Friday, September 6, 2019

What It Means - Day 172

"As for those who believe, and those who are Jews, the Sabeans, the Christians, the Magians, and the idolaters, indeed God will judge between them on the Day of Resurrection. Truly God is Witness over all things."
Quran 22:17

After pointing out yesterday that I had never drawn anything from al-Hajj, the 22nd surah, obviously rendered as "The Pilgrimage," here is the second straight day with a passage from it. This is similar to a couple other Quranic passages that reference the Jews and Christians and Sabeans, and speaks to different paths to God, as long as a follower believes and performs righteous deeds. What's interesting about this one is that we have a reference to Magians, which would specifically apply to a priestly class from ancient Persia and more generally apply, at least from an Arab view, apply to Zoroastrians. If you're Christian would would undoubtedly have made the association with the Magi who visited the baby Jesus in Matthew's account. So, we're adding Zoroastrians to the more grouping of Jews, Christians and Sabeans (we've talked before about the argument about who, exactly, were the Sabeans). Sadly, there has been, and continues to be, tension between the Arab and Persian/Iranian worlds, and this shows up in the Persian epic the Shahnameh, but also in some of the stories in extra-Quranic literature. It has been argued by some that Zoroastrianism may actually be the oldest monotheistic religion in the world, or at least a competitor with Judaism for that title, and it was a popular presence during Jesus's time and certainly influenced early Christian thought. As Nasr tells us, "During Islamic history, many jurists (such as al-Shafi'i) accepted Zoroastrians as People of the Book, as we also see very generally in Persia and among Muslims of the Indian subcontinent." (p. 834) So, this provides an interesting glimpse into the dynamic between Arabia/Persia and Islam/Zoroastrianism, but to me the most important thing is the reference once again to different paths to God, and not simply an emphasis on Islam alone as the sole path.


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