5; 90-93, Avoid Intoxication and Gambling

The interesting points about these four verses, as I understand, are:

• God has asked us to avoid four specific actions of using intoxicating substances, including drinks or drugs, and gambling along with two others that I do not know their contemporary equivalents. 

• God has clearly described these four as Satanic acts because, as God explains, Satan wants to create animosity and hatred between us and wants to prevent us from keeping our heart attentive to God. I am not sure if we need to provide evidence of these effects as they resonate with anyone who has, at some point in life, had an addiction to alcohol, drugs or gambling. Provided that we will be honest with ourselves, these clues depict the true internal devastation caused by these actions.

• Despite the fact that God has strongly advised us to keep away from them, it seems that these verses imply alcoholism, drug abuse and addiction to gambling have always been and will be a fact of life and they cannot ever be deleted or totally banned.  The reason I infer so is firstly, God has not called these actions “Haram” (forbidden by God) neither in these verses nor anywhere else in Quran.  Secondly verse 93 states that if believers have found themselves involved in any of these satanic actions, on the condition that they keep away from them for God and be persistent in doing good deeds, they are not sinners.   (I know that traditionally this verse only applies to those who have done these actions before the revelation has come at the time. I believe we are all encountering Quran’s revelations continuously in our personal life.) 

• Another important and clear reading of these few verses is that God has not asked anyone to police others or to force them against their will in spite of explaining the harms.  There is also no punishment determined anywhere in Quran for drinking alcohol, drug use or gambling.   In other words, these are personal choices with severe consequences.  

• In verses 92 and 99 of this chapter, it is explicitly mentioned that the Prophet has no responsibility but to inform human being of God’s message even if they may disobey God.   This is an extremely important message which completely refutes using force or violence in order to enforce God’s rules on others which is ,perhaps, the main motivation behind Islamic fundamentalism. 

Does Quran Support Islamic Fundamentalism?

   It is no secret that religious fundamentalism is the result of coming to a belief that one has found the truth and the whole truth, so to get closer to God and serve him he/she is going to do whatever he can to make others believe as he does.  In other words, when a faithful person feels the obligation to enforce his views to others by any means, he/she will be walking the path of religious extremism.  

   The Middle East seems to have been the birth place for the main religions of the world including Judaism, Christianity and Islam.  Not surprisingly, after a few thousand years Middle East continues to be the place where religion is the cornerstone of daily life, with a major difference though.  At this time it is not the believers and disbelievers who are foe, but strangely, all the fights are among the believers themselves one way or another.  The most interesting point however, is the fact that it is the extremists of different faith, or even of same religion but different denominations, who are most hostile and brutal toward each other.  On a closer inspection, the closer they are in denominations the harsher they become to one another.  I refrain from providing examples or names to avoid hurting anyone’s feelings.  Yet it is extremely sad for all true believers to witness these conflicts.

  Since the Middle East is the cradle of many ancient civilizations, it also has made it a potential treasure land for archaeologist as well as for treasure smuggler.  For example, ironically enough, a commonly believed sign of treasure is a large snake nesting on buried gold.  Nevertheless, a real treasure hunter would not be scared away by the snake.  Instead he would become more curious and more interested. There are video clips on the Internet from the real cases. Perhaps religious fundamentalism or ,in particular, Islamic extremism at our time could be considered the snake on a hidden treasure within this area which has a proven record of carrying precious gems such as Oil.   So one may ask "what could be the real mysterious treasure in this part of the world?"

   Quran, much to extremists’ disappointment, includes verses that teach us quite contrary to a fundamentalist’s views.  Below are a few examples which verify Quran’s stand on this matter.  

