Are the constant parenthetical invocations of Allah really a part of Muslim theology? If I did not know better, I would say this was an Onion article. Any god who needs to be praised in every sentence is not a nice one, or at least has been misinterpreted as a nasty one.
The logic of this is interesting. God says He is not like unto anything, is not comparable to anything. So no metaphorical statement about Him can be made. So He will make no such statements. So things one might be wont to take as metaphors or synecdoche just ain't. So if He were to say something like "Say, O Prophet Nathan: 'He is He who seeth all, heareth all. Verily He smelleth all. He is the Nose that Knoweth.' " Then we must conclude that God uses exactly those senses, and that God is in fact a Nose.
Your Excellence I am not sure what translation you are using, but every version I have read says that God used His hand to cover Moses' eyes, not His behind. Bit of a difference there.
The fundamental hermeneutic issue is that Islam, mainstream Islam, treats the Koran in a way that even very conservative Jews and Christians do not treat their scriptures. Aquinas, for example, has a sophisticated treatment of the differences between metaphor and analogy. The Christian God, as Ben XVI got in trouble for saying, is Logos. But the Muslim God is sheer Will, for whom the law of non-contradiction is irrelevant.
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Are the constant parenthetical invocations of Allah really a part of Muslim theology? If I did not know better, I would say this was an Onion article. Any god who needs to be praised in every sentence is not a nice one, or at least has been misinterpreted as a nasty one.
-Sean
The logic of this is interesting. God says He is not like unto anything, is not comparable to anything. So no metaphorical statement about Him can be made. So He will make no such statements. So things one might be wont to take as metaphors or synecdoche just ain't. So if He were to say something like "Say, O Prophet Nathan: 'He is He who seeth all, heareth all. Verily He smelleth all. He is the Nose that Knoweth.' " Then we must conclude that God uses exactly those senses, and that God is in fact a Nose.
Did you know God has a hand, which He uses to cover His butt? Exodus 33:23.
The Bishop of Portland
Your Excellence I am not sure what translation you are using, but every version I have read says that God used His hand to cover Moses' eyes, not His behind. Bit of a difference there.
-Sean
The fundamental hermeneutic issue is that Islam, mainstream Islam, treats the Koran in a way that even very conservative Jews and Christians do not treat their scriptures. Aquinas, for example, has a sophisticated treatment of the differences between metaphor and analogy. The Christian God, as Ben XVI got in trouble for saying, is Logos. But the Muslim God is sheer Will, for whom the law of non-contradiction is irrelevant.
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