Blogging The Quran: Sura 3

Fortunately, the previous sura was the longest in the Quran. This one however is still 200 verses long. Whatever Mohamed might have been, he was certainly wordy. This sura is in large part an Islamic sermon against Christianity.

vv1-13 Again the launch is all about the Quran itself. Blessings if you believe it cursings if you don't. There is a reference to the gospel. I cheated and had a look at a footnote: It's not the four gospels but the proverbial Q document which was given to Jesus. Of course the footnote doesn't say Q but it all clicks together for me. Anyway this lengthy diatribe goes on to threaten with all kinds of death those who don't believe the Quran. Apparently death comes in battle because the 13th verse makes mention of a battle I recall reading about early on in my research where Mohamed lead his army in a 2-1 rout of some opposing force. The lesson for us all is apparently supposed to be that we will die for not believing the Quran, and that death can come at the hands of Muslim warriors. Quite a militant book this one. v14- 15 Here comes a contrast of the pleasures of this world, which interestingly enough are not denounced only minimized by the promises of pleasures of the next. Care to guess what the next world's pleasures are? You guessed it Watered gardens and virgins. It's no wonder Muslims are in a hurry to strap themselves to a bomb and blow up children; they're not holy, they're horny. v16- 31 More claims that Allah is the only god to which even the angels agree. I'm not surprised of course; Satan did manage to deceive a good number of the holy angels (Rev 12:3). Those who reject the message, are to be told of a painful judgment. No clear mention who is supposed to deliver it though.

Jesus

v32- 109 The house of Imran is mentioned now as someone who was a descendant of Adam and Noah and Abraham. From this point forward we start repeating the story of the the Zachariah and Elizabeth. Mary (the mother of Jesus) is apparently born to a woman who devoted her to Allah while in the womb. This kind of makes me wonder if Islam is where the blasphemous seeds of Mary worship were sown. In this Sura Mary is miraculously given food while she lives in the temple sanctuary. Zachariah prays for good offspring because of what he sees in Mary and sham Gabriel comes to announce John the Baptist. Only here, Zachariah is only mute for three days rather than the nine months of Elizabeth's pregnancy. Very shortly after that, the birth of Jesus is announced to Mary. Even the virgin birth is mentioned. Let me just quote it here:

^45. Behold! The angels said: "O Mary! Allah giveth thee glad tidings of a Word from Him: his name will be Christ Jesus, the son of Mary, held in honour in this world and the Hereafter and of (the company of) those nearest to Allah;^46. "He shall speak to the people in childhood and in maturity. And he shall be (of the company) of the righteous."^47. She said: "O my Lord! How shall I have a son when no man hath touched me?" He said: "Even so: Allah createth what He willeth: When He hath decreed a plan, He but saith to it, "˜Be,"™ and it is! _{Abdullah Yusuf Ali, The Meaning of the Holy Qur'an, Electronic version. (2004), Surah 3.}

Of course after that we discover that Muslims believe Jesus was supposed to be a prophet who would lead Israel to Allah. Right. Eventually, Allah tells Jesus he will die as all people will. The Muslim does not believe in the Jesus of Scriptures. They acknowledge the virgin birth, the birth of John the Baptist, the Role of Zachariah, the apostles of Jesus and that's about it. After that Jesus is just a human prophet according to Islam. I say to you that Jesus is more than a prophet - he is the very Son-of-God! If there is a doubter the Quran exhorts us to summon our families together and pray a curse upon the one who is lying. I won't do that. I will instead pray a blessing upon those who would curse me. (Psalm 109:28; Luke 6:28; Romans 12:14; James 3:9)

O God, My father - Maker of Heaven and Earth - God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob I call upon you, the one true God, in the Name of your Son Jesus Christ. I plea Father for those who will read these words - God I plead with you as with my earthly father. Bless them with wisdom, insight and knowledge of the truth. Rebuke the devil, and open their eyes to see Jesus your son. May they, by your grace, reject Islam and come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. Oh God I plead, for the sake of your name, show them your true glory and open their eyes to see Jesus as he really is!. Amen. So Be it.

The rest of this section is a diatribe against Christianity. The blanket claim is that Christians have denied God and begun worshipping Angels and humans. To my knowledge only Catholics worship humans by praying to the so called saints, Christians do not. From this point forward the argument turns against the Jews especially in relation to dietary laws which the Quran abolishes. It claims the first temple was in Bekka (Mecca after a quick search.)

v110-200 the rest of the sura just repeats ad-nauseum a series warnings to Muslims to not trust Jews and Christians. There are lots of exhortations to keep following Allah even if Mohamed dies. (He did die, and stayed dead - unlike Jesus who rose again and lives forever.) There are also repeated allusions to a large battle in which apparently some Muslims surrendered or ran away. These get a severe chastisement because they can't die without Allah's permission but they ran away faithless. And right around v 164 we discover that they had lost the battle. This at least explains why Mohamed was so ticked off. Apparently for him, loss in battle was as bad as loss of faith. Which only makes sense if you're religion is built on conquest - which is the feeling growing on me as I read the Quran.

Summary

I really wanted to provide a summary of the chapter here but I think I've done that above. All in all I am not impressed with the Quran so far. It is impossible to judge the whole thing yet after only reading a few very long chapters but I almost can't bear the thought of plugging through this thing to the end. It is so full of vitriol, and warning. I will grant that the Bible has it's passages /books which are often considered boring even to Christians. Numbers for instance begins with a mind numbing census. So, if the real God (YHWH) allows I will continue to read and report.

