tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-59091315350094253482024-03-12T18:18:40.902-07:00Qur'anic MusingsGlimpses into Literature, History, Philosophy—and the Qur'an.Sharifhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03683966146725270053noreply@blogger.comBlogger42125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5909131535009425348.post-26039103121843904792021-08-19T13:01:00.001-07:002021-08-19T13:01:18.887-07:00Online Course: The Qur'an and Biblical History<p>This fall and winter, I will again be teaching my online course on the Qur'an and Biblical History for Albalagh Academy, God willing. This is my favorite subject to teach because it involves exploring several different academic fields—ancient Near Eastern studies, biblical studies, late antique Jewish and Christian traditions, and Qur'anic studies—and there is so much to talk about! Moreover, teaching it always gives me the opportunity to ponder, read, and learn more myself and to share new insights that I find along the way. If you are interested in learning more about the stories of the Qur'an and how they relate to biblical tradition and history, then please consider enrolling! Also, feel free to let me know if you have any questions. </p><p><a href="https://www.albalaghacademy.org/course/the-quran-the-bible-history-online-course/">https://www.albalaghacademy.org/course/the-quran-the-bible-history-online-course/</a></p><p><br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc512WcmgW-lhfRo-UtbTEC8MCVham_i68XNlK9d0WLTMLVBDSK_JgpaxdO4Wv1qywrZMDnOQ8spjt5yJgYGKW2peJErbB5YGTCpnaU2BmkJl42id8oIMek0k1rFskG-LiwhHATaPaa4ut/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="904" height="560" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc512WcmgW-lhfRo-UtbTEC8MCVham_i68XNlK9d0WLTMLVBDSK_JgpaxdO4Wv1qywrZMDnOQ8spjt5yJgYGKW2peJErbB5YGTCpnaU2BmkJl42id8oIMek0k1rFskG-LiwhHATaPaa4ut/w396-h560/image.png" width="396" /></a></div><br /><br /><p></p>Sharifhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03683966146725270053noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5909131535009425348.post-10737493179412810372020-12-27T15:18:00.007-08:002021-01-09T23:47:21.087-08:00The Qur'an and the Secrets of Egypt<p>My friend Abu Zakariya of <a href="https://www.manyprophetsonemessage.com/">ManyProphetsOneMessage</a> has just released this high-quality video, based partly on research I have gathered here on this blog—though I have learned several new things from it myself. I highly recommend checking it out, along with his <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJdLNnAZb1cc-tL6B64dZvA">other videos</a> and resources. <br /><br /><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/c2ovILc_sKY" width="320" youtube-src-id="c2ovILc_sKY"></iframe></div><div><br /></div><div>Note: There is one inaccuracy that should be pointed out, which is that the Qur’anic hāmān and the Egyptian ḥm-‘mn do not phonetically correspond, since the former has /h/ (Arabic ه) and the latter has /ḥ/ (equivalent to Arabic ح). They therefore cannot be related.</div>Sharifhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03683966146725270053noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5909131535009425348.post-66018061075089001732020-12-20T22:17:00.003-08:002020-12-20T22:19:02.216-08:00Excellent resource on ring composition in the Qur'anIt has been a long time since I have posted here! I wanted to give a shout out here to Munir Eltal's blog <a href="https://heavenlyorder.substack.com">https://heavenlyorder.substack.com</a>. He is doing an excellent service by trying to collect everything together on symmetry, chiasmus, or ring composition in the Qur'an into one place. I have shared some examples here on my blog—but see his for many, many more.Sharifhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03683966146725270053noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5909131535009425348.post-4038979463686813722020-07-10T20:06:00.003-07:002020-07-10T20:06:58.034-07:00Online course on the Qur'an, the Bible, and HistoryI will be offering the following online course starting next month, إن شاء الله, which will be free in light of the pandemic. Anyone who is interested, do register quickly, as the seats are already filling up very fast.<br />
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<a href="https://www.albalaghacademy.com/course/the-quran-the-bible-history-online-course/?fbclid=IwAR09D0uJzG-gTxGB3VboNa75nv6SpBiXYiCrzfyEoeDMQAxWc6n469Dbojk">https://www.albalaghacademy.com/course/the-quran-the-bible-history-online-course/?fbclid=IwAR09D0uJzG-gTxGB3VboNa75nv6SpBiXYiCrzfyEoeDMQAxWc6n469Dbojk</a><br />
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<img alt="Image may contain: 2 people, including Sharif Randhawa, text" src="https://scontent-ort2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/107839431_1596572370524191_4876428971804233918_o.jpg?_nc_cat=111&_nc_sid=8024bb&_nc_ohc=f-ANfahJelgAX97dSiW&_nc_ht=scontent-ort2-1.xx&oh=8a7de177c2b209ebf7702c36c03206f4&oe=5F2D113B" />Sharifhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03683966146725270053noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5909131535009425348.post-33707120651650648422018-09-08T23:02:00.001-07:002018-09-08T23:57:30.866-07:00Travel Reflection: The Native American Spirit<div style="color: #1d2129; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px;">
Over the last week, I have been on an enthralling road trip heading home from the west coast of the U.S. (from Washington State) to the east coast (to New York State). So far, it has been an incredible journey of nature and history. However, today I was so impacted by what I learned and experienced that I felt compelled to immediately share it.</div>
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Since yesterday, I have been in Rapid City, South Dakota. Today I had the opportunity to visit Mount Rushmore. It was of course fascinating to visit such an artistic and engineering feat and testimony to American history that I have only seen in pictures my whole life. But what impacted me far more was another memorial that I think most people do not know about, as I did not know about it myself until arriving here.</div>
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This is the Crazy Horse Memorial located only a short drive away from Mount Rushmore. In 1948, a Native American chief from the Oglala Lakota tribe by the name of “Henry” Standing Bear commissioned a Polish-American sculptor named Korczak Ziolkowski to sculpt a Native American memorial into a mountain not far from Mount Rushmore. Standing Bear was a Native American born into Native American culture, but who attended an American school that attempted to restyle its Native American students by giving them Anglo-Saxon names, cutting their hair, requiring them to wear Western clothing, and forbidding them from speaking their native language. Standing Bear proved to be an outstanding student and acquired a profound eloquence in the English language, but did not forget his roots and the plight of his people, using his education and eloquence to become a spokesperson for Native American causes. Ziolkowski was born in Boston to Polish immigrants, but was orphaned at one year of age and spent a difficult childhood moving from one foster home to another. However, over time he made a name for himself as a prominent sculptor.<br />
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The carving of Mount Rushmore alerted Standing Bear to the need for a memorial to tell the Native American side of American history. Ziolkowski soon became dedicated to this cause, and embarked on a project to sculpt a Native American memorial in the mountains of South Dakota that would rival Mount Rushmore, and to use the funds from tourists to establish a museum dedicated to educating people about Native American culture and history, as well as a medical center and a university to train Native Americans in medicine, law, and other fields. When Ziolkowski consulted the Oglala Lakota leaders as to whom they would like the mountain sculpture to portray, they all agreed on Crazy Horse.</div>
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Crazy Horse was a Oglala Lakota leader who successfully fought against encroaching American settlers to protect the land and way of life of his people. His most famous victory was in the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876, also known as Custer’s Last Stand, in reference to Crazy Horse’s defeat of the Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer and his forces. The following year, Crazy Horse died after being arrested by the settler military post guard and stabbed with a bayonet by one of its members. He was a Native American hero who was respected not only by his own people, but even by his enemies. In 1982, he was ranked among the “Great Americans” by U.S. Postal Service<br />
who issued a postage stamp in his honor.</div>
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Korczak Ziolkowski died before completing the Crazy Horse sculpture, but his family has continued the project in admirable dedication to sharing the Native American side of the American story.<br />
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When I exited the Crazy Horse visitor center and museum, it was raining outside. As I headed for my car, I turned in the direction of the Crazy Horse sculpture to take one last picture. To my amazement, a rainbow had formed right next to it, and I was delighted to be able to capture such a moment:<br />
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It is significant that even settlers from the time of Columbus, who treated the Native Americans in extremely inhumane ways over the course of centuries, admitted that the nobility, generosity, and spiritual devotion these people were beyond anything they had ever witnessed.</div>
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The following is the text of an extremely beautiful and moving Native American prayer to the “Great Spirit,” the Native American term for God, that I saw in the museum:</div>
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Prayer to the Great Spirit</div>
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“Oh Great Spirit, Giver of All Life,</div>
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You have been always, and before you nothing has been. </div>
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Look and smile upon us your children,</div>
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So that we may live this day to serve You.</div>
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Watch over my relatives, the red, black, white and brown.</div>
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Sweeten my heart and fill me with light this day.</div>
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Give me strength to understand and the eyes to see.</div>
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Help me Great Spirit, for without you, I am nothing.”</div>
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- Paul War Cloud</div>
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As a side note, I have been extremely amazed to learn recently of the profound and striking similarities between the faith and praxis of Native American religion and that of Islam. As the Quran says, God has imprinted the souls of all people with an instinctual faith and moral compass, and has appointed “a messenger among every community” to remind, show, and teach them of the divine path (10:47; 16:36). I highly recommend this fascinating discussion on the topic, drawing on the book ‘The Gospel of the Red Man’ by Ernest Thompson Seton: <a data-ft="{"tn":"-U"}" data-lynx-mode="async" data-lynx-uri="https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DrHnGYAGCv9g%26t%3D493s&h=AT2oo1vEpZ84jFm5lvaWc8CCyaXaC7lKCtODuvqxZiSTe_BmKO5brjMcZzcW6WnIdqSXxKBxcwS3JfkqJlR4xkOmJ0TyeLiuYjyncL2Y4GabWKh64Yh0hO5mdmijaA_xeTlCIl8wxGM8FcgOwHYTcfVyVUjrbjLDUXy2ceYCToQMngKHQpQJRlCvFSUgwUKjSkPPoqNykXJpctlEZ6JerQ-qKyspTSnMfXvrTZXZH3ksTdvvfFLSEhzUqqc7n0aV3kR7LrMl72gwXD1FNggT5tKwiADGOv_ZsK8Ze3OLZWFSGeHdBMjsvLVmpxB8cgg-ZUwBbhZQp7QUza7fG7C37CBT-Nzr3xD_RNhUCQWawi9UxbKsE0oAnSft62I_wAK9Rksd0hBepIHcatao8lbej_r135YYOOZx-lKaxg" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHnGYAGCv9g&t=493s" rel="noopener nofollow" style="color: #365899; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHnGYAGCv9g&t=493s</a>.</div>
Sharifhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03683966146725270053noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5909131535009425348.post-9753129707116807992018-08-20T09:23:00.003-07:002018-08-20T09:35:55.886-07:00Islam: The Legacy of Abraham (Part II)<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> <b><i>2. Mecca as the Birthplace of Islam</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Surat al-Baqara then goes on to narrate that God ordered Abraham and Ishmael to build the Ka‘ba as a “sanctuary” and “center for mankind.” Abraham in turn prays to God to make the land into a safe and prosperous city:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 14pt;">We made the House a center for mankind and sanctuary, saying, “Take the spot where Abraham stood as your place of prayer.” We commanded Abraham and Ishmael: “Purify My House for those who walk round it, those who stay there, and those who bow and prostrate themselves in worship.” Abraham said, ‘My Lord, make this a secure city and provide with produce those of its people who believe in God and the Last Day.” (2:125-126)</span><a href="https://mail.google.com/mail/u/1/#m_-7357476148891155420__ftn4" name="m_-7357476148891155420__ftnref4" style="color: #1155cc; line-height: 14pt;" title=""><span class="gmail-m_-7357476148891155420gmail-MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="gmail-m_-7357476148891155420gmail-MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">[1]</span></span></span></a></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Thus, the Ka‘ba became the earthly symbol of <i>islām</i>, and Mecca became its spiritual capital.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Moreover, it was here, upon completing the building of the Ka‘ba, that Abraham prayed to God to elect from his descendants a <i>muslim</i> nation:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 14pt;">As Abraham and Ishmael built up the foundations of the House [they prayed], “Our Lord, accept [this] from us. You are the All Hearing, the All Knowing. Our Lord, make us submitted to You (</span><i style="line-height: 14pt;">muslimayni la-ka</i><span style="line-height: 14pt;">), and make from our descendants a nation submitted to you (</span><i style="line-height: 14pt;">ummatan muslimatan la-ka</i><span style="line-height: 14pt;">)…Our Lord, make a messenger of their own rise up from among them, to recite Your revelations to them, teach them the Scripture and wisdom, and purify them: You are the Mighty, the Wise.” (2:127-129)</span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Hence, the Qur’an teaches us that the sending of Muhammad as a messenger (peace be upon him) and the Qur’anic revelation are both in fact part of the legacy of Abraham, stemming from the prayer he made upon building and consecrating the Ka‘ba.</span></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">3. Surat al-Baqara: The Establishment of the Muslim Nation</span></i></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Surat al-Baqara, which was mostly revealed in the first and second years of the Hijra, is a historic sura, because this is the sura in which Allah declared the establishment of the Muslim <i>umma</i> or nation. It is meant to be “a middle nation,” balanced between the excesses of the Jewish and Christian communities, and to serve (like Abraham) as an example for the rest of mankind:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 14pt;">The foolish people will say, “What has turned them away from the prayer direction they used to face?” Say, “East and West belong to Allah. He guides whoever He will to the right way.” Thus We have made you into a middle nation (</span><i style="line-height: 14pt;">ummatan wasaṭan</i><span style="line-height: 14pt;">), so that you may bear witness [to the truth] before others and so that the Messenger may bear witness [to it] before you. (2:142-143)</span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">With the Hijra, the Muslims had become socially and politically separate and independent from the Quraysh. Subsequently, when Allah announced the change of the prayer direction from the Temple of Jerusalem to the Ka‘ba—“the first house [of worship] established for mankind” (3:96)—He formally distinguished the religion of the Muslims from that of the Jews. Hence, the above passage marks the very foundation of the Muslims as an independent nation and religious community.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This is highlighted by the structure of Surat al-Baqara itself. The sura has the following overall structure, with the change of prayer direction being the central section of the sura:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>A. Faith and Disbelief (vv. 1-39)</b>: Believers and disbelievers; God created and will resurrect.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>B. Criticism of the Israelites (vv. 40-121)</b>: Moses delivers law to Children of Israel; Children of Israel fail to submit.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>C. Abraham’s legacy (vv. 122-141)</b>: Abraham was tested; Ka‘ba built by Abraham and Ishmael; prayer that descendants will return to monotheism and submit to God.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>D. The change of prayer direction to the Ka‘ba (vv. 142-152)</b>: the new Muslim community is established as a “middle nation” who believe and compete in doing good works.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>C’. Restoring Abraham’s legacy (vv. 153-177)</b>: Muslims will be tested; instructions about pilgrimage to Mecca; warning not to take ancestors or their gods as rivals besides God.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>B’. Laws for the new Muslim nation (vv. 178-242)</b>: Prophet delivers law to Muslims; Muslims exhorted to submit wholeheartedly.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>A’. The struggle of the believers against the disbelievers (vv. 243-286)</b>: Believers in struggle against disbelievers; God’s power over creation and to resurrect; laws of financial dealings.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The sura therefore “revolves” around the Ka‘ba, much as believers circle around the Ka‘ba during the Hajj. Moreover, the statement “We have made you into a middle community,” occurs in the middle verse of the sura: the sura has 286 verses, and this declaration occurs in verse 143.<a href="https://mail.google.com/mail/u/1/#m_-7357476148891155420__ftn5" name="m_-7357476148891155420__ftnref5" style="color: #1155cc;" title=""><span class="gmail-m_-7357476148891155420gmail-MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="gmail-m_-7357476148891155420gmail-MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">[2]</span></span></span></a> This serves to highlight the change of prayer direction towards the Ka‘ba built by Abraham, and the establishment of the Muslim community, as the central feature of this sura.</span></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">4. The Foundations of Islam</span></i></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">From the above, we see that the Hajj (and hence, ‘Eid al-Adha) is a commemoration of the tradition of <i>islām</i>—submission to the One God—that traces back to Abraham, and which was restored during the prophetic mission of Muhammad (peace be upon them). It is also a celebration of the prayer of Abraham as he built the Ka‘ba with Ishmael, which was fulfilled in the establishment of the Muslim nation, formalized by the change of prayer direction to the Sacred House. The Ka‘ba is the symbol of this nation—a “sanctuary” and “place of return for mankind”; Mecca is its spiritual capital; the Qur’an is its constitution; and the days of Hajj and ‘Eid al-Adha are among its holidays. In sum, during these these days, we commemorate the faith, sacrifice, and submission of Abraham; remember him as our spiritual forefather; recall how he revived monotheism and consecrated the Ka‘ba to the worship of God; and how that monotheism was again restored by Muhammad (peace be upon him) and the Qur’an, in fulfillment of Abraham’s prayer.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As Islam is the “religion of Abraham,” the other four pillars of Islam also go back to him:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">1. The first pillar is to testify that there is nothing to worthy of worship except Allah, and that Muhammad is His Messenger. The connection with Abraham is obvious, since it is he who revived monotheism when the world was immersed in idol worship, and the role of Muhammad’s mission was to restore the legacy of Abraham (peace be upon them).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">2. The ritual prayer, or <i>ṣalāh</i>, is rooted in Abraham’s supplication, “My Lord, make me an establisher of the prayer, and many from my descendants” (14:40). Moreover, during the prayer direct ourselves towards the Ka‘ba, the Sacred House built by Abraham.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">3. The poor-due, or <i>zakāh</i>, harks back to Abraham through his son Ishmael: “And mention in the scripture Ishmael. He was true to his promise and was a prophet-messenger; and he used to enjoin prayer and the poor-due, and he was pleasing to His Lord” (19:54-55).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">4. The obligation to fast during Ramadan was revealed in Surat al-Baqara, following the formal establishment of the Muslim <i>umma</i>. According to this passage, the purpose of Ramadan is to commemorate the Qur’an:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It was in the month of Ramadan that the Qur’an was revealed as guidance for mankind, clear messages giving guidance and distinguishing between right and wrong. So any one of you who is present that month should fast…He wants you to complete the prescribed period and to glorify Him for having guided you, so that you may be thankful (2:185). </span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 14pt;">The revelation of the Qur’an, as we have seen before, was the fulfillment of Abraham’s prayer. Hence, all five pillars of Islam go back to Abraham.</span></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">5. The Hajj as a Divine Miracle</span></i></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We saw above that Allah says in Surat al-Baqara,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 14pt;">We made the House a center for mankind. (2:125)</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The word for center, <i>mathāba</i>, denotes “a place that is much frequented and serves as a point of congregation for people.”<a href="https://mail.google.com/mail/u/1/#m_-7357476148891155420__ftn6" name="m_-7357476148891155420__ftnref6" style="color: #1155cc;" title=""><span class="gmail-m_-7357476148891155420gmail-MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="gmail-m_-7357476148891155420gmail-MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">[3]</span></span></span></a> The Qur’an is filled with divine promises that Muhammad and his followers would conquer Mecca, liberate the Ka‘ba from idolatry, and restore it as a center for the worship of One God. It also contains indications that the Prophet’s message would be a universal one. The majority of these prophecies were revealed in the Meccan period, while the Muslims were still a small, persecuted minority, without any tangible hope of accomplishing such lofty aspirations.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Today, millions of men and women around the world travel each year to Mecca for Hajj. When visiting the Ka‘ba, they recall the legacy of Abraham and the fulfilled prophecy of the success of the mission of the Prophet and his companions. By participating in the rites of Hajj with millions of other believers, they are also reminded of the spread of the Abrahamic message from a small, persecuted religious group in Mecca, to now every corner of the globe. This message is that God is One and that all human beings are equally His creatures and servants. The Hajj is the largest gathering of people from all races, nationalities, languages, and social classes in the world. As they pray together and circle around the Ka‘ba in harmony, they are united in the worship of God and the acknowledgement of human equality, of which the Ka‘ba is a symbol. The Hajj is a veritable miracle of Islam—a living testimony to the fulfillment of the divine promises to Abraham reported in the Qur’an and the previous scriptures.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Further reading:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "symbol";">·<span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span>F.E. Peters, <i>The Children of Abraham: Judaism, Christianity, Islam</i> (Princeton University Press, 2010).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "symbol";">·<span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span>Jon D. Levenson, <i>Inheriting Abraham: The Legacy of the Patriarch in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam</i>(Princeton University Press, 2012).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "symbol";">·<span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span>Neal Robinson, “Surat Al ‘Imran and Those with the Greatest Claim to Abraham,” <i>Journal of Qur’anic Studies</i> 6, no. 2 (2004): 1-21.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "symbol";">·<span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span>Angelika Neuwirth, “The House of Abraham and the House of Amram,” in <i>The Qur’an in Context</i>, pp. 499-503.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "symbol";">·<span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span>Mustansir Mir, <i>Understanding the Islamic Scripture: A Study of Selected Passages from the Qur’an</i> (N.p.: Pearson Education, 2008), pp. 29-34.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "symbol";">·<span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span>Nouman Ali Khan and Sharif Randhawa, <i>Divine Speech: Exploring the Quran as Literature</i> (Euless, TX: Bayyinah Institute, 2016), pp. 195-212, 224-231.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://mail.google.com/mail/u/1/#m_-7357476148891155420__ftnref4" name="m_-7357476148891155420__ftn4" style="color: #1155cc;" title=""><span class="gmail-m_-7357476148891155420gmail-MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="gmail-m_-7357476148891155420gmail-MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">[1]</span></span></span></a> A parallel account in 14:35-41 reports the settling of Mecca by Abraham: “Our Lord, I have established some of my offspring in an uncultivated valley, close to Your Sacred House, Lord, so that they may keep up the prayer. Make people’s hearts turn to them, and provide them with produce, so that they may be thankful” (14:37).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://mail.google.com/mail/u/1/#m_-7357476148891155420__ftnref5" name="m_-7357476148891155420__ftn5" style="color: #1155cc;" title=""><span class="gmail-m_-7357476148891155420gmail-MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="gmail-m_-7357476148891155420gmail-MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">[2]</span></span></span></a> See Nouman Ali Khan and Sharif Randhawa, <i>Divine Speech: Exploring the Quran as Literature</i> (Euless, TX: Bayyinah Institute, 2016), pp. 209-210.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://mail.google.com/mail/u/1/#m_-7357476148891155420__ftnref6" name="m_-7357476148891155420__ftn6" style="color: #1155cc;" title=""><span class="gmail-m_-7357476148891155420gmail-MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="gmail-m_-7357476148891155420gmail-MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">[3]</span></span></span></a> Mir, 31.</span></div>
