Originally posted by siam
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aHadith---These are a collection of the "sayings" of the Prophet. They were collected many years after his death and so they have varying degrees of authenticity depending on their chain of narration. Context is very important in understanding hadith otherwise it distorts the meaning/intent. (Dr Jonathan Brown explains the topic on the net) Do Christians have many exegesis? If so, are there any particular ones you use/favor?
Arabic---I am not an Arab (I live in the East) so I feel lucky that I can read Quranic Arabic. I do not speak any Arabic dialects. Imran---it seems to me you are under the impression that in all of history, there is only one person that is called Imran?
Such confusion is perfectly understandable, inasmuch as Muhammad is believed to have been illiterate and was reporting thirdhand stories about the tales of Christians and Jews. The Qur'an shows a similar confusion in its critique of the Christian doctrine of the Trinity, which claims that Christians consider the Trinity to consist of the Father, the Son, and Mary:
They have certainly disbelieved who say, "Allah is the third of three." And there is no god except one God. And if they do not desist from what they are saying, there will surely afflict the disbelievers among them a painful punishment. So will they not repent to Allah and seek His forgiveness? And Allah is Forgiving and Merciful. The Messiah, son of Mary, was not but a messenger; [other] messengers have passed on before him. And his mother was a supporter of truth. They both used to eat food. Look how We make clear to them the signs; then look how they are deluded. (Surah 5:73-75)
The comment about Mary and Jesus eating food is supposed to be proof that they are not God or gods. This comment would be irrelevant if the author did not believe that Jesus and Mary were held, by Christians, to be divine. And the author is half-right; Christians do believe Jesus is God. But not Mary. There may have been some weird sect of pseudo-Christians who believed that Mary was the third member of the Trinity, but no educated Muslim today would claim that is a feature of normal Christianity. Yet the Qur'an critiques "Jesus was God" and "Mary was God" with equal vigor, as if both were standard Christian beliefs:
And [beware the Day] when Allah will say, "O Jesus, Son of Mary, did you say to the people, 'Take me and my mother as deities besides Allah ?'" He will say, "Exalted are You! It was not for me to say that to which I have no right. If I had said it, You would have known it. You know what is within myself, and I do not know what is within Yourself. Indeed, it is You who is Knower of the unseen. (Surah 5:117)
Even Abu al-Qasim Mahmud ibn Umar al-Zamakhshari, commenting on the Qur'an during the 11th century, claims that Christians think Mary is the third person of the Trinity. I trust that you know better though, Siam. The third person of the Trinity is not Mary, but the Holy Spirit, which refers not to God's creation the angel Gabriel, but to a person who is God himself.
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