Sunday, September 30, 2012
Pep Talk for the Prophet
Its clear that the God of the Qu'ran remains adamant in his principles, mercy and bounty for his followers and punishment befitting the sin for non-believers and hypocrites. The monotony of such reassurances of God's power is now broken up by new reassurances to the Prophet of his mission rather than God's presence in creation. This dialogue is the first we see in the Qu'ran of its kind and wasn't present in what we read of Genesis. The God of the Qu'ran while all powerful is recognizing free will of the Prophet, just as the God of Genesis does of his creations, but chooses to depend on the goodness of his Prophet where the God of genesis binds the chosen messenger in a convenant. I would loosely describe this dialogue as a of pep talk for the Prophet. God recognizes the skepticism in non-believers declaring that "those who do not expect to meet with Us say, 'Bring [us] a different Qu'ran, or change it"(Sura 10:15). God furthermore goes on to explain to the Prophet how to proselytize to these individuals, literally giving the Prophet a script to work from when dealing with non-believers. This is a marked change of pace from the Qu'ran's God's policy of strict tolerance or intolerance of non-believers; while it is shortly addressed in this sura "As for those who did evil, each evil deed wll be requited by its equal and humiliation will cover them"(Sura 10:27). This is the first we see God allowing for potential conversion, in fact encouraging the Prophet to continue proselytizing despite his lack of success. Encouraging him to address these non-believers with the basics of life's essence to raise awareness of his God. "Say [Prophet], 'Who provides for you from the sky and the earth? Who controls hearing and sight?...who governs everything?' They are sure to say, 'God....Then say, 'So why do you not take heed of Him?" (Sura 10:31). This is a distinctly different side of God that as readers or posible converts we have yet to be exposed to. It explicitly expresses God's omniscience; that God has the awareness to recognize skepticism in non-believers. More importantly it shows that despite the "true path" set before each individual by God it is up to each own's free will to look to the true text, the Qu'ran, for guidance and that the Prophet isn't responsible for every individual when he knows of the truth as shown by God himself.
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I think that Morgan really brings up an interesting point about how the God in the Qur'an sees the potential for conversion. In one portion of today's reading, the Qur'an states that "God invites [everyone] to the Home of peace" (10:25). However, in other portions, it seems as though God has complete power who believes or not. God says of Moses and Aaron, "We helped them, so they were the ones to succeed" (37:116). I find that sometimes, as Morgan pointed out, the God of the Qur'an seems to have many, sometimes contradictory, sides.
ReplyDeleteI also think that this is a really interesting point. What struck me most was the fact that God himself does not go about the act of "turning" nonbelievers, but leaves it to his Prophet. In this sense it is a pep talk as Morgan has described it, which veers from God's opposing attitude of apathy toward those who fail to believe. Emma also makes a great point that the God of the Qur'an takes many, sometimes opposing sides, which I found interesting considering that seems to almost be unable to decide what his power truly is, and what he wants it to be.
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