Quran Only

On Paltalk, one can run into all kinds of flakes. I have had the "honor" of encountering a group of "Quran Only" "Muslims" that reject all of the sayings of Mohammed captured in the hadiths, and all of Sharia law. They claim that anyone who follows Sharia law is not a Muslim, and that this is well known.

It is very frustrating to try to discuss Islam with them, since any of the most common objections one has about Islam they can easily dismiss. All of the bad practices in Iran, and Egypt and Syria and Saudi Arabia, and all of the bad behaviors of the Taliban and the Ayatollahs, are easily rejected by Quran Only Muslims since they can claim that the people in Iran, Egypt, Syria and Saudi Arabia are not "real" or "true" Muslims. The Quran Only Muslims say that the Taliban and the Ayatollahs are not really following Islam. They say that the Shiites and the Sunnis and the Sufis and the Salafis and the Alewites are not Muslims since there are no sects in Islam, according to their interpretation of some passages in the Quran. They say that there is no mention of Aisha's young age, or penalties for apostasy in Islam. Obviously, Quran Only Muslims are viewed as heretics by mainstream Sunni and Shiite Muslims, and fatwas have been issued against them. Some Quran Only Muslim leaders have been murdered.

Even objectionable language in the Quran is easily disputed by these people, since they claim that their personal translations and interpretations of the Quran are superior to all published translations of the Quran. They claim that they and only they know the "true" meaning of the Quran. Even when presented by 10 or 20 or 50 or 100 other translations of the Quran by real Muslim scholars with positions in Islamic Universities, they are unbowed. These scholarly translations and interpretations are discarded cavalierly since these nonArabic speaking Quran Only Muslims claim they know the Arabic in the Quran better than native speakers of Arabic or Professors of Arabic or Professors of Islam.

While other mainstream Muslims claim one has to read the Tafsirs, i.e., the Islamic exegeses or commentaries, on the Koran and the Hadiths to understand Islam, Islam Only Muslims claim that the Tafsirs are haram.

We even had the pleasure of these nonArabic speakers giving lessons in pronounciation of Arabic words to native Arabic speakers. I later found out that only 13 percent of all practicing Muslims can speak Arabic, even though they have to pray in Arabic! I was astounded at the boldness of these characters in promoting their own particular beliefs. They made the claim that most Muslims were Quran Only Muslims, contrary to all demographic statistics. After all, roughly 85 percent of all Muslims are Sunnis and 15 percent of all Muslims are Shiites, but according to Quran Only Muslims, Sunnis and Shiites cannot be Muslims. I asked repeatedly to be given peer-reviewed studies backing up their claims that most Muslims are Quran Only Muslims, but I was met with just double talk and anger, and crazy gratuitous claims. For example, they claimed that 75 million Muslims in Eastern Europe are Quran Only Muslims, and that all the Muslims in Pakistan are Quran Only Muslims. Not very compelling, frankly.

Unfortunately when I realized what was going on, I compared the Quran Only Muslims to their Christian Counterparts that follow only the bible, and claim that those who do not interpret the bible the way they do are not Christians. I was immediately contacted by someone Christian who claimed that this is not true. They said there are no fundamentalist Christian groups who do this. And then, after they had claimed that they do not do this, they proceded to do exactly this, and tell me that only Christians who believe in the trinity and in being born again are real Christians. They become so obnoxious and aggressive and angry and nasty about this that I had to just block their accounts. Wow...