An analysis of the background and motives of Nöldeke and others was written in a Cambridge University publication by Jane Dammen Mcauliffe of George Town University.
First, I will outline the major charges contained in the article and deal with them one by one. ......
The first charge is that the Quran contains within its texts discrepancies or different instructions and abrogations.
Now, discrepancies are not the same as abrogations. For any meaningful discussion of the matter, let us define both terms and explain what they mean before levelling accusations. I understand discrepancies as contradictory statements or verses speaking about the creation, the attributes of God, or the stories of previous prophets and people mentioned in the Quran. These statements are termed "Khabar" or "news" which means information about incidents that happened in the past or will happen in the future that are told to us by God in His own Words.
Now, I have not come across any one who pointed out accurately such a discrepancy in the Quran. Nöldeke himself fails to give any examples of these assumed discrepancies in his article.
Abrogations on the other hand are instructions and laws that have been changed by God at some point of time. Abrogations do exist in the Quran in a number of instances - the exact number is a matter of difference between Muslim and non Muslim scholars- but what most critics of Islam ignore, is the fact that abrogations do not in any way detract from the Divine source of the text. In fact, abrogations have occurred and are occurring throughout the history of mankind and in all revealed scriptures. I will give some examples to show that abrogations are simply a way in which God exercise his authority over his creation.
Detractors put forward the argument "How can the All Knowing, All Powerful God changes His mind about anything".
The Muslim doctrinal answer to the question is "If you believe in an All Knowing, All Powerful God, then do not object to His commands. submit to His will, and then try, and only try, to figure out the good that the new commands bring".
Now let us look at some instances of abrogations that occurred during the time of Moses and Jesus- Peace be upon them- and these are well documented in the respective scriptures.
Abrogations in the Jewish Bible:
- In the Book of Exodus 32:7-14, it is said that the Lord said to Moses he will destroy his people for worshipping the calf, but after Moses prayed for them to be shown mercy, -Quote: "Yahweh repented of the evil which he said he would do to his people"
This example is fact a discrepancy as well as an abrogation, since the word used to describe the Lord action in the Hebrew Bible and also in literal translations of the Greek Bible is "repented", indicating that God Almighty has "regretted" what he intended to do to his people. Some modern scribes have changed the translation of the word "repented" to "reconsidered" to hide the discrepancy. - Another example - again showing an abrogation and a discrepancy- is in Genesis :6, which states:
"And the LORD repented that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart."
So, according to this verse, the All Knowing God again repented an earlier deed.
Abrogations in the New Testament:
- In the Book of Mathew 10:5-7, Jesus sends his disciples to the children of Israel, ordering them not to preach to the gentiles.
(These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: "5: Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. 6: Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel. 7: As you go, preach this message: 'The kingdom of heaven is near).
This order is abrogated later on with Mathew 28:19 "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in[a] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit".
//End of Part 1//
9 comments:
Assalamu Alykum Warahmatullah,
Rasheed, well done, this is really good, this good work adds to the reader's knowledge about the three revealed religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) which is desperately needed nowadays because ignorance in these matters can only lead to dangerous results such as prejudice, Islam-phobia, and anti-Semitism .
Well done again
Mohamed Shommo
Assalamu Alykum,Iam really happy to see the noor(knowledge) that god gave you shared online
Rasheed,
The abrogations you have pointed out in the Torah are not abrogations at all. The word used in Genesis 6:6 and Exodus 32:14 is the same word (nacham). Its meaning is to sigh, to be sorry, to pity, to console, to avenge (oneself), -comfort (self), ease [one's self], repent.
Repent is only one of the possible translations. The translation you cite I am assuming is the King James Version. I am not certain why the English translators would have used the word repent. As we know God, this translation does not fit with His holy character. He does not do evil and could not repent. When Jews or Christians repent, they do so to God. God cannot repent of evil He does not do to Himself.
The only reason I can find that this word would be translated 'repented' is that this word in 15th century English had different connotations than it does today.
No one is trying to hide anything in newer translations, rather, we are trying to make changes in the language as our understanding of the English language changes. We don't speak anything like the King James Bible or Shakespeare, so why would we use their English if it doesn't make sense to us?
I found this in a King James dictionary of terms:
REPENT'ING, ppr. Grieving for what is past; feeling pain or contrition for sin.
That would imply that God was grieving, not repenting of evil. As I recently heard this explained, this can be compared to a father who buys a child a car and tells them if they do not drive the speed limit they will wreck the car. The child gets in a wreck and the father grieves and wishes the child would have listened. I cannot find where I read this at the moment, but it explained it much better than I can.
As for the New Testament example you cite, you must understand the context. The first time Jesus sends the disciples out is a one time instruction. He is giving them specific instructions for the current journey. This was not a command for all time. These disciples knew this, and every Christian understands this.
