River

Thanks....I already read most of the links. So, if anyone has any questions about them..please feel free to discuss .

Doctor X

River:

I am afraid the Isaiah quote is rather unconvincing.

"Cherry picking" is a bad way to perform hermeneutics.

To give an example, I now grab my RSV . . . I now randomly open it . . . and blindly place my finger . . . difficult since a keyboard with QWERTYUIOP is left-hand-biased . . . 1 Esdras 1:6:

not much of a prophecy . . . though I did have lamb the last Easter . . .

Try again . . . hit middle . . . Mk 5:42 versus 6:14-15:

Well . . . I did today have a conversation with a girl who did get up from my table and walked away. This would make me "like one of the prophets of old."

Now that may seem unfair . . . many women leave my table if they are not prostrate from the nausea.

How about my Koran? I have A.J. Arberry and Ahmed Ali's translations. I also have an autographed The Satanic Verses:

Is it not clear?

I gave you and others "clear signs" but you will disbelieve me! Unfortunately, you shall be seiz'd with "terrible retribution." Like Pharoh you asked me for proof and I "cast my staff"--these words--and, like a "living serpent" it will entwine itself into your beliefs. Other readers, like the girls, will have knew notions because of my words.

I need to contact the James Randi Foundation . . . I could use One Million Smackers!

Imagine if I could choose passages purposefully.

--J.D.

Jack the Bodiless

I'm confused. You expect us to be surprised that Mohammed was aware of the contents of the Torah and was capable of writing similar verses?

River

-Doctor X

You have a very good translation of the Qur'an ....i.e AJ Arberry....He tries his best to make his translation faithful to some degree with the arabic poetry.

And Salman Rushdie's " Satanic Verses" is supposed to be fiction or based on a dream or sumthin'

River

no, the Prophet...was illiterate...so he couldnt have analyzed the Torah....

Doctor X

River:

Though I must admit I do not trust the "thees" and "thous" of Arberry.

How do you know Rusdie's book was not divinely inspired?

It does not matter what he thinks! It matters what subsequent generations think!

This is the problem with trying to find significance.

--J.D.

River

hehe...


Its funny how Muslims made such a huge deal about Salmon Rushdie. It would probably have been better for their cause if they just ignored him. Now, he is a celebrity.

anti-X

Hi,

I know the Muslim belief has 3 "messingers:
Moses
Jesus
Muhammad

The Qur'an says the "original book given to Moses will be found" and says it in such a way as to suggest that the Book given to Moses was "longer" that the one given through Muhammad.

The Book given through Jesus was the "injil" --which would not be the biographical sketch that the New Testasment has.

Both Muslims and christians claim the "servant of the Lord" in Isiah are Muhammad or Jesus, although neither one fits the description...but it partially "fits" Jeremia and the Muslim's "imam mahdi"

There are a lot of "fanciful" claims by many sects which vary from contrivance to fraud.

anti-X

River

Actually Islam has 315 Messengers and 125,000 Prophets . It is stated in Hadiths that Imam Mahdi ( the archetypal Elijah) will recover the last remaining Scrolls of the Holy Taurat in Antioch.

The Injil probably doesnt exist today, though some have claimed that several lineages have been preserved by underground esoteric mystics. Some also believe that the Injil is the "Aramaic Mathew".

Most Old Testament prophecies fit Muhammad or atleast fit Muhammad more smoothly than Jesus Christ. They may also apply to Imam Mahdi, but then again Imam Mahdi is said to have many of the traits of Prophet Muhammad . He will initially have 313 Saints ....the same number as with the Prophet during his first battle.

Doctor X

River:

A bit of a hijack, but the reason "Muslims made such a huge deal" is because they did not read it.

One of my few funny stories involves an semi-inebriated ride on a "dangerous" public transportation--I had an singularly wonderful single-malt waiting for me--in which I sat down next to an Afghanii student. He had hidden under his jacket a copy of The Satanic Verses. Anyways, we talked about it . . . his question:

Of course, I am away from my "library" so I cannot quote the passage, but what was "wrong" was Rushdie portrayed the Ayatollah Komenei as a blood thirsty murder who perverted Islam to bath his country in blood.

Oddly enough . . . Komenei did not find the comparison flattering. He could not condemn the book for showing him for what he was, so he claimed it was blasphemous. Naturally, people do not read what they are quick to condemn. Shame . . . aside from parts where Rusdie tries to become the next James Joyce or Pynchon in his prose . . . it is actually a good book.

A bit of a lesson, that. People will claim things about art they have not seen and books they have not read.

--J.D.