Günter Lüling

Günter Lüling (25 October 1928 – 10 September 2014) was a German Protestant theologian, philological scholar (Dr. in Arabistics and Islamics) and pioneer in the study of early Islamic origins. From 1962 to 1965 he was the Director of the German Goethe-Institut in Aleppo, Syria.

Thesis

A student of Albert Schweitzer and Martin Werner (1887-1964), he attempted to demonstrate the textual link between pre-Islamic Christian hymnody in the Middle East and the composition of the Qur'an. He theorized that the early believers of what later became Orthodox Islam were one of the last communities sticking to a — what Lüling believed to be the true — non-Trinitarian Christian creed, for whom Jesus and the Holy Spirit were not divine. Their theological positions were adopted by later generations and evolved to become an ethno-centric religion of Arabs — Islam (i.e. "religion of Abraham and the tribes"). He also proposed that the Meccan and Central Arabian adversaries of Muhammad, the "mushrikun", (the "associators" or those who "associate" other gods to God), were not polytheist pagans but Trinitarian Christians — the associates being Jesus and the Holy Spirit. In early post-prophetic times mushrikun was reinterpreted from its original meaning to become "idolators" or "pagans".

An example of what Lüling believes to be the underlying Christian hymn of the Quran is Quran 96 (Al-ʻAlaq), which Lüling believes was originally addressed to Christians not Muhammad.

Although Lüling is rarely quoted, his ideas seem to have gained ground among European scholars. German Islam expert Tilman Nagel acknowledged in a 2008 interview these views as a mainstream theory by observing that "(Western Islam research) has moved towards the other extreme: since the late 1970s you hear that 'the historic figure Mohammed is a fiction, the Qur'an was written and changed during centuries by anonymous writers'. Some Islam experts even believe that the first Muslim community was a Christian Syriac sect". Nagel then refutes this idea, which he considers erroneous.

With his approach of research Lüling was an early representative of the "Saarbrücken School" which is part of the Revisionist School of Islamic Studies.

Dispute

According to Alan Dundes, in 1970 Luling submitted a doctoral dissertation which suggested that the Quran "contained evidence of traces of poetic strophic" (i.e. verse-repeating or chorus form, .. a song structure in which all verses or stanzas of the text are sung to the same music, as opposed to "through-composed" where new music written for every stanza) texts. Dundes writes that Lüling's view was "not in accord with orthodox Islamic tradition", and by 1972, "he was officially dismissed" from the University of Erlangen, where he had submitted his thesis. A lawsuit filed to overturn the dismissal carried on for six years but "did not succeed in reversing the university's action".

Bibliography

• Kritisch-exegetische Untersuchung des Qur'antextes. Erlangen, 1970 (Thesis).
• Die Einzigartige Perle des Suwaid ben Abī Kāhil al-Yaškurī : zweiter Teil ; über die eindeutige Christlichkeit dieses in der vorislamischen Heidenzeit hochgerühmten Gedichtes. Erlangen: Lüling, 1973.
• Über den Ur-Qur'an. Ansätze zur Rekonstruktion vorislamischer christlicher Strophenlieder im Qur'an. Erlangen: Lüling, 1974.
  • Lüling, Günter (2003). A challenge to Islam for reformation: the rediscovery and reliable reconstruction of a comprehensive pre-Islamic Christian hymnal hidden in the Koran under earliest Islamic reinterpretations. New Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers. pp. 580 pages. ISBN 81-208-1952-7. Retrieved 5 September 2019.. (Translation and considerable reworking of the 2. German edition 1993 of Über den Ur-Koran, 1st ed. 1974.)
  • Über den Urkoran. Ansätze zu Rekonstruktion der vorislamisch-christlichen Strophenlieder im Koran. 3rd corr. ed. Erlangen: Lüling, 2004. ISBN 3-922317-18-9
• Zwei Aufsätze zur Religions- und Geistesgeschichte. (Contains: 1. Der vorgeschichtliche Sinn des Wortes "Metall". 2. Avicenna und seine buddhistische Herkunft.) Erlangen: Lüling, 1977.
• Der christliche Kult an der vorislamischen Kaaba als Problem der Islamwissenschaft und christlichen Theologie. Erlangen: Lüling, 1977.
• Die Wiederentdeckung des Propheten Muhammad: eine Kritik am "christlichen" Abendland. Erlangen: Lüling, 1981. ISBN 3-922317-07-3
• Das Passahlamm und die altarabische "Mutter der Blutrache", die Hyäne: d. Passahopfer als Initiationsritus zu Blutrache u. heiligem Krieg. In ZRGG 34/1982, S. 131 - 147; (Sonderdr. aus ZRGG 34/1982). ISBN 3-922317-11-1
• Sprache und archaisches Denken : neun Aufsätze zur Geistes- und Religionsgeschichte. Erlangen: Lüling, 1985. ISBN 3-922317-13-8
• Der christliche Kult an der vorislamischen Kaaba als Problem der Islamwissenschaft und christlichen Theologie. 2nd corr. ed. Erlangen: Lüling, 1992. ISBN 3-922317-16-2.
• Sprache und Archaisches Denken. Aufsätze zur Geistes- und Religionsgeschichte. Erlangen: Lüling, 2005. 2nd enlarged ed. ISBN 3-922317-19-7
• Reynolds, Gabriel Said (2008). "Introduction, Quranic studies and its controversies". In Reynolds, Gabriel Said (ed.). The Quran in its Historical Context. Routledge.

Further reading

• Tamer, Georges, ed. (2019). Die Koranhermeneutik von Günter Lüling. Judaism, Christianity, and Islam – Tension, Transmission, Transformation (in German and English). Vol. 9 (1 ed.). Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 978-3-11-059812-4. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)

See also

• Michael Cook
• Patricia Crone
• Fred Donner
• Tilman Nagel
• Gerd R. Puin
• John Wansbrough