Today’s Scripture Reading (June 2,
2015): Genesis 17
Muhammad
looked out over the tribes of Arabia and he was disturbed. No one had been able
to unite the tribes of the desert. They fought and battled within themselves.
They were divided, and because of that, they were weak. From what we understand
of Muhammad’s life, he had developed some early ties with both the Christian
and Jewish people in the Arabian Desert. And what impressed him most about both
of these faiths was that they were People of the Book. Both Abrahamic faiths
had a text to fall back on. It was one thing that the tribes of the Arabian
Desert lacked – they had no book to bring them together. What Muhammad wanted
more than anything else was a book that would bring his people together and
join them as one – Just like the Christians and the Jews.
Muhammad had
heard the story of Abraham, and was early introduced to this character named
Ishmael. As he heard the story told, and as he looked at his own people, he saw
the children of Ishmael. Muhammad came to believe that he himself was a direct
descendant of Ismael. And he declared himself a “Hanif,” one who maintained the
pure monotheistic beliefs of great patriarch, Ibrahim (Abraham).
So one day
Muhammad began to pray that God would send his people a book. He prayed to Allah
(which simply means God in Arabic) that he would send to him a book and unite
his people, much in the way that Christians and the Jews were united. And Allah
(God) did not disappoint his servant. He sent the angel Gabriel with the oral
tale that would become a holy book – the Qur’an. One of the miracles of
Muhammad’s life was that by the time the prophet fell ill and died, most of the
tribes of the Arabian Desert had been united under one banner, that of Islam;
and they gathered around the instructions found in one book, the Qur’an.
Jewish and
Christian theologians are often quick to read this story in Genesis and point
out the supremacy of Isaac over Ishmael. And there is no doubt that this is an
element of the story. God makes it very clear that the promise of God, the
covenant, would flow through Isaac – not Ishmael. But I think that sometimes we
gloss over this moment too quickly. God clearly promises to bless Ishmael, and he
declares that a great nation would emerge from his descendants. The blessing of
Ishmael is based on two separate events. The first is that God promised Hagar,
Ishmael’s mother, that he would look over the descendants of Ishmael and make
him into a great nation. But the second is that Abraham requested this of God.
And God granted Abraham’s request – a blessing of God that I believe remains on
the Islamic nations even today.
All of this
in some ways brings us to a problem – the Qur’an. If Muhammad sincerely prayed
that God (Allah) would send a book to unite the Arabian Tribes, knowing that
God had promised to bless Ishmael’s descendants and make them into a great
nation, is it beyond our imagination that God would do exactly that? That
maybe, and I don’t know the answer to this, at the very least the earliest
parts of the Qur’an could be the genuine words God sent to Muhammad, joining
all of the Abrahamic religions as the People of the Book. That the angel
Gabriel, the messenger of God, did make a trip to the caves of Arabia to meet
with this devout man who sincerely made a request of God.
As
Christians, is this too far outside of our own beliefs? I wish I had the
answers, but I don’t know. Is that possible?
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Genesis
18
No comments:
Post a Comment