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.
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