This sections main focus is unbelievers, especially Jews and Christians. The Jews, it is said, pretend to believe Muhammad sometimes, but among themselves they conspire to hide what the Torah says.
Some Islamic apologists take this to mean that the Torah says things about Muhammad. For instance, Deuteronomy 18:18-19 is claimed to predict Muhammad. Peter, however, applied that passage to Jesus, in Acts 3:22-24. (Someone has written about this more at debate.org.uk/topics/trtracts/t03.htm .)
Some Muslim apologists interpret Deuteronomy 33:2 as a prophecy of the entry of Muhammad, with an army of 10,000, into Mecca. (However one has to make several acrobatic maneuvers with the text to arrive at such an interpretation, such as transforming Seir in Edom into something else.) Isaiah 21:7 is interpreted as a vision of the coming of Jesus (on a donkey) and the coming of Muhammad (on a camel); however such an interpretation involves (a) ignoring the plain context of the verse, which is part of a description of what a watchman may see as he awaits messengers with news about Babylon, and (b) imagining a watchman who would live to see the arrival of Jesus, and the arrival of Muhammad. Isaiah 21:13-17 is claimed to be a description of the migration of Muhammad; however it is simply a description of the fate of northern Arabian tribes, and Isaiahs statement Within a year all the glory of Kedar will fall is linked to events occurring in Isaiahs time. Also Habakkuk 3:3 (God came from Teman, and the Holy One from mount Paran) is sometimes employed as a description of the coming of Muhammad. This misapplication involves at least two errors: (a) failure to see that Habakkuk is describing past events, and (b) failure to see that God and The Holy One are the same individual, described in typical Hebrew parallelism.
Those are not the only passages in the Old Testament which Islamic apologists use to attempt to show that the Torah says something good about Muhammad, but they are, I think, the ones used most in such attempts, which may give some idea of the value of the rest of their attempts. For some reason, Psalm 84:6 is sometimes used, and Baca is identified as Mecca. The apologists do not explain how the mere mention of Mecca would constitute a prophecy about Muhammad. Its ironic that a psalm about the benefits of making a pilgrimage to Jerusalem is employed in an attempt to bolster the claims for Mecca. It would seem that if someone were to ask, Why do the Jews not admit that these passages are about Muhammad? the standard Islamic answer leaning on 2:76 is that this is because of a vast Jewish conspiracy.
Back to the text: Some Jews are illiterate and only guess about what has been revealed. Others make copies of the Torah and sell them to make a little profit. The Jews say that the Fire will only touch them briefly. But the Fire is really forever.
Verse 83 mentions Allahs covenant with the Jews: they were to worship only Allah, be dutiful and kind to their parents and family, and to orphans and the poor, to speak what is good, and perform Salat and give Zakat, and so on. But now (in Muhammads time) they have backslid in various ways.
Thats not very different from the message of some of the Old Testament prophets: the list overlaps three of the Ten Commandments (worship only God, honor your father and your mother, do not bear false witness). The part about Salat and Zakat, though, appears to be added on; the Jews prayed, but the five daily prayers were not prescribed in the Torah, and the Jews gave tithes, but that is not the same as Zakat.
The Jews are chastised for rejecting the instructions of Moses, and for becoming arrogant when Jesus, Son of Mary, came with clear signs, supported by the Holy Spirit (the prevalent Islamic interpretation of this is that the angel Gabriel and the Holy Spirit are identical). The part of the story of Moses (as already given in this surah) is repeated (We raised above you the mount). The incident about the lifting of Mount Sinai over the Jews, by the way, did not originate with the Quran. It is mentioned in the Babylonian Talmud, in Tractate Abodah Zarah, near the beginning. Here is an excerpt:
Then they will protest, Lord of the universe, did You suspend the mountain over us like a vault as you have done to Israel, and did we still refuse to accept it? For in commenting on the phrase And they stood at the foot of the mountain, [Exodus 19:17] R. Dimi B. Hama said, This teaches us that the Holy One, blessed be He, suspended the mountain over Israel like a vault, and said to them, If you accept the Torah, it will be well with you, but if not, there you will find your grave. This can be read at www.come-and-hear.com/zarah/zarah_2.html .
Verse 96 states, Verily, you will find them [the Jews] the greediest of mankind for life, even more so than those who ascribe partners to Allah. Every one of them wishes that he could be given a life of a thousand years.
So it would seem that whoever believes the Quran believes that the Jewish race is greedier for life than any other ethnic group. Verse 96s reference to the desire to live for 1,000 years may vaguely echo Revelation 20:4b-6, which describes Christians who reign with Christ for a thousand years. Isaiah 65:19-20 touches on something similar (there, the new heavens and a new earth are envisioned, with the hope that he who dies at a hundred will be thought a mere youth).
