This part is mostly about Abraham. When Allah tested Abraham, He said, I am going to make you an Imam [leader] for mankind. Abraham answered, And of my offspring likewise, but Allah said, My covenant is not with evil-doers.
This echoes the blessing God gave to Abraham in Genesis 22:17, sort of. There, after God had tested Abraham (in the almost-sacrifice of Isaac), God promised to bless Abraham, and to multiply his seed, and in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed. The part about the exclusion of evil-doers might faintly echo Genesis 17:9-14, where God commands that the males in the households of Abrahams descendants (whether genetic descendants, or servants) must be circumcised, and if not, they forfeit their part in the covenant.
Genesis plainly locates Abraham in what is now the land of Israel, in the vicinity of places such as Bethel and Mamre. Genesis also says that Abraham dismissed Ishmael (and his mother Hagar) from his household when Ishmael was a young man. The Quran says that Abraham and his son Ishmael consecrated the Kaaba (in Mecca) as a place of prayer a place where visitors would circle around it, and bow down. The idea is that (a) the components of worship which Muhammad endorsed at Mecca were not borrowed from the pagan Arabian culture which had occupied the Kaaba before Muhammad, (b) these components of worship were actually rites going back to Abraham, which the Arabian pagans had corrupted, and (c) Muhammad was restoring practices endorsed by Abraham.
So Abraham and Ishmael, in v. 128, build the Kaaba, asking Allah to instruct them in the Manasik the Islamic customs that are involved in the pilgrimage to Mecca. Then they ask somewhat anachronistically for a messenger to be sent someone who will "recite unto them Your Verses and instruct them in the Book [i.e., the Quran] and wisdom [the term is "al-Hikmah" which may refer to systematic Islamic jurisprudence]." In other words, Muhammad is quite literally the answer to Abrahams prayers.
Whats more, the surah says that Jacob also endorsed Islam, and so did his sons. Verse 133 pictures the sons of Jacob saying, as Jacob delivered his last words, We will worship your God, the God of your fathers, Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, one God, and to Him we submit. (The word for God in this verse is i-lah, not Allah.) This resembles a statement in the pseudepigraphical Testament of Benjamin (part of the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs), in which Joseph (in a vision to Benjamin) is pictured as saying, in 10:3-4, "Perform truth and righteousness ... and keep the law of the Lord and his commandments. ... And give them to your children for an everlasting possession; for thus did Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob ... saying: 'Keep the commandments of God, until the Lord shall reveal His salvation to all nations.'" (The text of the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs is online at www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/patriarchs-charles.html .) Some quotations in the Talmud relating Jacobs last words are similar to this.
So whenever Christians or Jews invite Muslims to convert to Christianity or Judaism, Muslims should say (according to v. 135) that they are following the monotheistic religion of Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, and Jacobs sons. And for good measure, Moses and Jesus are also named as advocates of Islam though a little later, in v. 140, Jesus and Moses are not included in the list (since the question there is, Do you think these individuals were Jews or Christians? referring to Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, and Jacobs sons. One can easily see why Jesus is omitted in v. 140 ~ the answer to the question, "Was he a Jew?" would be, "Most definitely!")
V. 138 begins abruptly with the phrase "The Sibghah of Allah." What does sibghah mean? Ive seen some Quran-translations render it as "religion" but Rodwell rendered it as baptism. Possibly the idea is that this is what Muslims were supposed to say when Christians invited them to be baptized (so as to mean that Allah had already baptized them).
There is an interesting Hadith connected to a phrase in v. 139; the text says that Muslims should tell the Christians and Jews, "We will be rewarded for our deeds, and you for your deeds." Sounds like a straight good-deeds-must-outweigh-bad-deeds scenario, doesnt it.
But in the Hadith (in Sahih al-Bukhari, Vol. 8, #474), 'Aisha said, Muhammad said, Do good deeds properly, sincerely, and moderately, and receive good news because ones good deeds will not make him enter Paradise. They said, Even you, O Allahs messenger? He said, Even I, unless and until Allah protects or covers me with His pardon and His mercy.
Hmm. If authentic, I think this Hadith suggests not only that a lot of Muslims assumptions about the efficacy of good deeds are mistaken, but also that Islam ultimately leaves its adherents without any promise of Allahs mercy. Perhaps it should also raise a question of what "good news" Muhammad was referring to.
