"God desires to make [this] clear unto you, and to guide you to the traditions of those who went before you, and to relent unto you. And God is Knowing, Wise. God desires to relent unto you, and those who follow lusts desire that you to tremendously astray. God desires to lighten [your burden] for you, for man was created weak"
Quran 4:26-28
Here's another passage from the 4th surah, al-Nisa, "The Women." Most directly this is a revelation in regards to rules relating to marriages, and a loosening of them. However, in a larger context, this follows up on yesterday's passage and blog post about mercy and forgiveness. I've always found the line, "God desires to lighten [your burden] for you, for man was created weak," to be fascinating. On the one hand you might sardonically point out that God is owning a mistake: "Yeah, sorry, that's on me. It was a busy weak and I was distracted, and, well, it just didn't come together like I was hoping. Again, sorry." However, it's hard to imagine an all-knowing, all-powerful God somehow clumsily and unintentionally putting out a faulty product. So, if humans were intentionally created "weak," why? Now, of course, if you don't believe in God, and religion is just a humanly fabricated belief system designed to explain things, then this passage provides the "out" we all need to our consistent frailty and moral failures. But that doesn't explain why in a religious worldview based on the existence of God that humans would be created weak. Unless we come back to the notion, which we've discussed before, about the freedom that humans were given, including the freedom to not believe. Similarly, if humans are so susceptible to temptation then then they are also, I would add, oddly positioned to avoid that temptation, to overcome their own nature. This reminds me of a conversation that I had with a Muslim friend when I was teaching in the UAE, long before I converted, when he pointed out that it was stupid that all (well, most) the restaurants were closed during Ramadan. His point was that the key to Ramadan was fasting, and the mental discipline to fast, not making the process of fasting easy. If it was easy then it meant nothing.
Quran 4:26-28
Here's another passage from the 4th surah, al-Nisa, "The Women." Most directly this is a revelation in regards to rules relating to marriages, and a loosening of them. However, in a larger context, this follows up on yesterday's passage and blog post about mercy and forgiveness. I've always found the line, "God desires to lighten [your burden] for you, for man was created weak," to be fascinating. On the one hand you might sardonically point out that God is owning a mistake: "Yeah, sorry, that's on me. It was a busy weak and I was distracted, and, well, it just didn't come together like I was hoping. Again, sorry." However, it's hard to imagine an all-knowing, all-powerful God somehow clumsily and unintentionally putting out a faulty product. So, if humans were intentionally created "weak," why? Now, of course, if you don't believe in God, and religion is just a humanly fabricated belief system designed to explain things, then this passage provides the "out" we all need to our consistent frailty and moral failures. But that doesn't explain why in a religious worldview based on the existence of God that humans would be created weak. Unless we come back to the notion, which we've discussed before, about the freedom that humans were given, including the freedom to not believe. Similarly, if humans are so susceptible to temptation then then they are also, I would add, oddly positioned to avoid that temptation, to overcome their own nature. This reminds me of a conversation that I had with a Muslim friend when I was teaching in the UAE, long before I converted, when he pointed out that it was stupid that all (well, most) the restaurants were closed during Ramadan. His point was that the key to Ramadan was fasting, and the mental discipline to fast, not making the process of fasting easy. If it was easy then it meant nothing.
No comments:
Post a Comment