Koran

In this work, the overall message relating to the relationship between man and Allah is that man is far, far, far inferior to Allah and Allah is portrayed as how a great god should be. “In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful. Praise be to Allah, the Cherisher and Sustainer of the worlds; Most Gracious, Most Merciful; Master of the day of Judgment. Thee do we worship, and Thine aid we seek. Show us the straight way, The way of those on whom Thou hast bestowed Thy Grace, those whose (portion) is not wrath, and who go not astray.” (pg. 231)   He is the all things mighty and he is the rule maker. Mankind’s responsibility to Allah is to be at his beck and call and serve him to their greatest potential.

            Women are to be treated with respect but also they are thought of more like property I think. It says to choose more than one if you wish but if you can’t handle it then choose only one. It talks about the dowry, going back to women being treated like property, because you pretty much buy a woman when you marry her. And then when your daughters grow up you kind of barter with the husband. “If the guardian is well off, let him claim no remuneration, but if he is poor, let him have for himself what is just and reasonable.” (pg. 242) I could be totally wrong and off base with that but that’s how I interpreted it.

            I would say that the people from the book are the people who obey every line in the Koran and who are very into the religion. Their relationship to the revelation of Allah and those who accept Islam is that they really know what they are talking about so they can spread the word and be like no, this is how the revelation really happened; it says so in Surah 47 (just an example). They are the people who I would say are really high up in the religion and by spreading the word I just mean that they are the teachers of the revelation to those who accept the Islamic practice.

            The biggest comparison I can make between the Koran and the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament, in relation to god, is that the god, whoever it may be, is the ultimate creator of the world. They are the only beings that possess the power to make things, destroy things, and “call the shots” in the world they created. The biggest difference I notice is that in the Koran, they describe the creation of the world to be interpreted as a gift to the people, like Allah made everything for the people and they respect that as long as they respect him. In the Hebrew Bible and New Testament, I feel like god made the world for himself rather than the people he intended to put on it. Like the people who wrote those pieces of work made it seem like the people were ungrateful for what god made them. Because after all, these are just stories, the writer makes the people of the Koran out to be grateful while a different writer makes god seem selfish.

            The overall advice given to the Christians from the Koran is that they should still believe in their god and believe in the last day and do what is right, and if they do, then they will still be rewarded by their god and have nothing to regret or fear and then they can make their way to heaven.

            One should accept this revelation (I’m assuming this is in regards to question 5) because it makes perfect sense. It’s saying that even if you don’t believe in Allah, you still believe in a god and if you do everything that your god tells you to do and you live your life to the god’s standards, then you still have a place in heaven alongside your god. This makes sense because isn’t this the overall message from every god in every religion?

            The role of the prophets in general is to relay messages to the participants of a religion from god, in this case Allah. The prophets are special people who are chosen to bear this precious gift, when Allah has a message he wants relayed to his people, he tells the profits through a dream like vision, then the prophets relay the message to the people. The role of Muhammad specifically is that he is considered to be the founder of the Islamic religion, he is a prophet of god, but he is also believed to be the last prophet of god which is taught in the Koran.

            I think the evidence given for this being at work of revelation is the fact that they love Allah so much. I don’t know how to make my point other than this, “Say: He is Allah, the One and Only; Allah, the Eternal, Absolute; He begetteth not, nor is He begotten; And there is none like unto Him.” (pg. 265) They just believe in him so much that I think this is the evidence for revelation.