Monday, November 4, 2013

Cookies and the Annunciation to the Virgin Mary in the Qur'an: A Look at Three Inspired Accounts

 

1.       When I finished my two-year mission to Guatemala I returned home to San Francisco.

2.       On one occasion I was visiting a member of my congregation, an English teacher who was, in the way of English teachers, a careful and precise speaker.

3.       She lifted a plate of cookies and asked, “Would you like a cookie?”

4.       My answer was in the affirmative.

5.       Then she asked, “Oh, James, would you not like a cookie?”

6.       I hesitated, and she chuckled adding, “Questions posed in the negative always cause people to pause with a certain level of uncertainty.”

7.       My point in mentioning this will follow suit.

8.       My main objective in this blog entry is to compare two accounts of the Virgin Birth and its significance to two religious traditions: The Qur’an and The Book of Mormon, texts which are central to Islam and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, respectively.

9.       I will presume some familiarity with the account as described in The Gospel According to Luke (Luke 1:26-37):

a.       (26) And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth,
b.      (27) To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary.
c.       (28) And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.
d.      (29) And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be.
e.      (30) And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God.
f.        (31) And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS,
g.       (32) He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David:
h.      (33) And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.
i.         (34) Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?
j.        (35) And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.
k.       (36) And, behold, thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren.
l.         (37) For with God nothing shall be impossible.
m.    (38) And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her.

10.   This event, the Annunciation by the Angel Gabriel, is the inception of the pivotal event dating from which the entire tome known as The New Testament proceeds. This, the arrival of the promised Messiah, the Son of God, is the central message of Christianity, and its importance to Christians cannot be understated. As is commonly known, Mary goes on to deliver the child Jesus in Bethlehem, according to the New Testament account.

11.   My fellow Christian acquaintances may find it interesting to discover that The Holy Qur’an also gives a narrative account of the Annunciation of the Angel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary, and of the Virgin Birth (“Mary”, Surah 19:16-26):

a.       (16) Relate in the Book the story of Mary, when she withdrew from her family to a place in the East.
b.      (17) She placed a screen (to screen herself) from them: then We sent to her Our angel, and he appeared before her as a man in all respects.
c.       (18) She said: “I seek refuge from thee to the Most Merciful: Come if thou dost fear God.”
d.      (19) He said: “Nay, I am only an Apostle of thy Lord to announce to thee the gift of a pure son.”
e.      (20) She said: “How shall I have a son, seeing that no man has touched me, and I am no unchaste?”
f.        (21) He said: “So it will be: thy Lord saith, ‘That is easy for Me’: and We shall appoint him as Sign unto mankind and Mercy from Us: it is a matter so decreed.”
g.       (22) So she conceived him, and she retired with him to a remote place.
h.      (23) And the pains of childbirth drove her to the trunk of a palm-tree: she cried (in her anguish): “Ah! Would that I had died before this! that I had been a thing forgotten.”
i.         (24) But a voice cried to her from beneath the palm-tree: “Grieve not! for thy Lord hath provided a rivulet beneath thee;
j.        (25) “And shake towards thyself the trunk of the palm-tree: it will let fall fresh ripe dates upon thee.
k.       (26) “So eat and drink and cool (thine) eye. And if thou dost see any man, say, ‘I have vowed a fast to the Most Merciful, and this day will I enter into no talk with any human being.’
l.         (27) At length she brought the babe to her people, carrying him in her arms, they said: “O Mary! truly a strange thing hast thou brought!
m.    (28) “O sister of Aaron! thy father was not a man of evil, nor thy mother a woman unchaste!”
n.      (29) But she pointed to the babe. They said: “How can we talk to one who is a child in the cradle?”
o.      (30) He said: “I am indeed Servant of God: He hath given me The Book and made me Prophet:
p.      (31) “And He hath made me blessed wheresoever I be, and hath enjoined on me prayer and charity as long as I live;
q.      (32) “He hath made me kind to my mother, and not overbearing or unblest;
r.        (33) “So Peace is on me the day I was born, the day that I die, and the day that I shall be raised up to life!”
s.       (34) Such was Jesus son of Mary: it is a statement of truth about which they vainly dispute.
t.        (35) It is not befitting to God that He should beget a son. Glory be to Him! when He determines a matter, He only says to it, “Be”, and it is.
u.      (36) Verily God is my Lord and your Lord: Him therefore serve ye: this is Way that is straight.

