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| {{Quote|{{Quran-range|25|68|70}}|Those who invoke not, with Allah, any other god, nor slay such life as Allah has made sacred except for just cause, nor commit fornication; - and any that does this (not only) meets punishment. (But) the Penalty on the Day of Judgment will be doubled to him, and he will dwell therein in ignominy,- Unless he repents, believes, and works righteous deeds, for Allah will change the evil of such persons into good, and Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful, }} | | {{Quote|{{Quran-range|25|68|70}}|Those who invoke not, with Allah, any other god, nor slay such life as Allah has made sacred except for just cause, nor commit fornication; - and any that does this (not only) meets punishment. (But) the Penalty on the Day of Judgment will be doubled to him, and he will dwell therein in ignominy,- Unless he repents, believes, and works righteous deeds, for Allah will change the evil of such persons into good, and Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful, }} |
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| === Can anyone change the word of Allah? ===
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| Yes - the Jews especially seem to be charged with doing this, which is the mainstream Islamic view,<ref>E.g. see [https://quranx.com/Tafsir/Jalal/2.75 ''Tafsir Al-Jalalayn on verse 2:75'']. Jalal al-Din al-Mahalli (d. 864 ah / 1459 ce) and his pupil Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti (d. 911 ah / 1505 ce).</ref> though is not without controversy ''(see: [[Corruption of Previous Scriptures]])''.{{quote | {{Quran|2|59}}|But those who were unjust changed it for a saying other than that which had been spoken to them, so We sent upon those who were unjust a pestilence from heaven, because they transgressed.}}{{Quote|{{Quran|2|75}}|Have ye any hope that they will be true to you when a party of them used to listen to the word of Allah, then used to change it, after they had understood it, knowingly?}}{{Quote|{{Quran|2|79}}|Therefore woe be unto those who write the Scripture with their hands and then say, "This is from Allah," that they may purchase a small gain therewith. Woe unto them for that their hands have written, and woe unto them for that they earn thereby.}}{{quote |{{cite quran|3|77|end=79|style=ref}}|(As for) those who take a small price for the covenant of Allah and their own oaths-- surely they shall have no portion in the hereafter, and Allah will not speak to them, nor will He look upon them on the day of resurrection nor will He purify them, and they shall have a painful chastisement. '''Most surely there is a party amongst those who distort the Book with their tongue that you may consider it to be (a part) of the Book, and they say, It is from Allah, while it is not from Allah, and they tell a lie against Allah whilst they know.''' It is not meet for a mortal that Allah should give him the Book and the wisdom and prophethood, then he should say to men: Be my servants rather than Allah's; but rather (he would say): Be worshipers of the Lord '''because of your teaching the Book and your reading (it yourselves).'''}}{{quote | {{Quran|3|187}}|And when Allah made a covenant with those who were given the Book: You shall certainly make it known to men and you shall not hide it; but they cast it behind their backs and took a small price for it; so evil is that which they buy.}}{{quote | {{Quran|4|46}}|Of those who are Jews (there are those who) alter words from their places and say: We have heard and we disobey and: Hear, may you not be made to hear! and: Raina, distorting (the word) with their tongues and taunting about religion; and if they had said (instead): We have heard and we obey, and hearken, and unzurna it would have been better for them and more upright; but Allah has cursed them on account of their unbelief, so they do not believe but a little.}}{{quote |{{cite quran|5|13|end=15|style=ref}}|But on account of their breaking their covenant We cursed them and made their hearts hard; '''they altered the words from their places and they neglected a portion of what they were reminded of;''' and you shall always discover treachery in them excepting a few of them; so pardon them and turn away; surely Allah loves those who do good (to others). And with those who say, We are Christians, We made a covenant, '''but they neglected a portion of what they were reminded of''', therefore We excited among them enmity and hatred to the day of resurrection; and Allah will inform them of what they did. O followers of the Book! indeed Our Messenger has come to you making clear to you '''much of what you concealed of the Book and passing over much'''; indeed, there has come to you light and a clear Book from Allah;}}{{quote | {{Quran|5|41}}|O Messenger! let not those grieve you who strive together in hastening to unbelief from among those who say with their mouths: We believe, and their hearts do not believe, and from among those who are Jews; they are listeners for the sake of a lie, listeners for another people who have not come to you; '''they alter the words from their places, saying: If you are given this, take it, and if you are not given this, be cautious'''; and as for him whose temptation Allah desires, you cannot control anything for him with Allah. Those are they for whom Allah does not desire that He should purify their hearts; they shall have disgrace in this world, and they shall have a grievous chastisement in the hereafter.}}No
