When your Lord said to the angels: ‘I am placing a caliph on earth,’ they replied: ‘Will You put there one that will do evil and shed blood, when we have for so long sung Your praises and sanctified Your name?’ He said: ‘I know what you do not know.’ He taught Adam all the names and then set them before the angels, saying: ‘Tell me the names of these, if what you say be true.’ ‘Glory be unto You,’ they replied, ‘we have no knowledge except that which You have given us. You alone are wise and all-knowing.’ Then said He to Adam: ‘Tell them their names.’ And when Adam had named them, He said: ‘Did I not tell you that I know the secrets of heaven and earth, and all that you hide and all that you reveal? (2:30-33)
There are 2 parts to this story:
1. The Angels resistance - The angels resist to the human creation cause of moral issues. The angels are spiritual creatures, they don't have bad urges so they don't sin. their all being is to sing God praises and glorify his name, but the human kind is not spiritual and has bad urges so he will make mischief and shed blood so why to create him?
2. Adam ability as answer - God show the angels ability that they lack - The knowledge of the names
There are some questions to ask:
How this ability answers the moral issue the angels raised?
If God taught Adam the names and the only reason the angels don't know the names is cause God didn't taught them "we have no knowledge except that which You have given us." So what answer is it??
The fingerprints of Jewish sources are noticeable in this story:
1.When God created Man, the heavenly hosts were divided.... Kindness said, "Let him be created, for he will do kindness!" Truth said, "Let him not be created, for he is full of lies!" Righteousness said, "Let him be created, for he will perform righteous acts!" Peace said, "Let him not be created, for he is always quarreling!"... (Bereishit Raba 8:5)
The Jewish midrash describe an allegorical debate between The ideals about Human creation-will he implement those ideals or not
2. And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto the man to see what he would call them; and whatsoever the man would call every living creature, that was to be the name thereof. And the man gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found a help meet for him. (Genesis 2:19-20)
In the biblical story it's clear that the ability of knowing the name is Adam quality, but not the reason of creation...
Monday, November 13, 2006
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4 comments:
I am not a muslim, so I don't know much about qur'an. But it seems to me that you read the verses literally. Should we, at least, try to understand the real meaning of those verses?
What a crock of muzzie bullshit!
You are funny and confused
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