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Allah, the Best Deceiver (Qur'an 3:54): Difference between revisions
Allah, the Best Deceiver (Qur'an 3:54) (view source)
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, 17 September→Responses to Apologetics: Made a note of other Qur'anic verses stating and/or implying Allah deceives people as highlighted by Gabriel Reynolds in his 2020 book examining the nature of Allah in the Qur'an, citing the sub-chapter 'Divine Scheming' - giving further weight to the articles interpretation.
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(→Responses to Apologetics: Made a note of other Qur'anic verses stating and/or implying Allah deceives people as highlighted by Gabriel Reynolds in his 2020 book examining the nature of Allah in the Qur'an, citing the sub-chapter 'Divine Scheming' - giving further weight to the articles interpretation.) |
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#'''''"According to the Quranic Arabic Corpus website, 'Makr' means 'Planner'"'''''<br>The Quranic Arabic Corpus website also claimed at one time that ''Idriboohunna'' in Qur'an 4:34 meant "[[Wife Beating in the Qur'an|separate from them]]" (i.e. the husbands from their wives) rather than to "beat them" for the fear of disobedience. However, ''Idriboohunna'' (أضربوهن) means "beat them" (for female plural). ''Adriboo Anhunna'' (اضربوا عنهن) is the phrase that means abandon or leave them. They are completely different phrases with completely different meanings, and the attempts to mix up the two is only a modern development used by a few western Muslim apologists. To their credit, the website has acknowledged this error by now having corrected this blatant mistranslation, but they have also shown themselves to be an unreliable source concerning the Arabic language.<BR><BR>In any case, Edward William Lane's ''Arabic-English Lexicon'' (the most revered and scholarly dictionary of the Arabic language), ''Hans Wehr Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic'', and the ''Arabic Lexicon'' all disagree with the Quranic Arabic Corpus website's rendering of the word. And every single one of these sources are more reliable than that website. In addition to these reliable sources, there are Dr. Jamal Badawi and Shaykh Muhammad Saalih al-Munajjid who are both native Arabic speakers and respected individuals (in relation to issues concerning Islam). Although they may make excuses for the use of that particular word, they do both actually admit that makr means deceiver. | #'''''"According to the Quranic Arabic Corpus website, 'Makr' means 'Planner'"'''''<br>The Quranic Arabic Corpus website also claimed at one time that ''Idriboohunna'' in Qur'an 4:34 meant "[[Wife Beating in the Qur'an|separate from them]]" (i.e. the husbands from their wives) rather than to "beat them" for the fear of disobedience. However, ''Idriboohunna'' (أضربوهن) means "beat them" (for female plural). ''Adriboo Anhunna'' (اضربوا عنهن) is the phrase that means abandon or leave them. They are completely different phrases with completely different meanings, and the attempts to mix up the two is only a modern development used by a few western Muslim apologists. To their credit, the website has acknowledged this error by now having corrected this blatant mistranslation, but they have also shown themselves to be an unreliable source concerning the Arabic language.<BR><BR>In any case, Edward William Lane's ''Arabic-English Lexicon'' (the most revered and scholarly dictionary of the Arabic language), ''Hans Wehr Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic'', and the ''Arabic Lexicon'' all disagree with the Quranic Arabic Corpus website's rendering of the word. And every single one of these sources are more reliable than that website. In addition to these reliable sources, there are Dr. Jamal Badawi and Shaykh Muhammad Saalih al-Munajjid who are both native Arabic speakers and respected individuals (in relation to issues concerning Islam). Although they may make excuses for the use of that particular word, they do both actually admit that makr means deceiver. | ||
== Other Qur'anic Divine Scheming verses == | |||
Reynolds (2020) notes that despite the discomfort of later traditional Islamic commentators on the description of God as 'deceiving' or 'scheming', there are many terms and examples outside of the word 'makr' (and its variants) of Allah deceiving/scheming in the Qur'an,<ref>Reynolds, Gabriel Said. ''Allah: God in the Qur'an (Chapter 8: The Avenger. Divine Scheming. pp. 184-191).''Yale University Press. Kindle Edition.</ref> adding weight to this straightforward interpretation.{{Quote|Reynolds, Gabriel Said. <i>Allah: God in the Qur'an (pp. 189-190).</i> Yale University Press. Kindle Edition. |..Makr is not the only term used for divine trickery. Elsewhere in the Qur’an (7:182–83, 68:45, 86:15–16) Allah is associated with kayd, sometimes rendered as “devising.” In Q 7:183 God’s giving a respite to the unbelievers is described as a sort of kayd: “And I will grant them respite, for My devising (kaydi) is indeed sure.” This same term is associated also with the stratagems of unbelievers and opponents of the prophets: it is used for pagans (7:195), the brothers of Joseph (12:5), sneaky women in the Joseph story (12:28), and other unbelievers (20:64, 52:46, 77:39). <br>Other terms used to describe Allah’s trickery include khida‘ (4:142; elsewhere attributed to the unbelievers: 2:9, 8:62) and the Arabic verb aghwa. In Q 11:34 Noah declares to his opponents that God could lead them astray (yughwiyakum). Tellingly, Satan accuses God (perhaps rightly) of leading him astray on two occasions. In Q 7:16 Satan declares to God, “You have led me astray! (aghwaytani).” In Q 15:39 Satan says that because God has led him astray, he will lead others astray: “He said ‘O Lord, because you have led me astray (aghwaytani), I will surely glamorize [evil] for them on the earth, and I will surely lead all of them astray (la-ughwiyannahum).’” Muhammad Asad—clearly uncomfortable with the idea of a God who deceives—translates these two occurrences identically as “thou hast thwarted me.”..}} | |||
==See Also== | ==See Also== | ||