value more positively. For, in our religiously pluralistic age, if the take into account the conveying message of each other’s scripture, the Qur’an and the Bible, rather than its text, we can study that scripture more positively in the light of our own circumstances and observe its contribution to its followers lives.

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