12.   The message of the Qur’anic account is stunning: God declares that he dispatched the Angel to make the Annunciation to Mary, she conceives because God so decreed, God decrees that the child Jesus shall be his Sign to mankind and his Mercy from God, Mary labors in pain by a palm-tree, a rivulet (stream) appears beneath her when the child Jesus is born, Mary is commanded by a voice to shake the palm-tree (which palm-trees are said to be so sturdy that they do not shake) and it miraculously shakes then yielding dates (understood by their Arabic name to be yellowish-white dates, the lightest color dates). Also note that the fruit of the tree as well as the rivulet become accessible or appear immediately after Jesus’ birth. Mary then fasts in silence and Jesus, though a newborn, speaks declaring himself to have received “The Book”, to be Servant of God, to be Prophet, and Jesus calls on all to worship His Lord and our Lord. This message is in and of itself is stunning, all the more so given that, in my own ignorance, I had no knowledge that my fellow believers in the God of Abraham, Muslims, held a series of beliefs so akin to mine. This account is exquisite, not only for its wealth of religious symbolism and literary style, but for its compelling and emotive crescendo.

13.   Two issues stand out to me and a good many other Christians: (1) The Qur’anic account does differ in some key regards from the New Testament account and (2) Jesus makes the statement, “It is not befitting to God that He should beget a son.”

14.   I am certainly not proposing that I will harmonize the Biblical and Qur’anic accounts, at least not so far as judging between the merits of the details of either account. I will, however, propose a comparison be made with another text that purports to predate the New Testament account by six-hundred years and the Qur’anic account by roughly one thousand years: The Vision of the Tree of Life in The Book of Mormon.

15.   Likewise, I will not touch upon the historicity of The Book of Mormon itself other than to acknowledge that The Book of Mormon is viewed as genuine by the Latter-day Saints (and that includes yours truly), and that besides the Latter-day Saints few if any view The Book of Mormon as anything other than a nineteenth-century work. Regardless of provenance, The Book of Mormon has been known of since 1829. In the first book of The Book of Mormon a prophet named Lehi receives a vision of The Tree of Life. Lehi’s prophet-son Nephi, believing his father's account of the vision, seeks further to understand the symbolism of the vision and, after his prayerful contemplation, he is granted his own vision in which the symbols are explained. The symbol whose interpretation Nephi most sought was that of an extraordinarily beautiful white tree that shone in a dark desert, a white and bright tree bearing white fruit that was extraordinarily sweet and joyous to the taste, a tree with a spring of pure water emanating nearby. The interpretation comes in the form of an angelic visitation, a vision, and a dialogue with the heavenly messenger (1 Nephi 11:1-25):

