seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Quran 8:29. O you who believe! If you remain conscious of God, He will give you a criterion, and will remit from you your sins, and will forgive you. God is possessor of infinite grace.
30. When the disbelievers plotted against you, to imprison you, or kill you, or expel you. They planned, and God planned, but God is the Best of planners.
31. And when Our revelations are recited to them, they say, “We have heard. Had we wanted, we could have said the like of this; these are nothing but myths of the ancients.”
32. And they said, “Our God, if this is the truth from You, then rain down on us stones from the sky, or visit us with a painful affliction.”
33. But God would not punish them while you are amongst them. And God would not punish them as long as they seek forgiveness.
34. Yet why should God not punish them, when they are turning others away from the Sacred Mosque, although they are not its custodians? Its rightful custodians are the pious; but most of them do not know.
35. Their prayer at the House was nothing but whistling and clapping—so taste the punishment for your blasphemy.
36. Those who disbelieve spend their wealth to repel from God’s path. They will spend it, then it will become a source of sorrow for them, and then they will be defeated. Those who disbelieve will be herded into Hell.
37. That God may distinguish the bad from the good, and heap the bad on top of one another, and pile them together, and throw them in Hell. These are the losers
38. Say to those who disbelieve: if they desist, their past will be forgiven. But if they persist—the practice of the ancients has passed away.
39. Fight them until there is no more persecution, and religion becomes exclusively for God. But if they desist—God is Seeing of what they do.
40. And if they turn away, know that God is your Protector. The Best Protector, and the Best Supporter.
This is the commentary.
The reference is to the final plans of the Quraish when, the companions having emigrated to Madßnah, the Prophet was left alone at Makkah. Various plans were suggested at a great meeting of the Quraish chiefs in their town hall; the plan ultimately adopted was that the Prophet should be slain, a number of youths belonging to different tribes thrusting their swords into his body at one and the same time, so that one man or tribe should not have the charge laid against him or it. It was with this object that the Prophet’s house was surrounded, but he got away unnoticed. The Divine plan was that the disbelievers should see the downfall of their power at the hands of the Prophet.
The punishment was to overtake them when the Holy Prophet was no more among them, i.e. after his flight from Makkah. But even then the punishment might be averted, if they asked for forgiveness.
The disbelievers are here declared not to be the true guardians of the Sacred Mosque, because while that Mosque was an emblem of the Unity of the Divine Being, its name having been clearly associated with monotheism since the time of Abraham, the disbelievers who now posed as its guardians were idolaters. So they are told that they are unfit to hold its guardianship, which would henceforth be made over to a people who keep their duty, i.e. the Muslims. The words contain a prophecy not only as to the deprivation of the disbelieving Quraish of the guardianship of the Ka‘bah, but also as to the passing of the guardianship into the hands of the Muslims.
In fact the House was not used by them for offering prayers to God but for sacrilegious talk and gossiping.
Desisting and returning both relate to fighting against the Muslims, not to unbelief, because the unbelievers could not be said to return to disbelief. They had gone away from Badr quite discomfited, and they were told that, if they desisted from fighting, they would be forgiven.
That is, if they desist from fighting and put an end to their mischief, God’s decree of punishment will not be executed. God sees what men do, and if they mend their ways, He will not punish them. The state of religious liberty which Islåm aimed at is put tersely in the two opening statements — there is no more persecution and all religions are for Allåh.
If they return to fight, then Allåh will protect the Muslim community, helping them against their enemy, as He is their Patron and Helper.
Ugh.... I'm not seeing the story. From what I gather, the mosque is the temple for the Muslims. Apparently there were polytheists worshipping there. Apparently the first stones Abraham placed were at the site where the polytheists were holding their prayers. So.... Muhammed was a problem. They planned to murder Muhammed in a knife fight. They would surround him and turn him into a human pin cushion. But Muhammed escaped unnoticed.
We saw something like that happen in the Bible. When Jesus went to Nazareth to teach.... His family plotted to throw Jesus off a cliff. That's what they did to the insane back then.... they didn't have institutions for those with mental problems.... they threw the crazy people off a cliff. But Jesus escaped unnoticed.
Luke 4:28 All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. 29 They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him off the cliff. 30 But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.
When I was a kid.... I thought Jesus lived at the church. I'm talking.... little kid... too young to climb Mr. Whipple's apple trees. I didn't know about angels or demons. I only knew about church and Jesus. Since then, I've seen churches split, Bible burning over translation arguments, and women pounding on the altar in a Christian Church demanding God do what they insist. God has been boxed up and capitalized. You can buy a prayer book to do away with all your ills. You can buy a candle to light for every occasion. You can't just buy a cross.... now each group has their own version of the cross.... Methodists, Catholics, and Baptists all have their own rendition of the perfect cross to wear. I've even seen the church set up like a rock concert.... with the band in the chapel and their CDs on sale for a low low price of..... oh and have you read their special prayer book? It's the tale of how to become rich off the gospel life.... that's right "off" not "in".
So many of our churches have become polytheistic. We didn't even see it happening. Jesus walked away from Nazareth when He saw what they were doing. They plotted to kill Him for telling them they were doing wrong. Here.... in the Quran.... I see that they plotted to murder Muhammed too.... for pointing out their polytheistic ways. Jesus ran the money changers out of the synagogue and Muhammed ran the polytheists out of the Mosque.
What's going on in your chapel?
