The Gift of Water

84. And remember We took your covenant (to this effect): Shed no blood amongst you, nor turn out your own people from your homes: and this ye solemnly ratified, and to this ye can bear witness.

85. After this it is ye, the same people, who slay among yourselves, and banish a party of you from their homes; assist (Their enemies) against them, in guilt and rancour; and if they come to you as captives, ye ransom them, though it was not lawful for you to banish them.

Here we are. These are words ignored by Islamic Extremists who kidnap and kill in the name of God. May they be stripped of the adjective "Islamic" for failing to heed their own beliefs.

94. Say: "If the last Home, with Allah, be for you specially, and not for anyone else, then seek ye for death, if ye are sincere."

95. But they will never seek for death, on account of the (sins) which their hands have sent on before them. and Allah is well-acquainted with the wrong-doers.

A lord in the desert offers you a glass of water. You drink only half and spill the rest on the ground. Then you approach the lord and say, "I have drank all my water, may I now have the wine?" Do you think he will give you wine?

I think I'd rather drink the water and find I am unable to finish the cup. And when the lord comes for me, I will say, "I'm sorry, I tried to finish but my stomach was filled and you gave me more than I could ever possibly finish."

And I believe the lord will say, "That was the point. We are in a desert."

Is it that whenever there comes to you an apostle with what ye yourselves desire not, ye are puffed up with pride?- Some ye called impostors, and others ye slay!

And there is my own spiritual quandary. I dance on the edge of calling Paul an impostor. What if one claiming to be an apostle says one thing, and another claiming to be an apostle claims the opposite? Who truly speaks for the Lord? If both, then we will always reject the Lord's word no matter what we do. I'm afraid I will die without coming to an end of this logical loop.

This is how my cup is more than I could ever drink. This is why I will never be so arrogant that I believe I have come to the end of my spiritual path and can empty the Gift of Life onto the ground in favor of the Lord's company. We will never be worthy, we are dependent on His forgiveness completely.

Be humble.

The Cow

Those who believe (in the Qur'an), and those who follow the Jewish (scriptures), and the Christians and the Sabians,- any who believe in Allah and the Last Day, and work righteousness, shall have their reward with their Lord; on them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve.

The Queran so far states that the righteous will be rewarded and the sinners bring punishment on themselves. It has not yet defined the distinction between the two except for this paragraph (I have not finished this sura yet).

It also continues to recount a summary of the Israelites and their flight from Egypt, and how time and again they were forgiven and helped by God, and time and again they turned their back to Him. I had taken the meaning to apply to all people: we do this in our lives and in our ignorance. The Bible teaches us to be patient with others because we ourselves require much patience. However, I believe there are those who use this anecdote to reject the Jews, as if it applies to their history only, and not our own nature. Sawdust in their eye while we have a plank in our own.

In a very Paul-like way, the Quran encourages its reader to turn his back on the sinner, using the tale of the Jews and their recurring offenses as an example of how no matter how many times forgiveness is given, the sinner will return to his old ways. This contradicts Christ, however, who stated that if a son were to betray you seven times and ask forgiveness seven times, you should forgive him every time. Yes, we know he will probably turn back after gaining forgiveness, but we must forgive, because we are much the same even if we don't see it.

Humans require infinite patience. If we want to receive such patience from God (and oh how we need it) then we will need to know what it's like to show such patience to others.

Qran

Having completed reading the book of Revelations, I have set aside the Bible for a time. There is much that wasn't understood in my reading, and many chapters in the Old Testament that I had missed-- and that I will want to get back to. Regardless, I have made more progress, in both reading and understanding, than in previous attempts to read. I have provided myself with many concepts to mentally digest, and hold up to the world around me to compare and contrast. The holy books are meant for more than simply reading; they must be applied to life in order to understand them, whether you believe in them or not.

This then brings me to a promise I made to myself at the beginning of the year: To read the Qran, and learn its true message. I want to know if Islam is a faith that is intended to be centered on bloodshed and hatred, or if our gods are the same.

This book opens as the Bible does, and speaks of Adam, and the covenant with Israel. I see from this that Islam believes that Allah is the same as the God of Abraham, who is also the God of the Christians.

Does he then have the same message for us as he does for them? Or does he truly charge them to clean this world in a rampage of ignorance?