Sunday, November 15, 2020

Sam Shamoun "The Incomplete Quran: Whom Did Muhammad See?" (2)


The Quranic concept of Allah being the indirect cause of all things because of the laws of causality established and allowed by Him is reflected in many instances. In the language of the Quran everything is with God and is sent down to men 15:21. From the rain falling from the clouds 16:65 to even the most insignificant things like the clothes man wears 7:26,16:80-1 that are found in the cattle 16:5 which were themselves sent down 39:6. The same is the case with iron 57:25, the prime symbol used in the Quran to denote God's having endowed mankind with the ability to engineer, convert to his use the natural resources of his natural environment. Allah is thus 57:3"the Apparent and the Hidden". He is the transcendental cause of all that exists and at the same time inherently operating in every phenomenon. That higher reality is beautifully pictured in the opening verses of sura hadid, the chapter of the iron.

 It is Allah Who holds the birds up in the air, yet they are themselves expanding and contracting their wings 16:79,24:41,67:19. 

He is the "splitter" of the seed grain 6:95. He is the One to have multiplied the humans on earth 23:79. He established, allows and sustains the reproductive system resulting in us multiplying. He makes people laugh or cry because He controls and allows all the processes of causality from birth till death, and beyond 53:43-8. 

This higher principle present in every aspect of life, of which the God-conscious is always aware of, is mentionned by Ibrahim to his people 
26:78-81"Who created me then He has shown me the way, and He who gives me to eat and gives me to drink, and when i am sick, He restores me to health, and He who will cause me to die and give me life".

This Quranic style of reminding the believer the true meaning of God's all-encompassing ownership, power and authority is also conveyed with the taking of the soul which is attributed to Allah 39:42,53:44 the angel of death 32:11, and a group of angels 6:61, or the movement of clouds of which God is responsible 24:43 because He is the originator and constant sustainer of the various meteorological phenomena leading to a cloud's movement 7:57,35:9,56:69. The recording of the Book of Deeds is attributed to Allah 4:81,36:12,58:6,78:29 and to the honourable angels guarding each person in this world 13:11,50:16-18,82:10-12. 

This is a concept found in previous religious books too and in fact is an axiom of HB scriptural exegisis, that a person's agent is like himself; the agent's action is considered as though his principal had performed it. 

There are many instances such as in Ex12:12 where it is God personally who promises to punish the Egyptians yet a few verses down in v23 it is the "destroyer". Or throughout Isaiah where "the Lord spoke" to such and such while it in fact was the prophet relating the divine inspiration to such a person Isa7:10. Again in Isa22:11 it is God who is said to have built what king Hezekiah made 2Chron32:5 and this is because he was acting as God's agent during the process, trusting Him in his endeavours 2kings18:5. In 2Sam24:1 it is God that incites David to conduct a census while in 1Chron21:1 it is Satan, the adversary that does God's work. Hasatan by the way is an angel, just as the angel sent on specific occasions during the Israelites' exodus to execute the will of God Ex14,23,33etc. God in all those instances was "with" the Israelites through His messenger angel, the same way as a commander talking to the citizen of his nation, telling them he is with them although his soldiers are the ones defending the people.  This angel/messenger of the Lord by the way is incapable of forgiving sins Ex23. It is thus very surprising that Christians would use this type of proof text as an indication of the HB having multiple divine persons. Further the book of Hebrews openly states Jesus is not an angel Heb1. 

This kind of language, where the agent is called God or the consequence of an agent's actions is attributed to God, is common to the Semitic revelations, and found throughout the Quran too. It stems from the monotheistic notion that God is the creator of all things, including the laws of causality which He maintains and allows at each instant. These are straightforward notions to a person imbedded in Abrahamic monotheism. But as soon as these concepts are read through the lens of polytheistic cultures where multiple gods interract among oneanother and independantly influence the lives of the humans, then confusions appear. That is why one will never find an Israelite reading trinity or any other speculation on God's unity in any of the passages proposed by Christians.

No comments:

Post a Comment