Scriptor Ignotus’s Reviews > The Study Quran: A New Translation and Commentary > Status Update

The Quran registers moral outrage at the practice, in the patriarchal warrior society of Arabia, of burying unwanted female infants alive. Some tribes believed the angels to be daughters of God. The gist of the above verses is thus: "You don't find it shameful for God to have daughters, and yet you consider it such a humiliation to have daughters of your own that you're willing to murder them!"

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16:57-59:

"And they [the Meccan pagans] assign unto God daughters - glory be to Him! - while they have that which they desire. And when one of them receives tidings of a female [child], his face darkens, and he is choked with anguish. He hides from the people on account of the evil tidings he has been given. Shall he keep it in humiliation, or bury it in the dust? Behold! Evil indeed is the judgment they make!"

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[Cain] said, 'I will surely slay you!' [Abel] said, 'God accepts only from the reverent. Even if you stretch forth your hand against me to slay me, I shall not stretch forth my hand against you to slay you. Truly I fear God, Lord of the worlds.' . . . [W]hoever slays a soul...it is as though he slew mankind altogether, and whoever saves the life of one, it is as though he saved the life of mankind altogether. 5:27-32

"Worship God, and ascribe not partners unto Him. And be virtuous toward parents and kinsfolk, toward orphans and the indigent, toward the neighbor who is of kin and the neighbor who is not of kin, toward the companion at your side and the traveler, and toward those whom your right hands possess. Truly God loves not one who is a vainglorious boaster, [nor] those who are miserly..." - 4:36



Based.

"O you who believe! It is not lawful for you to inherit women through coercion, nor to prevent them from marrying [again], that you may take away some of what you have given them, unless they commit a flagrant indecency. And consort with [women] in a kind and honorable way; for if you dislike them, it may be that you dislike a thing in which God has placed much good." - 4:19

Kind of cute that near the end of āl ʿimrān, Muhammad is instructed to go easy on the soldiers - among them, according to some traditions, prominent Companions - who fled from the Battle of Uhud after mistakenly believing that the Prophet had been killed. Interestingly enough, though, 3:144 does not reassure the Muslims that Muhammad will not be killed, but only that his death would not thwart God's purposes.

“Truly those who believe, and those who are Jews, and the Christians, and the Sabeans—whosoever believes in God and the Last Day and works righteousness shall have their reward with their Lord. No fear shall come upon them, nor shall they grieve.”

- (Qur'an 2:62)


Exclusivists fuming.

“The question of a limited sojourn in Hell is extremely significant, as the main body of Islamic theology accepts the possibility of believers being removed from Hell...a position adduced from passages such as 6:128; 11:107; and 78:23, [and] aḥādīth that describe intercession on behalf of the denizens of Hell that would allow them to leave it after a period of time...”

- Commentary, 2:80


Infernalists raging

"...And you do not will but that God wills. Truly God is Knowing, Wise (76:30); And you do not will but that God, the Lord of the worlds, wills (81:29); When My servants ask thee about Me, truly I am near. I answer the call of the caller when he calls Me. SO let them respond to Me and believe in Me, that they may be led aright (2:186)."

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"...this does not nullify the prior love, which is a purely unasked-for gift. Ultimately, the 'request' for love is itself a manifestation of God's Love, in that we cannot remember God unless He 'remembers' us first. According to this interpretation, God is the mysterious author of all prayer: We are nearer o him than his jugular vein (50:16); God comes between a man and his heart (8:24); . . ."

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