chapter 3 my thoughts

At first, the chapter stuck me out as being interesting: Al-Imran.
Some people say the translation is: Amramites
So a couple of questions rose from me first of being who are the Amramites?
Google results says that they are descendants of the Amram people; who had the charge of the tabernacle, guarding the arc, table, candlesticks i.e. the treasures of the house of Yahweh – see numbers 3:27, Chronicles 26:23,22.

Verse 1
Letters Alif, Lam, Mim – Similar as in Baqrah and other Rum, Luqman etc

Verse 2
Statement of fact – There is no God except He – The Living, the Eternal. Which is for me the creed of our religion- oneness of God.

Verse 3-4
Confirmation that this scripture – Quran – is from God and also says that the scripture confirms all other scriptures – “and He sent down the Torah and Gospel and before that God sent the statute book”. Interesting that the torah and gospel
Question: What is the Statute Book?

Verse 6
God is the one who shapes in the womb as he wills – statement of fact for me.. There is no other God beside Him, The Almighty, Most wise.
All through the scripture is this theme, “La ilaha illa lahu”.. That is all it says, continually and re-affirmingly. Adding the attributes of the Most High to it… never any messenger or prophet.

Verse 7
In this scripture – Quran- there are straightforward verses and also states that they “ constitute the essence of the scripture”. So I guess straightforward verses are clear and concise in terms of intent and meaning.
In this scripture – Quran- There are multiple meaning/allegorical verses which says “those who harbour doubts in their hearts will pursue the multiple meaning verses to create confusion and to extricate a certain meaning” So to me, I guess that there are multiple meaning verses and they can mean more than one thing… “ No one knows the true meaning except God and those well founded in knowledge” God is the foundation of knowledge, which I wholly accept as a fact for me.

They say, “We believe in this, all of it comes from our Lord” So I guess again that this is the best approach to take as quran is a guiding scripture from God. Everything in is if from God, the most High. There is nothing like you accept one part while leaving another part of it… You cannot say that the quran is not complete because it is. I feel you cannot accept part of it and accept the reported hadiths (which in so many ways contradicts the quran severally) as the other part to Gods guidance (this is me digging at the hadithers!!)

“Everything comes from God” whatever meaning you arrive at or whatever meaning makes sense to you, God is the one who will guide you to the true meaning, as long as you seek it in sincerity, I feel you should do what you think is best for you as long as you remember the essence – God is one God – worship God alone. God is the only one that guides to the truth and may He guide us to the correct meaning, by His will.

Verse 14
Materials of this world are women, children, money, home wealth etc.
I remember when I was feeling very low and depressed and when I read this verse I felt a bit better because this for me re-inforces that marriage/children is not paramount to salvation neither is having children. As long as I live righteously and wholly believe in my creator and worship Him alone then all is well, Gw. Besides the best for me is at my Gods side and that is what I am after. “ The far better abode that is reserved at God”
However way I look at it, it is the best thing for me and Adetutu definitely knows that the right way is always the best way for her. No half measures about it.

Now don’t get me wrong here, I am not advocating celibacy and “monkism” or “nunnerism” because I don’t believe in that. I am enjoined to settle down as that is better for me (which I agree), but if perchance I cannot find the right person to settle with, I shall resort to patience and as best as I can as remain righteous Gw, my lord will provide for me as he knows what I am after what is best for me,

Verse 17
Qualities that are good to have being steadfast, humble, submitting, charitable, meditators at dawn

Verse 18
Statement of Fact again – There is only One God, The Almighty, Most Wise. This is the essence and declaration of faith.

Verse 19
Only religion approved by God is submission. Interesting because I guess this is what all messengers of God have been advocating. Submission to God’s will, to His laws.
It also goes to say that the people who received the scriptures (which may be the torah, gospel, statute book, quran) are the very ones who dispute this fact despite the knowledge they have received.

Verse 23
I like this verse: Some who were given the scripture and how they are invited to uphold this scripture and apply it to their lives – but some turn away in aversion.
Is this not what is happening? When we say Quran alone, they say that is nonsense; they say that it is the hadiths that they will follow. Well, go on follow hadiths now and see where that will end you. I don’t understand us, where God alone is not enough for people that they resort to getting guidance from other than God and His scriptures… God direct me to the straight path by his will.

