Koranlore
Chapter 1 The Koran Link to the Bible's Old Testament and New Testament
Koranlore
Does the inclusion of The Koran in Biblelore strike you as strange? Well, dear reader, The Koran makes reference to " the Book" and "the people of the Book, i.e. the Bible and the people of the Bible. Muhammad was very familiar with the prophets of the Bible who preceded him, from Abraham to Jesus, through contact with the Jewish community. (Muhammad, who could neither read nor write [1], knew them through oral tradition, never having read the Bible himself ). [1 A History of God, Karen Armstrong, Ballantine Books, New York, 1993, p.140]
Muhammad felt that the Arab people lacked their own prophet of the "no-god-but-God," the "one-and-only-God," like those whom he called "the people of the Book," i.e. Jews and Christians had. Muhammad obsessed so hard and long that he too suffered visions much like the prophets of the Book, the Bible of Jews and Christians, the Old Testament and the New Testament.
Muhammad was visited about A.D. 610 in painful visions by the angel Gabriel, who tells him to recite (or read) the verses of The Koran, similar to Saul-turned-Paul of Tarsus (A.D. 37), who was struck blind temporarily by the vision of Jesus; similar to Zechariah (519 B.C.), who was visited by an angel of Yahweh in eight visions in an apocalyptic multiplex dream; similar to Ezekiel ( 593 B.C.) during a cataleptic seizure; similar to Isaiah, (738 B.C.) by Yahweh and Seraphims; similar to Moses (1426 B.C.) when Yahweh appeared as a burning bush; and similar to Abram-become-Abraham (1898 B.C.), who was visited at the age of 99 by "the Lord" who claimed to be "the Almighty God," the "God -before-all-other-gods" ( those other gods being Baal, Asherah, Molech, Milcom, Ashtoreth and Chemosh)
.[Editor's note: The verses of The Koran are alleged to be the word of Allah as transmitted to Muhammad through the angel Gabriel. Most of the English translations of Koran suras from the Arabic by J.M.Rodwell, (Everyman, J.M.Dent, London, 1994 Charles E. Tuttle, Vermont, reprint 2001) have been paraphrased or summarized in modern English in Koranlore, Chapters 1-8 to avoid the stilted Anglo-Saxon English so often used in "sacred" texts and by Rodwell.
[ In the opinion of this editor, the verses of The Koran are the result of Muhammad's vivid imagination based on his life experience, culture and background, much like the prophets who preceded him.]:
Muhammad vaulted over the history of Jews and Christians by affirming a direct lineage to Abraham for the Arab people. Abraham had made a covenant with his god El; the acceptance of the Lord's covenant by Abraham for him and future generations cost him his only natural sexual protection (the loss of his foreskin) in a surgical procedure. Muhammad embraced the covenant of circumcision, and the Arab people customarily embraced the practice too.
So the Arab people now assumed a direct line to the one-and-only-God through visits by God's angel Gabriel to Muhammad, in the form of The Koran, containing the Lord of Abraham's special message to the Arab people (as in these verses, Suras 3:60 and 16:121):
Sura 3:60:
"Abraham was neither Jew nor Christian; but sound in faith, a Muslim; and not a polytheist who added gods to (the one) God."
Sura 16:121:
Truly, Abraham was a leader in religion (cf. note 22, p,458, Rodwell's The Koran which suggests literally Abraham was a people, i.e. the people of Abraham): obedient to God, sound in faith: not one who joins gods with (the one) God."
There is a difference of opinion as to whether Muhammad considered himself a prophet. According to A. Hourani, A History of the Arab Peoples (p.17), he came to consider himself in the line of prophets of the Jewish and Christian tradition. But K. Armstrong writes that he never believed that he would become a prophet (p.135). But compare Sura 61:6 the name Ahmad (which Rodwell says in a note (2) that Muslims consider to be Muhammad):
"And remember when Jesus the son of Mary said, 'O children of Israel! of a truth I am God's apostle to you to confirm the law which was given to me, and to announce an apostle that shall come after me whose name shall be Ahmad!' "
Also Sura 33:40:
"Muhammad is not the father of any man among you, but he is the Apostle of God, and the seal of the prophets: and God knoweth all things."
