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Multiple Q&As - With Joseph Islam
« on: December 07, 2012, 05:49:52 AM »
Sallam brother Joseph

I hope all is well GOD willing.

I had a few questions and thought i would take the liberty of asking for your help in understanding them better, in one email. I hope that is OK.


1) "Ask those of knowledge". I have read the full article and understand the verse. Query is:

There was approx, a time gap of 600? Years between prophet Muhammad and prophet Jesus (pbut).So if prophet Muhammad wanted to 'seek assurance' that there too were prophets/messengers before him, would it have been the Jews/Christians in his presence that would have confirmed (aft 600 years) that 'yes before you were messengers too' ....?


2) Re: verse 2.129. This verse and 3.164 and 64'? Are all generally of the same wording. I note that the verse in 2.129 seems to be coming from prophet Abraham pbuh, as the 2 verses before seem to be stating the words were spoken by (of course GODS words) but implored by prophet Abraham, is this correct?

If it is, does it have any correlation with the two others , 3.164 and the other one in sura 64 i think....?  'our lord, raise amongst them a ...........


3) Verse 4.113,  in verse 2.238 and 2.239, we know this is all in the plural, (i.e one that cannot be used by tradionalists to support other teachings). I note that 4.113 has similar wordings, ' taught you that which you knew not'... Does this verse simply mean that because prophet Muhammad now with the quan in his possesion wa taught something new? Or is it again a verse that is in the 'plural'?


4) Re: verse 2.143 and the Qibla change. Again I have read the article on this but may have missed what i was looking for...some tradionalists use this verse (as always in vain..) to justify their belief that the prophet must have received other revelations as there is no mention in the Quran that he was to change direction, instead it just mentions direction which changed. Could you please tell me how I can better understand this and is there a verse which told the prophet to change direction?


5) We know all practices such as fasting, salat, zakt , haaj were from the time of prophet Abraham, and over time some or all had begun to be corrupted? ..... Does the Quran state that prophet Muhammad was sent to 'correct ' any practices that had been corrupted? I appreciate the Quran has many messages, but is this true that he was simply to correct, i.e. tone of prayer, ablution maybe, etc ?


6) Re: verse 72.18 and do not call upon anyone but GOD in places of worship. Brother Joseph, does this mean, when making the call to prayer, azan...... We know it is not OK to call upon other then GOD at home! I can only think it means the call to prayer, is this correct?


I really hope you don't mind answering all these?!

Thank you and sallam


Offline Joseph Islam

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Re: Multiple Q&As - With Joseph Islam
« Reply #1 on: December 07, 2012, 05:55:17 AM »
Salamun Alaikum.

Please see my responses in blue below.

I hope that helps, God willing.
Joseph



Sallam brother Joseph

I hope all is well GOD willing.

I had a few questions and thought i would take the liberty of asking for your help in understanding them better, in one email. I hope that is OK.

1) "Ask those of knowledge". I have read the full article and understand the verse. Query is:

There was approx, a time gap of 600? Years between prophet Muhammad and prophet Jesus (pbut).So if prophet Muhammad wanted to 'seek assurance' that there too were prophets/messengers before him, would it have been the Jews/Christians in his presence that would have confirmed (aft 600 years) that 'yes before you were messengers too' ....?

Yes and specific claims such as:

That messengers were inspired men (16:43; 21:7)
That there were no Gods to be worshipped besides the one God (43:35)
To clear his doubts about the veracity of the information that he was receiving by confirming them with readers of the previous scriptures (10:94)




2) Re: verse 2.129. This verse and 3.164 and 64'? Are all generally of the same wording. I note that the verse in 2.129 seems to be coming from prophet Abraham pbuh, as the 2 verses before seem to be stating the words were spoken by (of course GODS words) but implored by prophet Abraham, is this correct?

If it is, does it have any correlation with the two others , 3.164 and the other one in sura 64 i think....?  'our lord, raise amongst them a ...........

The words are not spoken by one individual. The Arabic reads 'rabbana' (Our Lord – plural) and not 'rabbiya' (my Lord - singular). Therefore, it was probably a combined prayer and given the context of the previous verses, a prayer that emanated from both Prophet Abraham and Ishmael. As I am sure you will appreciate, just because there may be similar narratives in two different verses, does not mean they refer to the same incident. The connection made between Prophet Muhammad and the combined prayer of 2:129 is one through secondary sources and usually to support a genealogical connection. In my humble opinion, there is absolutely no proof from the Quran that Prophet Muhammad was from the progeny of Prophet Ishmael.  Please see article below:

ARE THE ARABS AND PROPHET MUHAMMAD (pbuh) REALLY DESCENDANTS OF PROPHET ABRAHAM? (pbuh)
http://quransmessage.com/articles/are%20the%20arabs%20descendants%20of%20abraham%20FM3.htm



3) Verse 4.113,  in verse 2.238 and 2.239, we know this is all in the plural, (i.e one that cannot be used by tradionalists to support other teachings). I note that 4.113 has similar wordings, ' taught you that which you knew not'... Does this verse simply mean that because prophet Muhammad now with the quan in his possesion wa taught something new? Or is it again a verse that is in the 'plural'?

