Bassam Tahhan is a Syrian-born French professor of Arabic literature and expert on the

Quran The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Classical Arabic, Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation in Islam, revelation from God in Islam, ...

. he taught at the Henri IV secondary school in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

. Tahhan advocates a Protestant reformation in

Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...

. He defines a "Protestant Islam," as "Islam that allows freedom of thought and permits questioning the Sunna, abrogating hadiths not grounded in the Koran, and reinterpreting the Koran in light of modern values." Tahhan believes in a rationalist approach to the Quran, which he believes means accepting "that each era, with its

articular The articular bone is part of the lower jaw of most vertebrates, including most jawed fish, amphibians, birds and various kinds of reptiles, as well as ancestral mammals. Anatomy In most vertebrates, the articular bone is connected to two oth ...

methods and discoveries, presents its own reading of the Koran, and this is the way it will be until the end of days." In doing so he came into conflict with what he calls the "orthodox approach" to the Quran. He believes that over time in the

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

community the Sunna has "become an indispensable supplement to the Koran, to the point that it superseded the Koran." He finds this "tendency to supplement the Koran with the Sunna ... questionable." He has been described as "one of a handful of experts around the world on the different versions of the Koran."Interview Bassam Tahhan. "Je plaide pour un islam protestant"
''Telquel'' (Morocco), Issue 229, June, 2006, translated i
Muslim Intellectual Calls for ‘Protestant Islam'

References

French scholars of Islam Muslim reformers Syrian schoolteachers Living people Year of birth missing (living people) {{Islamic-scholar-stub