Re: Apologetic Islamic take on Evolution … Or unkind dismissal?
First of all, let me remind you that you yourself said you are NOT A LITERALIST when it comes to the Koran. Which implies that you believe there are things in Koran that cannot be taken to be literal.
Secondly, this is an issue of interpretation. And lets not fool ourselves into believing that the Koran is not open to interpretation. The fact that there exist so many varying schools of Islamic thought is testament to this fact.
Lastly, this verse specifically. God here could simply be saying that you should not confuse the author of this work for one of your fellow mortal “poets,” who may be error prone and fallible. This book is of divine origin, and is thus infallible, and not to be taken as another yarn from one of your mortal poets. That does not necessarily mean that God will not use poetic symbolism. God is not undermining the power of the Poetic medium, he is drawing a distinction between the work of the divine and mortal poets.
Instead of calling them Poets, God could have used the term “story teller.” Would that then imply that stories (parables) are not valid means of imparting a lesson? Of course not. The poetic medium is still a valid means of imparting knowledge, but it depends on who the source is.
The point here is that God is not attacking the medium, he is drawing a distinction between the divine (who also uses poetry), and mortal poets who also use the medium but are prone to mortal failings.
And perhaps Prophet Muhammad was not a poet, but the Koran certainly seems to employ poetic license. And the prophet was the messenger, not the author. The prophets role was to narrate, and interpret the word of God, not create his own poetry. And yes the Koran is clear, but then poetry is an amazing form of communication. You know as well as I that poetry has a way of expressing meaning in a few lines which might take pages to express otherwise. The poetic medium has its advantages, and it can be extremely expressive. There is a reason why recitation of the Koran is captivating even for those who don’t understand Arabic, because it employs a certain Poetic medium, a way of speaking that touches people like any good work of poetry would.
Now perhaps I am wrong and your interpretation is right, but either way, the fact that one can still interpret this differently means the door is still open.
I hope I made sense to you guys.