# Is the guest's approach to the Quran's history just confirmation bias? *Is this confirmation bias that discounts Western academia?* - URL: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/f2bcgwatu5g/s/17/ - Date: 2020-06-19 · Kind: question · Transcript tier: machine · Recording: Dr. Shehzad Saleem | the Preservation of the Quran & the Problem of Qira'at | MindTrap with Mufti#26 (1:24:40–1:27:17) - Status: a view quoted in order to be discussed, not a position held - Watch from the start of the segment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2BcGWatU5g&t=5080s - Recording page: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/f2bcgwatu5g/ **Topics:** Preservation and variant readings; Dawah and debate culture; Guest conversations **Question as asked:** People should not discount Western academia and should look at this without a confirmation bias; is what you are doing in essence a confirmation bias? **Summary (not a quotation; machine-made, unchecked):** The guest says his questions came from the Muslim sources themselves, not from Western scholars, who have merely extracted the same data from Muslim books. Muslims must answer such questions rather than snub them, since the Quran is a book for all mankind. ## Longer summary Mufti Abu Layth reads a comment saying that people should not discount Western academia and should look at the matter without confirmation bias, and asking whether the guest's approach is in essence confirmation bias. The guest answers that his work was not prompted by Western criticism: the Muslim scholarly tradition has known about these variations all along, while the West became aware of them only in the last two hundred and fifty years, and in his own quest the questions were put to him not by any Western scholar but by his own history and hadith books, so the problem was his own belief that he wanted to examine, and he found the inconsistencies were really there. He adds that Western scholars have done nothing but extract these things from the Muslims' own books and point out that either the claim of preservation or the data must be wrong; Muslims historically clung to both contradictory things, snubbed the critics and told them to go away, not realising that the Quran is a book for mankind, so that when anyone from mankind poses the question it is a Muslim responsibility to answer it rather than to dismiss it. It remained, he says, a personal quest. ## Sources and names cited - Dr Shehzad Saleem (guest) - confirmation bias ## Transcript (machine tier, 1:24:40–1:27:17) [1:24:04] allowing differences so it's like yeah I mean that was just just food for thought that's how I kind of saw this but yeah I'd like to come to some questions and I know I know it is very very late over the adductors up but I think people would love to kind of be able to pick your brains on some of these things so if we could take some questions somebody said all right let me just bring up these questions right people if you've got some questions you can feel free to post them I'll get dr. [1:24:40] Saba inshallah respond to them as much as as is possible somebody said I don't think people should discount West in academia and you should look at it without a confirmation bias that what you're doing is this in essence a confirmation bias so you see it's not something that we have being at because of some Western criticism or maybe something which they have brought before us much before that this B we are alive for the situation we already know about these variations it is only in the last maybe 250 years in which the West has [1:25:20] become much more aware of what's going on before that they didn't even know as I said in my quest it was never a question which was put forth to me by some Western scholar it was a question it was put forth to me by my own sources by my own history books by my own had these books so I think it's my my problem is not as much as an external influence or an external agenda it's basically my my belief or my view that I wanted to examine I found out that these inconsistencies that the way they have been reported in our history and these books they are in fact there and and then the other thing as you also said in this hour that these Western scholars [1:26:00] have done nothing but to extract those things from our own books and present them before us and tell them that look here you say that the Quran is a preserved book and you say that the God said I'm going to preserve this so either the claim is incorrect or this data is incorrect one thing has to be wrong because this data speaks the opposite so either you disown the data and stick to the claim or you own the data and forsake the claim so what we did in our in our history was that we stuck to both contradictory things we said no this is this is the correct data and the Quran is also preserved and we gave a shuttle call to speak so to speak and we snub them and we said that we are [1:26:40] better equipped to answer our own problems you go away and they did not realize that the Quran is not a book just for Muslims it's a book for mankind so if someone from mankind poses this question it is a responsive to our responsibility to give it answer not to give a shot of call and we have to tell them that is the book in which we as people who would like to read the file book of God the wave was revealed we have certain questions that are unresolved in our mind and though therefore it's a personal quest it's a personal journey that started off this whole project sure shukran now cuz of a question that ## Cite Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment f2BcGWatU5g/s/17. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/f2bcgwatu5g/s/17/ Not a fatwa: these answers were given to specific people at specific times. Ask a qualified scholar about your own situation.