“If you find rejection by the disbelievers so hard to bear,
then seek a tunnel into the ground or a ladder into the sky, if you can, and
bring them a sign: God could bring them all to guidance if it were His will, so
do not join the ignorant” (Livestock 6:28)
This quote
seems to be arguing that God has control of those who believe and him and those
that do not. This is reinforced later in this book: “God leaves whoever He will
to stray, and sets whoever He will on a straight path” (Livestock 6:28). I
believe that this is included to provide comfort to Muslims who are exposed to
people who argue that Islam is a myth. By telling Muslims that they are
selected by God himself to be his follower, followers of Islam will be less
inclined to listen to others that are opposed to Islam. This is also a unifying
force for followers of Islam, the belief that God chose you and your fellow
Muslims specifically provides a sense of community and security. This is
similar to Yahweh choosing the Israelites as his people in the Old Testament;
it was the unity that Judaism provided the Israelites that inspired them to
leave Egypt.
I do not
have a lot of prior knowledge about the history of Islam so I would love to
hear from others who do.Was there any event that occurs in Islamic history that
was similar to the unification of the Israelites and their escape from Egypt?
While I don't have a lot of prior knowledge about Islam either, I almost see the passage of Muhammad from Mecca to Medina, known as the Hijra, as a similar unifying force. It is, like the Israelite flight from Egypt, a chosen group of people who made a journey to a new place to practice their religion. While the Israelites might have been escaping harsher conditions, I see similarities between these two journeys.
ReplyDeleteI believe that this also gives an air of exclusivity to Islam. Because of this idea that God chooses those who believe in him, all those who commit to Islam will have this belief that they were handpicked by God to be a part of this religion, making it more appealing to those who join.
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