Sebastian Faulks – the Qur'an 'has no ethics'

The author Sebastian Faulks (pictured), in an interview with the Sunday Times magazine this week, disparagingly referred to to the Holy Qur’an as a “a depressing book” and compared it to the “rantings of a schizophrenic”.

Faulks, speaking of his reading the Qur’an for research into a character for his new book, says, “It’s very one-dimensional, and people talk about the beauty of the Arabic and so on, but the English translation I read was, from a literary point of view, very disappointing.”

Update: Sebastian Faulks writes in the Daily Telegraph, apologizing if his comments on the Qur’an have offended Muslims.

“There is also the barrenness of the message.

“With the Koran there are no stories. And it has no ethical dimension like the New Testament, no new plan for life. It says ‘the Jews and the Christians were along the right tracks, but actually, they were wrong and I’m right, and if you don’t believe me, tough — you’ll burn for ever.’ That’s basically the message of the book.”

Readers of the Qur’an will find Faulks’ description far removed from their own reading of it. Accusations leveled at the Prophet Muhammad, of his being possessed of an evil spirit, or of not being of sound mind, were prevalent amongst the polytheists when the Qur’an was being revealed; the Qur’an itself contains verses alluding to this. But the Qur’an and the Prophet’s detractors were and are far fewer in number than those who have come to embrace Islam.

What is surprising is how Faulks could conclude that the Qur’an has ‘no stories’ or ‘ethical dimension’, when the Qur’an relates numerous stories of the Prophets, as well as many similitudes, and contains countless exhortations to righteousness and good conduct. Perhaps Faulks could use a better translation?