Sunday, August 14, 2005

Question: What about Jonah?
The Quran claims that messengers were sent to their own people proclaiming the Message in their native tongue:
"Then after him (Noah) We sent (many) messengers to their peoples: they brought them Clear Signs, but they would not believe what they had already rejected beforehand. Thus do We seal the hearts of the transgressors." S. 10:74
"And We never sent a messenger save with the language of his folk, that he might make (the message) clear for them. Then Allah sendeth whom He will astray, and guideth whom He will. He is the Mighty, the Wise." S. 14:4 Pickthall
"Verily We sent before thee (Muhammad) messengers to their own folk. Then we took vengeance upon those who were guilty (in regard to them). To help believers is ever incumbent upon Us." S. 30:47 Pickthall
Here are Ibn Kathir's comments regarding S. 14:4:
Every Prophet was sent with the Language of his People; Guidance or Misguidance follows the Explanation.
Allah is Kind and Compassionate with His creation, sending Messengers to them from among them and speaking their language, so that they are able to understand the Message that the Messengers were sent with ...
Yet this contradicts both the Holy Bible and the Quran. Both the Holy Bible and the Quran mention the story of the prophet Jonah son of Amittai, called Yunus in the Quran. Jonah was an Israelite who was sent to the Assyrians in Nineveh:
"The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: ‘Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me’ ... So they asked him, ‘Tell us, who is responsible for making all this trouble for us? What do you do? Where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?’ He answered, ‘I am a Hebrew and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land.’ This terrified them and they asked, ‘What have you done?’ (They knew he was running away from the Lord, because he had already told them so.)" Jonah 1:1-2, 8-10
Answer: This come back to the simple question to be or not to be (Quran is from God or not). It is clear in Quran that Abraham, Joseph, Moses and other prophets of the bible were spreading the word of God to Jews and non-Jews. It is also evident from the history of Jews all over the history and world they can be from any people. There are American Jews, European Jews and so forth. I can be considered now an American Arab Muslim. In the old time you would not need a passport if you stay some time with some people in order to become part of them. From history we can confirm that the most to adapt to other people and live with are the Jews. They managed everywhere to pay important part of the countries they live in. Arab for example tend to be less extroverted.