I read the Koran part 2
nature of the incidents related or the precepts given amounting in a great measure for the more prosaic language in which they are expressed.
The other party at Ivledinah was composed of the Jewish tribes settled in and around the city of Tathrib. The Jews were at first looked to as the most natural and likely supporters of the new religion, which was to confirm their own. These various parties together with the pagan Arabs of Mecca and the Christians are the persons with whom the Medinah Suras chiefly deal. The style of the Medinah Suras resembles that of the third period of the Meccan revelations, the more matter-of-fact nature of the incidents related or the precepts given accounting in a great measure for the more prosaic language in which they are expressed. In the Medinah Suras the prophet is no longer trying to convert his hearers by examples, promises, and warnings; he addresses them as their prince in general, praising them or blaming them for their conduct, and giving them laws and precepts
as occasion required. (The Qur’an in "Sacred Books of the East", I, Oxford, 1880, pp. LXI, LXII, and LXIII).
jran (verses 57-63) is of a later date. Passages pertaining to the farewell pilgrimage are introduced with other (probably) earlier texts on the rites of pilgrimage.
- Sura 8 contains instructions on the division of spoil at Bedr. Some parts are in the old Meccan style and the Koreish are frequently referred to. In sura 47 war and slaughter are enjoined, and idolaters of Mecca threatened. In sura 62 the Jews are denounced for their ignorance; the Friday service is to take precedence of secular engagements. In sura 5 the Jews are reviled; the doctrines of the Christians are controverted; it contains also civil ordinances and miscellaneous instructions.
- Sura 59, on the siege and expulsion of the Banu Nadhir.
- Sura 4 entitled "women", from the large portion devoted to the treatment of wives and relation of sexes. There are also ordinances on the law of inheritance and general precepts, social and political. Idolatrou
s Meccans are to be shunned, and there are animadversions against the Jews. The "disaffected" are blamed for taking the part of the Jews.
tyle=”font-size: x-small”>slavery. War is declared against Jews and Christians until they are humbled and pay tribute. This sura is called "the crusade chapter", and in the early campaigns was often read on the field before battle.
So ends the references made from the Catholic encyclopedia about the Koran.
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I think that think will basically be a reference entry. It will be very long. Since this is my first od entry this years, I’m making up for lost time. *smiles*
I wanted to read the Koran to try to understand why Muslims accept such a book. But I understand that for many of us, we tend to adhere to the traditions in which we were raised in…especially before we start questioning life. And I suppose that for many Muslims, Islam offers friendship among other like souls; camaraderie; comfort, peace of soul, and a belief that you have the true religion. And I can easily understand a philosophy that accepts and embraces what one is taught.
But I naturally wonder if most Muslims actually read about the true life of Mohammed and ALL that he says in the Koran. I would say that they don’t read about his true life. Or they are told that it is all lies that people often tell about Mohammed, or maybe the Imams rationalize that since Mohammed was a prophet, anything that he did was ok. Actually, Islam does hold Mohammed to be the perfect example in all behavior. …So, when Mohammed is 54 years old, and marries a 9 year old girl, that is acceptable behavior. And he talks about children being married in the Koran. So, for those who read the Koran, one is reading the words that are from Allah, the Muslims would say. Actually, not all Muslims do say that all that Mohammed writes is to be accepted; ‘they’ pick and choose what they feel are the words of Allah. For instance, in my country, we will tend to have Muslims think that way: all of Mohammed’s words either aren’t from Allah; or they don’t apply to today’s world.
And behavior that is sometimes meant allowed for Mohammed is accepted. For instance, Mohammed states in his Koran that 4 wives are acceptable for believers (those who believe in the Koran), Mohammed often is given revelations that modified a previous message from Gabriel. For example, he states in the Koran that one shouldn’t married the wives of their children. But Mohammed married one of his adopted son’s wife, after his son divorced the wife. (cause the son saw how Mohammed was attractive to her). And although it isn’t in the Koran of how many wives Mohammed actually had (and were not including all the slave-girls that he had) it was much more than four. Hmn…but that seems to be an area that isn’t emulated among Muslims-the idea that since Mohammed had many wives, that any Muslim could have numerous wives, too. No, Mohammed wrote that Muslims could only have four, so that seems to be the acceptable behavior among even current Muslims, if they choose to have that many wives. For a prophet like Mohammed, it is to be expected that there existed exempted to Allah’s words.
An interesting or I would say, a scandalous sideline when we’re talking about the subject of wives and seeking to divorce them is told in the following verse from the Koran that allows children to marry:
65:4, "And for such of your women as despair of menstruation, if ye doubt, their period (of waiting) shall be three months, along with those who have it not. This verse is talking about the Muslims men who wish to divorce their wives….and wait to confirm or not if the wife is pregnant. The last part of the verse that says: along with those who have it not: ‘it’ is referring to children who are married to Muslims and don’t have menstruation, yet. According to the Koran, they are supposed to wait three months..although another verse in the Koran says that the waiting time should be 4 months, before the divorce becomes official.
Transgressors…that is one of the words in the Koran that is written about over and over and over again. And it’s not the same definition of what you would find in the Bible. No. In the Koran a transgressor is one that rejects the Koran. That’s really is ‘it.’ They reject the Koran, cause they reject what Mohammed is preaching. And consequently they are disbelievers who reject Islam. Consequences of ‘those’ actions: hell-fire. *smiles* I think that one does need a sense of humor when discussing all of these concepts that are within the Koran, even those concepts that can be DEADLY serious.