I have humbly covered this matter and the phrase: 'ma lam takunu ta’lamun' (what you did not know) in a dedicated article. (Please kindly see below). Prophet Muhammad was not from a monotheistic faith before revelation and neither were his people. This is absolutely clear from the following verse which many traditionalists would find extremely surprising to read. (Please note the Arabic phrase: la’imaan).

042:052
"And thus did We reveal to you an inspired book by Our command. You did not know what the Book was, NOR THE FAITH (Arabic: la imaanu), but We made it a light, guiding thereby whom We please of Our servants; and most surely you show the way to the right path"

There were many aspects revealed to the Prophet and his people regarding the monotheistic religion by way of the Quran which they were not familiar with. I have covered some of these aspects in the following article:

PRAY AS WE HAVE TAUGHT YOU HOW TO PRAY - USING VERSE 2.239 AS SUPPORT FOR A FIXED FORM OF PRAYER
http://quransmessage.com/articles/pray%20as%20we%20have%20taught%20you%20how%20to%20pray%20-%20using%20a%20verse%20to%20support%20a%20fixed%20form%20of%20prayer%20FM3.htm



4) Re: verse 2.143 and the Qibla change. Again I have read the article on this but may have missed what i was looking for...some tradionalists use this verse (as always in vain..) to justify their belief that the prophet must have received other revelations as there is no mention in the Quran that he was to change direction, instead it just mentions direction which changed. Could you please tell me how I can better understand this and is there a verse which told the prophet to change direction?

I have covered this in the article below. In particular, please kindly note section 'THE FIRST CHANGE' under subsection ‘INFERENCES’ where I have discussed a possible reason for the first change. This does not mean that the Prophet was receiving revelations necessary for mankind’s guidance which were not contained in the Quran. It simply means that the Prophet took some decisions given the revelations that he received. The Prophet was a living, breathing, sentient being who attempted to ‘live’ and ‘guide’ in accordance to the messages he was receiving from God by way of the Quran. Those revelations that were necessary for mankind’s guidance were made clear in the Quran which asserted that it was ‘tibiana lekulli shaye’ (A clarification of everything 16:89).  The most important aspect which is the direction of the final Qibla is made absolutely clear in the Quran.

Here is the relevant part from the article:

“Albeit the location of the new direction is unclear from the verses, there are further inferences that can be drawn. Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) at this stage was clearly associating himself with Prophet Abraham (pbuh) in faith. The message that had now been revealed to him in Arabic speech was a confirmation and continuation of the guidance from the previous scriptures and united him in faith with those to whom the previous scriptures had been revealed (Jews and Christians). There is also some affiliation noted with the Holy Lands in verse 17:1 where a journey was made to the Holy Lands, an area which had clearly been blessed. It is very likely therefore, that the new 'Qibla' was consistent with those of the previous scriptures and pointed towards the Holy Lands given that the revelation united him in faith with the followers of those Prophets to whom inspiration had also been sent.”


http://quransmessage.com/articles/qibla%20FM3.htm



5) We know all practices such as fasting, salat, zakt , haaj were from the time of prophet Abraham, and over time some or all had begun to be corrupted? ..... Does the Quran state that prophet Muhammad was sent to 'correct ' any practices that had been corrupted? I appreciate the Quran has many messages, but is this true that he was simply to correct, i.e. tone of prayer, ablution maybe, etc ?

I humbly find no evidence that practices amongst the People of the Book had become completely ‘corrupted’. I do however, find evidence that some practices such as prayer had been neglected (19:59) and ‘some’ groups had transgressed in matters of religion (5:72-73, 4:171, 5:77).

Those aspects of monotheistic practices that required elaboration or refinement for the new believing community were mentioned clearly in the Quran. For example, the need to pray amongst the people of the Book was in situ at the time of the Prophet (2:43) so this was not a new command, but the directives of ‘Wudu’ may have required refinement, hence it was elaborated. The People of the Book were clearly familiar with fundamental monotheistic practices such as prayer, zakat etc.




6) Re: verse 72.18 and do not call upon anyone but GOD in places of worship. Brother Joseph, does this mean, when making the call to prayer, azan...... We know it is not OK to call upon other then GOD at home! I can only think it means the call to prayer, is this correct?

In my humble opinion, this verse is best understood (as is the case with Quranic verses) whilst primarily keeping the immediate recipient audience of the message in mind and the context of the verses (72:18-20). The Quraish clearly had a hierarchical God system with ‘Allah’ as the supreme God (29:61) along with his intercessors such as ‘Al-Lat’ ‘Al-Uzza’ and ‘Manat’ (53:19-21).  The verse clearly instructs that no other should be invoked other than God implying for ‘worship’. This is clear from the next verses 72:19-20, where Quraish wanted him to revert back to their old ways of association (shirk).


I really hope you don't mind answering all these?!

Thank you and sallam

'During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act' 
George Orwell