To avoid any potential copyright issue I will only include my own comments around the verses specified in each post, assuming that you are reading the original verses or the relevant translation concurrently on your own.
5:65 Starting with this verse God beautifully clarifies the fact that if someone truly believes in God, as many of "ahl ketab" do ,those who believe in the Scripture, God will cover their sins and will enter them in gardens of his favors. One very important accompanying word in this verse and in many others where God speaks about believing is the word " Tagva" which according to Yusef Ali's translation means "ward off evil" but I am not sure if it conveys the complete concept of "Tagva" that has been repeated throughout Quran. The definition of "Tagva" ,I believe, is extremely significant and is a key to understand God's relationship with us. I will have to talk about this word in future since is will take an entire post to explain . Assuming "Tagva" means avoiding evil for now, what this verse states is; it is not only Muslims who may qualify for their sins to be forgiven but also anyone who truly believes in God and does good deeds may be entered into heavens. More importantly it implies the way God judges us, in which we are not judged by the religion we have inherited. In fact, what matters to God is what we have in our heart and what we do according to this verse and the next ones.
5:66 "If they had followed Torah and Gospel and what had been revealed to them from God, they would have certainly be nourished from above them and from beneath their feet...." While Jews and Christians are seemingly better off in life as far as their material needs are concerned, it is not obvious nor easy to make out what exactly this verse means at this age. I don't mean it is wrong or it is not true, all I mean is there are verses that I personally fail to find their applications and the first part of this verse is probably one of them as it stands at this time.
The verse 66 however, continues with categorizing believers of the Torah and the Gospel into two groups. First one is moderates and the second one is the sinners. I believe the Arabic word "Mogtased" which has been commonly translated to moderation, is meant to mention those who adhere to the parts of their belief that are sure to be from God and is absolutely true. These are the believers of Torah and Bible who advocate for the existence of God primarily against atheism and they secondary promote the love relationship with the God as the way to enlightenment. At current time I personally believe some one like Einstein who believed in the Torah ,judging from his quotes, is mostly likely a good fit to this type. Among the living Christians my favorites (those I have come across their lectures in YouTube recently) include university professors John Lennox, Ian Hutchinson and Francis Collins whom I highly respect and admire for their effort to invite public to God and for their emphasis on a love relationship with God. I consider them as a few examples of true believers in God among the elite.
I have to admit that I know almost nothing about other faith such as Judaism and Christianity. Naming the above individuals does not mean in any way that these are the only true believers among the followers of the Scripture. The given names are just a few from many many more that I have not had the pleasure to know them yet.
One other important point is no human is in a position to judge other people's faith and tell who is going to heaven or hell as God is the only single qualified Judge ever on this matter. what I am trying to portrait is the characteristics of believing in God as demonstrated over their specific quotes or lectures. Neither do I mean that all of what these people have said or will say is correct.
5:67 As explaining these revelation might have risen tensions leading to potential harm to the prophet Mohammad at the time, God is assuring his messenger that he should not hesitate to pass on these messages. God would protect him from any harm from people and God will not guide those who deny the truth.
5:68 I believe this verse is emphasising that it really does not matter which faith is older or has come before the other ones, nor being a Jew or a Christian mean anything unless the believers observe the Torah and the Gospel and all revelations from God. As I understand this verse has a subtle message that any believer in the older faith should keep his heart open to the new revelations that will for ever continue to descend from God, although it may not happen in form of a direct message passed to people by an assigned prophet anymore.
As an established believer, one may naturally have a tendency to resist changing his beliefs which have taken a lot of effort to form in the first place. That is how we may ,as believers, fall for our biases that work against any new revelations from God. This conflict will grow substantially if we have developed certain personal interests out of that faith like establishing ourselves as a social religious authority. Up to a point when we will find the new ideas (revelations) require dramatic changes in our previous way of thinking, habits and rituals which can lead to challenge our ego and or the social authority we have been enjoying for some time. This complication could finally result in a state of total denial of any new genuine prophet. It is of human nature to find it hard to go out of our comfort zone so by keep denying and covering the truth despite numerous sings we will go apart from the right path far and farther into darkness until comes a time we one will fail to see any traces of light at all. If someone chooses such path of ignorance and constant denial knowingly and willingly he has deprived himself from mercy of God. It will then be a reasonable consequence to expect God's telling his prophet not to be sad for such people since however he tried to buy our heart or whatever sign he revealed to us we ignored and denied.
5;69 This verse goes on even further in explicitly clarifying that ,in fact, the only requirements for anyone to be saved and forgiven is believing in God, the last day and doing good. That is to say being a Jew, a Christian or of no religion "Sabeon" makes no difference to God, should one meet the three conditions.
In 5:70 God is illustrating the concepts mentioned in the earlier verses by providing an example of the decedents of "Yagoob" -Israel- who commit themselves to God but later on they dined the following messages brought to them by later prophets because the new revelations were against their personal interests. So they called some of the prophets lie rs and killed some others. This verse, I believe, is referring to a long period of time over which there must have been a number of prophets chosen by God to guide people of the time.
Concluding this post, I can highlight two major teachings underlying the above 5 verses:
As an established believer, one may naturally have a tendency to resist changing his beliefs which have taken a lot of effort to form in the first place. That is how we may ,as believers, fall for our biases that work against any new revelations from God. This conflict will grow substantially if we have developed certain personal interests out of that faith like establishing ourselves as a social religious authority. Up to a point when we will find the new ideas (revelations) require dramatic changes in our previous way of thinking, habits and rituals which can lead to challenge our ego and or the social authority we have been enjoying for some time. This complication could finally result in a state of total denial of any new genuine prophet. It is of human nature to find it hard to go out of our comfort zone so by keep denying and covering the truth despite numerous sings we will go apart from the right path far and farther into darkness until comes a time we one will fail to see any traces of light at all. If someone chooses such path of ignorance and constant denial knowingly and willingly he has deprived himself from mercy of God. It will then be a reasonable consequence to expect God's telling his prophet not to be sad for such people since however he tried to buy our heart or whatever sign he revealed to us we ignored and denied.
5;69 This verse goes on even further in explicitly clarifying that ,in fact, the only requirements for anyone to be saved and forgiven is believing in God, the last day and doing good. That is to say being a Jew, a Christian or of no religion "Sabeon" makes no difference to God, should one meet the three conditions.
In 5:70 God is illustrating the concepts mentioned in the earlier verses by providing an example of the decedents of "Yagoob" -Israel- who commit themselves to God but later on they dined the following messages brought to them by later prophets because the new revelations were against their personal interests. So they called some of the prophets lie rs and killed some others. This verse, I believe, is referring to a long period of time over which there must have been a number of prophets chosen by God to guide people of the time.
Concluding this post, I can highlight two major teachings underlying the above 5 verses:
- Those who believe in God, in the day of judgment as well as they do good deeds, they shall be saved by God and they shall not have fear after life regardless of their religion.
- We can not label believers of other faith including Judaism and Christianity or any one else as non believer or infidel and then threat them inhumanly based on our judgment.
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