Most of us look forward to the Christmas season as a time of family gatherings, stringing the Christmas tree, joy and anticipation of exchanging gifts and all those wonderful things! A lot of friends, family and acquaintances are perfectly happy and content with what they know about the birth of Jesus and that's just fine.
However, unbeknownst to me was the Quran's version of the story on the birth of Jesus. It was quite different than the one I knew by heart since childhood and the fist time I read through a few verses in the Surah I must admit I was numb by a puzzling flurry of confusion. I'm sure the same goes for any Muslim reading the the story in the Bible... the two stories just do not match.
Let me begin by explaining why I chose the title of this post "The Virgin Mary's Super Strength" by looking at the following Surah.
Surah 19:23-26
"And the pains of childbirth drove her to the trunk of a palm tree. She said 'Oh, I wish I had died before this and was in oblivion, forgotten.' But he called her from below her, 'Do not grieve; your Lord has provided beneath you a stream.' And shake toward you the trunk of the palm tree; it will drop upon you ripe, fresh dates. So eat and drink and be contented. And if you see from among humanity anyone, say, 'Indeed, I have vowed to the Most Merciful abstention, so I will not speak today to [any] man.'"THE CONTEXT:
- The context of the story is that the Virgin Mary gives birth to Jesus alone outside without her husband and the Lord helps her replenish her strength.
- This story is very different than that in the Bible:
- She is alone, where is her husband Joseph?
- She gives birth outside, not in a manger?
- Why is she left alone in the first place?
- How can she give birth alone?
- Why does the Lord tell her not to speak to any man that day?
- How can she gather the strength to shake a palm tree after giving birth? (Super Strength)
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| Can you shake one of these? |
I think you are expecting too much of these ancient books if you expect consistency between them. I realise that much of the content of the Koran is drawn from the Old Testament, but there are also other sources that were current in the region around that time. (Sorry I can't remember what exactly). Certainly the confused, ignorant mind of Mohammed must have dreamt up much of it. I recommend 'Why i am not a Muslim' by Ibn Warraq, for a good explanation of how the koran came to be in it's present form.
ReplyDeleteI like the site very much, and look forward to coming back often in the future. Best of luck with this excellent endeavour!
Regards, Steve.
Hi Stephen,
ReplyDeleteThank you for posting! I'm not expecting much in regards to consistency between the scriptures but rather "highlighting" the inconsistencies so as to help bring the reader to the Truth using reason and historical evidence. There cannot be 2-truths about the same story and I'd like to emphasize that to our Muslim readers to analyse the evidence for themselves.
I'm glad you mentioned the other sources (I should have added them to the post). They were written in the 2nd century and are:
- The Infancy Gospel of James (aka Protoevangelium of James)
- The Infancy Gospel of Thomas
- The Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew
I'll be sure to highlight passages in these falsified scriptures in comparison to the Quran as there are shocking similarities.
I heard of that book and have yet to read it but thanks for the suggestion and enthusiasm for this site!