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| {{Quote|{{Quran|6|115}}|And the word of your Lord has been fulfilled in truth and in justice. None can alter His words, and He is the Hearing, the Knowing.}}
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| ==Angels and demons== | | ==Angels and demons== |
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| Allah chooses messengers from angels and from men for Allah is He Who hears and sees (all things). }} | | Allah chooses messengers from angels and from men for Allah is He Who hears and sees (all things). }} |
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| === Was Iblīs an angel or a jinn? ===
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| While the following example might be considered to be an example of poor writing rather than an irreconcilable contradiction, it is worth noting as it is contradictory on a plain reading; which has caused confusion and led to differing opinions on whether Iblīs was an angel or a jinn in traditional Islamic scholarship.<ref>[https://www.britannica.com/topic/Iblis Iblis] | Islam | Britannica </ref>
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| As Sinai 2023<ref>Sinai, Nicolai. Key Terms of the Qur'an: A Critical Dictionary (p. 453 - 457). Princeton University Press.</ref> notes, the Arabic phrase qulnā li-l-malāʾikati sjudū li-ādama fa-sajadū illā iblīsa (Q 2:34, 7:11, 17:61, 18:50, 20:116; see also 15:30–31 and 38:73–74) is naturally rendered, “We said to the angels, ‘Prostrate yourselves to Adam,’ and they prostrated themselves, except for Iblīs.” This reading would be in line, for instance, with the view of Jacob of Sarug, who unequivocally declares Satan to have been an angel (Mathews 2020, 88–89, l. 2515; see in more detail below).<ref>Ibid. pp. 455.</ref> (Hence this is seen in virtually all official English translations of the verses).
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| {{Quote|{{Quran|17|61}}|And when We said to the Angels, "Prostrate to Adam." So they prostrated except Iblis. He said, "Shall I prostrate to (one) whom You created (from) clay?"}}{{Quote|{{Quran|20|116}}|When We said to the angels, ‘Prostrate before Adam,’ they prostrated, but not Iblis: he refused.}}{{Quote|{{Quran|15|31-32}}|Thereat the angels prostrated, all of them together, but not Iblis: he refused to be among those who prostrated.}}
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| See also {{Quran|2|34}}, {{Quran|7|11}} and {{Quran|38|73-74}}.
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| However, the Qur'an explicitly states that Iblīs was one of the jinn (straight after this in Q 18:50), distinguishing him from angels, who are described as a separate, species ({{Quran|34|40-41}}) that are totally obedient to God and not judged by him in the afterlife (unlike the jinn), but rather even carry out punishments {{Quran|66|6}} and hold his throne judgement day {{Quran|69|17}}. This distinction is supported by Q 38:76 and Q 7:12, where Iblīs refuses to prostrate to Adam, citing his creation from fire, in contrast to Adam's creation from clay. Additionally, premodern Muslim scholars noted that angels are always obedient to God, reinforcing the idea that Iblīs could not have been an angel.<ref>Ibid.</ref> This is the current mainstream view.<ref>[https://islamqa.info/en/answers/8976/was-iblis-an-angel Was Iblis an Angel?] IslamQA. 2000.</ref>
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| {{Quote|{{Quran|18|50}}|When We said to the angels, ‘Prostrate before Adam,’ they prostrated, but not Iblis. He was one of the jinn, so he transgressed against his Lord’s command. Will you then take him and his offspring for guardians in My stead, though they are your enemies? How evil a substitute for the wrongdoers!}}
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| He also notes that despite the considerable grammatical ingenuity displayed by later Muslim exegetes to make the prostration be exclusive of Iblīs (such as Al-Zamakhshari), the most straightforward and uncontrived reading of fa-sajadū illā iblīsa and its variants would surely be “they prostrated themselves, except for Iblīs,” including the implication that Iblīs was indeed one of the angels.<ref>Ibid. pp. 456.</ref>
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| El-Zein 2017<ref>El-Zein, Amira. Islam, Arabs, and the Intelligent World of the Jinn (Contemporary Issues in the Middle East) (p. 43-46). Syracuse University Press.</ref> notes that seemingly based off this verse, various Islamic sources have conceived of Iblis as an angel, for example the Sufi scholar Ibn 'Arabi in one writing describes him as a four-winged angel, and the Sunni jurist Al-Damari claimed “Iblis was the chief of the angels of heaven and their ruler, as well as ruler over the earth. He was one of the most studious angels and the most knowledgeable. He ruled between heaven and earth. He took great pride and honor in it. But he became arrogant and haughty. He rebelled and was ungrateful to God who transformed him into a cursed devil, shaytan.”<ref>Ibid. pp. 44.</ref> The Mu‘tazilah school of theology and Islamic thought (8th–10th century) also tended to view Iblis as depicted in Qur’an 18:50 as an angel rather than a jinn.<ref>Ibid.</ref>
