Qur'an Reading Surah 3:7

Actually, before I get to the next blog posting I mentioned, let me insert here a section of the Qur'an that I was just reading this morning, thinking about how to present it to my readers as part of an instructional commentary. I find that it helps to amplify what I just wrote in the previous posting about the Muslim shared attitude toward accepting "God's will."

Surah 3:7

He it is Who has revealed the Book to you; some of its verses are decisive, they are the basis of the Book, and others are allegorical; then as for those in whose hearts there is perversity, they follow the part of it which is allegorical, seeking to mislead, and seeking to give it (their own) interpretation, but none knows its interpretations except Allah, and those who are firmly rooted in knowledge say: We believe in it, it is all from our Lord; and none do mind except those having understanding.

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This is an extremely important teaching about God for both Muslims and Christians to understand. It is saying that God gives his messages and instructions two ways, either in direct statements or in allegories (which are examples or parables, just as Jesus spoke). We all know that allegories are often easier to understand, and this is why Jesus used them so often to great outcome and understanding by those who listened.

This passage in the Qur'an warns that just because God gives an allegory, in order to help the listener to understand, does not mean that one should "take advantage" of it being an allegory to pour one's own skewed understanding into it. Those of pure mind, heart and faith listen to the allegory and comprehend its over all intention, but do not claim to understand all the details that God did not choose to put into direct statements instead of allegory.

For example, those who seek perversity would seize upon, say, the type of person who is being used in the allegory and say, "See! it only applies to someone like her." It would be like if you told a moral lesson about a man who went into a building and said this and that to a woman, if the person went away from your moral lesson thinking "Oh, that lesson only applies if it is a man talking to a woman. It does not apply if it is a woman talking to a man, or a woman talking to a woman, or a man talking to a man, or if the man talking to the woman is doing so outside the building, since it the allegory only mentioned a man talking to a woman in a building. So I can ignore this allegory if it is a man talking to many people over TV!" And so on and so on. Perverse people take the generosity of an allegory (or a parable) and seek to twist the choice of imagery used in the allegory in order to give themselves wiggle room or worse, interpretive "power" over "what God meant."

Oh boy do you see a lot of that in non institutional Christianity! This is one reason, as I've mentioned before, that Islam was given to the faithful in a very strict narrow and direct form to understand and obey. There are entire cottage industries of people who think they can state what God means, especially when God uses allegory. They should beware and be warned that this is risky, false and misleading to others.

This is why I quote this passage from the Qur'an for the benefit of Christians too, because while the Bible admonishes against the same general arrogance, it does not word it so susinctly as here in the Qur'an!