Now, I’ll quote the verses that talks about Christians and Jews:
The verse 98:6 says: "Lo! those who disbelieve, among the People of the Scripture and the idolaters, will abide in fire of hell. They are the worst of created beings." So, Mohammed is saying that together with the pagans who worships idols, the Jews, and Christians (The Jews & Christians are seen by Mohammed to be People of the Book, as he calls them. Why? Because Allah has revealed to them the truth about himself and his true religion, Islam. But alas, many of the People of the Book become disbelievers of Allah) who are also the disbelievers (because we don’t believe in the Koran) will burn in hell-fire And us Jews and Christians are the worst of created beings! How does that grab ya! *smiles*Listen to what else this religion of peace says in reference to the Jews and the Christians:
Verse 5:51: "O ye who believe! Take not the Jews and the Christians for friends. They are friends one to another. He among you who taketh them for friends is (one) of them. Lo! Allah guideth not wrongdoing folk."
3:28: "Let not the believers take disbelievers fo
r their friends in preference to believers. Whoso doeth that hath no connection with Allah unless (it be) that ye but guard yourselves against them, taking (as it were) security. Allah biddeth you beware (only) of Himself. Unto Allah is the journeying."
5:14: "And with those who say: "Lo! we are Christians," We made a covenant, but they forgot a part of that whereof they were admonished. Therefore We have stirred up enmity and hatred among them till the Day of Resurrection, when Allah will inform them of their handiwork."
5:12: "Allah made a covenant of old with the Children of Israel and We raised among them twelve chieftains, and Allah said: Lo! I am with you. If ye establish worship and pay the poor-due, (Mohammed, I believed, is talking here about a ‘submission tax,’ that all Jews and Christians must pay when living under the Muslims) and believe in My messengers and support them, and lend unto Allah a kindly loan, surely I shall remit your sins, and surely I shall bring you into Gardens underneath which rivers flow. (Paradise) Whoso among you disbelieveth after this will go astray from a plain road." (If I may interject a comment…in another place in the Koran, it says, if the un-believers don’t convert and don’t pay ‘the tax,’ it is Allah’s will that the Muslims kill them. I know that the verse doesn’t actually say that it is Allah’s will that Muslims kill them. We have verses like 9:29, "Fight against such of those who have been given the Scripture as believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, and forbid not that which Allah hath forbidden by His messenger, and follow not the Religion of Truth, until they pay the tribute readily, being brought low."
5:13: "And because of their breaking their covenant, We have cursed them and made hard their hearts. They change words from their context and forget a part of that whereof they were admonished. Thou wilt not cease to discover treachery from all save a few of them. But bear with them and pardon them. Lo! Allah loveth the kindly."
5:78 "Those of the Children of Israel who went astray were cursed by the tongue of David, and of Jesus, son of Mary. That was because they rebelled and used to transgress."
Mohammed doesn’t sound like a very peaceful guy, does he, by witnessing those above passages? And in the last verse he is referring to only those Jews that did not convert to Islam-those are the ones that went astray, Mohammed is saying. However, of course they didn’t actually go astray. The Jews stayed faithful to their God of Abraham.
Mohammed says that Abraham was a Muslim… I think that maybe Mohammed says that Abraham had a kind of natural faith that was aligned with believing in Allah. (something like that *smiles*) I believe that Mohammed says that Moses was the first one to receive the Book/message/revelations from Allah: that Islam was the true religion. But that Moses’s disciples would later corrupt the message; consequently, Judaism would become established. Of course, all the prophets, even the first man, Adam: were Muslims. They preached about the coming of Allahs messenger,
Mohammed.
Even Jesus was a Muslim, Mohammed says. And God sent Jesus to preach a Gospel. A Gospel unlike the one that us Christians have. Unfortunately, no one at the time of Mohammed had ever seen the Gospel that Mohammed talks about. Although I believe that there is talk of a gospel that was a 15 century forgery. In that forgery, and what Mohammed said that Jesus proclaimed: was the message of Islam. As with many things within the Koran (but not all of them) what the gospel entail isn’t very clear….or detailed. We do know that Mohammed said that: "In blasphemy indeed are those that say that God is Christ the son of Mary." That is because the Koran doesn’t recognize the divinity of Christ. In fact, they say they Jesus isn’t the son or God; nor is he the Savior of the world; And the Koran states that Jesus didn’t even die, nor was he resurrected. He was ‘just’ a prophet who ws born of the Virgin Mary, who performed many miracles…and according to the Koran, Jesus supposively said,
61:6, "O Children of Israel! I am the messenger of Allah (sent) to you, confirming the Law (which came) before me, and giving Glad Tidings of a Messenger to come after me, whose name shall be Ahmad." Ahmad supposively referred to Mohammed.
So, Mohammed who is supposively the founder of the religion of peace, and admonishing his followers (the believers) to distrust all non-muslims (all disbelievers); and he tells them that the Muslims should stir up enmity with us Christians (and I’m supposing that we can include Jews in these verses) until the day of Resurrection. (When Jesus comes again, he’s referring to)And if we wants to see just how the Koran actually condemns those who believe in Jesus as the Son of God, listen to the following:
One of the central doctrines of Islam as clearly presented in the Koran is that God does not have a son. An exhaustive search of the Koran shows that in at least 11 Suras, (chapters) the Koran states that God does not have a Son! This is clearly aimed at Christianity because no other faith claims that God has a literal Son. The Koran even states in Sura 9:30 that those that believe Allah has a son should be destroyed by Allah! The Koran is very clear that it was written to attack this Christian doctrine.