seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Quran 2:256. There shall be no compulsion in religion; the right way has become distinct from the wrong way. Whoever renounces evil and believes in God has grasped the most trustworthy handle; which does not break. God is Hearing and Knowing.
257. God is the Lord of those who believe; He brings them out of darkness and into light. As for those who disbelieve, their lords are the evil ones; they bring them out of light and into darkness—these are the inmates of the Fire, in which they will abide forever.
258. Have you not considered him who argued with Abraham about his Lord, because God had given him sovereignty? Abraham said, “My Lord is He who gives life and causes death.” He said, “I give life and cause death.” Abraham said, “God brings the sun from the East, so bring it from the West,” so the blasphemer was confounded. God does not guide the wrongdoing people.
259. Or like him who passed by a town collapsed on its foundations. He said, “How can God revive this after its demise?” Thereupon God caused him to die for a hundred years, and then resurrected him. He said, “For how long have you tarried?” He said, “I have tarried for a day, or part of a day.” He said, “No. You have tarried for a hundred years. Now look at your food and your drink—it has not spoiled—and look at your donkey. We will make you a wonder for mankind. And look at the bones, how We arrange them, and then clothe them with flesh.” So when it became clear to him, he said, “I know that God has power over all things.”
260. And when Abraham said, “My Lord, show me how You give life to the dead.” He said, “Have you not believed?” He said, “Yes, but to put my heart at ease.” He said, “Take four birds, and incline them to yourself, then place a part on each hill, then call to them; and they will come rushing to you. And know that God is Powerful and Wise.”
261. The parable of those who spend their wealth in God’s way is that of a grain that produces seven spikes; in each spike is a hundred grains. God multiplies for whom He wills. God is Bounteous and Knowing.
262. Those who spend their wealth in the way of God, and then do not follow up what they spent with reminders of their generosity or with insults, will have their reward with their Lord—they have nothing to fear, nor shall they grieve.
These verses are way over my head so I went to the commentary.
The causing the prophet to die for a hundred years is also an incident of the vision which, though not narrated in the Bible, is corroborated by facts, standing symbolically for the death of the Jewish nation, a death of disgrace and sorrow, or the desolation of Jerusalem, which covered a period of almost a hundred years. Jerusalem was taken by Nebuchadnezzar in 599 B.C. (2 Kings 24:10); Cyrus gave permission to rebuild the temple in 537 B.C. (Ezra 1:2), the house being eventually finished in 515 B.C. (Ezra 6:15). The Bible does not give us the history of the period from 515 B.C., and even if we are not allowed to conjecture that another fifteen years may have been taken by the Israelites to settle back in Jerusalem and to rebuild the city itself for their own habitation, the period from 599 to 515 B.C. covers almost fully the whole of the sixth century B.C., and hence the hundred years of the prophet’s death in this vision represent the hundred years of the death of the Israelite nation.
It goes on....The answer to Abraham’s how as given in the Qur’ån is a perfectly intelligible parable. If he should take four birds and tame them, they would obey his call and fly to him even from the distant mountains. If the birds, then, obey his call, he being neither their master nor the author of their existence, would not nations submit to the call of their Divine Master and the Author of their existence? Or if the birds, being only tamed for a short time by a man who had otherwise no control over them, become so obedient to their tamer, has not Allåh the power to control all those causes which govern the life and death of nations? Whenever He wishes to destroy a people He brings about the causes of their decline and evil fortune overtakes them; and when He wishes to make a people prosperous He brings about causes which result in their rise and progress. That the word ∆å’ir (plural ∆air is used here) which signifies a bird, also signifies the cause of good and evil, or misery or happiness (T, LL), in which sense the word is used in 7:131 and elsewhere in the Holy Qur’ån, is a further indication of the significance of the parable of the birds, through which Abraham is made to realize how the Almighty controls the fortunes of nations. It is an error to suppose that Abraham actually took four birds and tamed them. The Qur’ån does not say so. It only makes Abraham realize the wonderful manifestation of Divine power by a parable.
If you ask me.... Abraham may have had a problem with the promise God made to Hagar. Abraham had his favorites..... and the son of a slave girl probably wasn't high on his list. Ishmael was a bastard..... Isaac was the prized baby..... but God does what God chooses. God blesses who He wants to when He wants to. Humans don't have a very long attention span. We're no better than trained birds. We only listen for a while.... but we can be pulled off course by anything that glistens.... magpie.... we're all just magpies.
God put Jerusalem on hold because they had given up on Him and they were worshipping the all mighty shiny baubles.
God can shut down any government He so chooses.