Andrew
http://seekingtheface.wordpress.com
Hello Andrew, I am pleased to chat with here.
I am hoping to write about abrogations and respond to your valuable views on my other blog - http://hardquestions.wordpress.com
Just wanted to say that, whilst I do not accept that the particular command from Jesus to his disciples not to preach to the gentiles, was understood to be temporary, I do not object to abrogations in principle. I was just saying that it was folly to say that the presence of abrogations negates the divinity of any scriptures.
Rasheed,
Some interesting things to note on the passage in Matthew 10 is that Jesus sends the disciples out on a temporary mission. They went only for a specified time and then were to return to Jesus. They were given a mission in this instance that was a preparation for their later mission. They were in essence, testing the waters.
If you continue reading down to verse 20 you will see the "speech" referred to in Clement's translation of the verse in Proverbs. Jesus tells the disciples, "For it is not you who speak, but it is the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you."
Andrew
http://seekingtheface.wordpress.com
Andrew
Regarding abrogations, there are many modern translations who use the term repented and other words indicating a change of mind. (Please do a multiple passage lookup on BibleGateway.com and you will see what I mean).
Can you tell what is "feeling sad about creating man means." It is as you say, something that can not be true. God can not regret anything He did. There Must be an error in the transmission of the text.
Also when God said He would destroy the people of Israel and then changed His decision (Exodus), You can not say this is not an abrogation, but I would say that it is not like any abrogation you will find in the Quran, all of which involve commands to humans and have nothing to do with the actions of God, but only commands for people to carry at a particular time.
Rasheed,
I don't think we can fully clasify these as abrogations. Yes they are different in your different translations of the Bible, but if we really look into the original language we can gain much understanding. I have often heard Muslims speak of reading the Qu'ran in Arabic as far superior to reading it in any other language. The Bible can be the same way. That's why when we go to study something deeply, we study the original language and look into multiple meanings of words.
We have to understand better the original context of the text to fully grasp its meaning. For instance, if I read the Qu'ran and study the life of Muhammad I find that he raided caravans. In my cultural context in 21st century America, this would be condemned. In Muhammad's context this was hardly an unusual practice.
As to God being saddened by creation, I would tend to agree that God would not regret what He had done. This would imply a lack of knowledge... that He didn't know beforehand what would happen. I think the meaning in this verse is not that he regretted what He had done as much as that He was grieved by the actions of mankind. He was grieved because men were always after their own glory and not giving the glory to God.
The passages where God "changes His mind" are not meant as you seem to understand them. If we look closer at the text in Exodus, it is not so much about God making up His mind or being indecisive. What God is showing here is the power of prayer in the life of a righteous man. He is looking for someone who will pray for the people of Israel. Moses had a choice to make here. God had offered to make a great nation out of his descendants if He destroyed Israel. Moses could easily have sought recognition for His own family and told God to go ahead and destroy the Israelites. Instead, he chose to plead for the lives of his fellow Israelites. He showed concern for the fate of those around him and voiced that concern for God. This was meant to be a lesson in prayer, not because our prayer changes the mind of God so much but because God wants us to concern ourselves with those around us. God wants us to love them enough to want better for them.
Ezekiel 22:30-31 would be a good passage to help further understand this. Moses in these verses in Exodus was the one standing in the gap. There are many passages in the Bible which seem not to make sense, but I promise you, if you take them in the right context and do some cross referencing other passages, they will begin to make perfect sense.
Andrew
http://seekingtheface.wordpress.com
Andrew
Very good arguments you put in your comment. I think we have to come to an agreement on what constitutes an abrogation. I define an abrogation as a command from God, that revokes a previous order by Him.
The context is useful in telling us why the abrogation was decreed, but it does not negate the existence of abrogation.
My premise is that abrogations are a normal occurrence that happened before the Quran was revealed.
You say that Jesus command to his disciples was only meant as a temporary exercise to "test the water", this is the context for the command to be abrogated later, but abrogated it was (according to the Gospel).
Also, Adam children were allowed to marry their sisters, this was later abrogated and believers were prohibited from marrying their own sisters. The context here was necessity, but the rules have indeed changed.
Rasheed,
By defining an abrogation as a command changed by God I do think we can come to some agreement. I still am not sure the text in Exodus is a changed command. The command by Jesus to his disciples could possibly be considered an abrogation, but I still see the first command as one for a specific journey and not all future journeys. The example you give of marriage within families may be a much better example, though I can't cite a time God commanded a man to marry his sister. Abraham married his half-sister, and God did not seem to regard it as sin. I will have to look to see if there are commands regarding this subject.
Andrew
http://seekingtheface.wordpress.com
Post a Comment