Novel "The Terrorist": John Updike: Quranic exegete?

Last updated on: July 25, 2006 at 3:09 pm by Ibrahim Abusharif

Novel "The Terrorist": John Updike: Quranic exegete? 2006-07-25T15:09:44-04:00 Ibrahim Abusharif

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Well, not him personally

John Updike is among the senior writers of the American literati and has been for more than three decades. His books are frequently mentioned as among the most important American literary works of the last half of the 20th century, and his essays and critiques are read with seriousness. I’ve read a few of his short stories, but I confess to not pursuing any of his 20 plus novels beyond the first 50 pages or so. He’s an experienced author, a keen observer (an accomplished “noticer” as critics have said), a man with stories to tell, but a narrator who too often, almost invariably, brings marital infidelity into his stories comely blight of the suburban affluent 37ich personally I find uninteresting. His essays and reviews, however, are something else. One of his essays of many years ago (New York Review of Books), I clipped and saved, a well-stated, thoughtful argument for the members of the clerisy to make their public speaking engagements few and instead devote their views to the written word. His method of argumentation was smart and compelling.

UpdikeȭӠlatest novel, however, Terrorist is an interesting (or ambulance-chasing?) choice of a narrative from an author of high “literary” standing. Before I was offered a free book and asked to write a review of Terrorist (to appear sometime in September), I felt a natural resolve to not read Updike’s psychological and religious profile of a home-grown terrorist (Muslim, of course), the product of a marriage between an Arab immigrant and an American woman. But what brings this event to the blog is Updike’s statement quoted in the New York Times. It goes like this:

“A lot of the Koran does not speak very eloquently to a Westerner. Much of it is either legalistic or opaquely poetic. There’s a lot of hellfire inscriptions of making unbelievers drink molten metal occur more than once. It’s not a fuzzy, lovable book, although in the very next verse there can be something quite generous… Arabic is very twisting, very beautiful. The call to prayer is quite haunting; it almost makes you a believer on the spot. My feeling was, ‘This is God’s language, and the fact that you don’t understand it means you don’t know enough about God.'”

Updike is not an initiate of the Quran, by his own admission. He has not learned Arabic and, therefore, depends on one of the dozens of translations readily available, translations that range in accuracy, elegance, and ideological mooring as far as one can imagine. So we may fairly say that Updike is not a devoted or even intermittent student of the sacred scripture. But why would a man of obvious intelligence (an intellectual according to some score cards) make a public statement about the Quran’s appeal (or lack of) to the Western reader, which, even on the surface, is subject to stretch marks? The Quran is Semitic in language and, one may say, its Ȭan. So what comes to mind is, if the Quran does not appeal to the Western reader (a floater of some vague Judeo-Christian-Hellenic-Postmodern potage), then one must further consider that biblical literature would have a far worse time at it, given its age and setting in a far less “historical” time than the Quranic advent.

What Updike’s statement provokes, however, is actually important: has there been a serious analysis of how the themes of the Quran and even its style are received by a mind schooled in the West? Does the current animus and caricatures truly represent an unbiased reading of the sacred book?

Big questions, I know. What’s attempted here is an “article” and not more. But let’s consider scriptural content, like the all-important salvation narrative, for example: the New Testament rests on human sacrifice and the Old Testament draws much attention to the privilege of pedigree, a godly and chosen ancestry. These are two notions that seem at odds with Western “rationalist” philosophies and egalitarian paradigms that led to many a revolution in western Europe and, ah, the Colonies.

The Quran’s revolution against the autocracy of the Makkan elite was not merely a revolt against idolatry, but an uprising against a tribalism that terribly restricted power and privilege, without the possibility of social mobility. The Quran’s stand, even in cursory reading, is a powerful statement of, yes, inalienable rights and, in many ways, human agency. The Quran upholds human individual agency, that each individual has access to God, His scripture: no clerical bureau to move through, no idols to lavish with honey, but a one-on-one prayerful and direct proximity to the All-Holy, regardless of race or affluence. Theology and sociology are not distant cousins at all. If one has access to Heaven with no tolls to pay, then its social dynamics are likely corollaries.