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| To resolve the incoherence between the two interpretations on the nature of Iblis, Muslim scholarship came up with some ingenious ideas. Al-Tabari, for example, argued it is possible God created one part of his angels from light and another part from fire; Iblis possibly could belong to that group of angels who were created from the scorching winds.<ref>Ibid. pp. 46.</ref> Al-Baydawi (d. 1286), meanwhile, had a more plausible explanation. He argued Iblis, a jinni made out of fire, was carried off as a captive by the angels during one of the combats between jinn and angels that took place on Earth. Because Iblis was still a child, he grew up among angels. When God ordered the angels to bow before Adam, Iblis refused, and thus revealed his true jinni nature.<ref>Ibid.</ref>
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| Sinai 2023 notes a potential reason for this repeated seemingly contradictory statement. In the Qur'an, nine out of eleven mentions of Iblīs occur in the context of the angels prostrating to Adam, with Iblīs refusing (Q 2:34, 7:11, 17:61, 18:50, 20:116, 15:30–31, 38:73–74), or in the immediate divine address to Iblīs (Q 15:32, 38:75). The other two occurrences (Q 26:95, 34:20) refer to Iblīs’s followers and those who follow Iblīs, respectively. He suggests a more satisfactory resolution to the issue is therefore the formula "fa-sajadū illā iblīsa" might have originated from pre-Qur’anic Arab traditions on this story, where the formula fa-sajadū illā iblīsa reached the Qur’anic milieu as a set phrase that had been coined in prior Arabophone narrative traditions. This idea is supported by similar pre-Qur’anic narrative phrases in the Qur'an, like God blowing His spirit into Adam or Mary (e.g. Q 15:29, 21:91).<ref>Sinai, Nicolai. Key Terms of the Qur'an: A Critical Dictionary (pp. 453-454 & 456). Princeton University Press. </ref>
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| ==Creation== | | ==Creation== |
| ===Which was created first; the Heaven or Earth?=== | | ===Which was created first; the Heaven or Earth?=== |
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| Also ''zaqqum'', hell fruit (see also in {{Quran-range|44|40|46}} and {{Quran-range|56|41|52}}) | | Also ''zaqqum'', hell fruit (see also in {{Quran-range|44|40|46}} and {{Quran-range|56|41|52}}) |
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| {{Quote|{{Quran|37|62|66}}| | | {{Quote|{{Quran-range|37|62|66}}| |
| Is Paradise a better accommodation or the tree of zaqqum? Indeed, We have made it a torment for the wrongdoers. Indeed, it is a tree issuing from the bottom of the Hellfire, Its emerging fruit as if it was heads of the devils. And indeed, they will eat from it and fill with it their bellies. }} | | Is Paradise a better accommodation or the tree of zaqqum? Indeed, We have made it a torment for the wrongdoers. Indeed, it is a tree issuing from the bottom of the Hellfire, Its emerging fruit as if it was heads of the devils. And indeed, they will eat from it and fill with it their bellies. }} |
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| | ===Will people wear silver or gold bracelets in heaven?=== |
| | Verses disagree on the bracelets believers will wear with their green silk garments. |
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| | Silver |
| | {{Quote|{{Quran|76|21}}|Upon the inhabitants will be green garments of fine silk and brocade. And they will be adorned with bracelets of silver, and their Lord will give them a purifying drink.}} |
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| | Gold |
| | {{Quote|{{Quran|18|31}}|Those will have gardens of perpetual residence; beneath them rivers will flow. They will be adorned therein with bracelets of gold and will wear green garments of fine silk and brocade, reclining therein on adorned couches. Excellent is the reward, and good is the resting place.}} |
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| | Gold and pearl |
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| | {{Quote|{{Quran|22|23}}|Indeed, Allah will admit those who believe and do righteous deeds to gardens beneath which rivers flow. They will be adorned therein with bracelets of gold and pearl, and their garments therein will be silk.}} |
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| | {{Quote|{{Quran|35|33}}|[For them are] gardens of perpetual residence which they will enter. They will be adorned therein with bracelets of gold and pearls, and their garments therein will be silk.}} |
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| ==Mankind== | | ==Mankind== |