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Sharifhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03683966146725270053noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5909131535009425348.post-1971570257900666772018-08-20T09:16:00.002-07:002018-08-20T12:26:07.953-07:00Islam: The Legacy of Abraham (Part I)<div style="color: #222222;">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 14pt;">“</span><i style="line-height: 14pt;">Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘…I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed</i><span style="line-height: 14pt;">.</span><span style="line-height: 14pt;">” (Genesis 12:1-3)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 14pt;">“</span><i style="line-height: 14pt;">God said, ‘I will make you a leader for mankind</i><span style="line-height: 14pt;">.</span><i style="line-height: 14pt;">’</i><span style="line-height: 14pt;">” (Qur’an, 2:124)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In the season of Hajj, it is important to remember and reflect on what the Hajj is about. That is what I intend to do briefly here in these posts, focusing on a particular Qur’anic passage that explains this theme. This passage is Abraham’s prayer of consecration as he is building the Ka‘ba with his son Ishmael (peace be upon them), as it is recorded in Sura 2, <i>The Cow</i> (<i>al-Baqara</i>), in verses 124-129. This passage occupies a central place in the Qur’an as far as salvation history is concerned, and it is no accident that it occurs in the beginning of the Qur’an, in the very second sura. This sura, and in particular this passage, explains the very foundations of Islam as a religion. Before we dive into this passage, however, there is some background that is worth briefly examining.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span> <b><i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">1. Abraham: The Father of the Muslim Nation</span></i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In various places in the Qur’an, Allah specifically dubs Islam “the religion of Abraham” (<i>millat Ibrāhīm</i>). For example, in response to some members of the Jewish and Christian communities in Medina, who criticized the Muslims for not following their religions, the Muslims are repeatedly told to “Follow the religion of Abraham, <i>ḥanīfan</i>; and he was not one of those who associate partners with God” (2:135; 3:95; 4:125; 6:161; 16:123). At the conclusion of Surat al-Hajj, Allah even calls Islam “the religion <i>of your father</i> Abraham (<i>millati abīkum ibrāhīm</i>)”:</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 14pt;">Strive hard for Allah as is His due: He has chosen you and has not placed on your religion any difficulty—the religion of your forefather Abraham. He named you </span><i style="line-height: 14pt;">muslims</i><span style="line-height: 14pt;"> in the past and in this [message]. (22:78)</span></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Thus, according to the Qur’an, Abraham (peace be upon him) is the spiritual father of the Muslim nation, and Islam is to be understood primarily as “the religion of Abraham.”</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It is important to understand the background of this declaration. The Qur’an’s interlocutors consisted on the one hand of the pagan Quraysh of Mecca, and on the other hand of the Jewish and Christian communities in Medina and elsewhere. The Quraysh of Mecca claimed their status as the leaders of the holy city and the custodians of the Ka‘ba on the basis of their descent from Abraham through his son Ishmael. Likewise, the Jewish community looked to Abraham, whom they called “our father Abraham,” as both their physical father and as the spiritual father of Judaism. Christians also claimed Abraham as their spiritual forefather: Paul claimed Abraham, who was justified by faith rather than by adherence to the Jewish law, as the archetype of Christian faith, and declared Christians to be the children of Abraham in faith apart from obedience to the revealed Law (Rom. 4; Gal. 3).<a href="https://mail.google.com/mail/u/1/#m_8532280571889211470__ftn1" name="m_8532280571889211470__ftnref1" style="color: #1155cc;" title=""><span class="gmail-m_8532280571889211470gmail-MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="gmail-m_8532280571889211470gmail-MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">[1]</span></span></span></a> The Qur’an turns each of these claims on its head, asserting,</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 14pt;">Abraham was neither a Jew nor a Christian, but was a </span><i style="line-height: 14pt;">ḥanīf</i><span style="line-height: 14pt;">; and he was not one of those who associate partners with God (3:95).</span></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Qur’an thus responds to the claims of the pagan Quraysh by pointing out that “Abraham was a <i>ḥanīf</i>—and he was not one of those who associate partners with God.” The word <i>ḥanīf</i>, which I have abstained from translating, is generally understood to mean a follower of the natural, inborn monotheism that is innate to human nature. As a <i>ḥanīf</i>, Abraham’s faith differed too from that of Christians, as it was basic, unitarian monotheism, free from the complications of the Trinity and other later Christian dogmas. Nor was Abraham a Jew in his religious practice, because he preceded the revelation of the Torah. Rather, he was a <i>muslim</i>, one who surrendered himself unconditionally to God’s commands, without restricting them to what would later become Jewish law and tradition.<a href="https://mail.google.com/mail/u/1/#m_8532280571889211470__ftn2" name="m_8532280571889211470__ftnref2" style="color: #1155cc;" title=""><span class="gmail-m_8532280571889211470gmail-MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="gmail-m_8532280571889211470gmail-MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">[2]</span></span></span></a> As the Qur’an also says, “People of the Scripture, why do you dispute about Abraham, while the Torah and the Gospel were not revealed until after him? Do you not reason?” (3:65).</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Qur’an pronounces Abraham to instead be the father of the Muslim nation, in both faith and practice. In terms of faith, it is Abraham who restored monotheism in an age when the world had become almost completely immersed in polytheism and idolatry. It would likewise be the role of the Muslims to restore this pristine monotheism to the world, starting with the city and house that Abraham had originally founded for the purpose of worshiping the One God. In terms of his practice, Abraham was a perfect model of <i>islām</i>, fully submitting himself to divine command, even though he received the most difficult commands out of any human being. For this reason, Surat al-Baqara states,</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 14pt;">Abraham’s Lord tested him with instructions, and he fulfilled them completely. (2:124)</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In the Arabic text of this verse, “Abraham,” who is the direct object, is <i>muqaddam</i>, meaning that it is shifted to the beginning of the sentence, against the normal order of a sentence in Arabic. This shift serves to highlight that Abraham was tested in a unique way, like no one else before or after him. Moreover, the word “instructions” (<i>kalimāt</i>, literally “words”) indicates that that the tests were several, rather than being restricted to a single one. Abraham was repeatedly tested with divine instructions that no one else was tested with, and in these tests, he demonstrated the highest level of <i>islām</i>, or submission to God.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Two of these unique tests occurred in association with what would subsequently become the city of Mecca. The first of these was God’s command to Abraham to leave his wife Hagar and his infant son Ishmael in the middle of the Arabian desert, without any food, water, shelter, or company. This was a test primarily of Abraham’s and Hagar’s faith and trust in God’s providence. The test resulted in miraculous origins of the well of Zamzam, marking the land that would later become Mecca. This story is narrated in the Bible, in Genesis 21:</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 14pt;">When the water in the skin was gone, she cast the child under one of the bushes. Then she went and sat down opposite him a good way off, about the distance of a bowshot; for she said, “Do not let me look on the death of the child.” And as she sat opposite him, she lifted up her voice and wept. And God heard the voice of the boy; and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven, and said to her, “What troubles you, Hagar? Do not be afraid; for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is. Come, lift up the boy and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make a great nation of him.” Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. She went, and filled the skin with water, and gave the boy a drink. (Gen. 21:15-19) </span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This test also resulted in the tradition of running seven times between the hills of Safa and Marwa, which would become part of the Hajj, in commemoration of Hagar’s distraught search for water for Ishmael.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The second of these unique tests was that, years later, Abraham was given the command to sacrifice his son Ishmael:</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 14pt;">He said, “I will go to my Lord: He is sure to guide me. Lord, grant me a righteous son,” so We gave him the good news that he would have a patient son. When the boy was old enough to work with his father, Abraham said, “My son, I have seen myself sacrificing you in a dream. What do you think?” He said, “Father, do as you are commanded and, God willing, you will find me steadfast.” When they had both submitted (</span><i style="line-height: 14pt;">aslamā</i><span style="line-height: 14pt;">) to God, and he had laid his son down on the side of his face, We called out to him, “Abraham, you have fulfilled the dream.” This is how We reward those who do good––it was a test to prove [their true characters]––We ransomed his son with a momentous sacrifice, and We let him be praised by succeeding generations: “Peace be upon Abraham!” This is how We reward those who do good: truly he was one of Our faithful servants. (37:99-111; cf. Gen 22:1-19)</span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span> <span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This also was a test primarily of Abraham’s faith and trust in God, because God had previously promised Abraham that he would make him a great nation through his seed.[3] Surat al-Baqara continues to narrate that as a result of Abraham’s unwavering faith and obedience, God announced to him, “I will make you a leader for mankind” (2:124). Abraham thus became the spiritual role model for the rest of mankind, an example of unconditional trust in God and surrender (<i>islām</i>) to His command. During the Hajj season and ‘Eid al-Adha, it is his example that we remember and commemorate.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span> <span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">[1] See F.E. Peters, <i>The Children of Abraham: Judaism, Christianity, Islam</i> (Princeton University Press, 2010); Jon D. Levenson, <i>Inheriting Abraham: The Legacy of the Patriarch in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam</i> (Princeton University Press, 2012). </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span> <span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">[2] In this article, I am using the term “<i class="">islam</i>” in two senses. When spelled “<i>islām</i>,” I will be referring to <i class="">islam</i> as the spiritual state of self-surrender to God, the religion that all of God’s messengers called to. When spelled “Islam,” I will be referring to the manifestation of this that was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) through the Qur’an and in the form of the Islamic Shari‘a. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #222222;"><br /></span> <span style="color: #222222;">[3] According to some Biblical scholars, this test and the replacement of Abraham’s son with a ram had the further significance of abolishing child sacrifice, which was a widespread religious practice in the ancient Near East.</span></span></div>
Sharifhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03683966146725270053noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5909131535009425348.post-33491279654363784222018-02-22T06:20:00.002-08:002018-02-22T07:11:52.434-08:00Contented Soul<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">I have been writing poetry on and off since my mid-teens, but tend not to share it publicly because most of it is so personal. However, I felt like this new one is worth sharing here as an expression of how the Quran has shaped my understanding of and relationship with God, and my understanding of own humble place in existence. Each stanza contains allusions to verses of the Quran (see how many you can find). The title comes from sura 89, "The Dawn" (al-Fajr), verses 27-28.</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Contented Soul</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">You chose me for existence</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"> And breathed me into being,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">You fashioned my very essence,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"> my hearing, and my seeing.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Upon this earth you placed me</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"> For this momentous test</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Of faithfulness and virtue,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"> And for truth, a sacred quest.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">So in this pain and struggle</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"> I toil through each day,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">But Your love sustains me</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"> As I continue on my way.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">And through my each endeavor</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"> And through everything I learn,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">On this alone I set my hopes</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"> And for this alone I yearn:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">To return to You in mercy</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"> With a heart peaceful and whole,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"> As a contented soul,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">To enter Your blessed garden</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"> Where Your servants roam,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">And in Your love and mercy dwell</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">As my final, lasting home.</span><br />
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Sharifhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03683966146725270053noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5909131535009425348.post-85610839383078690072018-02-18T12:55:00.000-08:002018-02-18T12:55:09.862-08:00God’s Promises: The Miraculous Fulfillment of Prophecy in the Quran (Part II)<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In this post we will look at two more examples of prophecies in the Quran that are implicit in its stories. I put these examples together since they highlight similar themes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">2. The Defeat of Idolatry in Mecca</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">Sura 21, <i>The Prophets</i> (<i>al- Anbiyā’</i>), is another sura revealed towards the later years of the Meccan period, when the Prophet Muhammad and his followers were a small minority persecuted for their faith and preaching against idolatry and other vices in the society of Mecca. This sura foreshadows the demise of idolatry in Mecca:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">بَلْ نَقْذِفُ بِالْحَقِّ عَلَى الْبَاطِلِ فَيَدْمَغُهُ <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">فَإِذَا هُوَ زَاهِقٌ </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "courier new";">ۚ</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">وَلَكُمُ الْوَيْلُ مِمَّا تَصِفُونَ<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">Nay, We dash the truth against falsehood and it shatters it—</span></i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">and behold, it perishes!</span></i><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">Yours is blame for what you ascribe (to God). </span></i><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">(21:18)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">The context of this passage is the setting up of idols as partners in the worship of God. The language of "dashing" the truth against falsehood and "smashing" it anticipates Abraham's destruction of his people's idols later in the sura.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">A later passage in the sura states:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">أَمْ لَهُمْ آلِهَةٌ تَمْنَعُهُم مِّن دُونِنَا </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "courier new";">ۚ</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";"> </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">لَا يَسْتَطِيعُونَ نَصْرَ أَنفُسِهِمْ وَلَا هُم مِّنَّا يُصْحَبُونَ</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">بَلْ مَتَّعْنَا هَٰؤُلَاءِ وَآبَاءَهُمْ حَتَّىٰ طَالَ عَلَيْهِمُ الْعُمُرُ </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "courier new";">ۗ</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";"> </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">أَفَلَا يَرَوْنَ أَنَّا نَأْتِي الْأَرْضَ نَنقُصُهَا مِنْ أَطْرَافِهَا </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "courier new";">ۚ</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";"> أَفَهُمُ الْغَالِبُونَ</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">أَفَلَا يَرَوْنَ أَنَّا نَأْتِي الْأَرْضَ نَنقُصُهَا مِنْ أَطْرَافِهَا </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "courier new";">ۚ</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">أَفَهُمُ الْغَالِبُونَ</span></div>
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<!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">Do they have gods who can defend them against Us? </span></i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">They have no power to help themselves, nor can they be protected from Us.</span></i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">We have allowed these sinners and their forefathers to enjoy life for a long time.</span></i><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";"> <i><u>But do they not see how We are shrinking their borders? </u></i></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><u><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">Is it they who will prevail?<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5909131535009425348#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12.0pt;">[1]</span></u></b></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a></span></u></i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">(21:43-44)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">This was a remarkable claim during the Meccan period, when the Quraysh were still fully in power in Mecca, and the Muslims were only a small and powerless minority group within their dominion. Further still, the concluding section of the sura states:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">وَلَقَدْ كَتَبْنَا فِي الزَّبُورِ مِن بَعْدِ الذِّكْرِ <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">أَنَّ الْأَرْضَ يَرِثُهَا عِبَادِيَ الصَّالِحُونَ<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">إِنَّ فِي هَٰذَا لَبَلَاغًا لِّقَوْمٍ عَابِدِينَ</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial";"><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" /></span></div>
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<i><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">We wrote in the Psalms, as We did in earlier Scripture: </span></i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">"My righteous servants will inherit the earth."</span></i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">Truly in this there is a message for people of worship.</span></i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">(21:105-106)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">The middle of the sura (vv. 51-67) narrates a famous story from Jewish tradition in which a young Abraham demolishes the idols of his city temple. He exclaims:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">وَتَاللَّهِ لَأَكِيدَنَّ أَصْنَامَكُم <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">بَعْدَ أَن تُوَلُّوا مُدْبِرِينَ<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">فَجَعَلَهُمْ جُذَاذًا<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">"By God, I shall certainly plot against your idols </span></i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">as soon as you have turned your backs!"</span></i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">So he broke them all into pieces.</span></i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">(21:57)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">This sura states that God is soon going to cause the land in control of the idolatrous Quraysh of Mecca to shrink, cause God's righteous servants to inherit the land, and abolish idolatry in the Abrahamic sanctuary of Mecca. In this context, the story of the young Abraham smashing his people's idols is not merely a polemical refutation of the idolatry of the Quraysh. It is foreshadowing the destruction of the idols of the Ka'ba—an event that happened many years later, in the Conquest of Mecca.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5909131535009425348#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12.0pt;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">3. The Liberation of the Ka'ba Under Muhammad's Leadership</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">A comparable prophecy occurs a little later, within the first two years after the Prophet Muhammad and his followers emigrated to Medina. It occurs in the final section of Sura 2, "The Cow" (al-Baqara), which prepared the Muslims for their upcoming first battle against the Quraysh, which would be the Battle of Badr. This would be a battle in which the Muslims of Medina would be outnumbered two or threefold (see 3:13), and be severely disadvantaged in terms of manpower, arms, and resources. This passage retells the Biblical story of Saul, albeit in a very new way that served as a parable for the new situation in Medina, in which the Prophet had been appointed the political and judicial head of the city.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">وَقَالَ لَهُمْ نَبِيُّهُمْ <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">إِنَّ اللَّهَ قَدْ بَعَثَ لَكُمْ طَالُوتَ مَلِكًا </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "courier new";">ۚ</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">قَالُوا أَنَّىٰ يَكُونُ لَهُ الْمُلْكُ عَلَيْنَا <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">وَنَحْنُ أَحَقُّ بِالْمُلْكِ مِنْهُ <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">وَلَمْ يُؤْتَ سَعَةً مِّنَ الْمَالِ </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "courier new";">ۚ</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">قَالَ إِنَّ اللَّهَ اصْطَفَاهُ عَلَيْكُمْ <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">وَزَادَهُ بَسْطَةً فِي الْعِلْمِ وَالْجِسْمِ </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "courier new";">ۖ</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">وَاللَّهُ يُؤْتِي مُلْكَهُ مَن يَشَاءُ </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "courier new";">ۚ</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">وَاللَّهُ وَاسِعٌ عَلِيمٌ<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">Their prophet (Samuel) said to them: </span></i><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">"God has appointed Saul as a king for you."</span></i><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">They said, "How can he be the king over us, </span></i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">while we are more entitled to sovereignty</span></i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">and he does not have an abundance of wealth?"</span></i><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">He replied, "God has chosen him over you, </span></i><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">and increased him in stature, knowledge, and bodily strength.</span></i><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">God gives sovereignty to whomever He pleases.</span></i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">God is expansive and knowing."</span></i><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">(2:247)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">This story reflects the fact that there were elements in the Prophet's community who had long held political ambitions in Medina, and thus harbored feelings of resentment that the Prophet—an outsider distinguished neither by wealth, prestige, or political reputation—was instead made a leader over them. Through the story of Saul's divine selection as king, this passage implicitly responds by saying that the Prophet was chosen by God to lead and given more worthy qualities of leadership. The prophet in the story, named in the Bible as Samuel, then provides a prophecy whose fulfillment will confirm this:</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">وَقَالَ لَهُمْ نَبِيُّهُمْ <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">إِنَّ آيَةَ مُلْكِهِ أَن يَأْتِيَكُمُ التَّابُوتُ <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">فِيهِ سَكِينَةٌ مِّن رَّبِّكُم </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">وَبَقِيَّةٌ مِّمَّا تَرَكَ آلُ مُوسَىٰ وَآلُ هَارُونَ</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";"> تَحْمِلُهُ الْمَلَائِكَةُ </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "courier new";">ۚ</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">إِنَّ فِي ذَٰلِكَ لَآيَةً لَّكُمْ إِن كُنتُم مُّؤْمِنِينَ</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">Their prophet said to them:</span></i><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">"A sign of his sovereignty is that that the Ark will return to you</span></i><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">containing tranquility from your Lord </span></i><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">and relics from what was left by the families of Moses and Aaron, </span></i><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">carried by angels.</span></i><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">Truly in that will be a sign for you if you are to have faith."