The Koran leaves no wiggle room in its respect for itself. "This book is not to be doubted." This is not a postmodern document.
"The Cow" begins with strong statements about believers and unbelievers. There are true believers adn fake true believers (Allah knows the difference), and there are people who deceive only themselves.
There is a sense of divine determinism. Allah keeps unbelievers in their sin. I wonder, is there no chance for the unbeliever to become a believer? Must one be born Muslim to be Muslim? Once an infidel always an infidel?
As a nonbeliever, this strikes some fear intom my heart. I do not yet know from my reading of the Koran what Jihad means, but from popular coverage in the news, I am in trouble.
Now, on the upside, it appears that Allah merely exposes people to truth. good people will experience truth as enlightening while bad people will experience truth as a deception. It appears as a deception because it does not align with their worldview. This perspective is very similar to Judeo-Christian views of God in that your response to God reveals who you ahve chosen to be as much or more than who God is.
As we go a little further along, we get some insight into Adam and Satan. Allah gave Adam the names of things - that's familiar. However, this is pretty interesting: apparently Allah told the angels of Heaven to prostrate themselves before Adam - and they all did except for Satan. Satan became an unbeliever because of pride (very good lesson on the process of falling away from God).
There is a mention of the tree (presumably of the knowledge of good and evil) that Adam and his wife (let's call her Eve) ate from.
Oh, bt here is the place where Allah is forgiving. I like this part. Allah could have squashed Adam, but "relented toward him." However, the curse here appears to be that their offspring will be enemies to each other. I think we can see hat has played out.
There is still much more of "The Cow" to read as it is the longest chapter in the book. PLease continue with me.
Strangely enough, no mention of anything bovine as of yet.
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4 comments:
Hi, my name is Aminah and I'm a convert to Islam. I'm glad you're taking the time to read the Qur'an and I hope it is truely for the purpose of understanding it for yourself and at the very least, strengthening your belief in God as a Christian. We are the closest to each other in faith.
I hope you are reading it in its context. I realize that verses about war will most likely make you tell yourself that "you knew it all along, it's all about killing non-muslims." The reality is, that isn't true. War is put in the context of war, with rules, such as accepting peace treaties, not killing anyone accept those fighting in an agreed combat and not being the aggressors because "Allah does not love aggressors."
Anyways, the Qur'an is not arranged in chronological order but provides guidance in a beautiful way.
I hope you come to the end of the chapter, verse 256- "Let there be no compulsion in religion: Truth stands out clear from error: whoever rejects evil and believes in Allah has grasped the most trust-worthy handhold, that never breaks. And Allah hears and knows all things."
I hope I can contribute to your blog by posting, if you don't mind. Happy reading.
Aminah, I thank you for your willingness to comment. Please comment as much as you want.
I am trying my best to objective and honest.
Your comments will give me context for reading.
if you havent learned already, jihad originally meant "striving to show people the ways of their god" and was used in all religions, i beleive it started with christianity. Christianity also had jihads, including some big ones as the crusades and many inquisitions. It became violent because of the christians, not the Muslims. hope this helps!
Is Allah YHWH ?? Or is Allah "l" to which YHWH approaches. This to me is the fundamental question. Is the language of The Koran the same as The Talmud? Both books deal with LAW and I really see no difference between the two works.
A personal feeling: I find The Koran has the capability to calm me even in English. We can never know GOD and yet "He" wills to be known. As a child, I had a sense that "Allah" was a Her.
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