Tag: Qur’an Cover-to-Cover

Qur’an Cover-to-Cover: Day 10 (“The Angels”)

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angel

Today in Atlanta, my friend’s son was baptized and entered into the Body of Christ! However, there’s no rest for the wicked, so here I am writing up today’s text from Qur’an, Surah 35:

Surah 35 – “The Angels” (Fatir)
The chapter begins with a typical set of assertions relating to Allah’s soveignty and the denial of the existence of any other God. 

Some interesting things are said about Satan and evil doers. One phrase I really liked was “[Satan] only invites his party to be among the companions of the Blaze”. This is why Satan’s parties are the worst! Ayah 8 affirms that “Allah sends astray whom He wills”, once again suggesting that Muslims believe in double-predestination.

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Qur’an Cover-to-Cover: Day 9 (“The Criterion”)

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muslim

I was on a plane flying to Atlanta today, so I’m a little late, but here are my notes for Surah 25.

Surah 25 – “The Criterion” (Al-Furqan)
The title of this chapter is significant. The “criterion” here is identified as the Qur’an itself. This is principal means by which Muslims “distinguish truth from falsehood and right from wrong”. This definitely is in accordance with my experience of speaking with Muslims: everything is viewed through the lense of the Qur’an.

There are are quite a references to other religions in this surah and, I would say, it identifies Christianity in particular. For example, we are told that “[Allah] has not taken a son and has not had a partner in dominion… But they have taken besides Him [Allah] gods”. This seems to be a fairly clear reference to the Christian belief in the Divine Sonship of Jesus. It is also possibly a reference to His mother, Mary, whom we will encounter in later suwar. A little later we are told that on Judgement Day, those false deities will testify against those who worshipped them, saying that none is worthy of worship but Allah. Those who “commit injustice” in this way are guilty of the sin of Shirk and will therefore “taste a great punishment”.

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Qur’an Cover-to-Cover: Day 8 (“Ya Sin”)

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hell

Today I’m going to be looking at a longer chapters of the Qur’an: Surah 36.

Surah 36 – “Ya Sin” (Ya-Sin)
This chapter covers the usual material. Muhammad’s commission by God is, of course, reaffirmed. He is told that some people to whom he speaks will not listen to him, but his job is to warn them anyway.

This chapter describes a pair of missionaries arriving at a city. It is not clear if this is an historic story or not. Either way, the message of the missionaries is rejected, but then a man comes from the city and pleads with his fellow inhabitants to listen to these men. He draws particular attention to the fact that they do not ask for money. For his own part, the man testifies that Allah made him, he will return to Him and thus Allah is worthy of worship and the intercession of the city’s false gods is worthless. The text abruptly switches to speaking about Paradise so my footnotes suggest that this means that the man was killed for his faith. While I can understand this explanation, the Qur’an seems to me to jump randomly from topic-to-topic without warning on a regular basis.

Allah then identifies various “signs” to be submitted for consideration:

  • The bringing forth of life from dead earth
  • The production of fruit from trees
  • The departure of the sun at nighttime and the cycles of the moon
  • The salvation of Noah’s family through the Ark

I’m not 100% sure, but it seems that these signs are all meant to point to new life and Allah’s saving help.

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Qur’an Cover-to-Cover: Day 7 (“The heights” and “The Jinn”)

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Today I’m going to be looking at two chapters of the Qur’an, one long (#7) and one reasonably short (#72).

Surah 7 – “The heights” (Al-Araf)
Mankind is reminded to follow Allah and also reminded of the cities which He destroyed to punish unbelieving people. The scales of judgement which weigh good deeds are also recalled.

The fall of Satan is described, in an almost identical pattern to Surah 38 (“The letter sad”). The narrative continues, however, describing the Fall of Adam and Eve. Allah told them “do not approach this tree, lest you be among the wrongdoers”. The nature of the tree or the consequences of eating from it were not really explained. Rather than saying that they will be like gods (as in the Genesis narrative), Satan promised that if they eat the fruit they will “become angels or become of the immortal”. Once they have eaten, they recognize their nakedness and sew together leaves as clothes. God arrives and chastises them. We don’t see “the blame game” which we see in Genesis, where Adam blames Eve (and ultimately God) and Eve blames the serpent.

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Qur’an Cover-to-Cover: Day 6 (“The morning star”, …)

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morning-star

My course through the Qur’an continues today with chapters 86, 54 and 38. I’m tackling fewer chapters in this post because Surah 38 is quite long and I have quite a lot to say about it…

Surah 86 – “The morning star” (At-Tariq)
This chapter begins by reminding man from what he was made. In the same way that Allah created them from nothing, He is able to give them life again on Judgement Day. The authority of the Qur’an is reasserted, as is God’s control over the events of life.

Questions

Q1. What does aya 4  mean when it says “There is no soul but that it has over it as a protector”? Is it saying that every soul has a protector? If so, is this Allah or an angel?

Q2. Does semen really emerge “from between the backbone and the ribs”? sperm production is far lower than that.

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Qur’an Cover-to-Cover: Day 5 (“Winter”, …)

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Sunset in the wood in winter period

Now that I’ve built a preliminary glossary of Islamic terms, it’s time to read some more chapters of the Qur’an! Today I’m reading suwar 106, 101, 75, 104, 77, 50 and 90.

Surah 106 – “Winter” (Quraish)
This chapter addresses the Quraysh the tribe who dwell in Mecca. Allah says that because of the blessing He has given them, they should worship Him.

Questions

Q1. In what sense is the Ka’bah Allah’s “House”? Does he dwell there in any special sense as Yahweh did in the Jerusalem Temple?

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Qur’an Cover-to-Cover: Day 4 (“The Purity of faith”, …)

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islam

Another day, another collection from the Qur’an…

Surah 112 -“The Purity of faith” (Al-Ikhlas)
In the hadith (collections of stories about Muhammad’s life), Muhammad said that this surah is equivalent to a whole third of the Qur’an. It asserts tawhid (Islamic monotheism), saying “He is Allah, [who is] One”, but also appears to specifically challenge Christianity and Jesus as the status of the only begotten Son of God (“He neither begets nor is born”).

Questions

Q1. Would you agree that “He neither begets nor is born” is a statement referring to the Christian belief that Jesus is the Son of God?

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