a.       (1) For it came to pass after I had desired to know the things that my father had seen, and believing that the Lord was able to make them known unto me, as I sat pondering in mine heart I was caught away in the Spirit of the Lord, yea, into an exceedingly high mountain, which I never had before seen, and upon which I never had before set my foot.
b.      (2) And the Spirit said unto me: Behold, what desirest thou?
c.       (3) And I said: I desire to behold the things which my father saw.
d.      (4) And the Spirit said unto me: Believest thou that thy father saw the tree of which he hath spoken?
e.      (5) And I said: Yea, thou knowest that I believe all the words of my father.
f.        (6) And when I had spoken these words, the Spirit cried with a loud voice, saying: Hosanna to the Lord, the Most High God; for he is God over all the earth, yea, even above all. And blessed art thou, Nephi, because thou believest in the Son of the most high God; wherefore, thou shalt behold the things which thou hast desired.
g.       (7) And behold this thing shall be given unto thee for a sign, that after thou hast beheld the tree which bore the fruit which thy father tasted, thou shalt also behold a man descending out of heaven, and him shall ye witness; and after ye have witnessed him ye shall bear record that it is the Son of God.
h.      (8) And it came to pass that the Spirit said unto me: Look! And I looked and beheld a tree; and it was like unto the tree which my father had seen; and the beauty thereof was far beyond, yea, exceeding of all beauty; and the whiteness thereof did exceed the whiteness of the driven snow.
i.         (9) And it came to pass after I had seen the tree, I said unto the Spirit: I behold thou hast shown unto me the tree which is precious above all.
j.        (10) And he said unto me: What desirest thou?
k.       (11) And I said unto him: To know the interpretation thereof—for I spake unto him as a man speaketh; for I beheld that he was in the form of a man; yet nevertheless, I knew that it was the Spirit of the Lord; and he spake unto me as a man speaketh with another.
l.         (12) And it came to pass that he said unto me: Look! And I looked as if to look upon him, and I saw him not; for he had gone from before my presence.
m.    (13) And it came to pass that I looked and beheld the great city of Jerusalem, and also other cities. And I beheld the city of Nazareth; and in the city of Nazareth I beheld a virgin, and she was exceedingly fair and white.
n.      (14) And it came to pass that I beheld the heavens open; and an angel came down and stood before me; and he said unto me: Nephi, what beholdest thou?
o.      (15) And I said unto him: A virgin, most beautiful and fair above all other virgins.
p.      (16) And he said unto me: Knowest thou the condescension of God?
q.      (17) And I said unto him: I know that he loveth his children; nevertheless, I do not know the meaning of all things.
r.        (18) And he said unto me: Behold, the mother whom thou seest is the mother of the Son of God, after the manner of the flesh.
s.       (19) And it came to pass that I beheld that she was carried away in the Spirit; and after that she had been carried away in the Spirit for the space of a time the angel spake unto me saying: Look!
t.        (20) And I looked and beheld the virgin again, bearing a child in her arms.
u.      (21) And the angel said unto me: Behold the Lamb of God, yea, even the Son of the Eternal Father! Knowest thou the meaning of the tree which thy father saw?
v.       (22) And I answered him, saying: Yea, it is the love of God, which sheddeth itself abroad in the hearts of the children of men; wherefore, it is the most desirable above all things.
w.     (23) And he spake unto me saying: Yea, and the most joyous to the soul.
x.       (24) And after he had said these words, he said unto me: Look! I looked, and I beheld the Son of God going forth among the children of men; and I saw many fall down at his feet and worship him.
y.       (25) And it came to pass that I beheld that the rod of iron, which my father had seen, was the word of God, which led to the fountain of living waters, or to the tree of life; which waters are a representation of the love of God; and I also beheld that the tree of life was a representation of the love of God.

16.   On the surface Nephi’s Vision of the Tree of Life and the interpretation of it may seem to have only tangential points of correspondence with the Qur’anic narrarive. However, consider the following parallels:

             Qur’an                        Book of Mormon


Angel Appeared as a         The Spirit of the Lord 
Man in all Respects            in the Form of a Man

Jesus to Be a Sign             The Witness of the Son 
unto Mankind                    of God to Be a Sign

Jesus to Be Mercy             The Tree (of Life) is 
from God                           the Son, the Love of God

Mary, a Virgin,                   Mary, a Virgin, 
Conceives                          Conceives 

Mary Labors and                Mary Delivering is 
Delivers by a Tree               the Meaning of the Tree

Rivulet Appears                  Fountain of Living Waters 
Under Mary at Tree           (Love of God) at Tree

Mary Partakes of                Fruit of Tree is White 
Whitish Dates                     and is Love of God

Jesus is Given                     Rod of Iron, Word of God, 
“The Book”                        Leads to the Tree

