Not Peace but a Sword: The Great Chasm Between Christianity and Islam (4 page)

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Three Great Abrahamic Faiths?

The idea that Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are sister faiths, differing but closely related elaborations of the same religious tradition, is so commonplace today that for many Catholics it is essentially everything they know about Islam. The Second Vatican Council and the
Catechism of the Catholic Church
say that the Muslims are “professing to hold the faith of Abraham.” And to a Catholic opening the Qur’an for the first time, there certainly seems to be a great deal to confirm this idea.

Echoes of the Bible

Most Catholics would be surprised at how much biblical material the Qur’an contains, but Muslims are generally well aware of this; indeed, the similarities between the Bible and the Qur’an are a staple of the presentations of Muslim apologists. The Bible and the Qur’an appear, superficially, to breathe the same religious atmosphere. They appear to be distinct expressions of the same larger religious tradition. Christians and Muslims revere the same religious heroes, tell the same stories, and speak about God in the same way.

What Catholic could possibly object to one of the most beloved and oft-memorized verses of the Qur’an, the “Verse of the Throne”?

“God there is no god but He, the Living, the Everlasting. Slumber seizes Him not, neither sleep; to Him belongs all that is in the heavens and the earth. Who is there that shall intercede with Him save by His leave? He knows what lies before them and what is after them, and they comprehend not anything of His knowledge save such as He wills. His Throne comprises the heavens and earth; the preserving of them oppresses Him not; He is the All-high, the All-glorious.” (2:255)

The biblical resonances in this passage are many; in fact, the first portion of the Verse of the Throne could practically be reconstructed from the Bible. “I am the LORD, and there is no other, besides me there is no God,” relates the prophet Isaiah (45:5). “Behold, He who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep,” we’re told in the Psalms (121:4). “Behold, to the LORD your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it,” says Deuteronomy (10:14).

The Qur’an teaches that there is one almighty God, the creator of heaven and earth. “There is no god but God, and assuredly God is the All-mighty, the All-wise” (3:62). He knows and sees all things: “The eyes attain Him not, but He attains the eyes; He is the All-subtle, the All-aware” (6:103). “To God belongs all that is in the heavens and earth. Whether you publish what is in your hearts or hide it, God shall make reckoning with you for it. He will forgive whom He will, and chastise whom He will; God is powerful over everything” (2:284).

Also found in the Qur’an are declarations that Jesus is the Messiah, the Word of God, who was born of the Virgin Mary, a birth that the Qur’an reverentially describes as a great work of God. One passage echoes the Annunciation, although in the Qur’an there is more than one angel doing the announcing: “The angels said, ‘Mary, God gives thee good tidings of a Word from Him whose name is Messiah, Jesus, son of Mary; high honored shall he be in this world and the next, near stationed to God” (3:45).

In the Qur’an, as in the New Testament, Jesus is a miracle-worker: “And We gave to Moses the Book, and after him sent succeeding Messengers; and We gave Jesus son of Mary the clear signs [i.e., miracles]” (2:87).

One almighty God. Jesus, the Messiah and the Word of God, born of a Virgin and working miracles. The Qur’an’s biblical resonances do not end there. Like the Bible and the Christian tradition, the Qur’an and Islamic tradition call men to faith in a message it says is divinely revealed. “And believe in that I have sent down, confirming that which is with you, and be not the first to disbelieve in it. And sell not My signs for a little price; and fear you Me” (2:41).

The Qur’an even says that that message is the same as that which was revealed to earlier prophets. Allah tells his prophet to tell the people about Moses: “And mention in the Book of Moses; he was devoted, and he was a Messenger, a Prophet. We called to him from the right side of the Mount, and We brought him near in communion. And We gave him his brother Aaron, of Our mercy, a Prophet” (19:51-53).