</span></i><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">(2:248)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">The Ark of the Covenant was for the Israelites the portable equivalent of the Ka'ba for the Muslims, before the Ark was later installed by David in Jerusalem and eventually replaced by the Temple of Solomon. This story implies that just as a sign that God appointed Saul as king will be the return of the Ark of the Covenant to the Israelites under his military leadership, a sign that God truly chose Muhammad is that under his leadership, the Ka'ba will be liberated and restored as a symbol of Abrahamic monotheism. The parallel is reinforced by further details of the story:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">فَلَمَّا جَاوَزَهُ هُوَ وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا مَعَهُ </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">قَالُوا لَا طَاقَةَ لَنَا الْيَوْمَ بِجَالُوتَ وَجُنُودِهِ </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "courier new";">ۚ</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";"> </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">When [Saul] crossed [the river] with those who had kept faith,</span></i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">[Those who had little faith] said, "We have no strength today against Goliath and his warriors."</span></i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">(2:249)</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">This again reflects a very real situation. Those in Medina who had little faith, but only claimed to be believers in order to save face, believed that the Quraysh were far too great in manpower and resources for God to enable the Muslims to defeat them. On the other hand:</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">قَالَ الَّذِينَ يَظُنُّونَ أَنَّهُم مُّلَاقُو اللَّهِ </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">كَم مِّن فِئَةٍ قَلِيلَةٍ غَلَبَتْ فِئَةً كَثِيرَةً بِإِذْنِ اللَّهِ </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "courier new";">ۗ</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";"> </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">وَاللَّهُ مَعَ الصَّابِرِينَ</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">وَلَمَّا بَرَزُوا لِجَالُوتَ وَجُنُودِهِ </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">قَالُوا رَبَّنَا أَفْرِغْ عَلَيْنَا صَبْرًا وَثَبِّتْ أَقْدَامَنَا </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">وَانصُرْنَا عَلَى الْقَوْمِ الْكَافِرِينَ</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">Those who knew that they were going to meet their Lord said, </span></i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">"How often a small force has defeated a large army with God’s permission! </span></i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">God is with those who are steadfast."</span></i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">And when they met Goliath and his warriors, </span></i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">they said, "Our Lord, pour patience on us, make us stand firm, </span></i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">and help us against the disbelievers."</span></i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">(2:249-250)</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">The outcome was as God had promised them through his prophet: </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">فَهَزَمُوهُم بِإِذْنِ اللَّهِ</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">And so with God’s permission they defeated them.</span></i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">(2:251)</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">Just as this story implied, the Muslims ended up winning the Battle of Badr. This was a turning point, and despite certain setbacks, the Prophet and his followers would enter Mecca as peaceful conquerors in less than six years.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">The Quran concludes the above narration of the story of Saul as follows:</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">تِلْكَ آيَاتُ اللَّهِ نَتْلُوهَا عَلَيْكَ بِالْحَقِّ </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "courier new";">ۚ</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";"> </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">وَإِنَّكَ لَمِنَ الْمُرْسَلِينَ</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">These are signs of God, which We recite to you with truth.</span></i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial";">No doubt you (Muhammad) are among the messengers.</span></i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">(2:252)<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5909131535009425348#_ftn3" name="_ftnref3" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 12pt;">[3]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5909131535009425348#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;"> I have adapted some of these translations from the Quran translation of M.A.S. Abdel Haleem.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5909131535009425348#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;"> I owe these observations to Mustansir Mir, “The Qur’an as Literature,” <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Religion & Literature</i> 20 no. 1 (1988): 49-64, pp. 59-60.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5909131535009425348#_ftnref3" name="_ftn3" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn3;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">[3]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> For a fuller discussion of the story of Saul in the context of Sura 2, see Nouman Ali Khan and Sharif Randhawa, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Divine Speech: Exploring the Quran as Literature</i> (Euless, TX: Bayyinah Institute, 2016), Chapter 13, “The Coherence and Structure of Sura 2, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Cow</i>.”</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<style> <!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:Arial; panose-1:2 11 6 4 2 2 2 2 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:10887 -2147483648 8 0 511 0;} @font-face {font-family:"Courier New"; panose-1:2 7 3 9 2 2 5 2 4 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536859905 -1073711037 9 0 511 0;} @font-face {font-family:"MS 明朝"; mso-font-charset:78; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1791491579 18 0 131231 0;} @font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1107305727 0 0 415 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;} p.MsoFootnoteText, li.MsoFootnoteText, div.MsoFootnoteText {mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-link:"Footnote Text Char"; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;} span.MsoFootnoteReference {mso-style-priority:99; vertical-align:super;} span.FootnoteTextChar {mso-style-name:"Footnote Text Char"; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-locked:yes; mso-style-link:"Footnote Text"; mso-ansi-font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; mso-fareast-language:EN-US;} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-size:10.0pt; mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-fareast-language:JA;} /* Page Definitions */ @page {mso-footnote-separator:url("Macintosh HD:private:var:folders:4c:_sjzmzq1677gpspxvsdrbzr40000gp:T:TemporaryItems:msoclip:0:clip_header.htm") fs; mso-footnote-continuation-separator:url("Macintosh HD:private:var:folders:4c:_sjzmzq1677gpspxvsdrbzr40000gp:T:TemporaryItems:msoclip:0:clip_header.htm") fcs; mso-endnote-separator:url("Macintosh HD:private:var:folders:4c:_sjzmzq1677gpspxvsdrbzr40000gp:T:TemporaryItems:msoclip:0:clip_header.htm") es; mso-endnote-continuation-separator:url("Macintosh HD:private:var:folders:4c:_sjzmzq1677gpspxvsdrbzr40000gp:T:TemporaryItems:msoclip:0:clip_header.htm") ecs;} @page WordSection1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;} --> </style>Sharifhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03683966146725270053noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5909131535009425348.post-85331023464586802782018-02-12T18:59:00.001-08:002018-02-13T00:36:25.930-08:00God’s Promises: The Miraculous Fulfillment of Prophecy in the Quran (Part I)<div class="gmail-p1" style="color: #222222;">
<span class="gmail-s1" style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A couple weeks ago I gave a talk on a phenomenon in the Quran that I find to be one of the most stunning signs of its miraculous provenance.<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span>These are the prophecies of the Quran.<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span>These prophecies take two forms:</span></div>
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<li class="gmail-li1"><span class="gmail-s1" style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Some are explicit prophecies, and these tend to be the most well-known.</span></li>
<li class="gmail-li1"><span class="gmail-s1" style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Others are implicit prophecies, which are embedded for example in the stories the Quran revealed in order to make certain assurances to the Prophet and his followers.</span></li>
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<span class="gmail-s1" style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I will argue that the fulfillment of these prophecies is striking in the following ways:</span></div>
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<li class="gmail-li1"><span class="gmail-s1" style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">These prophecies were not trivial, but they made claims that were bold and shocking given the historical context of their revelation.<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span>They promised that these events or outcomes would transpire by God’s leave, despite there <span class="gmail-gr_ gmail-gr_106 gmail-gr-alert gmail-gr_gramm gmail-gr_inline_cards gmail-gr_run_anim gmail-Grammar gmail-multiReplace" id="gmail-106" style="animation-duration: 0.4s; animation-fill-mode: forwards; animation-timing-function: ease; background-repeat: no-repeat; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; color: inherit; display: inline;">being</span> every reason for believing the contrary. Some of these prophecies stipulated that they would occur within a specific time frame, such as during the life of the Prophet or his companions.</span></li>
<li class="gmail-li1"><span class="gmail-s1" style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">These prophecies not only came true, but came true in a timeframe, manner, and scale that is without historical parallel, again reinforcing that the Quran’s point that these would only occur as a result of divine planning and intervention.</span></li>
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<span class="gmail-s1" style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Over the course of the next few posts, I will be describing some examples of this, God-willing. I will <span class="gmail-gr_ gmail-gr_102 gmail-gr-alert gmail-gr_gramm gmail-gr_inline_cards gmail-gr_run_anim gmail-Punctuation gmail-replaceWithoutSep" id="gmail-102" style="animation-duration: 0.4s; animation-fill-mode: forwards; animation-timing-function: ease; background-repeat: no-repeat; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; color: inherit; display: inline;">in particular</span> be drawing attention to prophecies or divine promises embedded in the stories of the <span class="gmail-gr_ gmail-gr_103 gmail-gr-alert gmail-gr_gramm gmail-gr_inline_cards gmail-gr_run_anim gmail-Punctuation gmail-only-del gmail-replaceWithoutSep" id="gmail-103" style="animation-duration: 0.4s; animation-fill-mode: forwards; animation-timing-function: ease; background-repeat: no-repeat; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; color: inherit; display: inline;">Quran,</span> since these are the most overlooked. The first one will be on God's promises in the story of Joseph in the Quran.</span></div>
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<span class="gmail-s1" style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>1. The story of Joseph</b></span></div>
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<span class="gmail-s1" style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Sura 12, “Joseph” (Yusuf), is the only <span class="gmail-gr_ gmail-gr_82 gmail-gr-alert gmail-gr_spell gmail-gr_inline_cards gmail-gr_run_anim gmail-ContextualSpelling gmail-ins-del" id="gmail-82" style="animation-duration: 0.4s; animation-fill-mode: forwards; animation-timing-function: ease; background-repeat: no-repeat; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; color: inherit; display: inline;">sura</span> of the Quran dedicated to a full chronological narrative.<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span>The themes, language, and style of the sura place it firmly in the context of the late Meccan period, in which it would have had the most relevance to the Prophet Muhammad and his followers.<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span>During this time, they were being persecuted by their own people—their own fellow tribe and kin—to the point that they were about to be driven out from their <span class="gmail-gr_ gmail-gr_88 gmail-gr-alert gmail-gr_spell gmail-gr_inline_cards gmail-gr_run_anim gmail-ContextualSpelling gmail-ins-del" id="gmail-88" style="animation-duration: 0.4s; animation-fill-mode: forwards; animation-timing-function: ease; background-repeat: no-repeat; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; color: inherit; display: inline;">home town</span> of Mecca.<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span>It is especially during this period that the Quran narrated stories in order to reassure the hearts of the Muslims.<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span>These were typically stories that already existed in Biblical <span class="gmail-gr_ gmail-gr_117 gmail-gr-alert gmail-gr_gramm gmail-gr_inline_cards gmail-gr_run_anim gmail-Punctuation gmail-only-del gmail-replaceWithoutSep" id="gmail-117" style="animation-duration: 0.4s; animation-fill-mode: forwards; animation-timing-function: ease; background-repeat: no-repeat; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; color: inherit; display: inline;">lore,</span> but were retold with new purposes in the Quran.<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span>For example, these stories would console the believers and ensure them that God would reward their patience and constancy with success and victory.<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span>But how was this possible?<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span>They were a small group, they had no power, they were being persecuted by a much more powerful group, and they were being dispossessed of their homes and assets.<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span>How could they possibly attain victory?</span></div>
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<span class="gmail-s1" style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It was in this context that the sura of Joseph was revealed.<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span>Think about what happens in the story.<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span>Joseph experienced one tragic difficulty after another.<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span>He was a young man who was persecuted by his own brothers, exiled from his home to a foreign land, enslaved, accused, and imprisoned, but over these many hard <span class="gmail-gr_ gmail-gr_111 gmail-gr-alert gmail-gr_gramm gmail-gr_inline_cards gmail-gr_run_anim gmail-Punctuation gmail-only-ins gmail-replaceWithoutSep" id="gmail-111" style="animation-duration: 0.4s; animation-fill-mode: forwards; animation-timing-function: ease; background-repeat: no-repeat; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; color: inherit; display: inline;">years</span> he held onto his faith.<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span>Then God created unique circumstances that allowed Joseph to rise to a prominent place of respect and authority and to prosper.<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span>Through a dramatic turn of events, he was eventually brought face-to-face with the brothers who persecuted them.<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span>He had the upper hand over them.<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span>Yet he forgave them, they sincerely repented <span class="gmail-gr_ gmail-gr_112 gmail-gr-alert gmail-gr_gramm gmail-gr_inline_cards gmail-gr_run_anim gmail-Grammar gmail-multiReplace" id="gmail-112" style="animation-duration: 0.4s; animation-fill-mode: forwards; animation-timing-function: ease; background-repeat: no-repeat; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; color: inherit; display: inline;">from</span> their crimes against him, and they were reunited as a family.</span></div>
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<div class="gmail-p1" style="color: #222222;">
<span class="gmail-s1" style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">What was this story supposed to signal to its first Muslim audience?<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span>It is that despite the seemingly hopeless situation you are in, God will create unique circumstances by which He will save you, raise you to a position of success and prominence, cause you to triumph—and maybe even turn the hearts of your families and tribesmen so that they will repent from their wrongs against you and reconcile with you.<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span>As Mustansir Mir, in his essay on irony in the story of Joseph, writes:</span></div>
<blockquote class="gmail-tr_bq" style="color: #222222;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Muhammad is identified with Joseph, and the tribe of Quraysh, to which Muhammad belonged and which had turned hostile to him, with Joseph’s brothers. In addition, the story predicts that just as Joseph finally triumphed over the obstacles put in his way by his brothers, so Muhammad will eventually emerge a victor in his struggle against the Quraysh. When, in 630, Muhammad conquered Mecca and the Quraysh anxiously waited for the verdict on their fate, Muhammad addressed them, asking them how they expected him to treat his former enemies. Their plea for mercy was made in the form of praise: “You are a noble brother and the son of a noble brothers.” Muhammad issued a general amnesty, saying: <i>lā tathrība ‘alaykumu ’l- yawm</i>, “No blame rests on you today.” These words were taken from v. 92 of the twelfth sūra of the Qur’ān—<i>Joseph</i>. The story had worked itself out in history. And so had the irony.<span class="gmail-MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="gmail-MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: black;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5909131535009425348#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" style="color: #1155cc;" title="">[1]</a></span></span></span> </span></blockquote>
<div style="color: #222222;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #222222;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Think about it:</span></div>
<ul class="gmail-ul1" style="color: #222222;">
<li class="gmail-li1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span class="gmail-s3"></span><span class="gmail-s1">Joseph is hated and persecuted by his own, more powerful older brothers (<span class="gmail-gr_ gmail-gr_109 gmail-gr-alert gmail-gr_gramm gmail-gr_inline_cards gmail-gr_run_anim gmail-Grammar gmail-multiReplace" id="gmail-109" style="animation-duration: 0.4s; animation-fill-mode: forwards; animation-timing-function: ease; background-repeat: no-repeat; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; color: inherit; display: inline;">an </span></span><span class="gmail-s4"><span class="gmail-gr_ gmail-gr_109 gmail-gr-alert gmail-gr_gramm gmail-gr_inline_cards gmail-gr_disable_anim_appear gmail-Grammar gmail-multiReplace" id="gmail-109" style="animation-fill-mode: none; background-repeat: no-repeat; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; color: inherit; display: inline;">ʿ</span></span><span class="gmail-s1"><i><span class="gmail-gr_ gmail-gr_109 gmail-gr-alert gmail-gr_gramm gmail-gr_inline_cards gmail-gr_disable_anim_appear gmail-Grammar gmail-multiReplace" id="gmail-109" style="animation-fill-mode: none; background-repeat: no-repeat; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; color: inherit; display: inline;">u</span></i></span><span class="gmail-s2"><i><span class="gmail-gr_ gmail-gr_109 gmail-gr-alert gmail-gr_gramm gmail-gr_inline_cards gmail-gr_disable_anim_appear gmail-Grammar gmail-multiReplace" id="gmail-109" style="animation-fill-mode: none; background-repeat: no-repeat; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; color: inherit; display: inline;">ṣ</span></i></span><span class="gmail-s1"><i><span class="gmail-gr_ gmail-gr_109 gmail-gr-alert gmail-gr_gramm gmail-gr_inline_cards gmail-gr_disable_anim_appear gmail-Grammar gmail-multiReplace" id="gmail-109" style="animation-fill-mode: none; background-repeat: no-repeat; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; color: inherit; display: inline;">ba</span></i>, or a "strong clan"—12:8, 14), just like the Prophet and his followers were despised and persecuted by their own tribesmen.</span></span></li>
<li class="gmail-li1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span class="gmail-s3"></span><span class="gmail-s1">In the story, Joseph is exiled by his brothers to a foreign land.<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span>Similarly, the Prophet and his companions would be exiled to Medina.</span></span></li>
<li class="gmail-li1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span class="gmail-s3"></span><span class="gmail-s1">In the foreign land, Joseph eventually rises to a place of respect and authority.<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span>Likewise, the Prophet and his followers would rise to a position of respect and authority, and within only a number years become the dominant power in the Arabian Peninsula—and later, the entire Near East.</span></span></li>
</ul>
<div class="gmail-p2" style="color: #222222;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="gmail-s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="gmail-p3" style="color: #222222;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="gmail-s1">وَكَذَٰلِكَ</span><span class="gmail-s5"> </span><span class="gmail-s1">مَكَّنَّا</span><span class="gmail-s5"> </span><span class="gmail-s1">لِيُوسُفَ</span><span class="gmail-s5"> </span><span class="gmail-s1">فِي</span><span class="gmail-s5"> </span><span class="gmail-s1">الْأَرْضِ</span><span class="gmail-s5"> </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="gmail-s1">يَتَبَوَّأُ</span><span class="gmail-s5"> </span><span class="gmail-s1">مِنْهَا</span><span class="gmail-s5"> </span><span class="gmail-s1">حَيْثُ</span><span class="gmail-s5"> </span><span class="gmail-s1">يَشَاءُ</span><span class="gmail-s5"> </span><span class="gmail-s1">ۚ</span><span class="gmail-s5"><span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="gmail-p3" style="color: #222222;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="gmail-s1">نُصِيبُ</span><span class="gmail-s5"> </span><span class="gmail-s1">بِرَحْمَتِنَا</span><span class="gmail-s5"> </span><span class="gmail-s1">مَن</span><span class="gmail-s5"> </span><span class="gmail-s1">نَّشَاءُ</span><span class="gmail-s5"> </span><span class="gmail-s1">ۖ</span><span class="gmail-s5"> </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="gmail-s1">وَلَا</span><span class="gmail-s5"> </span><span class="gmail-s1">نُضِيعُ</span><span class="gmail-s5"> </span><span class="gmail-s1">أَجْرَ</span><span class="gmail-s5"> </span><span class="gmail-s1">الْمُحْسِنِينَ</span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="gmail-p4" style="color: #222222;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span class="gmail-s1"></span><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="gmail-p5" style="color: #222222;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span class="gmail-s1" style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Thus did We establish Joseph with authority in the land, </i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span class="gmail-s1" style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>free to settle in it wherever he pleased. </i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span class="gmail-s1" style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>We bestow our Mercy on whomever We wish, </i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span class="gmail-s1" style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>and We do not allow the reward of those who do good to be lost. </i></span><br />
<span class="gmail-s1" style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">(12:56)</span><br />
<span class="gmail-s1" style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<ul class="gmail-ul1" style="color: #222222;">
<li class="gmail-li1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span class="gmail-s3"></span><span class="gmail-s1">Joseph is eventually brought face-to-face with his own brothers who persecuted him, but he forgave them.<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span>Likewise, the Prophet would return to Mecca and have the upper hand over the Quraysh, yet he forgave them.</span></span></li>
<li class="gmail-li1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span class="gmail-s3"></span><span class="gmail-s1">Finally, the brothers prostrate to Joseph, they repent of their wrongs, and the brothers become reconciled and form a single family again.<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span>In the same way, the Quraysh end up submitting to the Prophet’s authority, and even accept his message, joining the community of believers.<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span>They are reunited, but now not as Arab polytheists, but as faithful devotees of the one God of Abraham.</span></span></li>
</ul>
<div class="gmail-p2" style="color: #222222;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span class="gmail-s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="gmail-p1" style="color: #222222;">
<span class="gmail-s1" style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Who could have predicted such an outcome?<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span>As the Quran stresses, the only people at this time who could credit the idea of such a story playing out in their own lives were those who recognized that God has promised it and that He is fully in control of events and their outcomes:</span></div>