Drinking molten brew is an interesting example that came to Updike’s mind, but actually opposes the very point he tries to make about Western appeal. Horrific as the Hell passages are in the Quran, we must go beyond integument and distill the facts: the inmates of Hell and the dwellers of paradisal Gardens are in “circumstances” that are logically consistent with Western social and political diktats of individual responsibility, that deeds (“works” in certain theologies) mean something, a meaning that transcends any kind of advantage (OT) and one-time salvation utterance (NT). All of life, therefore, is an ethical arena, a crucible to prove one’s commitment to the social (or religious) “agreement” (Q).

The ordering principle and highest truth of life, in the eyes of the Muslim and the Book, is the existence of God, His oneness and incomparability, our accountability, and humanity’s constant state of return to Him. But ordering principles have always had problems surviving without a path, an identifiable and sometimes ritualistic way in which the subscribers of the Principle decide to take. In other words, Truth (in human trust) requires something to do, something that brings meaning and definition to one’s day. The human creature has an inner, abstract world and also an outer organic “body” that functions in space and time. It makes no sense that revealed religion would neglect the latter and speak only to abstract sciences and heady discussions (popular in freshmen dormitories), especially when both aspects are God’s creations and unexempted of the religion project. It is implausible to expect belief to survive internment in the heart with no external “visible” signs. This is a paradigm that fits in the modern Western understanding of human deeds, their evaluations and place in the dynamic relationship between cause and effect, and accountability.

What makes it difficult for “Western” readers to connect with the Quran (translation first) is not the Book’s themes or underlying ethos, but the modern political stigmas that stalk Islam and its scripture, which can easily cover one’s recognition of the Quran’s core themes and its congruence with many contemporary concepts. On a personal note, my experience (unscientific, of course) with converts to Islam is that the Quran did figure in their conversion. Of course, this is not true for all. The leadership of the Muslim community in this country is now made up more of converts who came from sundry backgrounds but who found an overpowering appeal in the Quran and its first recipient that ultimately led them to pursue its scholarship. So much can and must be said about the appeal of the Quran to the Western reader. Paradigm shifts are difficult, but always important 㠴e vital slow work that must be pursued no matter what.

Ibrahim N. Abusharif is editor of Starlatch Press and has recently completed an extensive index to the Quran that will accompany a revised translation of the Book (God willing). He has also begun work on a concise vocabulary dictionary to the Quran. His blog is From Clay and he can be reached at [email protected].

Reviews

Previous Post

July 18, 2006

Israel-Hezbollah war: Israel’s punishment gets more collective

Next Post

July 25, 2006 War in Iraq: In the shadow of Lebanon, Iraq’s sectarian violence rages

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category 2012 Elections 30 Dayd 30 Writers (2017) 30 Days 30 Writers 30 Days 30 Writers (2015) 30 Days 30 Writers (2016) 30 Days 30 Writers (2018) 30 Days 30 Writers 2017 Ali Asadullah Ali Eteraz Alper Bilgili Arthur Richards Asides Asma Uddin Black History Month Briefings Charles Turner Commentary Cyrus McGoldrick Eman H Aly Fatimah Popal Hajj Hajj and Dhul Hijjah Hesham Hassaballa Hisham Hellyer Ibrahim Abusharif Inas Younis Irfan Yusuf Jalal Baig Junaid Afeef Laila Alawa Laila Alwala Mas'ood Cajee Muqtedar Khan Nakia Jackson Newsmakers Parvez Ahmed Podcasts Rabia Chaudry Rafia Zakaria Ramadan Reviews Safiyyah Ally Saud Inam Shahed Amanullah Svend White The Opinionated Oncologist Visions Wajahat Ali Zahed Amanullah Zahir Janmohamed Zainab Khan

Select a Month November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 November 2003 October 2003 September 2003 August 2003 July 2003 June 2003 May 2003 April 2003 March 2003 February 2003 January 2003 December 2002 November 2002 October 2002 September 2002 August 2002 July 2002 June 2002 May 2002 April 2002 March 2002

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

True or False: Peter preached the first sermon after Pentecost, leading to 3,000 conversions.

Select your answer to see how you score.

TRUE FALSE