Then Allah sends Jesus with a message that confirms that of Moses: “And We sent, following in their footsteps, Jesus son of Mary, confirming the Torah before him and We gave to him the Gospel, wherein is guidance and light, and confirming the Torah before it, as a guidance and an admonition unto the godfearing” (5:46). Finally, Allah sends Muhammad with a new message that confirms the gospel, which in the Qur’anic view is a book that Allah delivered to the world through Jesus: “And We have sent down to thee the Book with the truth, confirming the Book that was before it, and assuring it” (5:48). “This is a Book We have sent down, blessed and confirming that which was before it” (6:92).

There are numerous other biblical figures in the Qur’an, including Noah: “Noah called to Us; and how excellent were the Answerers! And We delivered him and his people from the great distress, and We made his seed the survivors, and left for him among the later folk. ‘Peace be upon Noah among all beings!’” (37:75-9). The Qur’an also says of Abraham: “And who is there that has a fairer religion than he who submits his will to God being a good-doer, and who follows the creed of Abraham, a man of pure faith? And God took Abraham for a friend” (4:125).

The Qur’an’s echoes of the Bible don’t end with the cast of characters. There even seems to be something of the Bible’s natural theology in the Qur’an. Faintly echoing St. Paul’s observation that “ever since the creation of the world his invisible nature, namely, his eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made” (Rom. 1:20), the Qur’an teaches that Allah has made his presence and power clearly known in this world: “And We have sent down unto thee signs, clear signs, and none disbelieves in them except the ungodly” (2:99).

The Qur’an also teaches that Allah has set out rules about how human beings should behave, and that at the end of this earthly existence, he will judge every individual on the basis of how well he has lived up to those rules: “When earth is shaken with a mighty shaking and earth brings forth her burdens, and Man says, ‘What ails her?’ upon that day she shall tell her tidings for that her Lord has inspired her. Upon that day men shall issue in scatterings to see their works, and whoso has done an atom’s weight of good shall see it, and whoso has done an atom’s weight of evil shall see it” (99:1-8). Everything that man does is recorded: “Everything that they have done is in the Scrolls, and everything, great and small, is inscribed” (54:52-3).

The Qur’anic Exodus

The story of the Exodus is told and retold in the Qur’an, and often sounds like a summary and recapitulation of the biblical account, with some notable differences. It gives the flavor of how the Qur’an treats biblical material, and the differences between the Qur’anic and biblical accounts are revelatory of larger differences between basic Catholic and Islamic beliefs.

The Qur’an tells the story of the Exodus many times, each time presenting different details of the story. The longest and most detailed of these accounts is found in
sura
7, and starts without the preamble of Moses’ birth and upbringing, although that is told elsewhere in the Qur’an (28:1-19). In this instance, preceding the story of Moses are accounts of some of the deeds of several other prophets. The Qur’anic order is not chronological; its logic is homiletic. Moses and the other prophets are mentioned in order to make and illustrate various theological points. The initial homiletic point here is that “workers of corruption” will be punished just as Pharaoh was for opposing Moses: “but they did them wrong; so behold thou, how was the end of the workers of corruption!”

But in this passage there is also a particularly detailed account of the Exodus, beginning with God sending Moses “with Our signs to Pharaoh and his Council.” The story reads like a summary recapitulation of the biblical account:

Moses said, “Pharaoh, I am a Messenger from the Lord of all Being, worthy to say nothing regarding God except the truth. I have brought a clear sign to you from your Lord; so send forth with me the Children of Israel.” Said he, “If thou hast brought a sign, produce it, if thou speakest truly.” So he cast his staff; and behold, it was a serpent manifest. And he drew forth his hand, and lo, it was white to the beholders. (7:103-108)

The way this story is told suggests that the hearers have heard it before: We see Moses telling Pharaoh to “send forth with me the Children of Israel” (7:105), but the Qur’an assumes that the reader will know that the Israelites were at this time oppressed as slaves in Egypt; it is not mentioned explicitly. Moses performs various miracles before Pharaoh, as in the biblical account—although when Moses’ hand becomes “white to the beholders” (7:108), one early commentator on the Qur’an, Ibn Abbas, says this was “not because of leprosy,” which is contrary to Exodus 4:6.
⁴⁷
The
Ruhul Ma
’
ani
, another venerable commentary on the Qur’an, says that Moses’ hand shone brighter than the sun.
⁴⁸
This may be in keeping with the Qur’an’s idea that prophets must not suffer defeat or loss; the foremost manifestation of this assumption is the Qur’an’s denial that Jesus was crucified (4:157).

