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
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 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
The God Who Depends on No One: Aseity and the Trinity
One of the oldest and least negotiable ideas about God is that He depends on nothing. Everything else in existence leans on something. A tree needs soil, a child needs parents, a flame needs fuel, a building needs a foundation. God, by definition, leans on nothing at all. He is the one reality that exists … Continue reading The God Who Depends on No One: Aseity and the Trinity
Jesus’ Universal Operating System for Living Under Any Legal System
When Jesus told his followers to sit at the feet of the scribes and Pharisees, to observe everything they taught but not to follow their example (Matthew 23:2–3), he was issuing an instruction of remarkable subtlety. He was not critiquing the content of Jewish law, nor was he calling for its reform or abolition. He … Continue reading Jesus’ Universal Operating System for Living Under Any Legal System
Two Kinds of Law
Not every law in the Quran is the same. Some are universal—meant for all people, in every place, for all time. Be just and never biased. Do not commit murder. Do not steal. You could drop these commands into any century and any country, and they would hold without a word of adjustment. Others are … Continue reading Two Kinds of Law
The Paradox of Eternity: What Infinity Reveals About the Hereafter
Consider the following thought experiment. If you suffer one minute out of every hour for eternity, how much do you suffer in total? The answer is: infinitely. But how much do you not suffer? Also infinitely. Two infinities coexist—infinite suffering and infinite relief—which means neither is ultimately dominant. The punishment is no more ultimate than … Continue reading The Paradox of Eternity: What Infinity Reveals About the Hereafter
The Mirror We Refuse to Hold: On Darkness, Ignorance, and the Nature of Reflection
There is a fact about the universe that should unsettle us more than it does. Space—the cosmos in its vast totality—is bathed in light. Photons pour out of billions of stars in every direction, crossing the void in straight lines at the only speed the universe permits. And yet space appears dark. Not because light … Continue reading The Mirror We Refuse to Hold: On Darkness, Ignorance, and the Nature of Reflection
The Burden the Mountains Refused (Part IV: Constitutive Freedom)
We have offered the responsibility—the freedom of choice—to the heavens and the earth, and the mountains, but they refused to bear it, and were afraid of it. But the human being accepted it; he was transgressing, ignorant. — Quran 33:72 Read that verse again slowly, because the standard reading glosses over something extraordinary. The responsibility—al-amanah, … Continue reading The Burden the Mountains Refused (Part IV: Constitutive Freedom)
The Tyranny of the Ticker (Part III: Expectation Freedom)
Here is a man you probably know. Every morning, before he has spoken to his family, before he has eaten, before he has done a single thing that is actually within his control, he reaches for his phone and checks the market. If the numbers are green, he will be in a good mood today. … Continue reading The Tyranny of the Ticker (Part III: Expectation Freedom)