1                1- Chapter 88 “Al-Ghaashya”, verses 21 to 26 God says:

“فذَكِّرۡ إِنَّمَآ أَنتَ مُذَڪِّرٌ۬ (٢١) لَّسۡتَ عَلَيۡهِم بِمُصَيۡطِرٍ (٢٢) إِلَّا مَن تَوَلَّىٰ وَكَفَرَ (٢٣) فَيُعَذِّبُهُ ٱللَّهُ ٱلۡعَذَابَ ٱلۡأَكۡبَرَ (٢٤)

 إِنَّ إِلَيۡنَآ إِيَابَہُمۡ (٢٥) ثُمَّ إِنَّ عَلَيۡنَا حِسَابَہُم (٢٦)”

      “So remind, you are only a reminder (21) you do not have control over them (22) but whoever turns away and disbelieves (23) Allah will punish them (with) greatest punishment (24) In deed, their return (will) be to us. (25) Then, indeed their account (is) upon us. (26) “  

        Translation quoted from www.globalquran.com 

What is very interesting is according to these verses even if a believer infers someone as a disbeliever, Gods explicitly commands him (any potential believer in fact) that he is  not supposed to do anything except for inviting and reminding.

2               2- Chapter 2 “Al-Baqara”, Verse 256:

"لَآ إِكۡرَاهَ فِى ٱلدِّينِ‌ ......."

           There is no compulsion in religion…..

           3- Chapter 6 “Al-Anaam”, Verse 69:

"وَمَا عَلَى ٱلَّذِينَ يَتَّقُونَ مِنۡ حِسَابِهِم مِّن شَىۡءٍ۬ وَلَـٰڪِن ذِڪۡرَىٰ لَعَلَّهُمۡ يَتَّقُونَ (٦٩)"

            On their account no responsibility falls on the righteous, but (their duty) is to remind them, that they may (learn to) fear Allah (and stop ridiculing). (69)” Quoted from Yusuf Ali’s Translation 

        

This verse is of particular importance as it is talking about the disbelievers who ridicule God’s revelations.   As evident in these verses God has clarified unequivocally to the believers that they have no duty toward disbelievers but to remind them of the truth peacefully.  

    More importantly, what can settle all the conflicts over whose understanding of the scripture is the right one and must be obeyed by others, is the fact that according to the Quran all our interpretations of its verses and concepts are absolutely relative and subject to mistake.  It is only God who knows the right meaning of some verses of the Quran whose meaning is controversial and subjective.  This in fact, implies that it is only God who knows the ultimate meaning of some Quranic verses whose interpretation is controversial and subjective.  All human understanding of the scripture is limited and subject to change just like human knowledge in all other aspects of life.  

   In Chapter 3,"Al-Omraan", in part of Verse 7 categorizes all verses into two groups:  the “Mohkamat”, which are the foundation of Quran and the “Moteshabehat“ which are verses that can be interpreted in different ways.  God say :

"......  وَمَا يَعۡلَمُ تَأۡوِيلَهُ ۥۤ إِلَّا ٱللَّهُ‌ۗ وَٱلرَّٲسِخُونَ فِى ٱلۡعِلۡمِ....." 

“… no one knows its true meanings except Allah and those who are keen to understand … .”   

    These words assert that there is no absolute reading of the Quran except for God. That is to say, no one regardless of educational background, religious status or authority has an inherent advantage over another to find out the truth.  The ones that are more likely to know the truth are those who sincerely long for it.  Actually, it is more or less the same in all other aspects of human knowledge be it natural sciences or the arts.  Rumi, the mystic Persian poet, illustrates this by describing reality as being like an elephant in a dark room.  anyone who enters the room and touches one part of the huge elephant, conceives reality as a long pipe or as a bed depending on whether he/she has reached the nose of elephant or its back.  This is an extraordinary analogy which helps us see the historical struggle of humanity to comprehend the reality of the world when each can see only a part and must infer the whole.

   That being said, the current religious confrontations in the Middle East, which is essentially over imposing one reading of Islam over others, is destined to settle in a general consensus that we all have an equal right to understand the scriptures in our own unique way, which will inevitably result in recognizing the holy texts as an indispensable source of personal inspiration rather than a book of holy laws that can directly govern all aspects of life.

