Muhammad and the Jews of Medina (Yathrib)

Muhammad before his move from Mecca to Medina (the beginning of the Islamic calendar) expected the Jews of Medina to accept him as a prophet, but, of course, they did not. Whereupon he launched a series of efforts (utimately successful) to the three Jewish tribes of the oasis killed, enslaved, or exiled. Here is a good hadith giving us a picture of the tense relation:

"It has been narrated on the authority of Abu Huraira who said: We were (sitting) in the mosque when the Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) came to us and said: (Let us) go to the Jews. We went out with him until we came to them. The Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) stood up and called out to them (saying): O ye assembly of Jews, accept Islam (and) you will be safe. They said: Abu'l-Qasim, you have communicated (God's Message to us). The Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) said: I want this (i.e. you should admit that God's Message has been communicated to you), accept Islam and you would be safe. They said: Abu'l-Qasim, you have communicated (Allah's Message). The Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) said: I want this ... He said to them (the same words) the third time (and on getting the same reply) he added: You should know that the earth belongs to Allah and His Apostle, and I wish that I should expel you from this land. Those of you who have any property with them should sell it, otherwise they should know that the earth belongs to Allah and His Apostle (and they may have to go away leaving everything behind)".

Sahih Muslim vol 3, chapter DCCXXIII, verse 4363.

A warm welcome to readers of From the Pew

Thank you Steve for your kind and encouraging words, and pointing some of your readers to my blog.

I recommend that new readers start by checking out some of my series on Islam, which you can see all in a row to the right hand side in a menu.

Please do let me know if you have any questions.

Salam!

Abu Daoud

Translations of the Qur'an and Islamic Apologetics

Another ploy employed by these people is to blame the translators of the Koran, Hadiths and Sunnah. Even the eminent translator like A. Yusuf Ali is not considered as authentic translator. These bigots will never say which one is the authentic English version of the Koran, Hadiths, Sunnah, etc. They will simply say that one must be very good in Arabic to interpret Koran. This is akin to saying that one must be very good in Aramaic and Hebrew languages to understand the Bible and the Talmud. Or that you must be very good in Greek, Latin and Dutch languages to understand Aristotle, Roman laws, Copernicus' 'laws of heavenly bodies,' etc. These are absolutely illogical ideas. Strangely though, you will notice that these bigots will use the English translation of the Koran when it suits their purposes.

From Abul Kasem, an ex-Muslim (and not a convert to Christianity, incidentally).

I think he has really hit the nail on the head here with this critique of how some Muslims defend Islam. I have heard so many times, "Oh the Qur'an really cannot be translated...you have to read it in Arabic." And then you say, "Ok, fine, let's read it in Arabic--I can do that." And then you run into one of two responses. One, well, your a foreigner, so you can't really understand the classical Arabic of the Qur'an! Or, well, I don't know Arabic, so how can I trust you that you are translating it correctly! Ha! The whole thing is either sad or funny, depending on how you look at it. --AD

Amazing resource on Anglican/Episcopal Mission in the Middle East

Hats off to anglicanhistory.org. They have a whole section of documents related to Anglican-Episcopal missions to the Middle East.

Very cool...

American Evangelicalism is Gnostic?

I was re-reading an old article of mine from my three-part Mission and Sacrament series, which was published over at St Francis Magazine. Here is one paragraph about the importance of sacrament, and how sacramentality helps us resist Gnostic temptations inherent in American Christianity:

Without a robust sense ofmeaningful ritual, ritual that changes people and touches the deepest aspects of our beings and bodies inscribing the Gospel of Hope on our very flesh and blood, then we have half a Gospel: we have a one-sided coin, we have a message that so easily tends towards fads and seeking after the next, big thing (gnosis) which will finally bring us up “to the next level” (profoundly Gnostic language).

Page 2. If you have not read it before, do feel free to check it out HERE.

Islam: A mono-lingual religious empire

At the police registries where Moroccans go to officially designate their childrens' names, non-Arab names like Jurgurtha and Messina -- the names of ancient Berber kings -- are blacklisted. Only Arabic names like Hassan and Ahmed are allowed.

"To Berber militants, this is a case of trying to completely eradicate any Berber heritage," Jalali Saib, a leading activist who teaches at Rabat University, told the BBC earlier this year.

The first language of most Moroccans is some form of Berber, generally called Tamazight, though there are a number of variants. But the constitution recognizes only Arabic as the official language.

Check it all out here.

Horatio Southgate, Episcopal missionary to the Ottoman Empire

The Church of England sent out many a missionary to the Muslim world over the years, but less known (and less active) is the Episcopal Church in the USA. Horatio Southgate was one such missionary, he did two tours in what was then the Ottoman Empire. At one point, he got in trouble with some of his fellow missionaries, who wrote back to the USA about him, and he had to write a letter in his defense. You can read it here.

