Hatred and Violence in the Qur'an Awareness Month: "We cursed them for their breaking of the covenant"

Still more Jew-hatred in today's installment:

The People of the Scripture ask you to bring down to them a book from the heaven. But they had asked of Moses [even] greater than that and said, "Show us Allah outright," so the thunderbolt struck them for their wrongdoing. Then they took the calf [for worship] after clear evidences had come to them, and We pardoned that. And We gave Moses a clear authority.
And We raised over them the mount for [refusal of] their covenant; and We said to them, "Enter the gate bowing humbly", and We said to them, "Do not transgress on the sabbath", and We took from them a solemn covenant.

And [We cursed them] for their breaking of the covenant and their disbelief in the signs of Allah and their killing of the prophets without right and their saying, "Our hearts are wrapped". Rather, Allah has sealed them because of their disbelief, so they believe not, except for a few. And [We cursed them] for their disbelief and their saying against Mary a great slander, and [for] their saying, "Indeed, we have killed the Messiah, Jesus, the son of Mary, the messenger of Allah ." And they did not kill him, nor did they crucify him; but [another] was made to resemble him to them. And indeed, those who differ over it are in doubt about it. They have no knowledge of it except the following of assumption. And they did not kill him, for certain. Rather, Allah raised him to Himself. And ever is Allah Exalted in Might and Wise. (Qur'an 4: 153-158)

This translation is from a Muslim site, Sahih International; they added the "we cursed them" glosses in brackets.

This passage retails more hatred of the Jews and the Christians, the "People of the Scripture." Says Ibn Kathir: “Allah threatens those who disbelieve in Him and in His Messengers, such as the Jews and Christians, who differentiate between Allah and His Messengers regarding faith….The Jews, may Allah curse them, believe in the Prophets, except ‘Isa [Jesus] and Muhammad, peace be upon them. The Christians believe in the Prophets but reject their Final and Seal, and the most honored among the prophets, Muhammad, peace be upon him….Therefore, whoever rejects only one of Allah’s Prophets, he will have disbelieved in all of them, because it is required from mankind to believe in every prophet whom Allah sent to the people of the earth.”

After the Jews disobeyed Allah repeatedly, Allah “sealed them because of their disbelief, so they believe not, except for a few” (v. 155). The Jews boast that they killed Jesus, but “they did not kill him, nor did they crucify him; but [another] was made to resemble him to them” (v. 157).

Ibn Kathir explains: “When Allah sent ‘Isa [Jesus] with proofs and guidance, the Jews, may Allah’s curses, anger, torment and punishment be upon them, envied him because of his prophethood and obvious miracles…” They stirred up “the king of Damascus at that time, a Greek polytheist who worshipped the stars” to order his deputy in Jerusalem to arrest Jesus. Jesus, perceiving this, asked those with him, “Who volunteers to be made to look like me, for which he will be my companion in Paradise?” A young man volunteered, whereupon “Allah made the young man look exactly like ‘Isa, while a hole opened in the roof of the house, and ‘Isa was made to sleep and ascended to heaven while asleep.” Then “those surrounding the house saw the man who looked like ‘Isa, they thought that he was ‘Isa. So they took him at night, crucified him and placed a crown of thorns on his head. The Jews then boasted that they killed ‘Isa and some Christians accepted their false claim, due to their ignorance and lack of reason.”

Other sources offer other theories: Wahb bin Munabbah, Qatadah, and Mujahid say that Jesus was with seventy of his disciples when the guards came to arrest him, and all seventy were made to look just like Jesus; one stepped forward and was crucified. The Ruhul Ma’ani identifies the one who was made to look like Jesus and crucified as the one who betrayed him for thirty dirhams — Judas. Allama Baghawi says it was a sentry who was guarding Jesus after his arrest.

In any case, this may seem like mere theological one upmanship, but coming from a book that commands its adherents to wage war against and subjugate those whose belief is deemed unacceptable, it carries with it more than a hint of menace. This hatred has played itself out in Muslim persecution of Jews and Christians for centuries.

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https://me.yahoo.com/a/.2XiJvweysaYMcBnqIbwNCP3t0mu#036a6 | December 18, 2012 7:21 AM | Reply

Note that throughout this portion of the Quran, Allah speaks of himself in the 3rd person, redundantly and somewhat obnoxiously.

You'd think that over the centuries the masses would notice this but, since intelligent questioning of the Quran typically leads to being beaten, the masses don't notice.

boakai ngombu replied to comment from https://me.yahoo.com/a/.2XiJvweysaYMcBnqIbwNCP3t0mu#036a6 | December 18, 2012 5:55 PM | Reply

#036a6

i'm told that strange reference is called and "Imperial WE"

by it's use, the Allah god (unknowable; as imagined) arrogates to itself - Majesty. a presumption.

a lie, evidenced by the messenger who received the proscribed Way of the Koran (a different "logos" than the One the reference above diminishes) the eminent example of human behavior, Muhammad (lately contrived), murderer, thief, adulterer, peophile, deceiver.
no glory in that ...notoriety ... no glory

this is the one the unsuspecting are not to ignore at their great peril and with gaining no hope

dumbledoresarmy | December 19, 2012 7:21 PM | Reply

Cursing and curses seem to feature rather a lot in the Quran.

Question: is there a concordance based on any of the English versions of the Quran, by which one might tot up how many times variants of the word 'curse' appear?

By contrast, in the Cruden's Concordance of the Authorised Version of the Bible, there are only two columns giving instances of 'curse', 'cursing', 'cursed' etc...whereas there are no less than *five and a half* giving instances of 'bless', 'blessing', 'blessed', etc; that is, the English Bible uses the word 'bless' (and variants thereof) much more often than it uses the word 'curse' and variants thereof.

Ideally, of course, one would compare a standard edition of the Arabic Quran, with a standard edition of the TaNaKh and the Christian scriptures in the original languages (Hebrew for the former, Greek for the latter) and determine how many times the Arabic (in the one) and the Hebrew and the Greek (in the other) words for 'curse' and 'bless' appeared. One would, of course, **exclude** all the stupid repetitions of 'PBUH' attached to the name of Mohammed-the-Mad in translations of the Muslim material.

In a best-case scenario, since the Sira and Hadith are part of the authoritative canon of Islam, instances of 'curse' and 'bless' [exclusive of the PBUH formula] that appear in those texts would be counted along with instances in the Quran.

So on the one hand one would ask oneself: how many times does the word 'curse' (and variants thereof) and the word 'bless' (and variants thereof) appear in the English translations (*or* in the Arabic originals) of the Islamic trilogy? And on the other hand - how often do these two words (or words derived therefrom) appear in the TaNaKh and in the Christian scriptures, considered together?

My guess would be that the Bible talks much more about blessing than about cursing, and that the reverse would be true for the Muslim texts.

Of course, a further level of interpretation and comparison involves thinking about what, precisely, in the two different sets of texts - Biblical on the one hand, Muslim on the other - qualifies someone to be either blessed, or cursed.

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