Verse 24 (added 12/05/09)
I am after great lenght remembering what my malims used to tell us when we has quran lessons. in particular when i was re-reading this part it then dawned on me. What i remember was malim saying that for some people, on the DOJ, they will be punished for whatever sins they done bla bla bla i.e be thrown into hell but after a while, the prophet mohammed will then interceed for them and God will take them out of hell and into paradise. Or the other one that said on DOJ all humans will be grouped into lines of people and the rest is hazy but memory brings up 44 lines and like dat only one line of the 44 will go to paradise or only 44 lines will go to paradise or sumthing? go figure..

Verse 28
Believers never ally themselves with disbelievers instead of believers – So I guess it is a case of show me your friends and I will tell you who you are – Support believers over disbelievers.

Verse 30
Statement again – “Reverence God alone” I singled it out again after reading the verse. "God alerts you that you shall reverence Him alone" 12/05/09

Verse 32
Statement – “You shall obey God and the messenger” Whenever I see this I go, ok I understand what God is asking me to do. Obey Him and obey his messenger. I guess this is the part where most of us have tick with. Obey messenger does not mean copy his habits, his mannerisms and his action. We obey instructions, which is invariably the instructions of the Almighty and as such we are obeying the Almighty.

So what are the messengers asking us to do? They are relating Gods scriptures to us asking us to uphold them and to obey the commandments therein. This takes me to another part in the Quran where I think it says something like “ never would a messenger of God ask you to idolize him instead of God” See 3:79.

I feel what the messengers are asking us to do is to worship god and obey His laws. Obeying the messenger is obeying Gods laws, commandments and upholding Gods scriptures.

This also brings to mind the palava of the “hadiths” which people have collated as the sayings of one particular prophet. First why not collate sayings of the other messengers and prophets. At least we al agree that we have more than one messenger? Nest pas?
Then again these sayings are many and numerous each in itself contradicting themselves and also contradicting the Quran. Reported and post-reported speeches purporting to be that of the messengers, his habits and mannerisms…
I am quite sure, if there was one that said the messenger used to spank his wife’s butt after sex, quite a lot of us will do the same as well. In any case what do I know?
I only believe, that I cannot accept anything without verifying it for myself, and for me my Lord is my inspiration so anything anyone brings, if there is good in it, my Lord guide me to it, if not my lord will keep me away from it.

Verse 33
It translates for me that God has chosen Adam, Noah, Abraham and the family of Amram (as the lineage of messengers to the people)

See article “Hebrew manuscript of the Middle Ages” by Collette Sirat.

Verse 34
These above people belong in the same progeny i.e. they all come from the same genetic line

Verse 35-50
Wife of Amram dedicating her baby to god. This I guess starts the story of Mary, mother of Jesus. So Amram was Mary’s father. Also touches in Jesus and how he came to being which is partly Mary’s story
Also story of Zachariah who begat John – what happened and how God answered his prayers.

Verse 43.
This is of particular interest to me because of the part where I read: “submit to God and prostrate and bow down” this confirms that the process of salat/worship through prostration and bowing down is not a new phenomenon that was given to Mohammed. It was already established as I have read in the Quran and was practiced by Abraham, Moses.

Verse 51
Jesus said “Godi s my Lord and your Lord. you shall Worship Him (God) alone, this is the right path” is that not wonderful? So where did our brethrens start claiming that he is their saviour? Man and his account of history has a lot to play in all this misconception and we all have a lot to answer for ourselves. If only we can open our eyes, gw God will enlightenus that He alone is worthy of Praise and worship. It is not worship and praise of God via any Prophet/messenger but rather worship and praise of God via direct contact..
This part is also a good example for my explanations of verse 32. The messenger issued an instruction “ worship God alone” and as such we are to obey.

Verse 52-55
Story of the disciples of Jesus and some more on Jesus.

Verse 60
Statement – “This is the truth from your Lord, do not harbour any doubts”. Self-explanatory

Verse 61 12/05/09
is anyone willing to invoke such a curse on themselves.. lesson here is tolreance.. its is not about argueing that mine is the right way even though it may be, it is about asking God to enlighten us all and to guide us all to his path. for me, all dem hardline fanatics- my way or the highway- it is commendable but what if your way that you are porporting is the wrong way? and the highway is the right way? what then? makes one think. Rather surah 109:6 explains it beautifully when it says " To you is your religion and to to me is my religion" We are all racing to get Gods acceptance and to gain entry to paradise.. God is the only one who knows those who are on right path and those who serve Him.. I guess we all hope that We are included within Gods mercy and attain paradise.. At least i hope that.. what about you?.. remember God knows while we dont know..