Note here one of the issues of complaint, and his defense of himself:

Never so much as once did I receive the Sacrament of Holy Communion from the [non-Episcopal] missionaries at Constantinople; never so much as once take any part with them in the administration of it. They may, perhaps, refer to a single instance in which I did receive it, from other Congregational missionaries, in another place. If so, why do they speak of sitting down "with us," "receiving from our hands," and "taking part with us? Those who write are the missionaries at Constantinople, and they say expressly, in two different places in their pamphlet, (pp. 5 and 30,) that they speak throughout only of what concerns themselves and their station. But again, they speak of this intercommunion as if it had been a habit with me; whereas I never but once partook of the Communion in connection with Congregational missionaries in Turkey[...]

New issue of St Francis Magazine

Well, issue two of volume seven of St Francis Magazine has now come out. I'm not surprised it took a while longer than usual, given the tumult in the Middle East where several of the editors are. But that having been said, I'm really excited about several of the articles. Here they are, and let me share why I think they are worth your scrutiny. (Though let me admit that I have not yet read all of these, though I have read some of them.)

John Damascene in context: An Examination of “The Heresy of the Ishmaelites” with special consideration given to the Religious, Political, and Social Contexts during the Seventh and Eighth Century Arab Conquests, by D. Bryan Rhodes

I'm a big fan of church history, as long-time readers will know. I am looking forward to detailed analysis of the first documented commentary of a Christian on Islam.

What is the Qur’an? A Moroccan intellectual’s critique of the Qur’an’s ethical teachings, by Bassam M. Madany

Madany is a great source for translating and interpreting Arabic-language documents. Also, he's been doing ministry for longer than I've been alive.

‘Your swords do not concern me at all’: The liberation theology of Islamic Christianity, by Duane Alexander Miller

I love the idea of combining liberation theology and ex-Muslim Christians doing theology!

Enjoy the reading! And let me know what you think about the various articles.

--Abu Daoud

Annual 'Leave Islam Day'? Proposed by European politician

Here is part of his address:

Another thing which we should do is support Muslims who want to leave Islam. An International Women's Day is useless in the Arab world if there is no International Leave Islam Day. I propose the introduction of such a day in which we can honor the courageous men and women who want to leave Islam. Perhaps we can pick a symbolic date for such a day and establish an annual prize for an individual who has turned his back on Islam or an organization which helps people to liberate themselves from Islam. It is very easy to become a Muslim. All one has to do is to pronounce the Shahada, the Islamic creed, which says - I quote "There is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah." It should be equally easy to leave Islam by pronouncing a counter-Shahada, which says "I leave Islam and join humankind."

Well, what do you think? Opinions? I suppose a key question is this: why do (some) Europeans feel like this?

The whole thing is here.

Islam, the natural religion of humanity?

From a fine article 'Luther, Lutheranism, and the Challenge of Islam' by Adam Francisco in Concordia Theological Quarterly (Vol 71, 2007):

This motif that Islam is the aboriginal religion of humanity and history is prominent in the Quran. All the prophets beginning with Adam through Moses unto Jesus, Muslims allege, proclaimed essentially the same message that Muhammad preached. "God sent down to you (step by step), in truth, the Quran, confirming what went before it; and He sent down the Torah (of Moses) and the Gospel (of Jesus) before this, as a guide to mankind, and He sent down the criterion [the Quran]" (3:3, 9:111). Despite the obvious contradictions, however, Muhammad did not start a new religion, the Quran claims. Instead, he revived the religion of Moses and Jesus, messages had been corrupted (tahrif) by Jews and Christians who purposely altered the biblical text and skewed the message of Moses and esus. Thus, God sent Muhammad to reiterate what truth was left in the Judeo-Christian tradition and to secure the full revelation of God once and for all in the Quran.

In other words, Islam has a tidy way of explaining the historical fact of Christianity while not really allowing for it to have a seat at the table in terms of influencing the future development of Islam.

What do you think?

Personal Relationship with Jesus Christ?

To be honest, that phrase makes very little sense to the average Muslim in the Arab world, which is what I'm used to. Of course, I do get back to the West from time and time and I think it makes very little sense to the average non-evangelical there too. The emphasis on 'personal' means that thi form of Christianity has caved into Western-Cartesian concepts of the self. Very unhealthy.

Here is a bit from the post in question:

But I’m not sure that using the phrase “personal relationship with Jesus” in our witnessing efforts helps us gauge a person’s spiritual life like it used to. Times are changing. I have met and talked with people who assure me that they have a “personal relationship with Jesus,” even though their lives show no evidence of Christ’s indwelling presence. Others tell me they know Jesus personally but have no need for the local church. A few are all about “personal relationships” with key religious figures.

Read it all here, and chime in.

Mission Omission

Tad de Bordenave has started a new blog, Mission Omission. Have known him for years, and he's a great guy and knows his stuff. Do check it out, add it to your blogroll, and your Google Reader, or whatever you use these days.

Mission Omission

Yemeni Jewish Chant

Amazing...has Arabic and Hebrew. And Aramaic...