Category: Catholicism

Qur’an Cover-to-Cover: Day 20 (“Joseph”)

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joseph

Thus far in the Qur’an we have encountered the stories of the prophets Adam, Noah, Hud, Salih, Abraham, Jacob, Shu’ayb, Moses and of Isa’s mother, Mary. Today we hear about the story of Joseph the patriarch, the one whom the Bible describes as having a “coat of many colours”:

Surah 12 – “Joseph” (Yusuf)
We open with the affirmation that the Qur’an is a “clear Book”. There is also the assertion by Allah that He is revealing “the best of stories” to Muhammad, about which he was previously unfamiliar. This seems to me to me an unlikely claim, given that Muhammad would have certainly had contact with Jews while he was a merchant trader.

We are then treated to the Islamic version of the story of the Patriach Joseph. Joseph tells his father about his dream where the sun, moon and stars bowed down to him. Jacob tells Joseph not to share this dream with his brothers, for fear they will plot against him.

(Although I’ve questioned previously whether the author of the Qur’an knew Isaac was the father of Jacob, this chapter does appear to recognize that correct relationship when Jacob is quoted as saying “[Allah will] complete His favour upon you and upon the family of Jacob, as He completed it upon your fathers before, Abraham and Isaac”)

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Qur’an Cover-to-Cover: Day 19 (“Hud”)

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hud

As you may have noticed, as the chapters of the Qur’an have got longer, I’ve pretty much resorted to only doing only one a day. Yesterday, I went back and recaculated when I’m going to finish the Qur’an. I’ve concluded that, if I stay at a rate of about one hundred verses a day, I should be finishing the Qur’an at the end of January.

Here are today’s verses:

Surah 11 – “Hud” (Hud)
The first few pages of this chapter are filled with very standard stuff:

  • Worship Allah alone
  • Seek forgiveness, there will be punishment for the disbeliever on the Day of Judgement
  • Allah is all-knowing
  • Allah created the heavens and the earth
  • Those who disbelieve in the Messengers claim magic is at work
  • Mankind is ungrateful for the mercies of Allah
  • The disbelievers ask why Muhammad doesn’t come with some heavenly treasure or an angel
  • Muhammad is told to challenge those who say he invented the Qur’an, by demanding that they “bring ten surahs like it”
  • Those who believed in the former revelations (e.g. the Torah) believe in the Qur’an.

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Qur’an Cover-to-Cover: Day 18 (“Jonah”)

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jonah

I hope everyone had a nice Christmas. If you had to go to work today, then you can at least comfort yourself with the knowledge that I’ve waded through 109 verses to bring you this commentary on Surah 10:

Surah 10 – “Jonah” (Yunus)
The opening few pages of this chapter are pretty standard stuff:

  • Muhammad’s critics object that Allah’s revelation would come through a man.
  • Allah’s role as creator is emphasized and the natural world (the sun and moon in particular) are held up as signs pointing the people to God.
  • We have the usual statements about the disbelievers heading to the Fire and the believers going to “Gardens of Pleasure”.
  • Several times man’s fickle and forgetful nature is lamented and that Allah saves him from affliction, but yet he continues his path unaltered.

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Qur’an Cover-to-Cover: Day 17 (“The Night Journey”)

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Happy Christmas everyone! I hope your day is filled with joy. As for me, I’m working my way through a very long chapter of the Qur’an…

Surah 17 – “The Night Journey” (Al-Isra)
This chapter begins with an brief reference to event which gives its name to this chapter: The Night Journey. We are told that, in a single night, Muhammad travelled from Mecca to Jerusalem. There’s a second journey made later that night to Heaven, but it is not mentioned in this chapter.

Then begins some teaching concerning the Children of Israel. We are told that Allah “gave Moses the Scripture and made it a guidance for [them]”. Again, there is no indication that the Hebrew scriptures have been corrupted at all.

After a brief mention of Noah, we are told that Allah told the Children of Israel that they would “surely cause corruption on the earth twice” and he promised punishment on both of these occasions.

1. On the first occasion, Allah promised that a servant of His, someone with great military power, would invade their homes. He then promised that the Israelites would eventually be victorious.

2. On the second occasion, Allah sent enemies who entered the Jerusalem Temple and destroyed it.

I’m not exactly sure which events are being described here, since we are given very little information. The destruction of the Temple was done first by the Babylonians and then by the Romans.

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Qur’an Cover-to-Cover: Day 16 (“The Story”)

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Today we return (again) to the story of Moses and encounter some notable differences between the Qur’an and the account found in the Hebrew Bible…

Surah 28 – “The story” (Al-Qasas)
We open again with the assertion that the Qur’an is “a clear Book”.

We jump to Egypt and are told about the Pharaoh who persecuted the Children of Israel. The Qur’an describes this rather strangely, saying that “[Pharaoh] made [the people of the land] into factions, oppressing a sector among them”. This “sector” is assumed to be the Israelites. However, things get weirder still. We are told that one of Pharaoh’s ministers is a man called “Haman”. Now, there is a man in the Old Testament by that name, who was indeed a government minister and who also sought the downfall of Israel. However, this man lived in a different land and in a different time period, when the Children of Israel were saved by the intercession of Queen Ester. It should also be noted that the when baby Moses is brought into the royal household, it is Pharaoh’s wife, not his daughter, who is his principal saviour.

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