Sura 2 Part 2

OK, I had a few quiet moments on Thanksgiving morning to finish reading the second Sura. As I read this Sura I couldn't help but feel like I was reading a combination of the law of Moses, poetry, proverbs and Epistles.

The Sura covers many moral and practical life issues and tends to jump around a bit which can at times be hard to follow. The thing I tried to do to help me follow along was to keep the overall context before me. I looked at it like a father giving advise to his child before going to college or getting married. The father just tries to get all the words of wisdom he can before sending his child into the world so, somethings are going to makes sense right away and at other things will make more sense later.

There are a couple of verses that introduce the first ideas of war for religious sake and the condoning of violence. However, this is not much different from what I have read in the Old Testament of the Bible. If someone believed they wanted to kill in the name of God I could certainly see how they could come to that conclusion by reading either book. Personally, I detest the idea of war and fighting. It is the lazy way of resolving conflict and people all through history have used religion as a rationale for war and it is not surprising to see it clearly used in these holy books.

Like I have mentioned war for religious purposes it is a theme that is in most theistic literature and I still believe that while it is there, killing or dying for God does not serve as the preferred way of showing how strong ones faith and belief are. However, I also think that the idea of Martyrdom and dying for the cause is actually the easy cop out that involves really no sacrifice. I hate to digress but think about it for a second. If I believe that when I die as a Martyr I get a reward in heaven that is the simple an easy route to life. I make one big sacrifice and in a split second it's over and I'm in paradise. If this were the main message of the Qur'an or the Bible it would simply be one page long.

The grunt work and real display of faith and devotion come in the toil of everyday life. In fact this Sura spends a great deal of time speaking to how you should lend money without charging interest, treat your wife in matters of divorce, marriage, and death, giving to charity, and looking after the helpless. If Mohammad wanted to create a religion of martyrs we'd be talking about Islam the way we talk about the ancient religions of Greece, something people once believed but no longer do. This Sura is particularly concerned with the moral conduct of believers and the ethical treatment of the community. There are strong elements of compassion and kindness that are expected from human beings and are the attributes most often ascribed to Allah. He is merciful, forbearing, kind, wise etc.

There are some texts I would like to tackle and offer some objective criticisms about but I am really short on time and won't be able to do that in this post. Before I move on to the third Sura I will post those critiques next week.