17.   Placed side-by-side these similarities in the two narratives are striking. The question is, (to the extent that any reader would be drawn to scrutinize this comparison), what to make of it?
18.   Certainly the opinion that “Smith plagiarized the Qur’an” has been put forward. I freely admit that, absent any compelling conviction that The Book of Mormon was miraculously translated from a manuscript etched on metal plates, which manuscript predates both The New Testament and The Qur’an, the conclusion of plagiarism or emulation (in a softer sense) would be tempting. Balancing that temptation, however, would be the ability to demonstrate plagiarism, for similarities and correspondences can also point to a common source for any two texts. Further study is, therefore, to be advised.
19.   It is surprising, though, if one leans towards a theory of textual borrowing, as many non-Latter-day Saints who may examine this issue do, that Joseph Smith, a Christian, would extract a Muslim narrative in order to fashion a Christian vision, one that would be central to the entire tome, which in this case is so, as The Tree of Life vision is central to the entire Book of Mormon.
20.   As I intimated at the outset of this blog post, I was not presuming to harmonize or settle two separate accounts of similar events. I believe the texts, The Holy Qur’an and The Book of Mormon, are spiritual, their value immense in the building up of faith, and faith, viewed a guide to actions with the intention of achieving what the agent is certain s/he will achieve, but whose confidence in the achievement process only grows as ethical and moral confirmation is accumulated via active practice, this type of faith in God leads to answers. The non-believer may not regard such answers as come from diligent faith, but come the answers do. Certainly I believe I have answers now, and hint-hint, maybe that is why I carry two copies of the Qur’an with me alongside my Latter-day Saint scriptures (in Bosnian and Arabic-English).
21.   One thing I will do, however, is address the issue of the critical divergence between the Qur’anic Account of Mary and The Book of Mormon (as well as The New Testament), at present, but in a broader sense, the divergence of Islam and Christianity.
22.   First of all, again, I am not presuming to resolve or settle differences. I have faith, and I believe that as any people search for God, and take steps to draw nearer to Him, we will draw nearer to each other. All differences are and will be settled by drawing nearer to God.
23.   I hold all books of scripture to have at least as many sources as authors contributed, or as compilers drew from. Certainly The Holy Bible has multiple authors, The Qur’an, though tradition holds it to have one author, Mohamed, at least quotes various prophets, which in a sense is a multi-faceted source, and The Book of Mormon, too, has multiple authors. Personally, I believe the Qur’an to be an amalgam of Monotheistic scriptures that were once extant in the Arabian Peninsula. Mohamed gathered, expounded, preserved, and spoke by inspiration. The same might be said of how the Old and New Testaments were joined in the fourth century A.D., where a Christian Canon, assembled by the nascent Greco-Roman Catholic Church was added to the Jewish Canon which itself had finally been approved, explicitly or tacitly, by Rabbinic Jewish authorities (the Pharisees) either in the latter first century A.D. or the second century A.D. If one views Mohamed’s role in gathering in, preserving, and contributing to a second parallel canon of Monotheistic writ as constituting authorship, then Mohamed may be viewed as the book’s single author. This I reiterate, is my personal view, in my, at best, dilettante musing.
24.   That said, the obvious point of diversion in the two accounts is this:

The Qur’anic Account:

(35) It is not befitting to God that He should beget a son. Glory be to Him! when He determines a matter, He only says to it, “Be”, and it is.
(36) Verily God is my Lord and your Lord: Him therefore serve ye: this is Way that is straight.


The Book of Mormon Account:

(21) And the angel said unto me: Behold the Lamb of God, yea, even the Son of the Eternal Father! Knowest thou the meaning of the tree which thy father saw?
(22) And I answered him, saying: Yea, it is the love of God, which sheddeth itself abroad in the hearts of the children of men; wherefore, it is the most desirable above all things.

25.   The moving narrative in the Qur’an comes to this great crescendo “It is not befitting to God that He should beget a son”, but affirms the greatness and power of God, our Lord. The Book of Mormon vision reaches its crescendo with the words “Behold the Lamb of God, yea, even the Son of the Eternal Father!”, and then affirms God’s love for all the children of men (children of Adam).
26.   I have been asked if such a point of divergence is not offensive to me. My response now as a wiser (though not yet ‘wise’) 48-year-old is, “No, nor could it be. How could a profession of faith, especially with obvious love of God be offensive to me. I love God, and I make no pretense at being ‘right’ about everything. Let us all follow God, and if we are taught by him humbly, he will bring us to a unity in all points.”
27.   I had this conversation just last Thursday with a Somali brother. He shared this very passage of the Qur’an with me, and I shared the very passage of The Book of Mormon with him. But fancy this, questions posed in the negative are often misunderstood by the addressee. Remember the question at the outset, “James, would you not like a cookie?” I put it to the reader that even in scripture such statements can get misunderstood.
28.   When Moses conversed with the Lord, per The King James Translation, the Lord said the following about his name (the Lord’s name) (Exodus 6:3):

a.       (3) And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but by my name JEHOVAH was I not known unto them.

