Jefferson memorial in Washington DC
Source: NPR
Thomas Jefferson had a vast personal library reflecting his enormous curiosity about the world. Among his volumes: a Quran purchased in 1765 that informed his ideas about plurality and religious freedom in the founding of America.
In her book Thomas Jefferson’s Qur’an: Islam and the Founders, author Denise Spellberg draws parallels between the beliefs of the founding father and religious tolerance in the United States today.
“I think that there is anxiety about what Muslims believe, largely because people don’t understand Islam very well. I think that was also true in the 18th century,” Spellberg says. “It strikes me that Jefferson was theorizing for a future that included Muslims — not in spite of their religion, but because of it and because of his notion of universal civil rights.”
She sat down with All Things Considered host Arun Rath to discuss Jefferson’s Qur’an and the lasting impact of the third U.S. president’s views on religious freedom.
On how Jefferson came to have a Quran:
“He actually was a bibliophile from the beginning. He ordered this Quran in 1765, eleven years before he wrote the Declaration of Independence. He was a law student at the time, and he had the book shipped from England to Williamsburg, Va. … There’s an entry in the local newspaper because they were the booksellers for the time.
“Europeans, and Americans after them, in this period tended to be quite hostile toward Islam. And yet Jefferson was curious about the religion and law of Muslims, and that’s probably why he bought the Quran.”
On his views of religious freedom:
“Jefferson was unique in many ways. He criticized Islam as he did Christianity and Judaism. He talked about Islam as a religion that repressed scientific inquiry — a strange idea he got from Voltaire that wasn’t right — but … was able to separate his principles about Muslim religious liberty and civil rights from these inherited European prejudices about Islam.
Read further and listen to a 6 minute interview of the author
Additional Reading
President Thomas Jefferson — Was he a monotheist?
The Surprising Story Of ‘Thomas Jefferson’s Qur’an’ http://t.co/YurPoz82JZ pic.twitter.com/wt8MiRNUQa
— The Muslim Times (@The_MuslimTimes) November 17, 2014
Categories: Americas, Highlight, Separation of Church and State, Video
One of Thomas Jefferson’s uniqueness is he profited also by slavery has others do today!
My comment is distasteful but true. How many children did he father. No trace of his offsprings.
If you want to maintain the status quo the Holy Prophet(Peace and Blessings Of Allah will forever rain upon him) would be excellent example to cite.
President Thomas Jefferson was one of the key figures, leading from the Declaration of Independence to the Constitution of USA.
The US Constitution has become the template for all the constitutions of the world.
We should judge things by a Quranic criterion:
I am surprised by the comments of Ahmad Bashir on Thomas Jefferson. Yes, Jefferson had slaves, many of them, and after the death of his wife, he did sleep with a slave woman and produced children. But we should judge his actions by the norms of his time, and clearly civilized society the world over has changed. For that matter, reflecting the norms of the seventh century tribal society in Arabia, the Holy Koran has numerous references to slavery, including intercourse with slave women (e.g., 70:22). You are also allowed to marry your step daughters under certain conditions(4:24). We should not judge such actions by today’s norms.
The comment that Muslims can marry their step-daughters is totally false, absurd & insane.
I agree that the practice is against the norms of today’s society almost everywhere in the world. But why don’t you look up the reference given (4:24) — I used the Penguin Classics version by N. J. Dawood.