Verse 141 repeats v. 134.
Yours in Christ,
Waterrock
This echoes the blessing God gave to Abraham in Genesis 22:17, sort of. There, after God had tested Abraham (in the almost-sacrifice of Isaac), God promised to bless Abraham, and to multiply his seed, and in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed. The part about the exclusion of evil-doers might faintly echo Genesis 17:9-14, where God commands that the males in the households of Abrahams descendants (whether genetic descendants, or servants) must be circumcised, and if not, they forfeit their part in the covenant.
Genesis plainly locates Abraham in what is now the land of Israel, in the vicinity of places such as Bethel and Mamre. Genesis also says that Abraham dismissed Ishmael (and his mother Hagar) from his household when Ishmael was a young man. The Quran says that Abraham and his son Ishmael consecrated the Kaaba (in Mecca) as a place of prayer a place where visitors would circle around it, and bow down. The idea is that (a) the components of worship which Muhammad endorsed at Mecca were not borrowed from the pagan Arabian culture which had occupied the Kaaba before Muhammad, (b) these components of worship were actually rites going back to Abraham, which the Arabian pagans had corrupted, and (c) Muhammad was restoring practices endorsed by Abraham.
So Abraham and Ishmael, in v. 128, build the Kaaba, asking Allah to instruct them in the Manasik the Islamic customs that are involved in the pilgrimage to Mecca. Then they ask somewhat anachronistically for a messenger to be sent someone who will "recite unto them Your Verses and instruct them in the Book [i.e., the Quran] and wisdom [the term is "al-Hikmah" which may refer to systematic Islamic jurisprudence]." In other words, Muhammad is quite literally the answer to Abrahams prayers.
Whats more, the surah says that Jacob also endorsed Islam, and so did his sons. Verse 133 pictures the sons of Jacob saying, as Jacob delivered his last words, We will worship your God, the God of your fathers, Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, one God, and to Him we submit. (The word for God in this verse is i-lah, not Allah.) This resembles a statement in the pseudepigraphical Testament of Benjamin (part of the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs), in which Joseph (in a vision to Benjamin) is pictured as saying, in 10:3-4, "Perform truth and righteousness ... and keep the law of the Lord and his commandments. ... And give them to your children for an everlasting possession; for thus did Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob ... saying: 'Keep the commandments of God, until the Lord shall reveal His salvation to all nations.'" (The text of the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs is online at www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/patriarchs-charles.html .) Some quotations in the Talmud relating Jacobs last words are similar to this.
So whenever Christians or Jews invite Muslims to convert to Christianity or Judaism, Muslims should say (according to v. 135) that they are following the monotheistic religion of Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, and Jacobs sons. And for good measure, Moses and Jesus are also named as advocates of Islam though a little later, in v. 140, Jesus and Moses are not included in the list (since the question there is, Do you think these individuals were Jews or Christians? referring to Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, and Jacobs sons. One can easily see why Jesus is omitted in v. 140 ~ the answer to the question, "Was he a Jew?" would be, "Most definitely!")
V. 138 begins abruptly with the phrase "The Sibghah of Allah." What does sibghah mean? Ive seen some Quran-translations render it as "religion" but Rodwell rendered it as baptism. Possibly the idea is that this is what Muslims were supposed to say when Christians invited them to be baptized (so as to mean that Allah had already baptized them).
There is an interesting Hadith connected to a phrase in v. 139; the text says that Muslims should tell the Christians and Jews, "We will be rewarded for our deeds, and you for your deeds." Sounds like a straight good-deeds-must-outweigh-bad-deeds scenario, doesnt it.
But in the Hadith (in Sahih al-Bukhari, Vol. 8, #474), 'Aisha said, Muhammad said, Do good deeds properly, sincerely, and moderately, and receive good news because ones good deeds will not make him enter Paradise. They said, Even you, O Allahs messenger? He said, Even I, unless and until Allah protects or covers me with His pardon and His mercy.
Hmm. If authentic, I think this Hadith suggests not only that a lot of Muslims assumptions about the efficacy of good deeds are mistaken, but also that Islam ultimately leaves its adherents without any promise of Allahs mercy. Perhaps it should also raise a question of what "good news" Muhammad was referring to.
Verse 141 repeats v. 134.
Yours in Christ,
Waterrock