29.   So, per the translation of the account, this moment was the occasion when God revealed his name JEHOVAH unto a prophet, and by him to the world. Except, fancy the following which was written, says the textual tradition, by the same prophet, Moses:

a.       Genesis 24:3 “I [Abraham] will make thee swear by Jehovah, God of heaven, and God of earth…"
b.      Genesis 22:14 (Abraham in the presence of Isaac) “And Abraham called the name of that place [where Abraham was called to sacrifice Isaac] Jehovah-Jireh ‘Jehovah will provide’…"
c.       Genesis 28:13 (Jacob’s Vision of a Staircase or Ladder) “And, behold, Jehovah stood above it, and said, I am Jehovah, God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac…”

30.   So how does one account for the King James translators (and in all honesty, for a good majority, probably, of Christian and Jewish translators) rendering that God had not revealed himself as Jehovah to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, when in reality God had revealed himself as Jehovah to all three, directly or, in the account of Isaac, via Abraham’s mentioning the name?
31.   I will call on us to remember one peculiarity of ancient scripts: there was no punctuation. More to the point, there was no question mark. I put it to you that the text in Hebrew reads accurately, but absent punctuation, translators and even Hebrew teachers of religion, could misread and do misread the text. What God most likely said to Moses was not version (A) but version (B); please note the difference:

a.       (A) And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but by my name JEHOVAH was I not known unto them.
b.      (B) And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, and by my name JEHOVAH was I not known unto them?

32.   By the way, in Biblical Hebrew there was no word for “but”, rather “and” was used to cover both coordinating functions (that is why in the translation I felt at liberty to change “but” to “and”).
33.   Getting back to the topic of the Qur’an, the same was true of old Arabic or Syriac script: no punctuation. I put forward that a legitimate alternate reading, and what I believe is the intended reading based on the text and its almost hyper-abundant Messianic symbolism, I put forward that the seemingly divergent phrase in the Qur’an (one of only a few) actually reads as such:

a.       (33) “So Peace is on me [Jesus] the day I was born, the day that I die, and the day that I shall be raised up to life!”
b.      (34) Such was Jesus son of Mary: it is a statement of truth about which they vainly dispute.
c.       (35) Is it not befitting to God that He should beget a Son? Glory be to Him! when He determines a matter, He only says to it, “Be”, and it is.

34.   My fellow Monotheists, my Muslim brethren, may disagree with my interpretation, and I respect their views. But fancy this: I (and scholars of the Qur’an) put forward that the Qur’an is an amalgam of Monotheistic writingssome Jewish, many Christian, others Arabic Monotheistic—though subsequently efforts were made to smooth out the differences in doctrinal points among the various contributing texts. My Muslim brethren often share with me that “Christ did not die but was taken to heaven”, often by quoting the Qur’an: “That they said, ‘We killed Christ Jesus the son of Mary, the Shiloh of God’;--but they killed him not, nor crucified him. Only a likeness of that was shown to them…” (Surah IV: 157) Surely the text declares what my friends state, except that Jesus is quoted as saying “So Peace is on me the day I was born, the day that I die, and the day that I shall be raised up to life!”, thereby affirming his coming death and resurrection, also as quoted in the selfsame Qur’an. This, in my reading, is a vestige of the early amalgamation of texts in the Qur’an.

35.   Of course, the reader may make of these citations what he or she will. I see a reason to compare the previously examined textsthat reason being origin from a common source, be it textual or oral, but one that predates all the texts, dare I say one that is the ultimate source of inspirationand personally I believe I have been enriched by what The Bible, The Book of Mormon and The Qur’an have to teach, all tomes as presently constituted. Others may legitimately see no compelling reason to juxtapose these three accounts, in particular the accounts from the latter two tomes, The Qur’an and The Book of Mormon. But however we conclude, hopefully all will at least ponder this: Are these accounts not actually textual?

1 comment:

  1. "Let us all follow God, and if we are taught by him humbly, he will bring us to a unity in all points.”

    ReplyDelete