Posted on 01/19/2008 2:38:36 AM PST by america4vr
Islam watchers blogged all weekend about news that a secret archive of ancient Islamic texts had surfaced after 60 years of suppression. Andrew Higgins' Wall Street Journal report that the photographic record of Koranic manuscripts, supposedly destroyed during World War II but occulted by a scholar of alleged Nazi sympathies, reads like a conflation of the Da Vinci Code with Indiana Jones and the Holy Grail.
The Da Vinci Code offered a silly fantasy in which Opus Dei, homicidal monks and twisted billionaires chased after proof that Christianity is a hoax. But the story of the photographic archive of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences, now ensconced in a Berlin vault, is a case of life imitating truly dreadful art. It even has Nazis. "I hate those guys!" as Indiana Jones said.
No one is going to produce proof that Jesus Christ did not rise from the grave three days after the Crucifixion, of course. Humankind will choose to believe or not that God revealed Himself in this fashion. But Islam stands at risk of a Da Vinci Code effect, for in Islam, God's self-revelation took the form not of the Exodus, nor the revelation at Mount Sinai, nor the Resurrection, but rather a book, namely the Koran. The Encyclopaedia of Islam (1982) observes, "The closest analogue in Christian belief to the role of the Koran in Muslim belief is not the Bible, but Christ." The Koran alone is the revelatory event in Islam.
What if scholars can prove beyond reasonable doubt that the Koran was not dictated by the Archangel Gabriel to the Prophet Mohammad during the 7th century, but rather was redacted by later writers drawing on a variety of extant Christian and Jewish sources?
(Excerpt) Read more at thirdeyeconcept.com ...
:)
Prof. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. of Harvard narrated a PBS series called “Wonders of the African World”, where he interviews Islamic Scholar Ali Ould Sidi and shows previously undocumented 400-year old manuscripts, perhaps the only remains of the black African world’s intellectual achievement at Timbuktu.
These include ancient Islamic texts that are crumbing due to lack of preservation.
You mean the purpose of taking over the world and killing anyone that's not Muslim?
Yep, it serves their purpose.
I've got better than that, I've got Christ...although I'd rather tell them about Jesus than spend time dealing with the quran.
Maybe *their* "Archangel Gabriel" coulda used a little more cowbell.
Those who find out that it is "raisins" will never tell even if they are disappointed.
Oh, I didn’t say it was the only legit style of thinking. But we’ve been so overrun with Greek thinking that it’s all we know. We’re very provincial in that regard.
As for Paul, the reception he got in Athens is a perfect example of how intellectually lamed we can become. They thought they were the center of the mental universe, but they chose to merely consider Paul’s words ad infinitum, rather than respond to the confrontation.
Mr. Puin says the manuscripts suggested to him that the Quran "didn't just fall from heaven" but "has a history." When he said so publicly a decade ago, it stirred rage. "Please ensure that these scholars are not given further access to the documents," read one letter to the Yemen Times. "Allah, help us against our enemies."
Are the muzzies sure the koran was dictated by the Archangel Gabriel and not the Archangel Lucifer?
And I think that would be 72 raisin in each box of raisin bran cereal. Thus, heaven is a stale box of cereal.
Lucifer, the Morning Star that fell to Earth...Mohammad says Gabriel had six thousand wings.
They don’t worship that black stone for no reason. Mohammad heard voices in his head because he was suffering from a long standing mental illness, and what he called an angel was a COMET!
What-- you're not ready to give your life for a handful of raisins? Oh ye of little faith.
Goes to show that Muslims worshiped a moon-rock god. End of story.
There is a difference between the Muslim belief and Arius’—Arius believed that Jesus was the only-begotten Son of God, but did not believe that the Son was co-eternal with the Father (”there was when he was not”). That makes the Son a creature and less than the Father, but it is quite different from Muhammad’s view. After all, in the New Testament Christ is called the Son of God (e.g., in Mark 1.11: “You are my beloved son”) and Arius wasn’t throwing out anything in the text—it’s just that the Church as a whole decided his interpretation was wrong.
weird out!
Especially since Christ told us (the Sadducees, anyway) that there is no giving or taking in marriage in Heaven.
Since he ALSO said that we would be 'as the angels are', I'm not sure how having virgins would be of any use.
No, it would not affect the Islamists at all, except to give them another excuse to riot & chops heads.
OTOH, it may have a profound effect on the 'Moderate' Muslims, and when they started rejecting the Islamists, it would dry up an important source of Islamist support.
Just image how crippling it would be if all 500 "Moderates" quit sending money! /sarc
http://www.corkscrew-balloon.com/02/03/1bkk/04b.html
“...For example, the famous passage about the virgins is based on the word hur, which is an adjective in the feminine plural meaning simply “white.” Islamic tradition insists the term hur stands for “houri,” which means virgin, but Mr. Luxenberg insists that this is a forced misreading of the text. In both ancient Aramaic and in at least one respected dictionary of early Arabic, hur means “white raisin.”
Mr. Luxenberg has traced the passages dealing with paradise to a Christian text called Hymns of Paradise by a fourth-century author. Mr. Luxenberg said the word paradise was derived from the Aramaic word for garden and all the descriptions of paradise described it as a garden of flowing waters, abundant fruits and white raisins, a prized delicacy in the ancient Near East. In this context, white raisins, mentioned often as hur, Mr. Luxenberg said, makes more sense than a reward of sexual favors...
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