Word: salman
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...SATANIC VERSES by Salman Rushdie (Viking; $19.95). Charges of blasphemy against the Prophet Muhammad have put Rushdie's book into international headlines. But the author's relentless artistry pervades this encyclopedic fiction about the explosive, often comic, meetings of East and West...
...unprecedented international furor surrounding the fictional novel The Satanic Verses still rages, more than a week after Iran's spiritual leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini first called for the death of its British author Salman Rushdie, promising Paradise to his murderer. This controversy has put to test some of our most valued beliefs, including the sanctity of human life and of our rights to free speech...
There is a character in The Satanic Verses, a scribe named Salman, who commits an unthinkable sin. His job is to write down the revelations of God as recited by Mahound, Rushdie's fictional prophet. But the mischievous scribe repeatedly changes Mahound's words. When the prophet finally realizes that Salman has corrupted the text of his holy book, he explodes, "Your blasphemy can't be forgiven." The proper punishment for Salman's crime is death, but Mahound is merciful and spares his life...
Rushdie, whose first name is also Salman, seems to share the character's skepticism about the authenticity of God's revealed word. But the real-life author will be lucky if he enjoys the same clemency as his fictional counterpart. His literary twisting of the Koran is the central transgression for which the Ayatullah Khomeini has condemned him to death. Explains Indian- born writer Mihir Bose: "Every Muslim, whether fundamentalist or liberal, believes the Koran is literally the very word of God, preserved in heaven and transmitted by the angel Gabriel through Muhammad." The Prophet himself, although not considered divine...
...this passage did not spring from Rushdie's imagination: similar accounts of Muhammad's temptation were recorded a millennium ago by Ibn Sa'd, al-Tabari and other authoritative Muslim historians. Today's Islamic scholars, however, do not consider the story authentic. Like the section dealing with the scribe Salman, this episode is seen by Rushdie's critics as a blatant attempt to undermine the Koran as the word...