"and [they] deceived and Allah deceived and Allah is the best of deceivers"
Sura 3:54
Sura 3:54 Arabic: Wa Makaru wa makara Allah wa Allah Amkaru al Makireen.
Likewise the phrase of Allah "being the best deceiver". kheir ol makarein, is also used of Allah in Suras 8:30 and 10:21. Sura 10:21 says Allah is the fastest in planning/deceit
Other references to the plotting/deceit/scheming of Allah are Sura 7:99; 27:50; 13:42; 14:46; 43:79; 86:15f.; 7:100; 4:142
Other references to the plotting/deceit/scheming of Allah are Sura 7:99; 27:50; 13:42; 14:46; 43:79; 86:15f.; 7:100; 4:142
Yet English translations of the Qur’an typically have a softer phrase, as Appendix I shows. So in these verses, specifically how should this word be more accurately translated, and generally, what is the role of deception in Islam?
Sura 3:54 says that Allah makara. The Arabic word makara means to deceive, scheme, or plan. The Arabic Bible in Genesis 3:1 uses the same word for Satan. However, the Vand Dyck and Jerusalem Bibles use the root word hayala.
This word "schemer" (maakir) is a very strong word which Wehr and Abdel-Nour define as "sly, cunning, wily". The Arabic-Arabic unjid defines it with khuda`a which means exactly the same thing (by Bill Campbell in his book The Qur'an and the Bible in the Light of History and Science p.217-218).
The person who is a makir (same form as the word kafir) speaking of the attribute of a person is one who would outwit someone else to cause them harm. It speaks of one who would reveal the opposite of what he plans to do. The reality is that he is scheming evil for that person. So yes there is the sense of planning and scheming but mostly it means to trick, outwit and deceive for the purpose of overpowering and conquering the other. A makir is one who devises a secret scheme against someone else. Synonyms would be cheating, defrauding, double-crossing, deceiving, tricking, in all cases makara has the sense of defeating the one you have tricked.
Strikingly when it comes to the cross, the very central part of biblical teaching, Allah is called khayr ulmakirin the most deceitful. Some one
wants to conceal that he lost the battle on the cross! Here the true nature of Allah is revealed!
10 comments:
the history of the old testament is very old.
I know of no where that God, yahweh is refered to as a deciever.
I know of only one entity that was refered to as a deciever.
seems to me that the one thing the koran got right, is that passage labeling this alah as a deciever.
It seems to me history tells the stories of a few gods portraying themselves in many guises.
Allah is very similar to a few other gods; Ba'al, Moloch, and Satan.
Thanks for making this clear.
e of usa,
For my part, I believe Allah is a real entity, and Mohammed was deceived by him.
I've always found it interesting that muslims say "allah is greater" rather then something like Ilah Wahid ("One G-d" with Ilah being a neutral term for G-d rather then the name of a specific deity).
Perhaps I am reading too much into it, but while some Jews and Christians blindly declare that we all worship the same G-d, do "honest" (non-taqyia / darwah) muslims say the same behind closed doors?
Or do they as part of their false narrative that both Jews & Christians have corrupted the texts, believe that the G-d of Israel is a some sort of demiurge / shaitan like Marcion of Sinope did, while seeing allah as the arabic Bythos or the higher good god?
I ask because while it is easy to dismiss allah as pagan or satan himself (not that I disagree) due to being the head of 360 deities, the term "allah is greater" suggests that islam is actually henotheist (e.g. worshipping a single god while accepting the existence or possible existence of other deities) rather than monotheist like it claims.
It would be fascinating to find out for sure if islam is indeed Henotheist with Gnostic elements or at least an inverted form of latter, with allah / satan actually being the demiurge while the G-d of Israel is the Bythos or the higher good god.
Just my 2 Cents
Jester,
You probably already know about this, but in case you do not:
http://www.bible.ca/islam/islam-allah-pre-islamic-origin.htm
Pastorius,
Of course if Allah really was God, why would he need to deceive anyone?
An all knowing, all powerful being would know how to convince anyone to do what he wanted to without lying or if he wanted to, he could just take away all human free will, on a whim so we wouldn't have a choice but to obay him.
Pastorius
Thanks for the link
I am already aware that allah was originally a lunar deity come “mono-god” with 3 daughters & a wife, it’s just that since muslims consider Jews and Christians enemies of allah, I wondered if they also believe that both groups worship a lesser deity (or even shaitan) as part of the accusation that Jews & Christians corrupted the scriptures.
For example: in Sudan while the Janjaweed were killing blacks, Janjaweed women were taunting the blacks by saying “We will kill you till the end, you Blacks; we have killed your God”
http://www.politicalquotes.org/Quotedisplay.aspx?DocID=62025
Fwiw, Ali Sina of FFI in his “Understanding Mohammed” posits that Mohammed made allah into his alter-ego.
Damien
It appears that deceiving is not the only ungodly attribute allah possesses.
“How can God be makkar (deceiver), mutakabbir (arrogant and proud), jabbar (despot), khafid (abaser), mudhell (humiliator), mumit (death giver) muntaqim (avenger) and a (the creator of harms)? These are satanic attributes.” Ali Sina to Maulana Qadri
http://www.faithfreedom.org/debates/ajmalqadrip3.htm
Interesting. Thanks for that quote, Jesterhead.
Throughout the history of Christianity, Satan has frequently been referred to as "the great deceiver."
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