Verse 62
Statement of fact – that the narration is one of the truth, also statement that there is no god except God.

Verse 64
This verse for me is about focusing on similarities and engaging in a mutual and logical agreement. We are all the same community and the only way we can get along is by conjoining similarities and sticking to that. Even within our purported sects… it is still the way we can be indivisible.
- Come to a logical agreement that we will worship God alone and never set up idols besides God nor set up any human beings as Lord beside God. - Think about this statement and reflect how it epitomizes what is happening in our world today.

Verse 65-67
We argue about the status of Gods messengers (this is what I feel is one of the driving wedges in our coming together) but interestingly we all share them together. Lets look at Abraham; we all share him in our 3 main religions done we? But can anyone of us say for sure that he is a Jew, Christian or Muslim? Can we? No we can’t!
So I can take it by my understanding that this verse says that we should not argue because the scriptures were revealed after him (though I read somewhere in quran where it mentions that Abraham was given a scripture as well - need to find more info if I can abut this) Why argue and make conjecture about what we don’t know?
All we know was that Abraham was a messenger of God, a prophet. So from this I can gather that being labeled Muslim, Jew/Christian isn’t the important thing. What is important is that like Abraham we all serve and worship one God, the Almighty Most Wise. “Abraham was never an idol worshipper.”

Verse 68
“People most worthy of Abraham are those who followed him” so for me this means the best example has been set by Abraham, who worshipped God alone. “ And this prophet”
This part I feel related to Mohammed himself, as he was a staunch worshipper of One God. All these additions we see today were done after Mohammed, not while he was alive.

Verse 73
Religion is not by compulsion! If they tell you to follow their religion before they believe – best reply is “ true guidance is Gods guidance”, Only God bestows His grace and guidance as He wills. It is not for me to say that I am guided or for you to say you are guided. Only God guides. May he guide us to the right path by His will.

Verse 79
This verse for me sums up all the factions/fractions/divisions/alliances that we have in all the worldly religions of today. “ Never would a prophet/messenger of God say to his people to idolize him instead of God. Instead he would say to devote yourself to God alone according to the scriptures you preach and the teachings you learn”
Let us be clear people, what we see today, is idolizing prophets and messengers and saints and whatever else we have. Because that is what it is. If the messengers themselves have advocated that we “devote ourselves to God alone according to the scriptures we preach and teachings we learn” where on earth did we start devoting ourselves to God according to the hadiths, where did we start letting human beings dictating how we serve god ad how we worship God, where did we start inventing laws and rules which clearly contradicts what is in the quran, where did we start dividing ourselves into sects and factions? Wo jare, this life Na wah!

Verse 80
Also says “ Nor would he command you to idolize the angels and prophets as Lords” So where did we get these habits from?

Verse 81
Messenger to come to confirm all existing scriptures

Verse 84
Belief in God and all His scriptures – mentions Abraham, Ishmael. Isaac, Jacob, the patriarch – what was given to Moses and Jesus: which I guess is the statute book, torah and Gospel – “ We make no distinctions among any of them, to God alone we are submitters” let us start thinking… for those of us who value some of our prophets above the others, for some of us who value some scripture above others?

Verse 92
I guess means you cannot attain righteousness till you sincerely give to charity from the possessions you love – important thing here

Verse 93
All food used to be lawful until Israel imposed certain prohibitions on themselves before the torah revealed.

Verse 95
You shall follow Abraham’s religion- worshipping one God- he was never an idolater. He was a monotheist.

Verse 97
Observe Hajj when you can afford it

Verse 100
Some people who received scripture, if you believe them, they will revert you to disbelief – for me I think that when you rely on people to form your belief, you end up being led astray- besides who is more apt to guide other than our creator?

Verse 101
This is in addition to the above, it goes on to say “ whoever holds onto God will be guided in the right path” – so can’t we all agree to stick by that, hold onto God alone, focus on our similarity – Quran and stick to that alone, let God inspire us and direct us to his path?

Verse 102
Statement – “Observe God as he should be observed” - and “do not die except as submitters” self-explanatory. Brings to mind what someone said Re: DOJ - what we are doing in this life is building up our souls for the DOJ when God and final truth is established. Should you loose your soul on that day then you have nothing and are left with nothing.