The next few verses continue to chide unbelievers for failing to believe the clear signs Allah has given; this is a recurring feature in the Quran. This passage stands out, though, because of what it says about angels. Gabriel and Michael are mentioned as Allahs angels. Then in v. 102, the work of the demons in the time of Solomon (thats Sulaiman) is mentioned. Demons taught sorcery to men, as well as what had been revealed to Harut and Marut at Babel. But the demons only taught people who asked for instruction, and those who were instructed by them forfeited their claim to paradise.
It looks to me as if this verse is very loosely based on material in the Book of Enoch, in which angels come down to earth (before the Flood) and teach sorcery to people. The names Harut and Marut seem to be based on the names of Zoroastrian angels Haruvatat and Ameretat, who were assistants to the Zoroastrian goddess Ashpandar-amlit.
(Theres a possible backstory which goes like this: Harut and Marut were originally good angels in heaven, and they criticized the earthlings on account of their sins. God said that the angels, if put in the same circumstances, would behave similarly. Harut and Marut went down to earth, and taught secrets of magic to men (but as a thing to be known, not as a thing to be used). Then they gave into temptation and committed fornication. As punishment, they were hung upside-down in a deep pit (to remain there forever, it seems). Some Muslims deny that this story constitutes the background of 2:102, on the grounds that in the story, angels do bad things, but angels are inherently Allahs obedient servants so the story must be wrong.
More details about this may be found at www.truthnet.org/islam/src-chp3.htm in the section entitled Harat and Marut. Notice the citation there from Midrash Yalkut -- the names of the two angels are Shamhazai and Azael. Clearly these are the same two angels as the ringleaders of the Watchers in the Book of Enoch Semyaza and Azazel, as related in First Enoch 6:7 and 8:1.
In v. 104, the Jews are instructed not to say Raina, but to say, instead, Unzurna. Heres what is meant: some Jews addressed Muhammad by saying, Raina which in Arabic means Take heed but which, in Hebrew, means Our bad one. Apparently some Jews enjoyed using this word because they could thus say O, our bad one when addressing Muhammad but maintain the ruse that they only were saying, Take heed. (The Jews, however, do not seem to have relented; this sort of thing is mentioned again in 4:46.)
Yours in Christ,
Waterrock
Some Islamic apologists take this to mean that the Torah says things about Muhammad. For instance, Deuteronomy 18:18-19 is claimed to predict Muhammad. Peter, however, applied that passage to Jesus, in Acts 3:22-24. (Someone has written about this more at debate.org.uk/topics/trtracts/t03.htm .)
Some Muslim apologists interpret Deuteronomy 33:2 as a prophecy of the entry of Muhammad, with an army of 10,000, into Mecca. (However one has to make several acrobatic maneuvers with the text to arrive at such an interpretation, such as transforming Seir in Edom into something else.) Isaiah 21:7 is interpreted as a vision of the coming of Jesus (on a donkey) and the coming of Muhammad (on a camel); however such an interpretation involves (a) ignoring the plain context of the verse, which is part of a description of what a watchman may see as he awaits messengers with news about Babylon, and (b) imagining a watchman who would live to see the arrival of Jesus, and the arrival of Muhammad. Isaiah 21:13-17 is claimed to be a description of the migration of Muhammad; however it is simply a description of the fate of northern Arabian tribes, and Isaiahs statement Within a year all the glory of Kedar will fall is linked to events occurring in Isaiahs time. Also Habakkuk 3:3 (God came from Teman, and the Holy One from mount Paran) is sometimes employed as a description of the coming of Muhammad. This misapplication involves at least two errors: (a) failure to see that Habakkuk is describing past events, and (b) failure to see that God and The Holy One are the same individual, described in typical Hebrew parallelism.
Those are not the only passages in the Old Testament which Islamic apologists use to attempt to show that the Torah says something good about Muhammad, but they are, I think, the ones used most in such attempts, which may give some idea of the value of the rest of their attempts. For some reason, Psalm 84:6 is sometimes used, and Baca is identified as Mecca. The apologists do not explain how the mere mention of Mecca would constitute a prophecy about Muhammad. Its ironic that a psalm about the benefits of making a pilgrimage to Jerusalem is employed in an attempt to bolster the claims for Mecca. It would seem that if someone were to ask, Why do the Jews not admit that these passages are about Muhammad? the standard Islamic answer leaning on 2:76 is that this is because of a vast Jewish conspiracy.
