Sorry, guys. We have a longer one to deal with today. At first, I only wanted to go through verses 110-112, but when I saw that 122 starts talking about Abraham and the Kabbah, and Ramadan starts on the 17th, I figured I’d make you guys suck it up and deal with 11 verses of Surah 2. Don’t worry guys. We only have 165 more verses to get through in this Surah. Then we can start jumping around more to different points of contention within other chapters.
So, basically, I need to hurry up with doing these types of posts and do them more often instead of just procrastinating. On that note…Surah 2:110-121, everybody:
110. And observe the Prayer and present the Zakat (-purifying alms) and whatever good you send forward for yourselves you will find it with Allah. Verily Allah is Watchful of all you do. 111. And they (-the Jews and the Christians) say (respectively about themselves), “None shall ever enter Paradise unless he be a Jew or Christian.” These are their wishful beliefs. Say, “Bring forth your vivid proof (of what you state) if you are right.” 112. The truth of the matter is, whosoever submits himself entirely to Allah and he is a doer of good to others shall have his reward with his Lord. They shall have nothing to fear and nothing to grieve at. 113. The Jews say, “The Christians have no valid ground whatsoever (for their belief),” while the Christians assert, “The Jews have no valid ground (at all for their belief),” while they both read the same Scripture. Exactly such (ill-founded) things say those who have no knowledge. But Allah shall judge between them on the Day of Resurrection with regard to all that about which they had been disagreeing. 114. And who can be more unjust than those who prohibit the name of Allah from being extolled in (any of His) houses of worship and strive to ruin them. It was not proper for such, ever to enter these (places) except in fear and awe. For them is disgrace in this world, and there awaits them a severe punishment in the Hereafter. 115. And to Allah belongs the east and the west; so whichsoever way you may turn (you will find) there is Allah’s attention. Surely, Allah is All-Pervading, All-Knowing. 116. Moreover they (- the unjust people) say, “Allah has taken (to Himself) a son.” Glory be to Him. Rather, all that is in the heavens and the earth, belongs to Him. All are obedient to Him. 117. (God is) the Wonderful Originator without depending upon any matter or pattern of the heavens and the earth; and when He issues a decree. He does but say to it, “Be” and it comes to be. 118. And those who do not know (the wisdom implied in Divine revelation) say, “Why does not Allah (Himself) speak to us or give us a (convincing) sign?” That is exactly what their predecessors had said. Their hearts have become very much alike. We have certainly made (Our) signs explicitly clear for a people who wish to be convinced. 119. Verily, We have sent you to serve all their requirements, as a Bearer of good tidings and a Warner, and you will not be called upon to account for the inmates of the flaming Fire. 120. And the Jews will never be pleased with you nor the Christians unless you follow their creed. Say, “Allah’s guidance is the only perfect and true guidance.” If you were to follow their low desires after there has come to you this perfect knowledge, you shall have from Allah neither a protecting friend, nor any helper. 121. They (-the true Muslims), to whom We have given the Book, follow it as it deserves to be followed. It is they who truly believe in it. And who so does not believe therein, these are they who are the utter losers.
Beginning with verses 110-112, to Christians, this can be a bit confusing, especially with verse 121 thrown in there. On the surface it may seem to be at odds, with 110 and 121 advocating a salvation by works approach while 112 almost seems to advocate for a salvation by faith and submission. Don’t be fooled, however. This is not at odds.
Islam is a works-based religion. When Muslims or the Quran say that you’re saved by submission to Allah, they don’t mean submission as giving your life to God and acknowledging who He is, like in Christianity. Submission to Allah means following the standard of conduct as laid out in the Quran and the life of Muhammad (who was described as the perfect man). That means following everything from commands about how to pray to commands about how to wipe your butt.
I’m not even kidding. There’s a command in Sahih Muslim about that.
As for verse 111, I’m going to dedicate a short paragraph to just laughing about how outdated this claim is. While it might have been able to stand better in 7th century Arabia, today’s findings confirming the Bible’s veracity have been able to paint a vivid picture that what Christians say about salvation is true. The same cannot be said of Islam.
