"Truly those who believe, and those who are Jews, and the Sabeans, and the Christians - whosoever believes in God and the Last Day and works righteousness, no fear shall come upon them, not shall they grieve."
Quran 5:69
Here's another of my favorite passages from, as I proposed yesterday, one of my favorite surahs, The Table Spread. It is very similar to surah 2:62, which I'll doubtless talk about in its own right. It's one of those passages which, at least in my mind, makes it clear that in the end it doesn't matter what specific religion you practice. Rather, breaking it down, what matters is that you 1) believe in God, 2) believe in the Last Day (and I'll talk more about this later, certainly, and whether the key metaphoric meaning is that your actions have meaning), and 3) work righteousness (bringing us back again to performing righteous, that is good, deeds). How one gets there is of much less important than where you end up, but, of course, and sadly, how much time and effort and misery do we cause by focusing on the path to get there.
Once again turning to Nasr's Study Quran: "This particular verse, however, situated as it is within a surah largely devoted to the People of the Book, and within a long section that discusses the People of the Book critically, represents one of the most important Quranic affirmations of the potential of those outside the Muslim community to achieve salvation. Although Jews, Christians and Sabeans are mentioned specifically, the verse also refers more broadly to whosoever believes in God and the Last Day and works righteousness, thereby opening the possibility of salvation even beyond the Abrahamic faiths."
Quran 5:69
Here's another of my favorite passages from, as I proposed yesterday, one of my favorite surahs, The Table Spread. It is very similar to surah 2:62, which I'll doubtless talk about in its own right. It's one of those passages which, at least in my mind, makes it clear that in the end it doesn't matter what specific religion you practice. Rather, breaking it down, what matters is that you 1) believe in God, 2) believe in the Last Day (and I'll talk more about this later, certainly, and whether the key metaphoric meaning is that your actions have meaning), and 3) work righteousness (bringing us back again to performing righteous, that is good, deeds). How one gets there is of much less important than where you end up, but, of course, and sadly, how much time and effort and misery do we cause by focusing on the path to get there.
Once again turning to Nasr's Study Quran: "This particular verse, however, situated as it is within a surah largely devoted to the People of the Book, and within a long section that discusses the People of the Book critically, represents one of the most important Quranic affirmations of the potential of those outside the Muslim community to achieve salvation. Although Jews, Christians and Sabeans are mentioned specifically, the verse also refers more broadly to whosoever believes in God and the Last Day and works righteousness, thereby opening the possibility of salvation even beyond the Abrahamic faiths."
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