Verse 103
Statement - Hold onto God and do not be divided – his verse for me means even if we dispute on thins maybe out of interpretation or understanding, the best resolve is to hold onto God, because he is the only constant thing in our lives and reality. Besides with this as the only similarity amongst our differences we stand to become united.

Verse 108
Revelations in the quran truthful – I guess that is easy to understand and apply. “God does not wish hardship upon people” – I can take this part to mean – following God’s words, observing God as he should be observed, holding onto God is very simple.
(Simple but complicated for some of us because it is hard to grasp how easy it is to actually worship God because we have been doctrined into believing the most ridiculous complexities about God and about worship that actually grasping the simplicity of what the God asks us to do in Quran is almost a big task were in actual fact it is not.)
We are the ones who complicate the whole worship thing by adding to Gods words, when we should not be doing that… for example look at the ablution thing, in the Quran ablution is all about wash face, arms, wipe head and wash feet. But today its is wash hands three times, wash mouth three times, put water in nose, wash face, wash right arm three times, wash left arm three times, wipe head, wash ears, wash feet. Now tell me who ordered all these additional steps for us?? They will say the prophet? But how can the prophet go against God? Obviously that is impossible, because the prophet was ordered to uphold the same scriptures that were revealed to him as we are asked to do the same??
Na wah O!!
Advocate righteousness, forbid evil and believe in God.

Verse 110
From this verse I find it poignant that it doesn’t specify which community and which group of the followers of the scripture. It just says followers of the scripture – which to me looks at our community as a collective- So we all guilty peeps, no need to point fingers which most Muslims do by pointing at Christians and Jews and others.

Verse 112
Question for me here: Gods covenant, could it be referring to the one in Verse 81

Verse 113
Recite Gods revelations – Quran – through the night and fall prostrate – Good thing to do

Verse 118-120
RULE: don’t befriend those who wish you harm/want to see you suffer. It is plain simple advice, why dance butt naked in front of blazing fire?

Verse 125
Even at war, if your numbers are down, God will support you with His help. In a way this verse strengthens and reaffirms that God will be with those on the right, He will provide them with His support and help.
I remember a programme I watched about someone almost “vetoing” these extremist suicide bombers because according to my memory he says, “ we want to retaliate in kind and because their opponents weaponry is far superior to theirs, suicide seems the way to go” See how the evil are exposing themselves slowly…
BullShit!!! If you believe and you are in the right, you do not have to resort to petty tricks and wrong assumptions. You should resort to patience and trust in God. Even if you were one person fighting Gods support far outweighs your enemy by a million to one.
Verse 130
LAW: Shall not take usury. Observe God that you may succeed.

Let me pause here and talk about something that popped into my head. You know what I find interesting, Jews don’t accept Christianity but you see Christianity builds up on the old testament stuff which is what I think Judaism uphold.
Interesting thing for me is that Christianity doesn’t accept Islam but Islam builds up on Christianity stuff as well as Judaism stuff. It is sort of like with each revelation, the community doesn’t want to let go of what they feel is theirs and what they feel they have had and accept anything new. Interesting concept n’est pas?

Verse 132
Obey God and the messenger that you may attain mercy

Verse 133
Race towards forgiveness from your Lord and towards paradise

Verse 134-136
GOOD TRAITS: Give to charity in good and difficult times, try to suppress anger and pardon people, ask forgiveness for sins and don’t persist in sinning knowingly

Verse 139
You shall not waiver nor grieve. The believers are the ultimate victors. This verse strengthens my heart

Verse 142
Each one will be tested

Verse 145
No one dies except when his time is up. There is nothing like accidental death or mistake death. You go when you are meant to go.

Verse 175
It is the devils system to instill fear into his subject. Don’t fear the devil but fear God instead as He is the CREATOR. The devil has no real power only GOD has power for he is the LORD OF THE UNIVERSE.
I find this verse interesting because when we look at today’s systems, of converting and charming people into any religion, they do it with fear. Hell fire and brimstone fear which chills to the bone. But Gods system is simple, whether you do or you don’t do.
It is not coersion or by force, it is a conscious choice that one has to re-affirm each day and every night.

Verse 186
You will be tested. But perseverance and maintaining righteousness will prove the test of ones faith.

Verse 200
LAW: Shall be steadfast, shall persevere, shall be united and shall observe God

For translations go to http://www.submission.org/quran/webqt.php enter chapter number and compare up to six diff translations

Praise be to the Lord of the Universe.