Saturday, June 20, 2009
Suffering through the Koran – Sura 19 named 'Mary'.
Attempting to make Christianity irrelevant.
by Ferdinand III
One of the hallmarks about the Koran, besides the usual calls to violence and supremacism, is the lack of originality and its endless repetition. Such traits are hallmarks of mediocrity. There is nothing new which the Koran offers. Instead it seeks to first appropriate and than annul Judaic and Christian teaching and writing. A Sura about Mary, giving birth to a prophet of Allah, is just another attempt at confusing and conflating Islam with Jewish traditions. It is a lame and silly attempt.
A mediocre mind will produce a mediocre piece of writing. Common characteristics of mediocre talent trying to write something include poor organisation, plagiarism, incoherence, venality, and turgid adolescent prose. The Koran is full of such traits. The Sura about Mary, the matriarch of the Christian church is another example of just how lame and exasperating the Koran is.
Its theme ? That Mary and Jesus were really supporters of the Arab conception of Allah and ergo the calls to name Christ divine, a demi-god or a man representing God, are heretical and against Islam. This means of course that Christianity has violated the Arab moon deity Allah, and as such is an invalid program.
How boring.
So the Arabs never creative enough to voice their own metaphysical philosophy of ethics and higher meaning, need to portray Mary as someone connected with Allah. “Relate in the Book (the story of) Mary, when she withdrew from her family to a place in the East.” So now the Mary story gets rewritten with an Arab twist. No journey with Joseph and no manger scene – neither are mentioned in the Koran. Instead we have Mary fleeing from a hostile Jewish society to give a virgin birth under the protection of the Arab Allah. “She said: 'I seek refuge from you to (Allah) Most Gracious:...”
According to the Koran, it was the mighty Allah which saw Mary through her child birthing process, “And the pains of childbirth drove her to the trunk of a palm tree: she cried (in her anguish) 'Ah! would that I had died before this!....But (a voice) cried to her from beneath the (palm-tree): 'Do not grieve! For your Lord has provided a rivulet beneath you;...” And so the gracious Allah waters and feeds Mary and ensures that Jesus is born and fed.
But Christ is not just a typical baby. He is up and walking and talking within hours of his being born – or so the Koran would like us to believe, “He said: I am indeed a servant of Allah: He has given me Revelation and made me a prophet;” So the 1 day old baby Christ is already forming sentences and assures his mother that yes indeed the wonderful Allah has blessed her son as a portentous and powerful prophet. This is what every mother would love to have happen.
This Sura takes the talking 1 day old baby Christ, and directly relates his support of Allah to be in the tradition of all Jewish prophets. Again, the Koran goes through the repetitive exercise of having Jewish prophets and leaders restate that their life's work was dedicated to Allah and to his demands. “Also mention in the Book (the story of) Moses: for he was specially chosen, and he was a Messenger (and) a prophet.”
Thanks for the reminder that Moses was Allah's prophet. I think I got the idea, the first 100 times I read it in the previous 194 pages.
In any event, the real point in this Sura is that Christ was no God, since the venerable Allah cannot have a son. “They say: “(Allah) Most Gracious has begotten a son!”. Indeed you have put forth a thing most monstrous!” Yes Muslims don't take too kindly to the idea that Christ supersedes Mohammed or can be equated with the male moon deity of Mecca. It is blasphemous.
It is therefore clear that in Islam Christ and Christianity are not only inferior to Allah and Islam, but mere tools of Allah's power and program. Christianity is for Muslims, an imperfect part of Islamic development.
Beyond this clear message – that Christianity is a fraud - a few more pages in this Sura rattle on about how great the Allah is and all-powerful and if you don't follow his injunctions you will be casted down as a sinner, “And we shall drive the sinners to hell, like thirsty cattle driven down to water.” How charitable. 'We' being Muslims and fanatics.
In the Christian Bible, wayward souls are approached by those with faith and are induced to change their lives and accept a moral-ethical framework. In the Judeo-Christian faiths a person can be saved irregardless of past transgressions. Christ's ministry was full of social outcasts and those deemed beyond salvation. It is a humanist tradition.
The same is not true of Islam of course. If someone does not believe in the Islamic program, than straight to hell with them. Allah's wrath knows few bounds and has little mercy.
It is clear from this semi-illiterate Sura, that Christ and Christianity are simply expressions of Allah's pre-determinism and omnipotence. Mary and Christ were created by Allah to serve his ends. Sadly according to the Koran the Christians have not followed the path of Allah and have sinned. And as the Koran makes clear, sinners against Allah are either killed, or they go to hell-fire.
Nice philosophy.
[Note: This sura is taken from 'The Holy Quran', translated by Abdullah Yusuf Ali, reprinted in 1995, Goodword Books. Regarded as one of the best translations from Arabic to English of the Koran.]