<div class="gmail-p2" style="color: #222222;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span class="gmail-s1"></span><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="gmail-p3" style="color: #222222;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="gmail-s1">وَكَذَٰلِكَ</span><span class="gmail-s5"> </span><span class="gmail-s1">مَكَّنَّا</span><span class="gmail-s5"> </span><span class="gmail-s1">لِيُوسُفَ</span><span class="gmail-s5"> </span><span class="gmail-s1">فِي</span><span class="gmail-s5"> </span><span class="gmail-s1">الْأَرْضِ</span><span class="gmail-s5"> </span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="gmail-p3" style="color: #222222;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="gmail-s1">وَلِنُعَلِّمَهُ</span><span class="gmail-s5"> </span><span class="gmail-s1">مِن</span><span class="gmail-s5"> </span><span class="gmail-s1">تَأْوِيلِ</span><span class="gmail-s5"> </span><span class="gmail-s1">الْأَحَادِيثِ</span><span class="gmail-s5"> </span><span class="gmail-s1">ۚ</span><span class="gmail-s5"> </span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="gmail-p3" style="color: #222222;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="gmail-s1">وَاللَّهُ</span><span class="gmail-s5"> </span><span class="gmail-s1">غَالِبٌ</span><span class="gmail-s5"> </span><span class="gmail-s1">عَلَىٰ</span><span class="gmail-s5"> </span><span class="gmail-s1">أَمْرِهِ</span><span class="gmail-s5"><span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="gmail-p3" style="color: #222222;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="gmail-s1">وَلَٰكِنَّ</span><span class="gmail-s5"> </span><span class="gmail-s1">أَكْثَرَ</span><span class="gmail-s5"> </span><span class="gmail-s1">النَّاسِ</span><span class="gmail-s5"> </span><span class="gmail-s1">لَا</span><span class="gmail-s5"> </span><span class="gmail-s1">يَعْلَمُونَ</span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="gmail-p4" style="color: #222222;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span class="gmail-s1"></span><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="gmail-p7" style="color: #222222;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Thus We established Joseph with authority in the land, </i></span></div>
</div>
<div class="gmail-p7" style="color: #222222;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>to teach him the true meaning of dreams </i></span></div>
</div>
<div class="gmail-p7" style="color: #222222;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><span class="gmail-s1">and the fulfillment of prophecies (ta’w</span><span class="gmail-s6">ī</span><span class="gmail-s1">l al-a</span><span class="gmail-s6">ḥā</span><span class="gmail-s1">d</span><span class="gmail-s6">ī</span><span class="gmail-s1">th).</span></i></span></div>
</div>
<div class="gmail-p7" style="color: #222222;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span class="gmail-s1" style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>God is fully in control of His affair,</i></span></div>
</div>
<div class="gmail-p7" style="color: #222222;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span class="gmail-s1" style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>but most of the people do not know it.</i></span></div>
</div>
<div class="gmail-p7" style="color: #222222;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span class="gmail-s1" style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">(12:21)</span></div>
</div>
<div class="gmail-p2" style="color: #222222;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span class="gmail-s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="gmail-p2" style="color: #222222;">
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
</div>
<div style="color: #222222;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">Hence, as the Quran fittingly says:</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="gmail-p8" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="gmail-s1">لَّقَدْ</span><span class="gmail-s7"> </span><span class="gmail-s1">كَانَ</span><span class="gmail-s7"> </span><span class="gmail-s1">فِي</span><span class="gmail-s7"> </span><span class="gmail-s1">يُوسُفَ</span><span class="gmail-s7"> </span><span class="gmail-s1">وَإِخْوَتِهِ</span><span class="gmail-s7"> </span></span></div>
<div class="gmail-p8" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="gmail-s1">آيَاتٌ</span><span class="gmail-s7"> </span><span class="gmail-s1">لِّلسَّائِلِينَ</span></span></div>
<div class="gmail-p5" style="color: #222222;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span class="gmail-s1" style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="gmail-p5" style="color: #222222;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span class="gmail-s1" style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><span class="gmail-gr_ gmail-gr_83 gmail-gr-alert gmail-gr_gramm gmail-gr_inline_cards gmail-gr_run_anim gmail-Punctuation gmail-only-ins gmail-replaceWithoutSep" id="gmail-83" style="animation-duration: 0.4s; animation-fill-mode: forwards; animation-timing-function: ease; background-repeat: no-repeat; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; color: inherit; display: inline;">Certainly</span> in (the story of) Joseph and his <span class="gmail-gr_ gmail-gr_85 gmail-gr-alert gmail-gr_gramm gmail-gr_inline_cards gmail-gr_run_anim gmail-Style gmail-multiReplace" id="gmail-85" style="animation-duration: 0.4s; animation-fill-mode: forwards; animation-timing-function: ease; background-repeat: no-repeat; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; color: inherit; display: inline;"><span class="gmail-gr_ gmail-gr_84 gmail-gr-alert gmail-gr_gramm gmail-gr_inline_cards gmail-gr_run_anim gmail-Punctuation gmail-only-ins gmail-replaceWithoutSep" id="gmail-84" style="animation-duration: 0.4s; animation-fill-mode: forwards; animation-timing-function: ease; background-repeat: no-repeat; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; color: inherit; display: inline;">brothers</span> </span></i></span></div>
</div>
<div class="gmail-p5" style="color: #222222;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span class="gmail-s1" style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><span class="gmail-gr_ gmail-gr_85 gmail-gr-alert gmail-gr_gramm gmail-gr_inline_cards gmail-gr_disable_anim_appear gmail-Style gmail-multiReplace" id="gmail-85" style="animation-fill-mode: none; background-repeat: no-repeat; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; color: inherit; display: inline;">there</span> are signs for those who inquire.</i></span></div>
</div>
<div class="gmail-p8" style="color: #222222;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">(12:7)</span></div>
</div>
<div class="gmail-p8" style="color: #222222;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<hr align="left" size="1" style="color: #222222;" width="33%" />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5909131535009425348#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" style="color: #1155cc;" title=""><span class="gmail-MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="gmail-MsoFootnoteReference">[1]</span></span></a><span style="color: black;"> Mustansir Mir, “Irony in the Qur’ān: A Study of the Story of Joseph,” <i>Literary Structures of Religious Meaning in the Qur’ān</i> (Richmond, Surrey: Routledge, 2000), 126.</span></span>Sharifhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03683966146725270053noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5909131535009425348.post-65025939533165473422016-11-09T19:49:00.001-08:002016-11-10T01:49:03.407-08:00My Thoughts in the Wake of Trump's PresidencyIn the wake of Donald Trump’s election, I don’t think I have anything to say that hasn’t already been said. However, I’m too perturbed to do my schoolwork at the moment and just need to get these thoughts off my chest.<br />
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<b>The first emotion I experienced last night while watching the election coverage was anger</b>—outrage—at the Democratic Party establishment. The entire country has become divided between progressive populism, embodied by Bernie Sanders, and far right, racist, totalitarian populism, embodied by Trump. The country has made it loud and clear that it is DONE with establishment politicians. The polls from very early on showed that Hillary Clinton could lose to Trump, while Bernie would have a certain and sweeping victory. But in their irredeemable smugness, the Democratic Party establishment dismissed the polls and the voices of the American people, not least from within their own party. They did everything in their power to sabotage Bernie Sanders and to suppress the voices of his supporters, shoving down voters’ throats a candidate who embodies the corporate, establishment corruption that Americans are sick of, and still expected to win. Now extreme right-wing Republicans have taken over the Presidency, Congress, and the Supreme Court. By trying everything to undermine Bernie Sanders and force Hillary Clinton on the voters, the Democratic Party committed political suicide. </div>
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But good riddance. Americans are done with the old, corporate, establishment Democratic Party. Real progressive candidates now have a chance to take over the party by storm. In their humiliating defeat, I hope Hillary and her cronies get the message, and get the hell out. </div>
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<div>
<b>The second emotion I experienced was dismay</b>, not simply at the fact of a Trump presidency, but over the fact that over a quarter of Americans voted for him—voted for a man who is endorsed by the KKK, who has riled up hateful rhetoric and violence against minorities, who sexually harasses women and is even accused of rape, who declared that he would use torture and take out the families of terrorists, who stated he would revoke any funds to the United Nations to combat climate change, and who candidly asked why he should not deploy nuclear weapons—in the latter two cases, advancing a real and literal threat to the human race at large. I understand that the votes for Trump are not entirely motivated by racism or warmongering, but it hardly makes things better that so many American voters did not see these problems as significant enough to them not to vote for him. For those of you who voted for Trump, I hope you find yourself happy with the devastating results of your choice over the next four years. </div>
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<div>
<b>The third emotion I experienced was fear</b>—not for myself, but for all of the innocent people in my country and throughout the world who will have to suffer the devastating consequences of a Trump presidency. </div>
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<div>
In the last twenty-four hours, it seems that all of my fears have been confirmed: </div>
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<br /></div>
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(1) The global financial market has gone out of control. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
(2) There have already been countless incidents reported today across the country of threatening rhetoric and outright violence against minorities—black Americans, Muslim Americans (particularly Muslim women), Hispanic Americans, LGBT. This is only on the first day. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
(3) All hopes of peace, especially in the Middle East, have been dashed. For anyone who naively thought that Trump might exercise isolationist policies, consider these facts. Trump’s candidates for Secretary of State are people like John Bolton and Newt Gingrich—people at least as right-wing as the masterminds of the Iraq war, such as Dick Cheney and Paul Wolfowitz. Shares in arms stock companies have skyrocketed. And the Education Minister of Israel has ominously declared, “The era of a Palestinian state of over.” </div>
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<br /></div>
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(4) Thanks to Obama, the executive authority of the presidential office has been expanded to include the ability to commit extrajudicial killings, to detain absolutely any citizen or non-citizen indefinitely without trial, and has unlimited access to private information down to every last citizen. And now a totalitarian, fascist monster who has no moral boundaries has taken up these powers. Another testament to the complete debacle that has been the establishment Democratic Party. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
For more already palpable effects of Trump's presidency, see here: </div>
<div>
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-elections/donald-trump-wins-first-12-hours-muslim-kkk-russia-canadia-immigration-al-qaeda-mexico-palestine-a7408091.html </div>
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All of this is just a small glimpse into how dark the next four years are going to be. </div>
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But I think and hope there is a silver lining. Americans are fed up with establishment Democrats and Republicans. Once the white middle class plummets and realizes that Trump does not even have their best interests in mind, and in four years when a boldly progressive candidate such as Elizabeth Warren runs for president, I am optimistic that Democrats and then Americans at large will resoundingly vote for progressive candidates who have real plans to fix the economy (especially for the plummeting middle class), to end America’s never-ending wars in the Middle East, and to get money out of politics. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
If it wasn’t for the Democratic Party establishment, we would have had that with Bernie Sanders. But now we will have to experience four years of hell before we get there. But, if God wills, we will get there. As the Qur’an says, </div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
“Pharaoh made himself high and mighty in the land and divided the people into different groups: one group he oppressed, slaughtering their sons and sparing their women––he was one of those who spread corruption––but [God] wished to favor those who were oppressed in that land, to make them leaders, the ones to survive, to establish them in the land, and through them show Pharaoh, Haman, and their armies the very thing they feared.” (28:4-6) </blockquote>
<div>
That is, if God wills, an oppressive ruler may take power only to set himself and his establishment up for a painful downfall, and make way for the marginalized and oppressed to gain the success they hoped for. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Over the next four years, all of us who are among marginalized minorities or who are inclusive and well-meaning people must stand up strongly together and ensure that Trump does not infringe upon our civil and human rights, which are spelled out clearly in our country's Constitution.</div>
Sharifhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03683966146725270053noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5909131535009425348.post-64352308704621589412016-10-08T21:14:00.000-07:002016-10-08T21:17:28.268-07:00The Kalām Cosmological Argument and the Problem of Divine Agency and PurposeFor those interested in philosophical theology, this is a twenty-page essay I wrote nearly five years ago. It touches on a variety of interrelated topics, such as the Kalām Cosmological argument, God's relationship with time, divine agency, causality, freedom and determinism, and the purpose of creation.<br />
<br />
There are a few things I'd wish to amend or add to this essay, but since I'm not likely to get around to that anytime soon, I thought I'd just go ahead and post a draft of it for now. Maybe once I do edit and update it, I will publish it somewhere. Here is the abstract:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Abstract: In this article, I discuss the theological problems raised by the Kalām Cosmological Argument that has resulted in criticisms of its utility by some Muslim philosophers and theologians, most notably Ibn Taymiyya. I briefly describe the responses to these problems by Ibn Sīna and two kalām sects, the Ashʿarites and the Muʿtazilites, and highlight the problems each of them. I then contrast them with the view fervently argued by Ibn Taymiyya, but also defend an alternative theory for those who are not willing to accept the proposition of an infinite temporal regress in God’s actions.</blockquote>
<br />
Link: https://www.academia.edu/29016615/The_Kal%C4%81m_Cosmological_Argument_and_the_Problem_of_Divine_Creative_Agency_and_Purpose<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<br /></blockquote>
Sharifhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03683966146725270053noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5909131535009425348.post-82568823469955503872016-09-11T14:24:00.001-07:002016-09-12T01:10:49.300-07:009/11 Thoughts<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: 13.5pt;">
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: helvetica;">This will probably make some people unhappy, but I have to say this. There is no doubt that 9/11 was a horrible tragedy, and the victims of this tragedy and their families deserve to be honored. But if you are a person who says “Never forget” when it comes to 9/11, but who forgets or turns a blind eye to far worse tragedies because they did not happen to people of your race, culture, or nationality, or because they were committed by your own country or government, then this is precisely the kind of attitude that is responsible for all of the wide-scale imperialism, racism, and violence that exists today. It is the attitude that certain tragedies or innocent deaths are worth remembering but not others. It is the idea that the lives of our people matter, but others do not. It is exactly this attitude that ends up legitimizing violence and oppression against other peoples, and which has been and continues to be used to fuel this never-ending “war on terror” that is claiming the lives of not thousands, but millions of innocent people, which continues to destabilize a large part of the world, and which has and continues to spread anti-American hostility at an unprecedented rate.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: 13.5pt;">
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: helvetica;">Do you give the tragedy and victims of 9/11 a special importance that you do not give to victims of other races, cultures, or nationalities, especially those who are victims of the policies of your own government? Do you feel outrage or stand up for the honor of these victims the way you do for people of your own skin color? Are you someone who changes your profile picture when a tragedy happens in France or Belgium, but expresses no concern when a tragedy of equal or greater proportions happens in the same week in Turkey, Iraq, or Syria?</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: 13.5pt;">
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: helvetica;">If Americans are entitled to say “9/11: never forget,” then should African-Americans too exclaim, “Slavery: never forget”? Or is that a matter of the past, an unfortunate and uncomfortable episode of history, that is better for all of us to forget and move on from? What about Native Americans, who experienced mass genocide, as well as enslavement and rape, by the “discoverer” of America? “Colombus: never forget”? What about the thousands of Vietnamese who died at the hands of the U.S. military in the Vietnam War, or the 50,000 to 150,000 Cambodian civilians who were carpet bombed on the order of Henry Kissinger? What about the hundreds of thousands of Japanese who died in the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Or the tens of thousands of Nicaraguans who died as a result of the policies of the Reagan administration? Should they too “never forget”? What about 500,000 Iraqi children who died as a result of U.S. sanctions, or the more than million who have died as a result of the Iraq War? Imagine if Muslims all said, "Iraq: Never forget." Should all of these groups resolve upon sentiments of indefinite hostility and vengeance towards the United States? Or is this a privilege reserved for (predominantly white) Americans? Do all lives really matter?</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: 13.5pt;">
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: helvetica;">If you believe that the lives of Americans who died in Pearl Harbor or 9/11 deserve to be remembered, and only those responsible for their deaths deserved to be brought to justice, but do not believe the same when it comes from Hispanics, Native Americans, eastern Asians, Muslims, etc., then I implore you to reconsider your attitude and the consequences that such an outlook has had for the millions and millions of (overwhelmingly non-white) people in the last five and a half centuries. We should be outraged when any innocent lives are taken, regardless of their race or nationality, and regardless of whether those acts of violence are perpetrated by another government, our own government, or no government at all. But this should be a type of outrage that does not further the cycle of death, but motivates us to try to change our government and society for the better. All innocent life deserves to be honored equally, regardless of race or nationality, and the best way to honor innocent life is by standing up against attitudes and policies that result in its devaluing, and trying to change them. It's our responsibility as Americans, and more importantly, as human beings.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: sans-serif, serif;">I close with this poem:</span><span style="color: black; font-family: times;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<b><span style="font-family: arial;">A Moment of Silence, Before I Start this Poem</span></b><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">Emmanuel Ortiz, 11 Sep 2002.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">Before I start this poem, I'd like to ask you to join me</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">In a moment of silence</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">In honor of those who died in the World Trade Center and the</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">Pentagon last September 11th.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">I would also like to ask you</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">To offer up a moment of silence</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">For all of those who have been harassed, imprisoned,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">disappeared, tortured, raped, or killed in retaliation for those strikes,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">For the victims in both Afghanistan and the U.S.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">And if I could just add one more thing...</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">A full day of silence</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">For the tens of thousands of Palestinians who have died at the</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">hands of U.S.-backed Israeli</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">forces over decades of occupation.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">Six months of silence for the million and-a-half Iraqi people,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">mostly children, who have died of</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">malnourishment or starvation as a result of an 11-year U.S.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">embargo against the country.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">Before I begin this poem,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">Two months of silence for the Blacks under Apartheid in South Africa,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">Where homeland security made them aliens in their own country.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">Nine months of silence for the dead in Hiroshima and Nagasaki,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">Where death rained down and peeled back every layer of</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">concrete, steel, earth and skin</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">And the survivors went on as if alive.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">A year of silence for the millions of dead in Vietnam - a people,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">not a war - for those who</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">know a thing or two about the scent of burning fuel, their</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">relatives' bones buried in it, their babies born of it.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">A year of silence for the dead in Cambodia and Laos, victims of</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">a secret war ... ssssshhhhh....</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">Say nothing ... we don't want them to learn that they are dead.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">Two months of silence for the decades of dead in Colombia,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">Whose names, like the corpses they once represented, have</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">piled up and slipped off our tongues.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">Before I begin this poem.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">An hour of silence for El Salvador ...</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">An afternoon of silence for Nicaragua ...</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">Two days of silence for the Guatemaltecos ...</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">None of whom ever knew a moment of peace in their living years.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">45 seconds of silence for the 45 dead at Acteal, Chiapas</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">25 years of silence for the hundred million Africans who found</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">their graves far deeper in the ocean than any building could</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">poke into the sky.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">There will be no DNA testing or dental records to identify their remains.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">And for those who were strung and swung from the heights of</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">sycamore trees in the south, the north, the east, and the west...</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">100 years of silence...</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">For the hundreds of millions of indigenous peoples from this half</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">of right here,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">Whose land and lives were stolen,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">In postcard-perfect plots like Pine Ridge, Wounded Knee, Sand</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">Creek,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">Fallen Timbers, or the Trail of Tears.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">Names now reduced to innocuous magnetic poetry on the</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">refrigerator of our consciousness ...</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">So you want a moment of silence?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">And we are all left speechless</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">Our tongues snatched from our mouths</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">Our eyes stapled shut</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">A moment of silence</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">And the poets have all been laid to rest</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">The drums disintegrating into dust.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">Before I begin this poem,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">You want a moment of silence</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">You mourn now as if the world will never be the same</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">And the rest of us hope to hell it won't be. Not like it always has</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">been.