The “Council of the people” then suggests that Pharaoh “put off” Moses and Aaron for a while, while sending “musterers” into the cities of Egypt to summon “every cunning sorcerer.” The sorcerers duly arrive and demand payment from Pharaoh if they best Moses, but it was not to be:

They said, “Moses, wilt thou cast, or shall we be the casters?” He said, “You cast.” And when they cast they put a Spell upon the people’s eyes, and called forth fear of them, and produced a mighty sorcery. And We revealed to Moses: “Cast thy staff!” And lo, it forthwith swallowed up their lying invention. So the truth came to pass, and false was proved what they were doing. So they were vanquished there, and they turned about, humbled. (7:115-119)

Although Pharaoh is as unimpressed in the Qur’an with the wonders Moses performs as he is in the biblical story, his magicians are so moved as to profess faith in “the Lord of all Being, the Lord of Moses and Aaron” (7:121-122), whereupon Pharaoh threatens to “cut off alternately your hands and feet, then I shall crucify you all together” (7:124). This bit of barbarity appears nowhere in Exodus, and is the same punishment Allah prescribes elsewhere in the Qur’an for those who wage war against Allah and Muhammad (5:33). The cunning sorcerers respond with a confession of faith in Allah:

They said, “Surely unto our Lord we are turning. Thou takest vengeance upon us only because we have believed in the signs of our Lord when they came to us. Our Lord, pour out upon us patience, and gather us unto Thee surrendering.” (7:125-126)

Significantly, the word translated here as
surrendering
is in Arabic “Muslims” (
muslimeen
). When the Qur’an depicts the sorcerers as converting to the religion of Moses, it shows them converting not to Judaism but to Islam. This seems anachronistic: How could Moses and the sorcerers have been Muslims so long before Muhammad?

The Qur’an does not mean that Moses was a believer in Muhammad as a prophet of Allah. But as Muhammad’s message confirms that of Jesus, and Jesus’ message confirms Moses’, in the Qur’anic view the messages of all the prophets were identical in substance. Allah gave mankind a series of revelations, and all of these call on human beings to become “Muslims,” or submitters to Allah. A genuine submitter to Allah will always recognize Allah’s message and accept his new prophets.

This is not to say, however, that Islamic theology recognizes any significant distinction between pre-Islamic monotheistic submitters to Allah such as Moses and the sorcerers (and other significant personages, as we shall see) and Muslims who publicly proclaim the
shahadah
, the Islamic confession of faith: “There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is his prophet.” Islam presents itself to be pure monotheism, with nothing added or subtracted; hence, when Jews and Christians protest that Moses and other biblical figures were actually Israelites professing the faith of Israel, Muslims will respond that that faith was Islam, and that Judaism and Christianity, in all their varied forms today, are but corruptions of that original monotheism and submission to Allah—that is, Islam.

In the Qur’anic account (found in Sura 7) of Moses and Pharaoh, after the sorcerers become Muslims, the “Council of the people” asks Pharaoh, “Wilt thou leave Moses and his people to work corruption in the land, and leave thee and thy gods?” The phrase “corruption in the land” is significant in Islam. It is the offense for which crucifixion or amputation of the hands and feet on opposite sides is prescribed in Qur’an 5:33. Pharaoh answers: “We shall slaughter their sons and spare their women; surely we are triumphant over them!”

Moses then tells his people to pray and be patient, and they respond with the same truculence they display in the Exodus account, telling Moses: “We have been hurt before thou camest to us, and after thou camest to us.” But Allah is on their side: “Then seized We Pharaoh’s people with years of dearth, and scarcity of fruits, that haply they might remember.” But the Egyptians miss the point: “So, when good came to them, they said, ‘This belongs to us’; but if any evil smote them, they would augur ill by Moses and those with him. Why, surely their ill augury was with God; but the most of them knew not.”