Torah Vs KoranEssay Preview: Torah Vs KoranReport this essayContained in the many intricate and poetic Surahs of the Quran are retellings of a number of famous stories of the Hebrew Bible, known to Jews as the Torah, Prophets, and Writings. However, the Qurans account of the lives of certain biblical characters often differs in significant ways from the Jewish version. While a believer in the divine nature of the Quran may claim that differences in facts stem from distortions of G-ds message as recorded in Jewish holy books, both Muslims and non-Muslims might agree that the differences in emphasis are intentional. A more cynical observer might claim that the Quran changed the known Bible stories to suit its purposes. By choosing to include certain parts of a famous story and leaving out others, the story itself takes on a very different significance. Occasionally, the Quran will also discuss parts of the story which are entirely left out of the Torah, in which case a Muslim may claim the Torah did not deem those facts important for its own reasons. A cynical observer would claim the Quran made these additions to make its own message clearer.
In the discussion that follows, I will often talk of what “the Quran intends,” or what “the Torah means to say” on a topic. It should be understood that I am not ascribing human attributes to inanimate books, but rather that I am intentionally avoiding the conflict inherent in naming the author of these books. Depending on ones tastes, one could understand the Qurans intention to be either Muhammad or Allahs intention. Likewise, “the Torah means to say” could really be understood as what either Moses or G-d means to say. Either way, the important point is that somebody thought through the stories and decided on which words were worthy of being included in the holy texts and which were not. One of the underlying assumptions of this paper is that the stories were written down the way we find them today for a reason, and this paper intends to shed light on some of those reasons.
Although the points where the Torah and Quran disagree on basic facts may be controversial, these facts can often profoundly change the overall character of a story. Rather than making a value judgment as to which story is better or more likely, I will simply present these differences along with a discussion on how they impact the meaning and purpose behind the story. Changing a few key facts about a persons circumstances can often have drastic effects on how that character is viewed by the reader.
Consequently, the moral lesson which is assumed to be the purpose behind the telling ofthe story is greatly altered. It is therefore necessary to study how the reader views the biblical characters in each version in order to understand the storys significance in each respective culture.
In order to facilitate a fuller understanding of the Bible stories, I begin each discussion with an overview of the story. Since the Qurans version is often much more abridged than the Torah, and the Quran itself refers to the Torah and is fully aware of its contents, this overview may include parts of the story only mentioned in the Torah. I dont feel that this biases the discussion towards the Torahs version, since the Quran itself accepts that version by default wherever it chooses not to retell a part of the story. However, where the Torah and the Quran diverge, I defer discussion of the facts to the analysis section for that story.
Following the overview, I present the details roughly as they appear in the stories. Each detail is then closely scrutinized for its impact on the story as a whole. In areas where facts disagree, possible justifications and implications of the disagreement are discussed. Finally, after going through the details of the story, the discussion shifts to explaining the emphasis in each version and extrapolating its intended lessons. I proceed in this way through each “scene” of the Bible stories. The remainder of this paper is devoted to presenting these stories in what is generally agreed to be chronological order.
The earliest story retold in the Quran is that of Adam and Eves first two sons, Cain and Abel (Surah 5:27-32 and Genesis 4). Cain and Abel each offer sacrifices to G-d. Cain was a farmer and offered fruit, while Abel was a shepherd, and so he offered sheep. However, only Abels sacrifice was accepted, and Cains was not. Cain was upset at Abel over this fact, and the two got into an argument. Cain threatened to kill Abel. Although Abel had the opportunity to kill Cain first, he refused, whereupon Cain rose up and killed him. After G-d confronts Cain, Cain realizes the gravity of his sin and confesses. His punishment is that the ground will no longer bear fruits as easily as it had before.
The details regarding the offerings that Cain and Abel offered are mentioned only in the Torah. Specifically, the Torah mentions that Cain chose a profession which requires that he spend most of his time working hard in the field, while Abel chose a profession that would develop his caring skills and which would give him ample time to
contemplate spiritual matters. Furthermore, Cain offered “the fruit of the ground,” while Abel offered “of the firstlings of his flock and from their choicest.” Thus the Torah heavily implies that Cain brought ordinary, or perhaps even inferior, offerings. When the Torah mentions that Cains offering was rejected, it means to teach the reader that only the finest of ones possessions should be offered to G-d. In contrast, this aspect of the story is entirely left out of the Quran. However, this is not surprising given that, unlike Judaism, animal sacrifice is not required in Islam.
In contrast to the details of the offerings, the details of the conversation between Cain and Abel are only elaborated upon in the Quran. After Cain threatens Abel, Abel backs down and refuses to fight. However, in the Quran, an additional line explains why Abel refused to fight. Abel sites fear of G-d, “L-rd of all the worlds,” as his reason for not acting in self defense. Furthermore, the Quran implies that not acting in self defense due to fear of G-d can actually have positive benefits. If a person dies a violent death not caused, directly or indirectly, by his own sinful actions, his previous sins are forgiven. The burden of these sins is instantly transferred to the murderer (in addition to the burden of the additional sin of murder), who is “destined for the fire, since that is the requital of evildoers!” In contrast, the Torah states in other places that
A man can escape the destruction and death of his wife and his family, and he can be prepared to return home. There is no compulsion to take care of his wife, nor the one who has left his affairs for the sake of his children.
The first stage of this process is that we are freed from responsibility for the sin of murder. For our sins are justified on Earth, so God’s righteousness means that the innocent has no duty to take care of the injured. This is possible because we, on earth, are saved. God is always working with man’s salvation to get to him.
As with the earlier stage, the first form of this process is to be taken over by a god. This God is called ‘the true god’, or ‘the god of the righteous’. The next stage is to take over the sin of killing the innocent. For the first time in his history, Satan is able to kill a man. If in this process, the murderer takes his life, then the god is a god? The true God is also a divine Being! So, God only works with men’s righteousness in this way. He can save the innocent and not the God of the righteous.
For Cain, the only God who saved Abel is God himself. But he did not come at the command of Satan. He came to Cain to sacrifice the innocent and save the child from Satan, but Cain killed Abel when he saw his own offspring. If Cain is able to kill Abel who betrayed him and then killed Cain’s wife and children to appease Allah, then Cain’s righteous will and righteousness will be fulfilled.
Makes clear that we are not “proving” God’s righteousness. However, since the Qur’an does not talk much about whether or not God could possibly be given a reason that he could justify his actions, and the Qur’an speaks to us with a lot of detail about this, then the Qur’an should not be misleading and that we are proving our righteousness here. In fact, God is very happy with his followers, who do not have any idea about the God he calls a God. After they are brought to his will, Cain will do what Satan would not, and he would kill Abel to appease Satan. If he does decide to kill Abel, his son will go along with it, and he will carry out his evil deeds so that he will become the better of his enemies.
The question that is posed concerning the Qur’an is whether or not Jesus (in the Holy Gospel) was the real Christ, because we are told that the Son of Adam was brought to live an evil life, but did it? This is true, but Jesus was killed because of his crimes in the Temple. It means that the sin was carried from his birth to the grave, that is to say from the point of eye to the point of impact. The whole concept of justice is not very clear to us yet. However, Jesus was the real Christ only in the name of Jesus Christ, and since he was the Son of God, the fact that Jesus actually is God is obvious. All other prophets were real prophets, and there are plenty who were not Real prophets because of their actions. As far as the idea that Jesus is the real Christ is concerned, and he was not Jesus (according to the