Back to the text: Some Jews are illiterate and only guess about what has been revealed. Others make copies of the Torah and sell them to make a little profit. The Jews say that the Fire will only touch them briefly. But the Fire is really forever.
Verse 83 mentions Allahs covenant with the Jews: they were to worship only Allah, be dutiful and kind to their parents and family, and to orphans and the poor, to speak what is good, and perform Salat and give Zakat, and so on. But now (in Muhammads time) they have backslid in various ways.
Thats not very different from the message of some of the Old Testament prophets: the list overlaps three of the Ten Commandments (worship only God, honor your father and your mother, do not bear false witness). The part about Salat and Zakat, though, appears to be added on; the Jews prayed, but the five daily prayers were not prescribed in the Torah, and the Jews gave tithes, but that is not the same as Zakat.
The Jews are chastised for rejecting the instructions of Moses, and for becoming arrogant when Jesus, Son of Mary, came with clear signs, supported by the Holy Spirit (the prevalent Islamic interpretation of this is that the angel Gabriel and the Holy Spirit are identical). The part of the story of Moses (as already given in this surah) is repeated (We raised above you the mount). The incident about the lifting of Mount Sinai over the Jews, by the way, did not originate with the Quran. It is mentioned in the Babylonian Talmud, in Tractate Abodah Zarah, near the beginning. Here is an excerpt:
Then they will protest, Lord of the universe, did You suspend the mountain over us like a vault as you have done to Israel, and did we still refuse to accept it? For in commenting on the phrase And they stood at the foot of the mountain, [Exodus 19:17] R. Dimi B. Hama said, This teaches us that the Holy One, blessed be He, suspended the mountain over Israel like a vault, and said to them, If you accept the Torah, it will be well with you, but if not, there you will find your grave. This can be read at www.come-and-hear.com/zarah/zarah_2.html .
Verse 96 states, Verily, you will find them [the Jews] the greediest of mankind for life, even more so than those who ascribe partners to Allah. Every one of them wishes that he could be given a life of a thousand years.
So it would seem that whoever believes the Quran believes that the Jewish race is greedier for life than any other ethnic group. Verse 96s reference to the desire to live for 1,000 years may vaguely echo Revelation 20:4b-6, which describes Christians who reign with Christ for a thousand years. Isaiah 65:19-20 touches on something similar (there, the new heavens and a new earth are envisioned, with the hope that he who dies at a hundred will be thought a mere youth).
The next few verses continue to chide unbelievers for failing to believe the clear signs Allah has given; this is a recurring feature in the Quran. This passage stands out, though, because of what it says about angels. Gabriel and Michael are mentioned as Allahs angels. Then in v. 102, the work of the demons in the time of Solomon (thats Sulaiman) is mentioned. Demons taught sorcery to men, as well as what had been revealed to Harut and Marut at Babel. But the demons only taught people who asked for instruction, and those who were instructed by them forfeited their claim to paradise.
It looks to me as if this verse is very loosely based on material in the Book of Enoch, in which angels come down to earth (before the Flood) and teach sorcery to people. The names Harut and Marut seem to be based on the names of Zoroastrian angels Haruvatat and Ameretat, who were assistants to the Zoroastrian goddess Ashpandar-amlit.
(Theres a possible backstory which goes like this: Harut and Marut were originally good angels in heaven, and they criticized the earthlings on account of their sins. God said that the angels, if put in the same circumstances, would behave similarly. Harut and Marut went down to earth, and taught secrets of magic to men (but as a thing to be known, not as a thing to be used). Then they gave into temptation and committed fornication. As punishment, they were hung upside-down in a deep pit (to remain there forever, it seems). Some Muslims deny that this story constitutes the background of 2:102, on the grounds that in the story, angels do bad things, but angels are inherently Allahs obedient servants so the story must be wrong.
More details about this may be found at www.truthnet.org/islam/src-chp3.htm in the section entitled Harat and Marut. Notice the citation there from Midrash Yalkut -- the names of the two angels are Shamhazai and Azael. Clearly these are the same two angels as the ringleaders of the Watchers in the Book of Enoch Semyaza and Azazel, as related in First Enoch 6:7 and 8:1.
In v. 104, the Jews are instructed not to say Raina, but to say, instead, Unzurna. Heres what is meant: some Jews addressed Muhammad by saying, Raina which in Arabic means Take heed but which, in Hebrew, means Our bad one. Apparently some Jews enjoyed using this word because they could thus say O, our bad one when addressing Muhammad but maintain the ruse that they only were saying, Take heed. (The Jews, however, do not seem to have relented; this sort of thing is mentioned again in 4:46.)
Yours in Christ,
Waterrock
