Carl W. Ernst > Quotes

“Many scholars accept the idea that the Qurʾan took on its present form by around 650 CE, and even comparative skeptics now assume that the text of the Qurʾan was codified by the end of the seventh century.”
― Carl W. Ernst, How to Read the Qur'an: A New Guide, with Select Translations

“Qurʾanic rhetoric treats the divine revelation as so transparently true that only willful disobedience could inspire its rejection.”
― Carl W. Ernst, How to Read the Qur'an: A New Guide, with Select Translations

“But there is a sense in which early Arabic script was primarily a memory aid for readers who already knew the contents of the text. In many ways, the written text of the Qurʾan was inseparable from, and indeed relied upon, the authority of oral transmission.”
― Carl W. Ernst, How to Read the Qur'an: A New Guide, with Select Translations