Sura Yunus or Jonah speaks of the mercy of God. It also lightly touches on the story of Jonah and the story of Moses. I really enjoyed learning about the strength of faith and the mercy of God. It vaguely mentions God's love for his believers. Only part that always confuses me is how the Qur'an likes to randomly mention Jesus is not the son of God. It tends to be out of context and sometimes seems like God will smite the Christians for the their mistake then turns around and says they will be forgiven for this mistake.
I am not always sure about the Qur'an's position on Christians and Jews. One ayah will say how they are a part of the book and are believers and should be respected. But then it will turn around and do a one eighty chastising the Jews for leaving behind their beliefs and reforming. And repremand the Christians for believing Christ is God. I'm not sure what point is trying to be made. Although I am fascinated by its mention of the Jews leaving behind their law as I am pretty sure the Jews had not yet reformed by the time the Qur'an was revealed. Its like something that was put in for the future O_O.
Sura Hud
This actually tells the story of Noah and then the story of Hud. The Sura is about God's wrath on the unbelievers. I have come to understand that the God of the Qur'an is vengeful like that of the God of the Torah but with some mercy thrown in. I am pretty sure the Bible does not have Hud (if I am wrong can you tell me where he is located in the Bible?). The poor man keeps trying to tell his people that something horrible will happen if they denounce God. Of course they don't listen and God punishes them. It also tells the story of Salih. Again, they don't believe him and horrible things happen. Lot, Abraham, and Shu'aib(Jethro) are also mentioned for the same reason. Moral of the story: Choose false Gods and ignore prophets God will send a mighty wrath upon you.
It is also interesting to see how God spread out all these prophets with the exact same message to try and teach the people. Sadly, most of the prophets were unsuccessful.
I think an underlying message is that you should not just believe what your fathers believe simply because that is what you were brought up doing. One should not follow blindly but should understand. Everytime the prophets ask the people the people reply "But we should give up what our father's taught us?" This would suggest that this is the reasoning for their beliefs. Not good reasoning in my book. One should not believe simply because that is what one is brought up with. One should believe because that is what one truly believes. And one should not ignore signs from God.
115. And be steadfast in patience:
for verily God will not suffer
the reward of the righteous
to perish
Sura Yusuf
"And pink, and yellow, and green, and purple ,and orange"
Ok no more Technicolor Dreamcoat.
Anyway, Sura Yusuf is the full story of Joseph. This is the first time in the Qur'an I have seen a story from start to finish all in one sura. The story is almost exactly the same as the Bible but less like a folk tale. It is more realistic and to the point. It is written like a historical recount of events, not really a tale. Its also rather short and not as poetic as most of the Suras.
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I enjoyed reading your thoughts on this. Thanks for sharing what you've been reading and learning. Interesting stuff! :)
ReplyDeleteYour welcome. Glad you found it interesting
ReplyDeleteYes, I find the changing-the-subject-every-other-verse thing quite challenging! I guess it's because it wasn't all revealed at once. Every bit had to be memorised and so only a little bit could come at a time.
ReplyDeleteWhat I got from my M.Asad translation is that the Jews went wrong by considering themselves God's chosen people and thinking God would favour them no matter how much they sinned, and the Christians went wrong by deifying Jesus. This doesn't mean they aren't still people of the book. Arguably many Muslims have also gone wrong by this point in time.
I loved Sura Yusuf! It really stands out as it's the first time you get a continuous story over several pages. A great story it is, too.
Laila - Yeah I get the same thing too. The Jews and the Christians both made mistakes and by the time the Qur'an was written down so had the Muslims. I just find it interesting that if you read it, knowing about the reformation, it can apply. I thought it was interesting.
ReplyDeleteIts nice to have a continuous story right? I'm so use to that from the Bible.
Yes, your take on reformation was interesting. I don't know that much about it but I'm interested in looking into Jewish law and history.
ReplyDeleteIts really interesting. I don't remember how it happened exactly. Its been about 5 years since I studied Judaism. The Jewish reformation basically ignores the majority of Jewish law found in the Torah. I'm not exactly sure what logic was used to make that ok though. It would be like if a group of Muslims just decided they didn't want to follow the dietary regulations and hijab among other things found in the Qur'an. Its like deciding the holy book was wrong after all....Now I want to read about reformation lol.
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reform_Judaism_%28North_America%29
ReplyDeleteI love wikipedia
Thanks for that!
ReplyDelete