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Convenient Revelations: Difference between revisions
→War booty goes to Muhammad: Added another potential self-serving verse offering the Jews of Medina double-reward for accepting him.
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(→Give the prophet a material 'offering' before meeting with him privately: Added more 'convenient' verses for Muhammad to page, and highlighted strangeness of asking for an offering to speak with him privately compared to other verses where he isn't doing this for a reward (as previous messengers didn't).) |
(→War booty goes to Muhammad: Added another potential self-serving verse offering the Jews of Medina double-reward for accepting him.) |
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A fifth is to go to directly to him, his close companions, as well as the poor/needy in a separate verse. | A fifth is to go to directly to him, his close companions, as well as the poor/needy in a separate verse. | ||
{{Quote|{{Quran|8|41}}|And know that whatever ye take as spoils of war, lo! a fifth thereof is for Allah, and for the messenger and for the kinsman (who hath need) and orphans and the needy and the wayfarer, if ye believe in Allah and that which We revealed unto Our slave on the Day of Discrimination, the day when the two armies met. And Allah is Able to do all things.}} | {{Quote|{{Quran|8|41}}|And know that whatever ye take as spoils of war, lo! a fifth thereof is for Allah, and for the messenger and for the kinsman (who hath need) and orphans and the needy and the wayfarer, if ye believe in Allah and that which We revealed unto Our slave on the Day of Discrimination, the day when the two armies met. And Allah is Able to do all things.}} | ||
=== The Jews of Medina get double reward for accepting him === | |||
As Neuwirth 2019<ref>Neuwirth, Angelika. ''The Qur'an and Late Antiquity: A Shared Heritage (Oxford Studies in Late Antiquity)'' (p. 232).</ref> notes, in the early Medinan period, a new audience appears; the Medinan Jews, whom the Qur'an presupposes as hearers. These Jewish tribes were typically hostile to Muhammad in Islamic tradition,<ref>[https://www.pbs.org/muhammad/ma_jews.shtml#:~:text=Muhammad%20arrived%20in%20Medina%20in,uneasy%20almost%20from%20the%20start. Muhammad and the Jews of Medina.] Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet. PBS.</ref> and he was in a completely new environment away from his Meccan home looking to gain followers in the new city. Along with reworking Meccan texts to the new audience, they are given assurance of 'double reward' for their allegiance, seemingly from believing in both their scripture and now the Qur'an.<ref>Neuwirth, Angelika. The Qur'an and Late Antiquity: A Shared Heritage (Oxford Studies in Late Antiquity) (p. 232). | |||
''In the early Medinan period, a new group of hearers appears on the stage, if not in reality, then at least virtually: the Medinan Jews. Jews appear as believers (Q 2:62, 5:69, 22:17), or in other places they are confronted with the requirement of accepting the new message (Q 4:162). In some Qur’anic texts, they belong to the “peoples of the writing” (Q 3:113–114) '''and obtain assurances of a doubled reward in view of their belief in their own revealed writings and the Qur’an (Q 28:52–54).<sup>10</sup>'''<sup>1</sup> But the full significance of their presence only becomes clear by means of a Qur’anic strategy that seems to presuppose Jewish hearers: older Qur’anic texts are extensively reworked, and thus adapted to the expectations of a more complex Medinan listenership. Textual analyses show that some biblical narratives that were already formulated in Mecca were subjected to a revision in Medina, and thus gained theological dimensions that clearly relate to Jewish biblical exegesis.''</ref> It is not clear exactly what this reward will look like, or why these people alone would gain double-reward as all Muslims must affirm belief in both the Torah and Qur'an coming from Allah regardless, so critics argue this may be a cynical ploy to gain followers. It is worth noting that no other group [[:en:Convenient_Revelations#Muhammad's_wives_have_double_reward_and_punishment|bar his wives]] are given this assurance. | |||
{{Quote|{{Quran|28|52-54}}|Those to whom We gave the Book before it are the ones who believe in it, and when it is recited to them, they say, ‘We believe in it. It is indeed the truth from our Lord. Indeed we were Muslims [even] before it [came].’ <b>Those will be given their reward two times for their patience.</b> They repel evil [conduct] with good, and spend out of what We have provided them}} | |||
==See also== | ==See also== | ||