Jumping to 116-117, this is problematic because it’s one of the numerous verses in the Quran that implies that Mary is part of the Trinity. Muslims back then (and many today) think that Christians believe that Mary is part of the Trinity, possibly because of how she’s presented in Catholicism. They say that that’s blasphemy because Allah doesn’t want or need a girlfriend/wife, nor did he ever have the inclination to have sex with Mary. (Though Surah 66:12 suggests the opposite of that, but that’s a different post.)
Christians agree that it is blasphemous to say that God literally had sex with Mary to create Jesus and to attribute her to godhood. However, this is a total misrepresentation of our views about the Trinity, which is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, three persons co-equal and co-existent, of the same substance that make up one God. This is hinted at in the Old Testament, not just the New Testament, as God is called Elohim. This is significant since anything ending in -im in Hebrew is plural, but in the case of God, it’s used to refer to one person.
Funny how Allah the All-Knowing managed to get the concept of the Trinity completely wrong.
Finally, verses 120-121 is classic cult talk. It’s a manipulation tactic meant to instill fear in people that if you leave Islam, you will be ostracized not just by Allah, but also by your community. Nothing even close to this is found or encouraged in the Bible. In fact, in the Old Testament, God calls the apostate Israelites back to Him so many times that there are entire chapters and books dedicated to God calling them back, most famously, the book of Hosea. And nowhere does it say that Christians should shun apostates.
But Allah doesn’t do that. Why? Because Islam is a cult. He doesn’t love his creation. He cares about control. Leave, and he’ll destroy you. This isn’t about mercy; it’s about power.
Now, you could argue that this is only referring to those who die rejecting the Quran, and admittedly, these verses could be read that way. However, if we look at Islamic apostasy laws even going back to what Muhammad himself said to do to apostates, as well as Surah 4:89-90 which calls for the death of those who leave Islam, I read this as not only saying that you won’t have anyone to help get out of the judgement of Allah, but literally you will not be able to escape the wrath of the Muslim community if you turn away. It discourages apostasy not only with the threat of Hellfire, but also with the threat that if you leave, you die. A truly terrifying situation to be in.
Until next time,
M.J.
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Editing M.J. here:
How did I not catch this while writing this post?! Ah!
Verses 118-119 are strange since Allah is essentially saying “I don’t need to give you guys a sign or any confirmation that anything my dude, Momo, is saying is true. I just sent him as a warner. Deal with it!” Meanwhile, in the Bible, while not every prophet performed miracles or signs, several of them did, especially Jesus in the form the healing the sick, multiplying bread and fish to feed the five thousand, raising the dead, raising Himself from the dead, etc.
In fact, in the Quran, Muhammad never performs any miracles, and such claims that he did are explicitly denied. The only “miracle” that it ever says he performed was reciting the Quran. That’s it. It isn’t until hadiths like Sahih Muslim and Sahih al-Bukhari that we get any accounts of Muhammad performing miracles. Some accounts even say he was performing miracles as a child. However, while those hadiths (Muslim and al-Bukhari) are considered the most authentic and reliable out of all of them, they were written anywhere from the 8th to 10th centuries, with the earliest ones dating to the late 7th century. This means the majority of the texts were compiled 100-200 years or more after the death of Muhammad.
This poses a big issue for their historical reliability because according to historians, it usually takes that amount of time for a historical figure to become legendized. In fact, it’s for this reason that many Christian reject the Gospel of Thomas, because not only is the timing late enough to cause skepticism, but it’s legendary accounts of parts of Jesus’ life making it thoroughly questionable when it comes historical accuracy.
But back to the text of the Quran, this also poses a big problem for Muslims, the Miraculous Dilemma, if you will. Essentially if the Quran is correct, Muhammad didn’t perform any miracles except reciting the Quran, making many Hadiths unreliable, and his veracity as a prophet even more skeptical. If the Hadiths are reliable, though, and Muhammad did perform miracles besides just reciting the Quran, then why doesn’t Allah mention that as proof that Muhammad was actually his prophet and was legit?
Good luck figuring that one out.
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