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">Because this is not a 9/11 poem.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">This is a 9/10 poem,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">It is a 9/9 poem,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">A 9/8 poem,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">A 9/7 poem</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">This is a 1492 poem.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">This is a poem about what causes poems like this to be written.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">And if this is a 9/11 poem, then:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">This is a September 11th poem for Chile, 1971.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">This is a September 12th poem for Steven Biko in South Africa,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">1977.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">This is a September 13th poem for the brothers at Attica Prison,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">New York, 1971.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">This is a September 14th poem for Somalia, 1992.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">This is a poem for every date that falls to the ground in ashes</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">This is a poem for the 110 stories that were never told</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">The 110 stories that history chose not to write in textbooks</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">The 110 stories that CNN, BBC, The New York Times, and</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial;">Newsweek ignored.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">This is a poem for interrupting this program.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">And still you want a moment of silence for your dead?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial;">We could give you lifetimes of empty:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">The unmarked graves</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">The lost languages</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">The uprooted trees and histories</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">The dead stares on the faces of nameless children</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">Before I start this poem we could be silent forever</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">Or just long enough to hunger,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">For the dust to bury us</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">And you would still ask us</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">For more of our silence.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">If you want a moment of silence</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">Then stop the oil pumps</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">Turn off the engines and the televisions</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">Sink the cruise ships</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">Crash the stock markets</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">Unplug the marquee lights,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">Delete the instant messages,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">Derail the trains, the light rail transit.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">If you want a moment of silence, put a brick through the window</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial;">of Taco Bell,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">And pay the workers for wages lost.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">Tear down the liquor stores,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">The townhouses, the White Houses, the jailhouses, the</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">Penthouses and the Playboys.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">If you want a moment of silence,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">Then take it</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">On Super Bowl Sunday,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">The Fourth of July</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">During Dayton's 13 hour sale</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">Or the next time your white guilt fills the room where my beautiful</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">people have gathered.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">You want a moment of silence</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">Then take it NOW,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">Before this poem begins.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">Here, in the echo of my voice,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">In the pause between goosesteps of the second hand,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">In the space between bodies in embrace,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">Here is your silence.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">Take it.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">But take it all...Don't cut in line.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">Let your silence begin at the beginning of crime. But we,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">Tonight we will keep right on singing...For our dead.</span></div>
<br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;" />Sharifhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03683966146725270053noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5909131535009425348.post-72774616699147585462016-08-10T23:05:00.004-07:002016-08-10T23:09:30.340-07:00“Seeking Help Through Patience and Prayer”: Reflections on 2:152-157<div class="p1">
One of the dearest passages in the Qur’an to me is 2:152-157. Whenever I am in a state of difficulty and sadness, I stand in prayer reciting it, and find new consolations, counsels, and insights in it. I want to share a few of them here.</div>
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<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
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<span class="s1">Allah says,</span></div>
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<b><span class="s1"></span><br /></b></div>
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<span class="s1"><b>يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اسْتَعِينُوا بِالصَّبْرِ وَالصَّلَاةِ ۚ إِنَّ اللَّهَ مَعَ الصَّابِرِينَ</b></span></div>
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<b><span class="s1"></span><br /></b></div>
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<span class="s1"><b>“O you who believe, seek help through patience (</b></span><b><i>ṣabr</i>) and prayer. God is indeed with those who are patient.” (2:153)</b></div>
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<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
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<span class="s1">For a long time, something in this verse puzzled me. It’s obvious enough what it means to seek help through prayer. But what does it mean to seek help “through patience”? Patience isn't something that we think of as a <i>means</i> of seeking help or even attaining something that we need. Rather, it is more of a passive condition of accepting, tolerating, and enduring hardship or pain, waiting for it to go away, while trying to keep pushing on.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
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<span class="s1">But the Arabic word <i>ṣabr</i>, which is typically translated as “patience,” denotes more than just this. It includes steadfastness, constancy, and <i>perseverance</i>. It means that after an initial period of grief, and after (or while) seeking Allah’s help in prayer, one keeps pushing on, being constant in continuing to make the steps towards one’s goals, and persevering despite the circumstances. With this, one will certainly attain some success eventually. But without it, one will not be able to gain anything. That is why it is a key ingredient, and why Allah says to “seek help” by means of it.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
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<span class="s1">I believe there is also great significance in the fact that this verse, which counsels towards patience and prayer, follows from the conclusion of the previous section of the sura, in which God says, </span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span class="s1">فَاذْكُرُونِي أَذْكُرْكُمْ وَاشْكُرُوا لِي وَلَا تَكْفُرُونِ</span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span class="s1">“So remember Me; I will remember you. Be grateful to Me and do not disbelieve/be ungrateful to Me” (2:152).</span></blockquote>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The purpose of “prayer,” as we know, is precisely (1) remembrance of God and (2) gratitude for His blessings. These ingredients—prayer, frequently returning to remembrance of God, seeking His help, and developing gratitude for His blessings—are keys to achieving patience, constancy, and perseverance. </span></div>
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<span class="s1"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
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<span class="s1"><b>وَلَا تَقُولُوا لِمَن يُقْتَلُ فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ أَمْوَاتٌ ۚ بَلْ أَحْيَاءٌ وَلَٰكِن لَّا تَشْعُرُونَ</b></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<b><span class="s1"></span><br /></b></div>
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<span class="s1"><b>“And do not say about those who are killed in God’s way, ‘They are dead.’ Rather, they are alive, but you do not perceive it.” (2:154)</b></span></div>
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<span class="s1">This verse teaches us to not look only at what is apparent to our eyes in this world, but to be certain that the mercy Allah has in store in the future, in the unseen, is far greater than what is apparent to us in this world.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><b>وَلَنَبْلُوَنَّكُم بِشَيْءٍ مِّنَ الْخَوْفِ وَالْجُوعِ وَنَقْصٍ مِّنَ الْأَمْوَالِ وَالْأَنفُسِ وَالثَّمَرَاتِ ۗ وَبَشِّرِ الصَّابِرِينَ</b></span></div>
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<b><span class="s1"></span><br /></b></div>
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<span class="s1"><b>الَّذِينَ إِذَا أَصَابَتْهُم مُّصِيبَةٌ قَالُوا إِنَّا لِلَّهِ وَإِنَّا إِلَيْهِ رَاجِعُونَ </b></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><b><br /></b></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><b>أُولَٰئِكَ عَلَيْهِمْ صَلَوَاتٌ مِّن رَّبِّهِمْ وَرَحْمَةٌ ۖ وَأُولَٰئِكَ هُمُ الْمُهْتَدُونَ</b></span></div>
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<b><span class="s1"></span><br /></b></div>
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<span class="s1"><b>“And We are most certainly going to test you with something of fear, hunger, and a loss of wealth, lives, and fruits. But give glad tidings to the patient:</b></span></div>
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<b><span class="s1"></span><br /></b></div>
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<span class="s1"><b>Those who, when they are struck by a calamity (<i>muṣība</i>), say, ‘Truly it is to God that We belong, and it is to Him that we are bound to return.’</b></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><b><br /></b></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><b>It is those upon whom are salutations from God and mercy, and it is those who are guided.” (2:155-157)</b></span></div>
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<span class="s1">The word “calamity,” <i>muṣība</i>, comes from the verb <i>aṣāba</i>, “to hit,” but which more precisely suggests, “to hit the correct target (<i>aṣ-ṣawāb</i>).” When a trial hits you, it is specifically designed <i>for you</i>. It hits you where it hurts you the most, at the time when it hurts the most. Something is taken away from you when you need it the most, when you needed to find support, comfort, or reassurance in it the most. Think of the passing of the Prophet’s beloved wife Khadija and uncle Abu Talib at the most critical period when he needed them, peace be upon him.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
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<span class="s1">Why does Allah do this? It is so that you will throw yourself before Him, fall in front of Him, in tears and in the most earnest supplication, resigning yourself completely to Him, throwing yourself into His hands: “<i>It is to Allah that I truly belong, and to Him that I am destined to return</i>.”</span></div>
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<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
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<span class="s1">And it is so that in exchange, He might shower upon you His love, His regard, His warmth, His care, and His mercy: “<i>It is those upon whom are salutations from God and mercy</i>.”</span></div>
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<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
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<span class="s1">Whenever Allah hits you with a trial, taking away something dear to you, He is going to replace it with something even better, something even more. Think of how Allah followed the Prophet’s Year of Sadness with the Night Journey to Jerusalem and the Ascension to Him.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
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<span class="s1">But the catch is: you do not know when that mercy will become manifest. Allah <i>may</i> give you a taste of that in this world, the way He saved Noah and his followers on the ark, the way He distinguished Abraham with the Promised Land, an unparalleled spiritual status, a new offspring, and other gifts, and the way He reunited Jacob with Joseph and made Joseph one of the most powerful and respected men in Egypt. But if you think about it, those rewards do not <i>really</i> seem <i>in and of themselves</i> completely worth all the pain and grief that these prophets were required to experience beforehand. Those rewards are, in fact, just a <i>glimpse</i> and small manifestation of Allah’s mercy and reward to come. They are a tiny preview into the full and complete mercy and reward that Allah has in store in the next life.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
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<span class="s1">And if, on the other hand, you have to wait a long time to see that glimpse, or you die before you see it, then know that Allah is only delaying it in order to increase that mercy and reward for you on the Day of Judgment. As our Prophet, peace be upon him, is reported to have said, </span></div>
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</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span class="s1">“On the day that God created the heavens and the earth, He created one hundred portions of <i>raḥma</i> (mercy, care, compassion). From it, He placed on the earth one portion, by virtue of which the mother has compassion for her child, and the livestock have compassion for each other, and so do the birds. And God kept back the other ninety-nine. When the Day of Resurrection comes, God will complete the distribution of this mercy.”</span></blockquote>
For more on this beautiful Qur'anic passage, I recommend the sermon, “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtoMS2vtb4M">Why do bad things happen?: the Qur'an's perspective</a>,” by my teacher, Nouman Ali Khan.Sharifhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03683966146725270053noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5909131535009425348.post-92098024043474560902016-05-29T01:22:00.000-07:002016-05-31T13:39:48.446-07:00Excellent article series on Noah's Flood and the Qur'an<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">Up until now, the best treatment I have seen of the Flood and the </span><span style="color: black;">Qur’an</span><span style="color: black;"> was in <i>Islam and Biological Evolution: Exploring Classical Sources and Methodologies</i> by David Solomon Jalajel. I had come to the same conclusions as Jalajel before reading his chapter, but seeing that my interpretations were supported by some major Qur’anic commentaries was reassuring. Surveying and analyzing a number of classical commentaries, Jalajel argues that the Qur'an does <i>not</i>:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<ul style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">indicate that the Flood was global;<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">claim that Noah's people were the only human beings on the earth in his time;<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">state that the Flood was universal, affecting all of humanity, but only that it affected Noah's people;<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">claim that all human populations descended from Noah and those who boarded the ark.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Concerning that last point, the Qur’an only states that Abraham descended from Noah (cf. 3:33-34) and hence the Quraysh (36:41; 69:11), the Children of Israel (17:3), and the Biblical prophets named in the Qur’an (6:84).[1]<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">al-Alusi’s commentary is most instructive. Commenting on 71:26, in which Noah prays, “do not leave on the earth [or “the land,” </span><i><span style="color: black;">ʿ</span></i><i><span style="color: black;">alā ’l-arḍ</span></i><span style="color: black;">] an inhabitant from the disbelievers,” al-Alusi writes,</span></span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">...the word ‘[e]arth’ is quite often used to refer to a portion thereof, and it is possible that this is how it is being used here. Likewise, if we were to concede that the intended meaning was all of the earth, nonetheless the supplication was invoked against the ‘unbelievers’ and these were the ones to whom he was sent and who did not respond.[2]<span class="" style="color: #1155cc;"><span class=""><span style="color: black;"></span></span></span></span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Similarly, al-Alusi comments in reference to 11:40, which states, “We said, ‘Load upon the ship of every set of mates a pair'":</span></span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">What the heart tends to accept is that the flood—as some have opined—was not universal in scope and that Noah was not commanded to carry with him what generally subsists on unclean substances on the [e]arth, like mice and insects. Instead, he was commanded to carry with him what he would need when he and those with him were saved from drowning.[3]<span class="" style="color: #1155cc;"><span class=""><span style="color: black;"></span></span></span></span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">Still, this treatment left one important question in my mind. The Qur'an says that Noah’s ship “came to rest upon Mount Judi (<i>wa-’stawat </i></span><i><span style="color: black;">ʿ</span></i><i><span style="color: black;">alā ’l-jūdiyy</span></i><span style="color: black;">)” (11:44). Yet, for rainfall to cause flood waters to reach the elevation of a mountain and then to recede would entail all kinds of physical impossibilities and would multiply the earth’s atmospheric pressure to a degree that the earth would become uninhabitable. It would also require a global flood, which would clash with all of the evidence we have from geology.[4] Moreover, it seemed to me that Mount Judi, known in Turkish as Cudi Dagh (pronounced <i>joo-dee daa'</i>), is too far north to be affected by a flood in the Persian Gulf but too far south to be affected by a Black Sea flood.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Fortunately, I stumbled upon a brilliant <a href="https://tesserae.wordpress.com/category/the-ship-the-flood/" style="color: #1155cc;">series of articles</a> by a Muslim researcher, examining the Qur’anic account of the Flood from the perspective of history, geology, archaeology, and anthropology. I was very surprised to find such a sophisticated treatment of the subject on an obscure blog that hasn’t been updated since 2007! The author explained the goal of his series as follows:</span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 16.8px;">This is not an attempt to prove the validity of the Qur’anic and/or Biblical story of Noah and the Flood, but simply to look at various physical aspects of the event, and to relate it to what we can discover from geographical, historical, archaeological, and other sources – in short, relate it to what we know about the world in general.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The contents of this series are outlined as such:</span></span></div>
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<li><a href="https://tesserae.wordpress.com/2007/10/20/introduction-2/" style="color: #1155cc; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: 16.8pt; text-align: justify;">SF00: Introduction</a></li>
<li><a href="https://tesserae.wordpress.com/2007/10/21/the-ship-and-the-flood/" style="color: #1155cc; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: 16.8pt; text-align: justify;">SF01: The Ship and the Flood</a></li>
<li><a href="https://tesserae.wordpress.com/2007/10/22/the-story-of-the-ark/" style="color: #1155cc; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: 16.8pt; text-align: justify;">SF02: The Story of the Ark</a></li>
<li><a href="https://tesserae.wordpress.com/2007/10/23/sf03-evolutionists-versus-%e2%80%9ccreationists%e2%80%9d/" style="color: #1155cc; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: 16.8pt; text-align: justify;">SF03: “Evolutionists” versus “Creationists”</a></li>
<li><a href="https://tesserae.wordpress.com/2007/10/24/sf04-noah-and-the-flood/" style="color: #1155cc; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: 16.8pt; text-align: justify;" title="Noah and the Flood">SF04: Noah and the Flood</a></li>
<li><a href="https://tesserae.wordpress.com/2007/10/25/sf05-the-size-of-the-ship/" style="color: #1155cc; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: 16.8pt; text-align: justify;" title="The Size of the Ship">SF05: The Size of the Ship</a></li>
<li><a href="https://tesserae.wordpress.com/2007/10/26/sf06a-extent-of-the-flood/" style="color: #1155cc; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: 16.8pt; text-align: justify;" title="Extent of the Flood">SF06a: Extent of the Flood</a></li>
<li><a href="https://tesserae.wordpress.com/2007/10/26/sf06b-extent-of-the-flood/" style="color: #1155cc; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: 16.8pt; text-align: justify;" title="Extent of the Flood">SF06b: Extent of the Flood</a></li>
<li><a href="https://tesserae.wordpress.com/2007/10/27/sf07-technology/" style="color: #1155cc; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: 16.8pt; text-align: justify;" title=" Technology">SF07: Technology</a></li>
<li><a href="https://tesserae.wordpress.com/2007/10/28/sf08-landfall/" style="color: #1155cc; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: 16.8pt; text-align: justify;" title=" Landfall">SF08: Landfall</a></li>
<li><a href="https://tesserae.wordpress.com/2007/10/29/sf09-where-is-mount-judi/" style="color: #1155cc; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: 16.8pt; text-align: justify;" title="Where is Mount Jûdî?">SF09: Where is Mount Jûdî?</a></li>
<li><a href="https://tesserae.wordpress.com/2007/10/30/sf10-has-the-ship-been-found/" style="color: #1155cc; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: 16.8pt; text-align: justify;" title="Has The Ship Been Found?">SF10: Has The Ship Been Found?</a></li>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This series is the best treatment of the subject I have seen. </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The author avoids the pitfalls of Christian fundamentalist interpretations of the Flood story, which immensely clash with the data of geology and other physical sciences.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> I was very pleased to find a satisfying answer to my above question in </span><a href="https://tesserae.wordpress.com/2007/10/26/sf06b-extent-of-the-flood/" style="color: #1155cc; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">SF06b: Extent of the Flood</a><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">. The author points out,</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Now, when we read that the ship came to rest “‘alaa’l juwdiyyi”, we do not have to understand that to mean ‘on top of Judi” It could also be understood as “at Judi.” In Arabic, “‘alaa baabihi,” meaning “at his door,” is common usage.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Hence the Qur’anic statement could be translated as “it came to settle at Mount Judi.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Using visuals, the author goes on to show how severe flooding of the Persian Gulf—a phenomenon that is now attested to by geological evidence—combined with a temporary sagging of the Arabian plate would be capable of inundating Mesopotamia without requiring a significant rise in sea level. The floodwaters would be able to reach into a valley that extends into the vicinity of Mount Judi. He observes that this</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">could be produced by means of a heating and partial melting of the continental crust from below. Effects of this could also involve volcanic eruptions, including massive eruptions of steam. In this respect some rather cryptic words used in the Holy Qur’an might be of significance. They appear to mean: “And the oven was heated.”</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span></blockquote>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As for Qur’anic references to “waves like mountains” (11:42), this can be taken to suggest that Noah’s ship sailed temporarily into the ocean. </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It does not entail that the waves were literally the altitude of mountains (cf. 42:32; 55:24) or that this description applies to the floodwaters over Mesopotamia.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The author’s model of the Flood resembles that of Hugh Ross in his <i>Navigating Genesis: A Scientist's Journey Through Genesis 1-11.</i> Ross likewise proposes a regional flood that covered the Persian Gulf basins, Mesopotamia, and part of the Arabian Peninsula, though he places the Flood tens of thousands of years earlier. What is unique about this author’s treatment however is that he focuses on the details of the Qur’anic story, carefully considering the geological, archaeological, and anthropological implications of each detail.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The blog series contains many insights beyond the ones I have noted. The only disagreement I have that I would like to note is that the author assumes that the Flood wiped out all of humanity during Noah’s time and that all subsequent human populations descended from those who boarded the ship. As I noted above, even this assumption is unnecessary on the Qur’anic account.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The only significant thing lacking in this author’s treatment is a discussion of the transmission of the Flood story and the relationship between the Biblical (and hence, to some extent, Qur’anic) account and the more ancient Mesopotamian versions. These include the Ziusudra Epic in Sumerian, the Atrahasis Epic in Akkadian, and the Epic of Gilgamesh. A masterful study of this nature is <i>Noah’s Ark and the Ziusudra Epic</i> by Robert M. Best. Studies of the the Mesopotamian Flood accounts have led many Assyriologists to trace the origins of the Flood story to a local flood in southern Iraq c. 2900 BCE. Engagement with this evidence is generally missing from conservative Christian and Muslim discussions, which tend to focus more exclusively on exegesis and scientific data.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">[1] <span style="color: black;">This verse also mentions “Job.” The Bible only states that Job was from “the land of Uz,” which is not a known geographical location. Rabbinic authorities differed over whether Job was an Israelite, an Aramean, an Edomite, or some other ethnicity, and the question remains open as far as modern Biblical scholarship is concerned. Hence, this is moot for my argument.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">[2] al-Alusi, <i>Rūḥ al-Ma‘ānī</i>, 29/126. Qtd. in Jalajel, 57.<i> <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">[3] <span style="color: black;">al-Alusi 12/353. Qtd. in Jalajel, 60-61.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">[4] See Robert M. Best, <i>Noah’s Ark and the Ziusudra Epic</i> (Fort Myers: Enlil Press, 1999), 39-40, for a summary and references for such studies.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>Sharifhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03683966146725270053noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5909131535009425348.post-19719118403742513842016-05-19T20:28:00.002-07:002016-05-29T12:05:30.851-07:00Does the Qur'an "copy" or "plagiarize" the Bible?<div style="background-image: initial; background-repeat: initial; line-height: 14.5pt; margin: 0in 0in 4.5pt;">
