Re: Not good enough

Submitted by Bader S (United Arab Emirates), Mar 27, 2006 at 17:05

Pat wrote, "At first glance, it suggests to this unlearned individual that anyone who doesn't accept Islam is evil, The other interpretation I have is that someone who leaves the faith after conversion is evil and that, although less drastic, doesn't fill me with hope, either.
In either case, it suggests a total intolerance belied by the nice-sounding words of the rest of the statement"

Now it must have taken some time to come across this Surah Al-Nour 55 in the particular context that it was quoted by Pat

There are similarities, though, between the language in this Surah and the language of Isaiah.

Isaiah 1:4 "O nation full of sin, a people weighted down with crime, a generation of evil-doers, false-hearted children: they have gone away from the Lord, they have no respect for the Holy One of Israel, their hearts are turned back from him"

God, Yahweh, Allah -- use whatever name you wish -- seems to be displeased with those who stray away from him. In the old testamant God spoke of his Chosen People as the evil-doers because they appear to have disbelieved. Is this not the same case in Surah Al-Nour? Is Allah not admonishing those who turn away from Him, after he has given them a religion, in a manner that is similar to the way the God of the Jews admonished his Chosen People for turning their back on him?

The article here http://www.shema.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=43 may well apply to Surah Al-Nour.

I will quote a paragraph from the above article,

"We should learn from both Israel's prophets and Messiah's emissaries that sometimes love must be blunt, unflattering, even seemingly cruel. There are times when the doctor must inject poisons into the body of his cancer patient for him to live. The surgeon must sometimes employ highly invasive procedures to cut out the cancer if the patient is to survive. The physician must amputate the leg that is full of gangrene for the life of his patient to be sustained. It was the Great Physician who inspired men such as Isaiah, Paul and Yochanan with these very hard words in order to restore us to health and bring about our healing."

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