    Back to the question, does Quran support Islamic fundamentalism?   My answer is, not only does the Quran not provide any ground for the use of violence to enforce Islam over others but it also clarifies that there is no perfect reading of the ultimate reality.  Practically speaking, this means everyone has the same chance of finding the truth, and consequently, all have an equal voice and vote.

5:77-82

   In order to shorten my posts and avoid repeating the translation, I will try to only point out the underlying concepts as I understand from verses, hereafter.  Please note the number of verses only shows the reference for my comments, not the translation.

5:77,   it is up to the believers of the scriptures to verify for themselves to see if their religion has been partially exaggerated which has led to include untruth.  Today the Internet has made it possible for everyone to seek out the truth by weighing and comparing all sorts of opinions and arguments. We can now form our own judgment while hearing all internal and external voices. By internal I mean all voices we can hear in our heart and by external I mean voice of other people present or not.  I think this verse is an invitation from God to the followers of Torah and Gospel to double check their holy texts, an invitation that is worth accepting.

5:78,   God confirms in this verse that those who denied “Isa” and “Davood” were cursed by them which shows humans have the capability of asking God to favor or disfavor other humans, should the God be willing to.   In other parts of Quran and in our daily life perhaps, we have seen how praying to God can elevate other people’s lives.  The scope of this influence however, seems to be directly dependent on our relationship with God. In other words, humans with strong ties with God can influence positively the lives of those whom they love.  This is not to say we can cause harm to others or can benefit them directly, which would be conflicting to earlier verses of Quran as well, but we can ask God who is running the world continuously to affect their life for the better.

5:79-82,   the two points I would like to mention about these verses are firstly about friendship with those who are disbelievers and deniers, God has used the word “Ohlya” or “Vali” in Arabic which in context means do not take them as your guru whom we follow primarily for moral values and for our faith. It does not make sense otherwise. Secondly, the last wordings of verse 82 seem to bear striking evidence always seen in most debates between Christian scholars and God believers of other faith.  Christian clergy, most often, appear most friendly toward the monotheists. God says it is because there are priests and scholars among them who are modest and humble toward truth.

Harming Civilians in the Name of Islam or Quran

  

We are living at a time when killing civilians in different parts of the world in the name of Islam and Quran is becoming regular news, much to my regret.  These events are a major cause of embarrassment to all Muslims worldwide although Islam and Quran can never be considered a cause related. 

I believe harming civilians of any faith or of any race is a despicable act of terrorism and a heinous crime no matter whether it is done by suicide bombing, hostage taking or direct shooting.

God has frequently clarified in Quran that even his messenger has no duty but to pass on the message and notify the people of the truth and nothing more.  It is therefore, only upon every human to individually decide on their faith and their fate.   

The message of Quran is nothing but to love God and his creation including other humans. I hope the true spirit of Quran -love and light- will increasingly shine through our heart which is evidently filled with baseless biases and personal interests.

Al-Maeda 5: 71 to 75

5:71,  Referring back to the previous verse God states that children of "Yagoob"= Israel who had believed in god and had made  commitment to God to obey him, thought they would not be tested on their faith again and they would not need to change their established beliefs anymore.  That is why this verse says they had become blind and deaf to see God's further revelations.  Nevertheless, God goes back to them but they remained blind and deaf. 

As the next verse is talking about Jesus then God's going back to the early Jews, can be interpreted as sending a new prophet to them.  Yet despite the sings and miracles that Jesus revealed to them they called him a liar and tried to kill him.  

This verse raises a number of major issues: 

1) If one has believed in God and has made a commitment that will obey him why should God test him again?

2) Supposing that the early Jews were true believers (I don't mean the present ones are not)  what would be the necessity of another messenger ?