<span style="color: #1d2129;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A common accusation by polemicists against Islam is that the Qur’an “plagiarizes” or “copies” the Bible or other Jewish and Christian sources. To be candid, this continues to be one of the stupidest claims to come out of anti-Islamic polemics, and I notice even Muslims rarely realize the stupidity of this argument.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 14.5pt;">When movies like “The Ten Commandments” and “The Passion of the Christ” came out, no one claimed that they were plagiarizing the Bible, because everyone recognized that these are intentional retellings of the Biblical stories. Similarly, when someone writes a book containing Bible stories for children, nobody claims they are “plagiarizing” or “copying from” the Bible. This is adaptation or a retelling of a well-known traditional story. Likewise, when the Qur’an retells traditional stories about Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, or Jesus, to claim that what it is doing is “plagiarism,” “copying,” or even “borrowing” shows a fundamental ignorance of what these terms mean, as well as how traditional stories have always been retold in news ways throughout history.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 14.5pt;">Hence such claims no longer remain credible in Western Qur'anic studies. Here are two representative quotes on this topic from important contemporary Western scholars of the Qur’an, both of whom incidentally are Catholic clergymen.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 14.5pt;">Sidney H. Griffith writes:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Hermeneutically speaking, one should approach the Qur’ān as an integral discourse in its own right; it proclaims, judges, praises, blames from its own narrative center. It addresses an audience which is already familiar with oral versions in Arabic of earlier scriptures and folklores. The Qur’ān does not borrow from, or often even quote from these earlier texts. Rather, it alludes to and evokes their stories, even sometimes their wording, for its own rhetorical purpose. The Arabic Qur’ān, from a literary perspective, is something new. It uses the idiom, and sometimes the forms and structures, of earlier narratives in the composition of its own distinctive discourse. It cannot be reduced to any presumed sources. Earlier discourses appear in it not only in a new setting, but shaped, trimmed and re-formulated for an essentially new narrative.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5909131535009425348#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" style="color: #1155cc;" title=""><span class=""><span class=""><span style="color: #1d2129;">[1]</span></span></span></a></span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="color: #1d2129;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Similarly, Michel Cuypers writes:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There is of course no question of criticizing 'borrowings,' 'imitations,' or 'influences' from apologetic or polemical intentions, as a certain Orientalism in bad taste has done, but rather recognizing that the Qur’an shares a phenomenon which is characteristic of Biblical writings—re-writing. The books of the Bible unceasingly re-appropriate earlier writings, reusing them and turning them to a new perspective which makes revelation advance. The Qur’an does no different, although it does so in a different way from the Bible…since it positions itself as the final revelation in the Judeo-Christian tradition, it has had to re-assume the earlier traditions while making its own mark on the texts it repeats in this way. Far from reducing the Qur’an to a pastiche of earlier writings, the intertextual or 'interscriptural' work we will undertake removes none of its originality, but on the contrary, better draws it out.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5909131535009425348#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" style="color: #1155cc;" title=""><span class=""><span class=""><span style="color: #1d2129;">[2]</span></span></span></a></span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I will have a chapter on this subject in an upcoming book I have been co-authoring—hence my prolonged absence on this blog (!)—which I will soon be giving details about, insha’a ’llah. Stay tuned!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5909131535009425348#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" style="color: #1155cc;" title=""><span class=""><span class=""><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">[1]</span></span></span></a> <span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "helvetica";">Sidney H. Griffith, “Christian Lore and the Arabic Qur’an: The ‘Companions of the Cave’ in Surat al-Kahf and in Syriac Christian tradition,” in <i>The Qur’ān in Its Historical Context</i>, ed. Gabriel Said Reynolds (London: Routledge, 2008), 116</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5909131535009425348#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" style="color: #1155cc;" title=""><span class=""><span class=""><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">[2]</span></span></span></a> <span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "helvetica";">Michel Cuypers, <i>The Banquet: A Reading of the Fifth Sura of the Qur’an</i> (Miami: Convivium, 2009), 31.</span></span></div>
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Sharifhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03683966146725270053noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5909131535009425348.post-42545454667215770882016-04-15T19:45:00.002-07:002016-09-08T20:16:55.473-07:00A Bibliography of Studies in English on the Coherence and Structure of the Qur'an's Suras<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Cross posted from: http://blog.bayyinah.com/nazm-bibliography</span><br />
<span class="s1"><br /></span> <span class="s1">The topic of the Qur'an's <i>naẓm</i>, "arrangement" or "composition," has achieved significant interest in contemporary study of the scripture, giving rise to a number of extremely interesting and insightful studies of the coherence and structure of the Qur'anic suras. Here I would like to provide a bibliography of such studies in English for interested readers and students of the Qur'an. This post can be continually updated as further studies in this field are published.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">First, however, I would like to give mention of two contemporary pioneering works outside of the English language. First, Amin Ahsan Islahi has written a commentary of the entire Qur’an in Urdu focused on the study of coherence, titled <i>Tadabbur-i Qur’ān </i>(<i>Pondering the Qur’an</i>). His commentary of suras 32-114 have been translated into English and may be found on http://www.tadabbur-i-quran.org/text-of-tadabbur-i-quran/. For studies of this commentary in English, see Mustansir Mir, <i>Coherence in the Qur'an </i>(Indianapolis: American Trust Publications, 1986), as well as Neal Robinson, <i>Discovering the Qur’an: A Contemporary Approach to a Veiled Text</i>, 2nd ed. (Washington, D.C.: Georgetown UP, 2003), pp. 271-283.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Second, the formal structure of all of the Meccan suras, and especially the early Meccan suras, has been studied by Angelika Neuwirth, <i>Studien Zur Komposition Der Mekkanischen Suren</i> (Berlin: De Gruyter, 1981). Although this work has yet to be translated into English, her findings are refined by Robinson, <i>Discovering the Qur’an: A Contemporary Approach to a Veiled Text</i>), pp. 97-161. Neuwirth’s structural or thematic divisions of the Meccan suras are also outlined in an appendix by Carl Ernst, <i>How to Read the Qur’an: A New Guide, With Select Translations</i> (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2011), pp. 213-222. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">What follows is a bibliography of coherence-based studies of particular suras in English.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><b>MECCAN SURAS</b></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><b>Sura 1: The Opening (<i>al-Fātiḥa</i>)</b></span></div>
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<li class="li1"><span class="s1">Michel Cuypers, “Semitic Rhetoric as a Key to the Question of the Naẓm of the Qur’anic Text” <i>Coherence in the Qur’an</i> 13 no. 1 (2011): 13-15.</span></li>
<li class="li1"><span class="s1">Raymond Farrin, <i>Structure and Qur’anic Interpretation: A Study of Symmetry and Coherence in Islam’s Holy Text</i>, Ashland, OR: White Cloud Press, 2014, 1-7.</span></li>
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<span class="s1"><b>Sura 12: <i>Joseph</i> (<i>Yusuf</i>)</b></span></div>
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<li class="li1"><span class="s1">Mustansir Mir, “The Qur’anic Story Of Joseph: Plot, Themes, And Characters,” <i>Muslim World</i>1 (1986): 1-3, points out the chiastic structure of the sura.</span></li>
<li class="li1"><span class="s1">Michel Cuypers, “Semitic Rhetoric,” 15-19, offers a deeper and more refined analysis of the sura as a ring composition.</span></li>
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<span class="s1"><b>Sura 15: <i>al-Ḥijr</i></b></span></div>
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<li class="li1"><span class="s1">Ernst, 111-120, underscores the structure of the sura and its anchors with earlier suras.</span></li>
</ul>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b>Sura 17: <i>The Night Journey </i>(<i>al-Isrā’</i>)</b></span></div>
<ul class="ul1">
<li class="li1"><span class="s1">Robinson, <i>Discovering the Qur’an</i>, 188-195.</span></li>
</ul>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b>Sura 23: <i>The Believers</i> (<i>al-Mu’minūn</i>)</b></span></div>
<ul class="ul1">
<li class="li1"><span class="s1">Neal Robinson, “The Structure and Interpretation of Sūrat al-Mu’minūn,” <i>Journal of Qur’anic Studies</i> 2, no. 1 (2000): 89-106.</span></li>
</ul>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b>Sura 51: <i>The Scatterers</i> (<i>adh-Dhāriyāt</i>)</b></span></div>
<ul class="ul1">
<li class="li1"><span class="s1">Mir, <i>Coherence in the Qur’an</i>, 39-41, summarizes Hamid al-Din Farahi’s analysis of the sura.</span></li>
<li class="li1"><span class="s1">Ernst, 78, outlines the structure and balance of the sura.</span></li>
</ul>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b>Sura 53: <i>The Star (an-Najm</i>)</b></span></div>
<ul class="ul1">
<li class="li1"><span class="s1">Ernst, 98-104, provides some observations on the structure and balance of the sura.</span></li>
</ul>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b>Suras 54: <i>The Moon </i>(<i>al-Qamar</i>) and 55: <i>The All-Merciful </i>(<i>ar-Raḥmān</i>) (as a sura pair)</b></span></div>
<ul class="ul1">
<li class="li1"><span class="s1">Farrin, <i>Structure and Qur’anic Interpretation</i>, 63-69.</span></li>
</ul>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b>Sura 55: <i>The All-Merciful </i>(<i>ar-Raḥmān</i>) – also 54 and 56</b></span></div>
<ul class="ul1">
<li class="li1"><span class="s1">Muhammad Abdel Haleem, “Context and Internal Relationships: Keys to Qur’anic Exegesis” <i>Approaches to the Qur’an</i>, eds. G. R. Hawting and Abdul-Kader A. Shareef (London: Routledge, 1993), 71-98; also presented in Muhammad Abdel Haleem, <i>Understanding the Qur’an: Themes and Styles</i>, 3rd ed. (London: I.B. Taurus, 2011), 161-186.</span></li>
</ul>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b>Sura 75: <i>The Resurrection</i> (<i>al-Qiyama</i>)</b></span></div>
<ul class="ul1">
<li class="li1"><span class="s1">Neal Robinson, “The Qur’ān as the Word of God” in <i>Heaven and Earth: Essex Essays in Theology and Ethics</i>, ed. Andrew Linzey and Peter J. Wexler (Worthing: Churchman, 1986), 38-54.</span></li>
<li class="li1"><span class="s1">Salwa M.S. El-Awa, <i>Textual Relations in the Qur’ān: Relevance, Coherence, and Structure</i> (Routledge: New York, 2006), 101-159.</span></li>
</ul>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b>Sura 78: <i>The News </i>(<i>an-Naba’</i>)</b></span></div>
<ul class="ul1">
<li class="li1"><span class="s1">Robinson, <i>Discovering the Qur’an</i>, 167-176.</span></li>
</ul>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b>Sura 79: <i>The Pullers</i> (<i>an-Nāzi‘āt</i>)</b></span></div>
<ul class="ul1">
<li class="li1"><span class="s1">Robinson, <i>Discovering the Qur’an</i>, 177-188.</span></li>
</ul>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b>Sura 101: <i>The Crashing Blow</i> (<i>al-Qāri‘a</i>)</b></span></div>
<ul class="ul1">
<li class="li1"><span class="s1">Cuypers, “Semitic Rhetoric,” 7-9.</span></li>
</ul>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b>MEDINAN SURAS</b></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b>Sura 2: <i>The Cow</i> (<i>al-Baqara</i>)</b></span></div>
<ul class="ul1">
<li class="li1"><span class="s1">Mustansir Mir, “The Sūra as a Unity: A Twentieth Century Development in Qur’an Exegesis” in <i>Approaches to the Qur’an</i>, eds. G. R. Hawting and Abdul-Kader A. Shareef, eds. (London: Routledge, 1993), 211–24; reprinted in Colin Turner, ed., <i>The Koran: Critical Concepts in Islamic Studies</i> (4 vols. London: Routledge, 2004), vol. 4, 198–209.</span></li>
<li class="li1"><span class="s1">Robinson, <i>Discovering the Qur’an</i>, 201-223.</span></li>
<li class="li1"><span class="s1">H. Mathias Zahniser, “Major Transitions and Thematic Borders in Two Long Sūras: al-Baqara and al-Nisā’” in <i>Literary Structures of Religious Meaning in the Qur’an</i>, ed. Issa J. Boulatta (Richmond: Curzon, 2000), 26–55.</span></li>
<li class="li1"><span class="s1">David E. Smith, “The Structure of al-Baqarah,” <i>Muslim World</i> 91 (2001): 121–36.</span></li>
<li class="li1"><span class="s1">Raymond Farrin, “Surat al-Baqara: A Structural Analysis,” <i>Muslim World</i>1 (2010): 17-32.</span></li>
<li class="li1"><span class="s1">Farrin, <i>Structure and Qur’anic Interpretation</i>, 9-21.</span></li>
<li class="li1"><span class="s1">Nevin Rida El-Tehry, <i>Textual Integrity and Coherence in the Qur’an: Repetition and Narrative Structure in Surat al-Baqara</i> (PhD diss., University of Toronto, Toronto, 2010).</span></li>
</ul>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b>Sura 3: <i>The House of ‘Imrān</i> (<i>Āl ‘Imrān</i>)</b></span></div>
<ul class="ul1">
<li class="li1"><span class="s1">Neal Robinson, “Surat Al ‘Imran and Those with the Greatest Claim to Abraham,” <i>Journal of Qur'anic Studies</i> 6, no. 2 (2004): 1-21.</span></li>
<li class="li1"><span class="s1">Neal Robinson, “The Dynamics of Surah Āl ‘Imrān” Pak Tae-Shik, Saramui Jonggyo, Jonggyoui Saram (Seoul: Baobooks, 2008), 425-486.</span></li>
<li class="li1"><span class="s1">Farrin, <i>Structure and Qur’anic Interpretation</i>, 24-32.</span></li>
<li class="li1"><span class="s1">Bilal Gökkir, “Form and Structure of Sura Maryam—A Study from Unity of Sura Perspective,” <i>Süleyman Demirel Üniversitesi İlahiyat Fakültesi Dergisi</i> 16, no. 1 (2006): 1-16.</span></li>
</ul>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b>Sura 4: <i>Women</i> (<i>an-Nisā’</i>)</b></span></div>
<ul class="ul1">
<li class="li1"><span class="s1">Mustansir Mir, <i>Coherence in the Qur’an</i> (Indianapolis: American Trust Publications, 1986), 46-62, provides a summary and analysis of Islahi’s study of the structure and coherence of the sura.</span></li>
<li class="li1"><span class="s1">A. H. Mathias Zahniser, “Major Transitions and Thematic Borders in Two Long Sūras: al-Baqara and al-Nisā<i>’</i>” in <i>Literary Structures of Religious Meaning in the Qur’an</i>, ed. Issa J. Boulatta (Richmond: Curzon, 2000), 26–55.</span></li>
<li class="li1"><span class="s1">A. H. Mathias Zahniser, “Sura as Guidance and Exhortation: The Composition of Surat al-Nisa<i>’</i>” in <i>Humanism, Culture, and Language in the Near East: Studies in Honor of Georg Krotkoff</i>, ed. Asma Afsaruddin and A.H. Mathias Zahnisr (Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, 1997), 71-86.</span></li>
</ul>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b>Sura 5: <i>The Dining Table</i> (<i>al-Mā‘ida</i>)</b></span></div>
<ul class="ul1">
<li class="li1"><span class="s1">Neal Robinson, “Hands Outstretched: Towards a Re-Reading of Surat al-Mā’ida” <i>Coherence in the Qur’an</i> 3, no. 1 (2001): 1-19.</span></li>
<li class="li1"><span class="s1">Michel Cuypers, <i>The Banquet: A Reading of the Fifth Sura of the Qur’an</i>, trans. Patricia Kelly (Miami: Convivium Press, 2009); cf. Cuypers, “Semitic Rhetoric,” 9-13.</span></li>
</ul>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b>Sura 33: <i>The Confederations </i>(<i>al-Aḥzāb</i>)</b></span></div>
<ul class="ul1">
<li class="li1"><span class="s1">El-Awa, <i>Textual Relations in the </i>Qur’ān, 45-100.</span></li>
</ul>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b>Sura 60: <i>She Who is to Be Examined</i> (<i>al-Mumtaḥana</i>)</b></span></div>
<ul class="ul1">
<li class="li1"><span class="s1">Ernst, 163-166, analyzes the sura as a ring composition.</span></li>
</ul>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b>Suras 113: <i>Daybreak </i>(<i>al-Falaq</i>) and 114: <i>Mankind</i> (<i>an-Nās</i>) as a sura pair</b></span></div>
<br />
<ul class="ul1">
<li class="li1"><span class="s1">Farrin, <i>Structure and Qur’anic Interpretation</i>, 22-24.</span></li>
</ul>
Sharifhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03683966146725270053noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5909131535009425348.post-10502843005431831412016-03-04T18:03:00.002-08:002016-05-29T12:07:17.061-07:00Demystifying "Gog and Magog" in Judeo-Christian Tradition, the Qur'an, and the Hadiths<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Adeel, the author of the "<a href="http://qurananswers.me/">Quran Answers</a>" blog, has just published an excellent essay on the topic of Gog and Magog in the Qur'an and hadiths. I felt this was worth posting about, because the topic of Gog and Magog has become the subject of a lot of misunderstanding, wild conjecture, and bizarre interpretations. But, while it represents an apocalyptic motif shared by Jewish, Christian, and Islamic tradition, it is in fact grounded in a well-known historical phenomenon with historical, geographical, and ethnic identifiers. Before posting the link to the "Quran Answers" article, I thought it would be worth providing some historical context to this misunderstood tradition.</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The
basic historical understanding of "Gog and Magog"<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5909131535009425348#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: black;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
across the Abrahamic traditions is summed up well by Abdullah Yusuf Ali in an appendix
of his Qur'an translation and commentary:</span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It is practically agreed that they were the wild
tribes of Central Asia which have made inroads on settled kingdoms and Empires
at various stages of history. The Chinese Empires suffered from their
incursions and built the Great Wall of China to keep out the Manchus and
Mongols. The Persian Empire suffered from them at various times and at various
points. Their incursions into Europe in large hordes caused migrations and
displacements of populations on an enormous scale, and eventually broke up the
Roman Empire. These tribes were known vaguely to the Greeks and Romans as
"Scythians", but that term does not help us very much, either ethnically or geographically.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5909131535009425348#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: black; font-family: "times";">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A.R. Anderson catalogs some of the earliest recorded examples of these incursions:</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">From time immemorial the Caucasus—that mighty
bulwark thrown across the isthmus between the Black and the Caspian Seas—has
lain in the pathway of northern nomads descending into the fair lands of Hither
Asia. What devastating waves of migration have burst against its barriers, some
of them to clear its passes and to deal destruction to the civilizations of the
south! Such may have been the course of the Kassites when about 1900 B.C. they
came bringing with them the horse, but wrecking the empire founded by
Hammurabi. Such too may have been the course of the Mitanni, when they about
1400 B.C. made themselves felt as far as Palestine. It was probably through the
pass of Dariel that the Cimmerians, Gimirrae, who are to be identified with the
biblical Gomer, invaded Assyria under Sargon (722-705 B.C.) and then later
passed on to overrun Asia Minor, devastating it as far as the Aegean, and
overthrowing the power of Phyrgia founded by Midas. A generation later under
Esar-Haddon (681-668 B.C.), the Scythians followed by way of the pass of
Derbend, destined before the century was past to join the Medes and Chaldeans
in overthrowing Assyria (612 B.C.). East of the Caspian the Massagetae
constituted a problem even to Cyrus the Great. Darius, recognized the Scythian
peril, sought to strike them by way of the Balkan peninsula, crossing the
Danube in an in an expedition in which he narrowly escaped utter ruin. <span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5909131535009425348#_ftn3" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn3;" title=""><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: black; font-family: "times";">[3]</span></span></a></span></span></span></blockquote>
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Such incursions continued well into the Common Era. The term "Scythians," or later "Huns," became a generic designation for Central Asian nomadic tribes who occupied the northern parts of the Caucasus. The people of Asia Minor and the Caucasus would build defensive walls in the Caucasian mountains, such as the Pass of Dariel and the Gates of Derbend in modern-day Russia, to protect them from from invasions by these tribes from the north. The Huns, of course, ravaged Europe in the late fourth and fifth centuries, contributing to the fall of the Western Roman Empire. In the following centuries, the Sabirs, Kök Türks, and Khazars posed repeated threats to Byzantine and/or Persian territories in the Near East. In the climax of the centuries long Byzantine-Sassanian Wars, the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius even opened the Gates of Derbend and summoned the Kök Türks and Khazars against his Sassanian Persian opponents.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/be/Derbent_wall.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/be/Derbent_wall.jpg" width="213" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">The Gates of Derbend in modern-day Russia, also known in popular tradition as the Gates of Alexander.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">(Courtesy of <a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/be/Derbent_wall.jpg">Wikipedia</a>.)</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Notwithstanding, the most devastating manifestation of this phenomenon occurred centuries later: the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongol_invasions_and_conquests">Mongol invasions and conquests</a> of the thirteenth century.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcy9D6KPhMH1QBeayQo2Cv16YZVK1ZSkcHajsHLJpWCT5-67dPc1LEpmdJc_JzX2sOu2eUSJiRXitZJdrya_tpxEA2dGXJtf_PWVATbh8GBjqzKGDG_FYWyy2H75tQSYR4MaWqmstV_wOn/s1600/Mongol_Empire_map.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="251" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcy9D6KPhMH1QBeayQo2Cv16YZVK1ZSkcHajsHLJpWCT5-67dPc1LEpmdJc_JzX2sOu2eUSJiRXitZJdrya_tpxEA2dGXJtf_PWVATbh8GBjqzKGDG_FYWyy2H75tQSYR4MaWqmstV_wOn/s320/Mongol_Empire_map.gif" width="320" /></span></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">The expansion of the Mongol Empire.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">(Courtesy of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongol_invasions_and_conquests#/media/File:Mongol_Empire_map.gif">Wikipedia</a>, user Astrokey 44.)</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In summary, Schmidt and Van Donzel write:</span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">[Gog and Magog] were identified with different
“impure peoples”: Scythians, Huns, Alans, Khazars, Turks, Kipchaks, or the
Mongols. The common denomination of these peoples is that they all were
accomplished horsemen who invaded the Roman Empire from the Eurasian steppes and
whose civilisations were unknown to the citizens of the Roman Empire.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5909131535009425348#_ftn4" name="_ftnref4" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn4;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: black; font-family: "times";">[4]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a></span></blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><sup><span style="color: black; font-family: "times";"><o:p><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></o:p></span></sup>Speaking more broadly, Anderson states:</span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The term Gog and Magog has therefore become synonymous
with barbarian, especially with the type of barbarian that bursts through the
northern frontier of civilization. This frontier extends the whole length of
