On shortcuts, certainty, and the test we keep failing. There is a particular anxiety that grips religious people, and it is worth naming precisely: the anxiety of getting the answer right. Is this permitted or forbidden? Is my prayer valid or void? Did I fulfill the obligation or fall short? The questions are sincere, and … Continue reading Process over Outcome
The Obedient Flame: Fire and Its Meanings in the Quran
Few elements carry as much weight in the Quran as fire. It is the substance of the final punishment and the medium of the first revelation to Moses; it is the origin of a rebellious creature and a mercy kindled for weary travelers; it is the weapon of persecutors and the trial that separates the … Continue reading The Obedient Flame: Fire and Its Meanings in the Quran
A Response to “The Orthodox Muslim”: God Does Not Share His Throne
A post has been making the rounds. It reads: Muhammed is The Son of Man who will sit at the right hand of God with him on his throne. Muhammed is The Son of Man who will separate the sheep from the goats. He is the beloved who holds the keys of paradise. Muhammed is … Continue reading A Response to “The Orthodox Muslim”: God Does Not Share His Throne
The Power of the Undefined: Israel’s Missing Constitution, Its Open Borders, and the Quranic Ethic of the Written Word
There is a form of power that comes not from what a state declares but from what it refuses to declare. A written document names its parties, fixes its terms, and draws its lines—and in doing so it converts intention into obligation. To write something down is to make it enforceable against yourself. This is … Continue reading The Power of the Undefined: Israel’s Missing Constitution, Its Open Borders, and the Quranic Ethic of the Written Word
Bible Tradition of Retelling and Revision
Why "The Quran Contradicts the Bible" Misreads the Bible One of the most common objections raised against the Quran is that it "contradicts the Bible." The Quran, the critic says, retells the stories of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Jesus, but changes details, so it cannot be from God. The objection sounds forceful until you … Continue reading Bible Tradition of Retelling and Revision
A Calf That Lowed & Egyptian and Mesopotamian Mythology
The Quran's account of the golden calf includes a subtle detail that the Book of Exodus omits. The calf, we are told, was a body that made the sound of a calf. It is easy to read past this as a piece of narrative color, a miraculous flourish. It is anything but. To an audience … Continue reading A Calf That Lowed & Egyptian and Mesopotamian Mythology
The Last Pilgrim on the Throne
Harun al-Rashid and the Sovereign Who Stopped Going to Mecca An interesting paradox lies buried in the long history of the caliphate. The office existed, in part, to guard the Hajj—to protect the roads to Mecca, to provision the pilgrim caravans, to keep the sanctuary open to the community. Yet across nearly thirteen centuries and … Continue reading The Last Pilgrim on the Throne
The Offer Lot Already Knew Would Be Refused
When Lot stands at his door and offers his daughters to the crowd pressing toward his guests, most readers wince. Taken at face value, it reads as a father bartering his children to a mob. But the Quran does not leave the episode at face value. Read alongside the way scripture elsewhere shows the wise … Continue reading The Offer Lot Already Knew Would Be Refused
Would God Command Genocide?
The Hebrew Bible contains a handful of passages that are hard to read and harder to defend. Moses orders that no one among the Midianites be spared except the young girls (Numbers 31). Joshua devotes whole cities to destruction, "man and woman, young and old" (Joshua 6). Saul is told to strike Amalek and kill … Continue reading Would God Command Genocide?
The Modes of Divine Disclosure
The Quran does not describe God as one object set among other objects. It presents Him as the Absolute in relation to which every object is measured, named, and known. And yet the same book that insists there is nothing whatsoever like Him also speaks of Him ceaselessly—as One who wills, speaks, commands, sends, draws … Continue reading The Modes of Divine Disclosure