3) How come the ones that are true believers in God at one time will be the God's enemies at another time as implied by the last two verses? This is a phenomena seen through the history of Haman's knowledge, That is to say, whenever there has been a breakthrough, it is most of the time, the prominent scientists who first oppose the new ideas or the new theories strongest. 

I find these questions challenging enough not to expect upfront answers but I firmly believe if there is a question coming to our mind it is a convincing sing that we are capable of finding the relevant answer. So, let's ponder on these questions for a while until a clear answer comes to us.  

5:72,  Here in this verse God clarifies that those who say "Massih" son of "Maryam" is same as God while Jesus himself said worship God who is my God and yours, they are concealing the truth.  Whoever assumes any partner for God will be deprived from heaven and hell will be for him. 

It appears to be a simple argument, if I believe by my heart that Quran is God's words, then he is explicitly saying that Jesus himself was saying to the people of his time to worship the God who is his God and ours.  Accordingly there will remain no doubt for any believer in Quran that it is the ultimate truth beyond any doubt. I believe if we scrutinize the idea of God's having a son with the utmost honesty and sincerity, I would imagine, it will not make much sense as it will be contradictory to the definition of being the God. 

5:73,  If the God cannot have a son by simple reasoning as well as the fact that Jesus himself has testified it, then the trinity belief cannot be right consequently.  It is again concealing the truth to say God is one of the three.  There is no God except one. Here god emphasizes the distinction between moderates and persistent deniers who seem determined to continue denying the truth no matter what sing is revealed to them.  These are the ones that will incur a very painful punishment. 

5:74,  Yet God is inviting them to come back to him despite whatever they have said or insisted on as he is the most forgiving and merciful.  If they take one step toward the truth and toward the God he will forgive them and will embrace them. 

As we can see God is quite unambiguous on clarifying the two options that we are facing, it is only up to us to choose between his mercy and the natural consequence of completely disguising the truth which will lead us to hell. 

5:75,  This verse glorifies Jesus as a messenger of God like the ones before him.  God also confirms that Jesus' mother " Maryam" was very honest, and they both ate food which is irrefutable evidence that Jesus was only a human not the God. 

5:76,  My understanding is God in this verse is addressing the argument that Jesus can be justified as God appearing into a human body in order to basically share their pain on earth and sympathy with them.  This argument goes on with claiming that Jesus suffering would save the souls of all humans from sins and its consequences; the doctrine of salvation and atonement.  God directly refutes this idea by implying that even a prophet including Jesus will not be able to prevent any harm or profit to us. It is only God who is hearing us.  These last words of this verse could also mean that we only need to confess our sins to God not to any other human. 

In general, these are the points that come to mind at this time:

While it is understandable that we as a human have an innate desire ,or better call it a need, to express our feelings toward the God we worship in terms of physical expressions of love, God strongly warn us against conceiving him in material form.  He wants us to see him absolutely beyond the physical world that we belonge to. In other words, we tend to idolize other entities due to their assorciation with the God.  This is mainly because they are accessible and we can show how much we love God by glorifying the agent rather than the God himself.  The stronger the association the more sacred they become to us, judging from history. 

I believe in the above 5 verses God notifies us of our nature while worning us against falling for his creations, his sings and his words instead of himself.  This seems to probably be the most challenging endeavor of human's intelectual development to worship God in their heart having closest conversations with an entity which has been beyond physical reach for ever. Recognizing this challange, we will be lead to further questions:

1- How can we fulfill our innate desire to feel God when he is absolutely beyond material world ?

2- Why does God want us to come to the realization that there is only him in charge of the world on the smallest scales to the largest?

3- Why the only sin that is not forgivable by God is to consider partners for him "Sherk" as referred to repeatedly throughout the Quran?

Let's ask God to enlighten us on these queries otherwise I am not sure if there is anyone who can come up with a convincing explanation. 

I believe understanding is fuelled by inspiration which is the fruit of honesty.  We will be guided and helped out to the degree of our honesty and innocence even if it occurs for short moments.