the Eurasian continent from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from Spain to China,
and includes such outstanding landmarks as the Alps, the
Caucasus, and the Great Wall<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5909131535009425348#_ftn5" name="_ftnref5" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn5;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: black; font-family: "times";">[5]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>…The legend of Alexander’s
Gate and of the enclosed nations is in reality the story of the frontier in
sublimated mythologized form<u><sup>.<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><u><span style="color: black; font-family: "times";"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5909131535009425348#_ftn6" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn6;" title="">[6]</a></span></u></span></span></span></sup></u></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Gog/Magog tradition has evolved over the course of the Abrahamic traditions, from the mention of Magog as a descendent of Noah's son Japheth in the Table of Nations (Genesis 10:2), to the proto-apocalyptic prophecy about the armies of "Gog of Magog" in Ezekiel 38-39, to further apocalyptic development in Second Temple Jewish texts and early Christian and Rabbinic writings, to their infusion with the Alexander legends in the Late Antique period, and in their presentation in the Qur'an (18:93-99; 21:95-96) and prophetic hadiths.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Adeel's essay provides a fairly straightforward reading of the Qur'anic verses and (frequently misunderstood) hadiths on the topic of Gog and Magog, along with helpful analysis from medieval and modern Muslim scholars. The essay clarifies:</span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">What the hadiths say about the ethnic identity and geographical location of "Gog and Magog";</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">How the hadiths seem to have prophesied the Mongol invasions many centuries before they occurred;</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">That the fortification that restrained Gog and Magog (see Qur'an 18:93-99) may have already been breached, rather than being a future event;</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">That the invasions of Gog and Magog are not restricted to a single apocalyptic event, but are a transhistorical phenomenon, recurring across history, but culminating in their most catastrophic manifestation immediately before the Last Day;</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">How this catastrophic event fits into the ends times chronology presented in the hadiths;</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">What the hadiths about their enormous numbers mean.</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It is also notable that the hadiths cited in the essay have many parallels with Ezekiel 38-39 and Rabbinic traditions. This is an enlightening read for anybody who has been confused about this topic:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://qurananswers.me/2016/03/04/who-and-where-are-the-gog-and-magog/">http://qurananswers.me/2016/03/04/who-and-where-are-the-gog-and-magog/</a><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="mso-element: footnote-list;">
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<br />
<div id="ftn1" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5909131535009425348#_ftnref1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[1]</span></a> </span></span></span>The etymology of these names is uncertain.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>For a summary of several theories, see J. Lust, “Magog” in Karel Van Der
Toorn, Bob Becking, and Pieter W. van der Hoorst (eds.), <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dictionary of Demons and Deities in the Bible</i> (Leiden: Brill, 1999),
2<sup>nd</sup> ed, pp. 535-536.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Magog
occurs in the Table of Nations in Genesis 12 as a nation descending from Noah’s
son Japheth, the progenitor of European and certain Asian peoples.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Gog” first occurs in the prophecy in Ezekiel
38-39, where he is the political and military head of the region of Magog.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the second century BCE, “Gog” occurs in
place of “Magog” in the Book of Jubilees, and they subsequently occur as
counterpart tribes in the third book of the Sibylline Oracles. In the Qur'an, the paired names are made to rhyme—Ya'juj and Ma'juj—as is a common literary feature of the scripture.</span></div>
</div>
</div>
<div id="ftn2" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5909131535009425348#_ftnref2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[2]</span></a> </span></span></span>Abdullah Yusuf Ali, <i>The Holy Qur'an: Arabic Text with an English Translation
and Commentary</i> (Lahore: Shaykh Muhammad Ashraf, 1937), vol. 2, p. 761.</span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn3" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5909131535009425348#_ftnref3" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn3;" title=""><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[3]</span></a> </span></span></span>Andrew Runni Anderson, “Alexander at the Caspian gates,” <i>Transactions and
Proceedings of the American Philological Association</i> 59 (1928): 138–139.</span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn4" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5909131535009425348#_ftnref4" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn4;" title=""><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[4]</span></a> </span></span></span>Andrea and Emeri Van Donzel (eds.), <i>Gog and Magog in Early Syriac and Islamic
Sources: Sallam’s Quest for Alexander’s Wall</i> (Leiden: Brill, 2009), p.
45.</span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn5" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5909131535009425348#_ftnref5" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn5;" title=""><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[5]</span></a> </span></span></span>Here Anderson is considering post-Qur’anic interpretations, such as that the
Mongol invasions represented Gog and Magog. Nonetheless, it is an accurate
characterization of Gog and Magog as a transhistorical typology.</span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn6" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5909131535009425348#_ftnref6" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn6;" title=""><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[6]</span></a> </span></span>Andrew Runni Anderson, <i>Alexander's Gate, Gog and Magog,
and the Inclosed Nations </i>(Baltimore: The Waverly Press Inc., 1932), p.
8.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<br /></div>
Sharifhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03683966146725270053noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5909131535009425348.post-67201576731399491422015-07-20T09:55:00.006-07:002015-07-20T09:55:50.304-07:00Traveling over next few weeksAs-salamu `alaykum all. Insha'allah I will be traveling over the next several weeks and will not be able to continue my blog posts as planned, but hope to resume them in the second half of August. Jazakumullahu khayran to all those who are reading!Sharifhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03683966146725270053noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5909131535009425348.post-40972722214659168932015-06-07T16:43:00.000-07:002016-05-29T12:09:03.187-07:00The Exodus in the Qur’an, the Bible, and History (Part 10): "King" vs. "Pharaoh"<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In English, “pharaoh” is used as a generic term for any king
(or queen) of ancient Egypt, without distinguishing between different periods
or dynasties.</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This is how the term is
used in the Bible as well.</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In the
stories of Abraham and Joseph, which are almost universally located in the
Middle Kingdom period (c. 2055-1650 BCE), the ruler of Egypt is called
“Pharaoh” over ninety times.</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Likewise,
in the story of Moses, which is almost universally located in the New Kingdom
period (c. 1550-1069 BCE) (see part 6, “The Identity of Pharaoh”), the Egyptian
ruler is called “Pharaoh” 128 times.</span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5909131535009425348#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[1]</span></span></span></a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The term “king of Egypt” is also used in both
the stories of Joseph (Gen. 40:1; 41:46) and Moses (Exod. 6:13, 27; Deut.
11:3).</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Therefore, in the Bible, the
terms, “Pharaoh” and “king of Egypt” are both used for both time periods
without distinction.</span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5909131535009425348#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[2]</span></span></span></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Qur’an is therefore peculiar in that it does not follow
the biblical pattern.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It does use both
terms, “Pharaoh” and “king,” but without mixing between them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In the story of Joseph, the Qur’an consistently refers to
the Egyptian ruler as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">al-malik</i> (“the
king”), and never as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Fir‘awn</i>
(“Pharaoh”).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For example,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The king (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">al-malik</i>) said, ‘I dreamed about seven fat cows being eaten by
seven lean ones; seven green ears of corn and [seven] others withered. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Counselors, if you can interpret dreams, tell
me the meaning of my dream.’ (12:43)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Further references to the ruler as “the king” occur in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">āyas</i> 50, 54, 72, and 76.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">On the other hand, in the various retellings of the story of
Moses in the Qur’an, the Egyptian ruler is consistently referred to as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Fir‘awn</i>—over seventy times—and never as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">al-malik</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For example,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And Moses said, ‘O Pharaoh, I am a
messenger from the Lord of all peoples’ (7:104)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">What is surprising about the Qur’an’s usage is that it
accords precisely with the way the term “Pharaoh” was historically used in
ancient Egyptian history.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The term comes
from the Egyptian <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">pr-‘3</i>, meaning
“great house.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Prior to the New Kingdom
period, the term was used to refer to the royal palace as a whole.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">only</i>
during the New Kingdom period, and specifically the eighteenth dynasty (16<sup>th</sup>-14<sup>th</sup>
centuries BCE), that the term came to specially designate the Egyptian ruler. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As we saw in part 6, this is exactly the time
the Exodus is dated.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Qur’an’s selective usage of the terms “Pharaoh” and
“king” is therefore striking in its precision.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The Qur’an could employed any of the following possibilities:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<ol>
<li><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It
could have used both terms for both times periods, just as in the Bible and
even modern English, without any distinction.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It
could have exclusively used the term “Pharaoh” for both time periods.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It
could have exclusively used the term “king” for both time periods.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It
could have used the term “Pharaoh” for the period of Joseph and “king” for the
period of Moses.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-stretch: normal;"> </span></span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Instead,
the Qur’an uses the term “king” exclusively for the period of Joseph and the
term “Pharaoh” exclusively for the period of Moses.</span></span></li>
</ol>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">From the perspective of a seventh-century Arab, Jew, or
Christian, any of these possibilities would be acceptable, and there would be
little to favor one over the other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
historical distinction between the two epithets has only come to light with the
advent of modern Egyptology following the translation of hieroglyphics in the
nineteenth century.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In light of these
facts, the Qur’an’s usage is an impressive example of one of its most
remarkable features, its stunningly precise word choice.</span></div>
<div style="mso-element: footnote-list;">
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<br />
<div id="ftn1" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5909131535009425348#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[1]</span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> “Pharaoh” in O. Odelain and R. Séguineau (Trans. M.
J. O'Connell), <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dictionary Of Proper Names
And Places In The Bible</i>, 1981, Robert Hale Ltd.: London, p. 301-302.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Cited in David, Karim, and Saifullah.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn2" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5909131535009425348#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[2]</span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> I have summarized this information from A. David, E.
Karim, and M.S.M. Saifullah, “<a href="http://www.islamic-awareness.org/Quran/Contrad/External/josephdetail.html">Qur’anic Accuracy Vs. Biblical Error: The Kings & Pharaohs Of Egypt</a>.”
Islamic-Awareness.org, 3 Mar. 2006.
Accessed 2 Feb. 2015. (For the
record, though the Qur’an’s precise and selective usage of these terms is
remarkable, I do not personally regard the biblical usage as an “error.”) One may consult the essay for a more detailed
explanation, with more extensive reference to the scholarly literature.</span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
</div>
Sharifhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03683966146725270053noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5909131535009425348.post-59495187439624785202015-05-11T14:15:00.000-07:002016-05-29T12:09:23.248-07:00The Exodus in the Qur’an, the Bible, and History (Part 9): The Preservation of Pharaoh’s Body<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The mummified body of Ramesses II was discovered in 1881 in
a cache of forty mummies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Priests had
deposited and concealed these mummies around 1,000 BCE because of an epidemic
of grave robbery.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They remained
concealed for almost three thousand years until their discovery less than two
centuries ago.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5909131535009425348#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[1]</span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This finding confirms another distinctive element of the
Qur’an’s narrative of Pharaoh, its claim that his body would be preserved for
later generations:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Today We will save you in your body
so that you may be a sign for those after you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Truly many people are heedless of Our signs. (10:92) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This claim is unique to the Qur’an, and is not found in the
Bible or any prior Jewish or Christian sources.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">āya</i> has been compared
before to some rabbinic tales in which the Pharaoh repented and God rescued
him, so he went on to become the king of Nineveh.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5909131535009425348#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[2]</span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, the obvious implication of this
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">āya</i> is that Pharaoh’s last-minute
recantation was not deemed acceptable and he drowned, but his body was in some
way preserved as a sign for later generations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The Qur’an here and elsewhere emphasizes Pharaoh’s demise as a
punishment for his crimes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It is significant that the Qur’an never makes a similar
statement about other destroyed peoples, but only states that their abandoned
buildings, ruins, or “news” have been made signs for later generations. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">āya</i>
explicitly specifies that Pharaoh’s body was preserved as a sign, and not just
for his own time or witnesses (as some commentators have suggested), but in open
terms—“for those after you” (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">li-man
khalfa-ka</i>).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As Fatoohi and
Al-Dargazelli point out, “Since its discovery, Ramesses II’s mummy has been
seen by people from everywhere. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is
currently one of the major tourist attractions in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.”<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5909131535009425348#_ftn3" name="_ftnref3" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn3;" title="">[3]</a></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5909131535009425348#_ftn3" name="_ftnref3" title=""><!--[endif]--></a></span></span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.ancient-origins.net/sites/default/files/ramesses-ii-mummy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="http://www.ancient-origins.net/sites/default/files/ramesses-ii-mummy.jpg" height="265" width="400" /></span></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">The mummy of Ramesses II</span></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">An objection that has been raised before is that at the time
of death, Ramesses was at the ripe age of ninety and was suffering from
atherosclerosis as well as battle wounds.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He would have not been in the physical condition to pursue the
Israelites into the desert. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Bible
answers this objection best when it states that Pharaoh’s stubborn and reckless
actions were a consequence of God hardening his heart, in order that God may
display His signs against him (Exod. 7:3), or as the Qur’an says, “as a sign
for those after you.”</span></div>
<div style="mso-element: footnote-list;">
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<br />
<div id="ftn1" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5909131535009425348#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[1]</span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> Fatoohi and Al-Dargazelli, 112.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn2" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5909131535009425348#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[2]</span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> Pirke De Rabbi Eliezer, ch. 43, pp. 341-343
(Friedlander); Book of Jashar 81:36-41; Chronicles of Jerahmeel 48:12; Legends
of the Jews, vol. 3, 29.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> Moreover, e</span>ach of these
sources postdates the Qur’an.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn3" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5909131535009425348#_ftnref3" name="_ftn3" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn3;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[3]</span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Fatoohi and Al-Dargazelli, 114.</span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
</div>
Sharifhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03683966146725270053noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5909131535009425348.post-79425469241439804922015-04-29T14:45:00.000-07:002016-05-29T12:11:02.627-07:00The Exodus in the Qur’an, the Bible, and History (Part 8): The Pharaoh’s Claim to Divinity<div class="MsoNormal">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">One
of the major narrative differences between the Qur’anic account of the Exodus
and the Biblical one is the Qur’an’s emphasis on the Pharaoh’s claim to
divinity. The Qur’an narrates:</span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">Then
he gathered (his people) and proclaimed, “I am your Lord, Most High.” So
Allah seized with the exemplary punishment of the hereafter and the former.
(79:23-25)</span></span><span style="color: black;"><o:p><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span></o:p></span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Pharaoh
said, “O my chief! I do not know of any god for you other than me”
(28:39)</span><span class="MsoFootnoteReference" style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: black;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5909131535009425348#_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title="">[1]</a></span></span></span></span></blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">Today
it is common knowledge that the Pharaohs of ancient Egypt claimed divine
status, so the statements of Pharaoh that the Qur’an reports here come as no
surprise. However, <b>this element of the narrative is unique to the
Qur’an’s account of the Exodus</b>. The Pharaoh’s claim to divinity does
not play an important role in the biblical text, and in fact, lacks any
explicit mention of it at all. This is also the case with the
retellings of the Exodus story in the Jewish pseudepigrapha (extrabiblical
writings between 300 BCE and 300 CE), such as the <i>Book of Jubilees</i>,
and likewise (as far as I am aware) with rabbinic accounts. The
Pharaoh’s claim to divinity is distinctive to the Qur’an’s account; it lacks
any biblical, Jewish, or Christian precedents. Yet, it is also
historically accurate:</span></span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">By
the early New Kingdom, deification of the living king had become an established
practice, and the living king could himself be worshipped <a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_ftnref1">and supplicated for aid as a god</a>.<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5909131535009425348#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: black;">[2]</span></span></a></span></span></span></span></blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">Two
steles, 410 and 1079 of the Hildesheim Museum, each describe Ramesses II as
“Ramesses-meryamun, the God,” and the Papyrus Anastasi II praises Ramesses as
“god,” “herald,” “vizier,” and “mayor.” The Great Temple at Abu
Simbel (see the picture in the part 7) was built by Ramesses II to honor
himself. The entrance of the temple is flanked by four colossal
statues of Ramesses II, which dwarf the statue of the god Re-Horakhty located
above it.</span></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5909131535009425348#_ftn3" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn3;" title="">[3]</a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> The building also contains a relief that depicts
Ramesses II making a sacrifice to his divine self:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><br /></span></span></span></span></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.islamic-awareness.org/Quran/Contrad/External/ramses4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.islamic-awareness.org/Quran/Contrad/External/ramses4.jpg" height="275" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Relief in the Great Temple at Abu Simbel of Ramesses II making an offering to his divine self.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Courtesy of <a href="http://www.islamic-awareness.org/Quran/Contrad/External/mosespharaoh.html#3c">Islamic-Awareness.org</a>.</span></div>
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">It
must be kept in mind that Egypt had not been ruled by a pharaoh for more than
six centuries before the Qur’an was revealed. The last independent
rulers of Egypt were Cleopatra and her son Caesarion, who reigned until 30 BCE,
after which Egypt was taken over by Rome. While the title of
“pharaoh” continued to be appropriated by a number of Roman emperors, the title
appears to have died off well before the Christianization of the Roman Empire,
and certainly none of the Christian emperors had claimed divinity.</span><span style="color: black;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">The
Qur’an’s reference to the Pharaoh’s claim to divinity is another historically
accurate piece of information that is distinctive to its narrative of the
Exodus, and is not mentioned in the earlier known biblical or extrabiblical
versions of the story.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="mso-element: footnote-list;">
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<br />
<div id="ftn1" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5909131535009425348#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[1]</span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
This is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">āya</i> is not a denial of the
polytheism of Egyptians during the time of Pharaoh, but simply expresses Pharaoh's arrogance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>7:127 affirms that Pharaoh and his chiefs recognized a multiplicity of gods: “The
chiefs among the people of Pharaoh said, ‘Will you leave Moses and his people
to cause corruption in the land and abandon <i>you and your gods</i>?’”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn2" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5909131535009425348#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[2]</span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
<span style="color: black;">D. P. Silverman,
“Divinities And Deities In Ancient Egypt.” <i>Religion In Ancient Egypt:
Gods Myths, And Personal Practice</i>. Ed. B.E. Shafer: London, Routledge,
1991. 64. Qtd. in “The Identification Of Pharaoh During The Time Of
Moses.” Islamic-Awareness.org, 4 Jan. 2012.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn3" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5909131535009425348#_ftnref3" name="_ftn3" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn3;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[3]</span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
<span style="color: black;">See “<a href="http://www.islamic-awareness.org/Quran/Contrad/External/mosespharaoh.html#3c"><span style="color: blue;">The Identification Of Pharaoh During The Time Of Moses</span></a>.”