Muhammad was familiar, however, with the prophets of the Book (Bible), from Abraham to Jesus, as evidenced by mention of them in The Koran, e.g. Sura 6:84-86:
"We gave to Abraham sons Isaac and Jacob whom we guided both correctly; and before them Noah: and among Abraham's descendants, David, Solomon, Job, Joseph, Moses and Aaron: Thus we compensate the righteous:
And Zachariah, John, Jesus, Elias: all were just men:
Also Ismael, Elisha, Jonas and Lot: all these we have regarded favorably above mankind."
To this long list of prophets Muhammad was added, whether he wanted to be or not. He became the messenger to channel the-one and-only-God's final message to the Arab people, and by extension to all people of the earth. The trouble with that message is the message! In The Koran, God appears as anthropomorphic as the God of the people of the Book, demanding complete submission to Him: Obedience will bring rewards of heaven, disobedience to, or rejection of, Him will bring everlasting damnation, torment and hellfire!
In The Koran, God is given 99 names or attributes which emphasize that he is "greater," the source of all positive qualities that humans find in the universe. (Armstrong, p.150). The god of The Koran shows very human traits, mercy, love, forgiveness, etc. God is Merciful, Loving, Forgiving, yada, yada, yada, on the one hand; but He is also an enemy to infidels (Sura 2: 1-18), those who willfully reject Him, or who do not believe He is God. At the same time he demands complete obedience, complete submission to his will: Obey, submit--or else! In the first verses of Sura 2:1-2, 5-6 the message is clear:
"There is no doubt about this Book: It is a guide to those who fear God. Who believe in the unseen ( i.e. Death, Resurrection, Judgment, etc. notes Rodwell, note 3, p. 432, The Koran) who observe prayer, and from what we have conferred upon them, spend for God...
As to the infidels, whether you warn them or not, they will not believe... For them will be severe chastisement!"
What is more human, or inhumane, than that?
Armstrong asserts that The Koran does not condemn other religious traditions as false or incomplete but shows each new prophet as confirming the insights of his predecessors. The Koran mentions Abraham and all prophets of Jews and Christians; plus Hud and Salih, prophets of the ancient Arab peoples of Midian and Thamood. The Koran teaches that God had sent messengers to every people on earth. According to Armstrong's sources (not available to this writer), Islamic tradition claims there had been 124,000 such prophets (a symbolic figure for infinitude); and Muslims today believe all sages of the Hindu, Buddhists, the holy men of American Indians and the Australian aborigines would have been included by Muhammad had he known of them. (ibid., p. 152)
The Koran claims that its message is not new, that Muslims must keep their relationship to older religions, as the religion of the Jews. Sura 29:45-46 speaks to believers:
"Argue not, unless in a kindly way, with the Jews (the people of the Book); except wih any of them who have treated you wrongly: and say, 'We believe in what hath been sent down to us and in what has been sent down to you. Our God and your God is one and the same, and to him do we surrender ourselves as Muslims.
"Thus we have sent down the Book of the Koran to you: and they to whom we have given the Book of the law believe in it (the Bible): and there are those of these Arabians who believe in it: and none, except the Infidels, reject our signs."
The Koran edited by followers of Muhammad appears in 114 suras by length generally, longer to shorter. The Rodwell edition notes where each sura was written down, in one of two locations -- Mecca or Medina, the earliest suras being at Mecca. The present form of The Koran is said to have been reduced to a single version by elimination of many versions based on widespread oral renditions and was made the authoritative version by the caliph 'Uthman who officiated 644-656 A.D. (Rodwell, p. xx; Hourani. p.21). Hourani writes that some suggest later dates and that some Muslim sects have accused others of adding to the text material not derived by transmission from Muhammad himself (Hourani, p.21).
Chapter 2 of Koranlore will focus on the tenets of Islam established by Muhammad and subsequent changes that came about.
