UNDERSTANDING THE QURAN – 5 Muslims say God Has No Associates, But Quran Implies He Has RECAP: Forget recap today. We have bigger fish to fry. Let’s continue from where we stopped last (verse 2.33). SURA 2 – AL-BAQARAH – THE COW (…continued) 2.34) AND WHEN WE SAID TO THE ANGELS: PROSTRATE YOURSELVES BEFORE ADAM. THEY ALL PROSTRATED THEMSELVES EXCEPT IBLIS; HE REFUSED AND WAS FULL OF PRIDE, AND SO HE BECAME ONE OF THE INFIDELS. Comment: God says “We”, not “I”. In verse 2.03 too, He had referred to Himself in plural. And we must assume God needs no editor. He does not make language errors. Then why is He saying ‘We’ instead of ‘I’? Obviously, because He means We. Yes, God is the Supreme Power, but He decides and acts IN ASSOCIATION WITH one or more entities. Who could these entities be? Could they be the angels? Of course, not! In this verse (2.34), He is telling you and me (via Mohammed), “…when WE said to the angels…..”. So the ‘We’ cannot be inclusive of the angels. They are some other entities, with whom God associates Himself. We can call them Associates of God. No, they are not God; they are inferior to God, but they are his Associates. So, unless someone doubts God’s language proficiency, he has to admit that GOD HAS ASSOCIATES even in Islam – as per verse 2.03 and this 2.34, so far. And who could be these Associates of God be? Names are not important, the concept is. Yet, could they by any chance be called…. Brahma… Vishnu… Mahesh...??? Ok, now to the verse proper. Nothing really to comment. In the prior couple of verses, we saw that angels in heaven were doubtful about Adam’s fitness to rule the world. But God demonstrated to them that Adam had superior knowledge of the earth and the heavens, so he would be deputed to rule the earth on God’s behalf. So God now asks the angels to acknowledge Adam’s superiority by prostrating themselves before Adam. All the angels comply, except one. This ‘dissident’ angel’s name is Iblis. 2.35) AND WE SAID: O ADAM, DWELL YOU AND YOUR SPOUSE IN THE GARDEN AND EAT OF THE PLENTIFUL THEREIN (BOTH OF YOU) WHEREVER YOU DESIRE, BUT DO NOT APPROACH THIS TREE, LEST YOU BECOME ONE OF THE UNJUST . Comment: This is common knowledge, we have it from Christianity. Important point however is that God again says ‘We’! 2.36) BUT SATAN CAUSED THEM TO FALL THEREFROM, AND BROUGHT THEM OUT FROM THE STATE (OF FELICITY) IN WHICH THEY HAD BEEN. AND WE SAID: GET DOWN ALL OF YOU, AND BE ENEMIES ONE OF ANOTHER, AND FOR YOU ON THE EARTH WILL BE YOUR DWELLING PLACE AND YOUR MEANS OF LIVELIHOOD FOR A TIME. Comment: Well-known story of Adam and Eve, forbidden apple (though Quran just says ‘fruit’) and all that. Fall from heaven to earth. Sweat out your livelihood on earth; put up with your nasty boss in office, and all that. Note however: this is all a grand drama being staged by God, who alone knows the script. This is KRISHNA LEELA. Krishna does everything. Hare Krishna! 2.37) THEN ADAM RECEIVED (CERTAIN) WORDS FROM HIS LORD. AND HE TURNED TOWARDS HIM (MERCIFULLY) . TRULY HE IS OFT-PARDONING, THE MOST MERCIFUL. Comment: This verse seems a disconnect from the previous. The version I am reading says that since Adam violated God’s instruction (under Satan’s influence) and was thrown to earth, he repented and God pardoned him, and Adam said, ‘God is most merciful’. It seems strange: God created Adam to rule the earth (2.30-2.33), so why did Adam have to be ‘thrown out’ and why did he have to repent and why did God have to then pardon him, and why did he (Adam) have to thank God for the pardon…? The answer can only be: Krishna Leela! Similar to the ‘throwing down to earth’ of heaven’s gatekeepers Jaya and Vijaya… and the Hiranyakashipu and Prahlad story and all that… There is so much Leela in the Quran too! And they say Hindus are ‘kaafirs’! 2.38) WE SAID: GET YOU DOWN FROM IT, ALL TOGETHER; UNTIL THERE SHALL COME TO YOU A GUIDANCE FROM ME, FOR WHOEVER FOLLOWS MY GUIDANCE, NO FEAR SHALL BE UPON THEM, NOR SHALL THEY GRIEVE . Comment: Note God again says ‘We’. Even though God demoted Adam to earth, He told him that He will keep guiding him and his progeny and that they will have no fear in earthly life if they follow God’s guidance. Fine. All religions call on us to be God-conscious. 2.39) BUT THOSE WHO REJECT FAITH AND DENY OUR SIGNS, THEY ARE THE INHABITANTS OF THE FIRE, DWELLING THEREIN FOREVER. Comment: This is at variance from Hinduism. In Hinduism, neither hell nor heaven is forever. We go there due to our bad or good deeds, suffer or enjoy to the extent our karma entitles us to, and we return to earth to continue where we stopped during our previous incarnation, but wiser. But here, in Quran 2.39, God says hell is forever for those who don’t follow His guidance. Muslims say the ‘guidance’ is as per what Mohammed said, but God has NOT YET explicitly told us that Mohammed is indeed His last messenger. Yes, God has said the Suras we hear from Mohammed are “the best”, but it is not clear whether it was the best as at Mohammed’s time, or will remain best forever. May be, He will say this later, but has said or implied it so far. TODAY’s CONCLUSION: Quite obviously, the dominant conclusion must be that though God is one, He has Associates in cooperation with whom: 1) He conducts His activities, and/or 2) to whom He delegates his responsibilities. This may be crudely analogous to, say, Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) – where Mukesh Ambani is the ‘god’… everything that RIL does is supposed to done by Mukesh Ambani, though he actually delegates a lot of his responsibilities to his managers, and we outsiders don’t know if Mukesh Ambani himself did it or one of his managers did it on his behalf. The managers have inferior powers compared to Mukesh Ambani, nevertheless we can safely assume that everything RIL does is done as a joint effort between Mukesh Ambani and his colleagues (or ‘associates’). Yes, the analogy is crude, but it serves its purpose if it illustrates how a single all-powerful Boss works with many relatively less-powered associates. Now to the Quran: verses 2.30, 2.34, 2.35 and 2.38 reveal that God has Associates. The Associates are inferior to Him, but are Associates nevertheless. This is not an interpretation; this is what the word ‘We’ implies – not once or twice but repeatedly throughout the Quran. Hindus believe and agree God has Associates. The Quran too indicates the same, but Muslims deny it and one fails to understand why. However, their denial does not diminish the fact that, to me, Islam is resembling Hinduism more and more. [To be continued?]
Posted on: Thu, 18 Sep 2014 21:32:11 +0000
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