Islamic-Awareness.org, 4 Jan. 2012.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<br /></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
Sharifhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03683966146725270053noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5909131535009425348.post-63405221533844314002015-04-20T18:51:00.000-07:002016-05-29T12:11:20.300-07:00The Exodus in the Qur’an, the Bible, and History (Part 7): “Pharaoh of the Awtād” <div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In the previous article, we saw that the distinct evidences
from both the Bible and the Qur’an point firmly to an identification of the
Pharaoh of the Exodus with Ramesses II.</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">One element that is distinctive to the Qur’an’s narrative of
Pharaoh is that it describes him several times as “Pharaoh of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Awtād</i><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">"</span>:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The people of Noah and ʿĀd, and
Pharaoh of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">awtād</i> rejected [the
messengers] before them. And Thamūd, and the people of Lot…” (38:12-13)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Have you not considered how your
Lord dealt with ʿĀd;
the city of Iram of the lofty pillars, the like of which had never been created
in the lands; Thamūd who cut the rocks in the valley; and Pharaoh of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">awtād</i>…? (89:6-10)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Muslim commentators differed over the meaning of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">awtād</i> (singular <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">watad</i>) in this epithet, since the word is capable of a variety of
meanings.<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></i>The most common interpretation is “stakes,” on which Pharaoh
crucified people. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However Fatoohi and
Al-Dargazelli argue that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">awtād</i> is
used in the Qur’an not to mean “stakes” or “pegs,” but tall structures.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5909131535009425348#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[1]</span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is the interpretation of “Pharaoh of the
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Awtād</i>” that al-Qurṭubī
relates from Ibn ‘Abbās and ad-Daḥḥāk, in his commentary of
38:12:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Ibn ‘Abbās said, “It means the
owner of sturdy construction.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>ad-Daḥḥāk
said, “He owned many buildings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Buildings are called <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">awtād</i>.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This makes the most sense in light of 89:6-10, quoted above,
because the other nations mentioned are also identified with the construction
of lofty, firm buildings.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There is no more appropriate description for Rameses
II.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of all the pharaohs of Egypt, he is
the one most famous for his ambitious building projects.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Peter A. Clayton writes:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">His genuine building achievements are on a Herculean scale</b>. He
added to the great temples at Karnak and Luxor, completed his father Seti’s
mortuary temple at Gourna (Thebes) and also his Abydos temple, and built his
own temple nearby at Abydos. On the west bank at Thebes he constructed a giant
mortuary temple, the Ramesseum. Inscriptions in the sandstone quarries at Gebel
el-Silsila record at least 3000 workmen employed there cutting stone for the
Ramesseum alone. Other major mortuary temples rose in Nubia at Beit el-Wali,
Gerf Hussein, Wadi es-Sebua, Derr and even as far south as Napata.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5909131535009425348#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[2]</span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Similarly, Kitchen states:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">certainly in his building-works for the gods the entire length of Egypt
and Nubia, Ramesses II surpassed not only the Eighteenth Dynasty but every
other period in Egyptian history</b>. In that realm, he certainly fulfilled the
dynasty’s aims to satiety.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5909131535009425348#_ftn3" name="_ftnref3" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn3;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[3]</span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">E.P. Uphill states, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Per Ramesses was probably the
vastest and most costly royal residence ever erected by the hand of man</b>. As can
now be seen its known palace and official centre covered an area of at least
four square miles, and its temples were in scale with this, a colossal
assemblage forming perhaps the largest collection of chapels built in the
pre-classical world by a single ruler at one time.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5909131535009425348#_ftn4" name="_ftnref4" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn4;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[4]</span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The unique feature about Per
Ramesses is that it is the only city of imperial size in the ancient near east,
rivalling Heliopolis, Memphis and Thebes in splendour, known to have been
entirely planned, built and fully completed under one King.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5909131535009425348#_ftn5" name="_ftnref5" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn5;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[5]</span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">However, most of what Ramesses II built failed to last. The city of Pi-Ramesses was abandoned in c. 1130 BCE, after which it was dismantled. The building materials were used to build the city of Tanis, which now lies in ruins, just as the Qur'an says:</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We destroyed what Pharaoh and his people used to build and what they used to erect. (7:137)</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Fatoohi and Al-Dargazelli also add the following observation:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The fact that the expression ‘Pharaoh
of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">awtād</i>’ occurs [in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">sūra</i> 89] where Thamud’s practice of
building houses in mountains is mentioned may suggest that this title also
implicitly refers to the two temples at Abu Simbel in Nubia which were cut in the
living rock of the mountainside. The first of these, the ‘Great Temple,’ is a
huge building with two pairs of colossal seated figures of Ramesses II, each 18
meter high, flanking its entrance. These temples are considered to be Ramesses
II's greatest building achievement.<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5909131535009425348#_ftn6" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn6;" title="">[6]</a></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5909131535009425348#_ftn6" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn6;" title=""><!--[endif]--></a></span></span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><br /></span></span></span>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.islamic-awareness.org/Quran/Contrad/External/ramesses_II%20jpg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.islamic-awareness.org/Quran/Contrad/External/ramesses_II%20jpg.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The Great Temple of Abu Simbel. </span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">For more on the temples of Abu Simbel, see “</span><a href="http://www.islamic-awareness.org/Quran/Contrad/External/mosespharaoh.html" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">The Identification Of Pharaoh During The Time Of Moses</a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">.”</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">
</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Islamic-Awareness.org, 4 Jan. 2012.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Against this historical background, one can truly appreciate
the following <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">āya</i>:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Pharaoh was most surely lofty in
the land and most surely he was of the extravagant (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">musrifīn</i>). (10:83)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="mso-element: footnote-list;">
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<br />
<div id="ftn1" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5909131535009425348#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[1]</span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> See Fatoohi and Al-Dargazelli, 107-111.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn2" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5909131535009425348#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[2]</span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> Clayton, P. A. (1994). <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Chronicle of the Pharaohs: The Reign </i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‑</i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">By</i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‑</i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Reign Record
of the Rulers and Dynasties of Ancient Egypt</i>, Thames & Hudson: Slovenia.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Cited in Fatoohi and Al-Dargazelli, 110.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Emphasis added.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn3" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5909131535009425348#_ftnref3" name="_ftn3" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn3;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[3]</span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> Kitchen, K. A. (1982). <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Pharaoh Triumphant: The Life and Times of Ramesses II King of Egypt</i>,
Aris & Phillips ltd: Warminster.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Cited in Fatoohi and Al-Dargazelli, 110.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Emphasis added.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn4" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5909131535009425348#_ftnref4" name="_ftn4" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn4;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[4]</span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> E. P. Uphill, “Pithom And Raamses: Their Location And
Significance,” <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Journal Of Near Eastern
Studies</i>, 1968, Volume 27, Number 4, p. 299.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Qtd. in “<a href="http://www.islamic-awareness.org/Quran/Contrad/External/mosespharaoh.html">The Identification Of Pharaoh During The Time Of Moses</a>.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Islamic-Awareness.org, 4 Jan. 2012.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Accessed 12 Feb. 2015.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn5" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5909131535009425348#_ftnref5" name="_ftn5" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn5;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[5]</span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> E. P. Uphill, The Temples Of Per Ramesses, 1984, Aris
& Phillips, Warminster: England, p. 228.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Qtd. in “The Identification of Pharaoh.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn6" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5909131535009425348#_ftnref6" name="_ftn6" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn6;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[6]</span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Fatoohi and Al-Dargazelli, 110.</span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
</div>
Sharifhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03683966146725270053noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5909131535009425348.post-47206319510312202152015-04-13T08:48:00.000-07:002016-05-29T12:11:36.352-07:00The Exodus in the Qur’an, the Bible, and History (Part 6): The Identity of the Pharaoh<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Bible provides several details that historians can use
to identify the pharaoh of the Exodus. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Interestingly, as we will see, the Qur’an also
gives separate indications that lead to the same conclusion. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">First of all it is important to establish the general time
period of the Exodus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is almost universally
agreed that the Exodus, if it happened, had to have occurred during the New
Kingdom period.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here I will mention
three of the main reasons for this:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">1. The enslavement of Semitic people and their exploitation
as forced laborers in construction projects was an innovation of the New
Kingdom period (c. 1540-1170 BCE).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>During this period, Egypt’s sovereignty extended to Syria and Canaan
(Palestine), and massive numbers of Semitic prisoners were brought into Egypt
as slaves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While foreign slaves had been
used in Egypt before the New Kingdom period, they served domestic roles in
large households or cultic roles in temples.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Only during the New Kingdom period were they used as forced laborers in
building bricks and constructing buildings and cities.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5909131535009425348#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[1]</span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">2. The biblical account states that the Israelites were used
in the building of the store-city Ramses (Exod. 1:11). <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Historians and archaeologists identify this
with the city of Pi-Ramesses, where the Pharaoh Seti I (r. 1295/1290-1279 BCE)
built his summer palace, and which his son Ramesses II (r. 1279–1213 BCE)
expanded it into a great city and made his capital.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Along with the biblical Pithom (Exod. 1:11),
identified as Per-Atum, the city was located in the eastern Nile Delta, which
must therefore be the region in which the Israelites were located.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Pi-Ramesses continued to thrive as the royal
capital only until the reign of Ramesses VI (r. 1143-1136 BCE), when it was
abandoned.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5909131535009425348#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[2]</span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Based on this evidence, the Israelites’
sojourn in Egypt must have taken place in the thirteenth or twelfth centuries
BCE.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Richard Hess is even more precise.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He writes,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Again, only in the thirteenth
century B.C. was it known for the pharaoh of Egypt to have his capital in the
eastern Delta region, the only region in Egypt that would allow for Moses and
Aaron to visit pharaoh and return on the same day to the oppressed Israelites
working on the cities of Pithom and Ramesses.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5909131535009425348#_ftn3" name="_ftnref3" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn3;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[3]</span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Therefore, the story of Moses fits remarkably well with this
historical context, and in no other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Moreover, as Kitchen and Hoffmeier point out, because the city was
abandoned in the 1130s BCE, it could not have been known to the author(s) of
the Book of Exodus if they were recording a made-up story many centuries
later.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They could only have received it
as an authentic detail preserved in the memory of an actual historical Exodus
from Egypt.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">3. The first explicit mention of Israel in the
archaeological record is in a stone slab (called a stele) erected by Merneptah
(r. 1213-1203 BCE), the son and successor of Ramesses II.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In it, Merneptah boasts of his military
forays in Canaan and among the vanquished peoples he mentions Israel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Merneptah’s Stele dates to c. 1208 BCE, and
indicates that the Israelites were already located in or near the region of
Canaan by this time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The name Israel is
written with a hieroglyphic determinative signifying a “people” rather than a
territory or city-state, unlike the other nations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This indicates that Israel was still only a
tribal entity, and had not yet matured into a city-state.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5909131535009425348#_ftn4" name="_ftnref4" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn4;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[4]</span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>For these reasons, most historians accept Ramesses II as the
pharaoh during the time of the Exodus</b>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This is also the view of Kitchen and Hoffmeier.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Although the Qur’anic story modifies the
biblical one in several relevant details, it only supports—rather than
contradicts—this identification</b>:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">First, while the biblical account distinguishes between the
pharaoh during Moses’ youth (who in this case would be Seti I) and another
after his escape to Midian (Ramesses II), the Qur’an does not make this
distinction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead, it identifies the
pharaoh during Moses’ childhood and after his call to prophethood as the same
pharaoh.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As Fatoohi and Al-Dargazelli
point out, this requires that the pharaoh of the Qur’anic exodus autonomously
ruled Egypt for at least around forty years.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5909131535009425348#_ftn5" name="_ftnref5" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn5;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[5]</span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The only pharaoh in Egyptian history who had
such a lengthy reign as an absolute monarch was Ramesses II, who ruled for
about sixty-six years.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5909131535009425348#_ftn6" name="_ftnref6" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn6;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[6]</span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Therefore, the Qur’an provides a separate
indication for identifying the Pharaoh of the Exodus as Ramesses II. This argument may not be conclusive, since the Qur'an often adapts details of its stories to make them more accessible to contemporary audiences. Nonetheless, it points in the same direction as the rest of the evidence.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Second, the Qur’an refers to Pharaoh several times with the
unique title of “Pharaoh of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Awtād</i>.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This will be the subject of the next article.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the subsequent articles, we will also see
how other details the Qur’an gives are consistent with the identification of
Ramesses II.</span></div>
<div style="mso-element: footnote-list;">
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<br />
<div id="ftn1" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5909131535009425348#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[1]</span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> Kitchen, 247.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn2" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5909131535009425348#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[2]</span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> Hoffmeier, 117; Kitchen, 256.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn3" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5909131535009425348#_ftnref3" name="_ftn3" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn3;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[3]</span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> Hess, Richard S. “Israel Finkelstein, Neil Asher
Silberman. The Bible Unearthed” (Review).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Denver Journal</i> 4 (2001): <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Denver Seminary</i>, Mar. 2001. Web. 18 Feb.
2015.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn4" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5909131535009425348#_ftnref4" name="_ftn4" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn4;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[4]</span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> Kitchen, 451.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn5" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5909131535009425348#_ftnref5" name="_ftn5" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn5;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[5]</span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> This figure is an estimate based on Qur’anic
indications about “The time that Pharaoh ruled before Moses’ birth…Moses’ age
when he left Egypt to Midian…The time that he stayed in Midian [and]…The length
of his second sojourn in Egypt after returning from Midian” (Fatoohi and
Al-Dargazelli, 101).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The pharaoh
Tuthmosis III ruled nominally for forty-six years, but assumed the throne as a
mere child and only became an absolute ruler after the death of Hatshepsut in
1483 BCE, more than two decades later.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Similarly Amenhotep III ruled nominally for thirty-seven years, but was
also only a child when he assumed the throne and ruled autonomously for a
shorter period of time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>See </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Fatoohi and</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Al-Dargazelli, 101-106.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn6" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5909131535009425348#_ftnref6" name="_ftn6" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn6;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[6]</span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Fatoohi and Al-Dargazelli, 105.</span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
</div>
Sharifhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03683966146725270053noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5909131535009425348.post-38282001608674230152015-04-06T19:38:00.000-07:002016-05-29T12:11:51.246-07:00The Exodus in the Qur'an, the Bible, and History (Part 5): The Adoption of Moses<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">From here onwards, we will be looking at historical gems in
the Qur’an’s telling of the Exodus story.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In the Qur’an and the Bible, the story of Moses begins with
his mother hiding him as a baby, in order to protect him from the Pharaoh’s
systematic infanticide of the Hebrew newborn males.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When Moses’ mother fears she can no longer
keep him, she places him in a chest in the Nile river.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Qur’an indicates that she did this
according to divine inspiration (28:7).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>A female member of the royal family—Pharaoh’s daughter in the Bible, his
wife in the Qur’an—takes pity on the baby Moses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Qur’an reports that she felt special
affection for him:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And the wife of Pharaoh said, “A
comfort for the eye for me and for you!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Do not kill him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps he may
benefit us, or we can adopt him as a son/child (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">walad</i>)” (28:9)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There are two things about this <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">āya</i> that are interesting from a historical perspective.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>First, it is widely agreed that the name
Moses is of Egyptian origin, meaning “son” or “child.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This word frequently appeared in theophoric
Egyptian names during the New Kingdom period (c. 1540-1170 BCE), such as
Thutmose (“son of Thoth”), Ptahmose (“son of Ptah”), and Ramesses (“son of
Ra”), but also occurred as a name by itself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The word <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">walad</i> used in this <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">āya</i> is a precise translation of the
Egyptian word “Moses.”<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5909131535009425348#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[1]</span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This contrasts with the folk etymology of the
name Moses in the Hebrew Bible, which says Pharaoh’s daughter named him Moses “
‘because’, she said, ‘I drew him out of the water’” (Exod. 2:10).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Hebrew word Moses (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mōsheh</i>) is not in the passive (“drawn out”) but the active (“draws
out”).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Secondly, the wife of Pharaoh in fact suggested <span style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">two</span> possibilities to him: “<i>perhaps he may benefit us</i>, <span style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">or</span> we can adopt him as a child.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By suggesting “perhaps he may benefit us,”
she also seems to have had in mind making Moses an attendant of the royal
court.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Only in this way could he both
serve them and be a coolness of the eye for them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The upbringing of a foreign boy in the
service of the Egyptian court might seem improbable, but it is actually a well-attested phenomenon during the New Kingdom period.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Kitchen writes,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="line-height: 14.0pt; margin-left: .5in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Exod. 2:10 notes the full adoption of the boy [Moses] by his princess
patron; that implies his becoming a member of the ruling body of courtiers,
officials, and attendants that served the pharaoh as his government leaders
under the viziers, treasury chiefs, etc.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Such a youth would need to be fully fluent in Egyptian (not just his own
West Semitic tongue); so he would be subjected to the Egyptian educational
system, learning the hieratic and hieroglyphic scripts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is typical enough during the New
Kingdom, especially in the Nineteenth (Ramesside) Dynasty of the thirteenth
century.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One may cite a papyrus from the
Fayum Harim (under Sethos II, grandson of Ramesses II), in which a leading lady
writes to the king: “Useful is my Lord’s action in sending me people to be
taught and trained to perform this important task…For those here are grown-up
children, people like those my Lord sent, able to act, able to receive by
training.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">They are foreigners</i> like those brought to us under Ramesses II your
good [fore]father, and they would say, ‘We were quite a number in the
households of the notables,’ and could be trained to do all they were told to
do.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="line-height: 14.0pt; margin-left: .5in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the Fayum, these youths
may have been set to weaving rather than school; but the attitude expressed
applies across the board—and its outcome is the considerable number of
foreigners (especially Semites and Hurrians) who served at court and beyond.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These included the personal cupbearers of
Pharaoh (who became his right-hand men, in conducting royal enterprises like
temple building, stone quarrying, gem mining, etc.), directors, and scribes of
the royal seal bearer, court herald, high steward of the chief royal memorial
temples, generals, and so on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A Moses
would be simply one among many.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5909131535009425348#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[2]</span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Therefore, the adoption and upbringing of even a Hebrew boy
as a member of the royal Egyptian court fits in remarkably well with the
evidence from New Kingdom Egyptian records.</span></div>
<div style="mso-element: footnote-list;">
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5909131535009425348#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[1]</span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> Kitchen objects that the Hebrew <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mōshe</i> does not derive from ancient Egyptian because the sibilant <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">s</i> in Egyptian toponyms (as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Msi</i>) does not change into to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">sh</i> when they enter Hebrew (as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mōshe</i>).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>However other scholars have noted that personal names exhibit greater
fluidity once they enter the new language, and Griffiths records examples in
which the Egyptian sibilant <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">s</i> changed
into Hebrew <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">sh</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In any case, even Kitchen does grants that
the naming of Moses involved some wordplay with the Egyptian <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Msi</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>See Hoffmeier, 140-142. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5909131535009425348#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[2]</span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Kitchen, 297.
</span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Sharifhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03683966146725270053noreply@blogger.com0