flawed theology is in the recitation

Submitted by Abdul Rahman Reijerink (Australia), May 28, 2006 at 10:15

Dear crusader,

We don't actually know who Pharoh is in the Qur'an, just that he is the archetype of an evil leader who sets himself up as superior to Allah/God. Or even that all references to Pharoh are to a single ruler, afterall, the Pharonic system was in place for a looong time. Also, have you ever heard of a parable?

The theory that Alexander the Great is the figure mentioned in the Qur'an is obviously false and has been floating around for centuries, all we know is that this story refers to a pious king... which Alexander the Great as you so correctly pointed out, is not.

A comparison between Sacred texts to verify one against the other will only convinve a chaunvanist. What matters is that we all (Jews/Christians/Muslims) believe that Moses(AS) was a prophet that Allah protected from the wiles of Pharoh and used this method of protection to defeat Pharoh.

Faith is just that, a matter of faith, Kant ( I think it was him) proved that we cannot show our religions to be true, we just believe that they are.

As an aside, do you believe that anyone but a Christian will be saved from Hell? I believe that it is not just muslims, and the Qur'an says so too.

"Those who believe (in the Qur'an). And those who follow the Jewish (scriptures), and the Christians and the Sabians [followers of John the baptist I think], and who believe in Allah and the Last Day, and work righteousness, shall have their reward with their Lord on them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve"

rather a large group of people isn't it? Is that not a beautiful theology?

We know that the pentateuch was not written by Moses as claimed by Eusebius of Ceaserea (I think it was him but am willing to be corrected, don't have my books on hand), but many writers (unless you follow old school fundamentalist literalism), who were inspired by God, but these books were lost when the Jews were taken into the Babylonian captivity and reconstructed from memory later, here is an avenue for possible error, did this not occur before the dead sea community wrote its texts?. Jesus is described in the agony in the garden where it is clear there were no human witnesses.... yes the texts were written by inspiration, but here is another area for error. I don't say this to rubbish the Hebrew and Christian Bibles, they are inspired books from God, but not even the Catholic Church recognises them as free from error (check out the Vatican website), it simply states that for the purposes of spiritual teaching they are free from error. this explains the creation stories etc...

Leave the Christian triumphalism, it smacks of chauvinism saying to me that only you and your pals have the secret to Salvation. How do you know? Let us just worship God, and pray for guidance, a merciful God will respond to such prayers.

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