Blogging The Quran: Sura 5

Here I am again, I apologize for taking last week off, it was a busy week and I frankly just lost complete track of time.
The Fifth sura is titled "The Table". I'm guessing that's because the dietary rules for Muslims appear here.

v1-10 It's what's for dinner!

It begins with freedom to eat four legged animals - except of course the ones you can't eat, which aren't listed right away but a little later they are. During the pilgrimage, Muslims are not allowed to hunt. Not that they probably would today but there's the rule anyway.
Muslims are forbidden to eat anything which dies on it's own, pigs, or anything which is blessed by a non-Muslim (kind of makes me want to bless all the food in the world.) They are forbidden from eating which are killed by beating, strangling, falling, what is sacrificed to idols or killed by another animal. Though it does appear that if, for instance, you're hunting dog kills a duck for instance you can eat it just fine.
All in all the food restrictions thus far are fairly reminiscent of the Levitical food purity laws. Interestingly enough we're told

"the food of those who have been given the Book is lawful for you and your food is lawful for them;

So Muslims and Christians are supposedly able to eat together. Not sure what would happen though if I were to bless the food in the name of Jesus. That's not all.
Finally, Muslims are allowed to have Christian virgins for wives

the chaste from among those who have been given the Book before you (are lawful for you)

The restriction of course is that you give them their dowry and marry them. Fornication is not permissible.

v11-34 More Hate Speech

Once again, curses on the Jews for not being Muslim and curses on the Christians for not believing the Quran / Koran. There are a few direct accusations that Jews and Christians knew all the stuff that was in the Quran but we intentionally removed it.
When you think about it, that's a fairly clever - albeit easy to disprove even at the time of writing- hypothesis. The whole block is taken up with lessons about how to respond to a Jew or a Christian if they claim to be following God. Most of the arguments are pretty watery although I did find one interesting view of theology around v 18. When a Christian claims to be God's child the Muslim is supposed to respond with the equivalent of "Nonsense, you're just a human being and Allah forgives whomever he wants to and condemns who he wants to."
To my eyes it appears that Almost every diatribe of hatred and seething directed and Jews and Christians comes down to a few issues; the most prominent of which is that Mohamed really didn't understand Christianity, but what he thought he knew - he railed against it. The problem is that he failed to understand Christianity. His Biblical theology was weak so he created one of his own. That's not at all unlike your average non Christian. Most don't really know anything significant about Christianity but if you press them on reasons why they don't believe they'll shoot back all kinds of "supposed inconsistencies" but they won't be able to name one.
What follows the twentieth verse is a reminder of and a bit of a faulty remix of the sin of Kadesh Barnea (Numbers 14) where the people refused to enter the promised land. Moses intercedes for them in the Bible but in the Quran he prays against them. I really get the point by now. Muhamad hated the Jews. This of course should not shock anyone who has been paying attention to the evening news for the last few decades.
Mohamed continues with the story of Cain and Able but out of thin air he creates not only a dialog between Cain and Able, but also blames a crow for scratching the earth to show Cain how to bury Abel's body. Right.

v35- 69 Justice!

This is where Muslims are told to cut the hands off a thief.
It seemed an odd little statement with no apparent flow in thought. Come to think of it, lots of what I've read this far is disjointed. Maybe that's why my little commentary here seems disjointed. It is not easy to synthesize this text because the text itself consists of rambling sermons of a guy with a limited number of axes to grind. Maybe that is an unfair statement because I'm only in the fifth sura (109 to go) but from what I've read elsewhere I can't expect much difference for the next 109 chapters.

In the same section we come to some encouraging words for the apostle (I'm guessing that means Mohamed). Basically it's this, "Don't get too upset if you tell someone about the Quran and they don't believe - if Allah doesn't give them repentance that's Allah's doing not yours."
So I think I may have discovered the Muslim view of Allah's absolute sovereignty If I can recklessly use a Christian theological term: they are Calvinists. I'm not sure why that made me laugh, but it did.
Apparently, some Jews were coming to the Muslims in order to have court cases decided and then they were ignoring the judgment given by the Muslims. It just flat out reminds me of 1 Corinthians 6:1-7 where Paul lambastes the Christians for going to court against one another in pagan courts. His point there is made here: The Muslims blaspheme because of them.
On the other hand, I've found another little Justice Gem. The whole Eye for an Eye thing holds for Muslims too, but if they choose to just let it go for the sake of charity - Allah will knock off some of your guilt as well. So there you have it once again, the Muslims are responsible for earning their way into the arms of 70 virgins heaven.
Time and again the Islamic view of the Bible is reiterated, according to Mohamed, the Bible is good but corrupted. Yet even here there is a fair bit of inconsistency. For Christians are urged to simply believe and obey the Bible!

if they would but truly observe the torah and the gospel and all the revelation that has been bestowed from on high upon them by their sustainer, they would indeed partake of all the blessings of heaven and earth. - Sura 5:66

So Salvation is indeed found in the pages of the Bible. Even Mohammed confesses that. The claim of Mohammed however is that his speeches need to be added to the Bible.

vv70-120 The Trinity and Christology

For the rest of the book of number of bad Christological statements make their way into conciousness of Islam. Again the Quran / Koran reveals itself as primarily a diatribe against Judaism and Christianity. In this, the very last Sura written or spoken by Mohammed the end of the book is an outright denial of the deity of Jesus Christ the Son of the Living God.
Apparently Mohamed thought that Jesus and Mary were the second and third persons of the trinity. Moreover the trinity, he thought, was three gods, rather than one God revealing himself in three persons. I really wish I could adequately grasp the trinity myself, so I can't really be too hard on Mohamed's misunderstanding of it. He just couldn't grasp the Trinity concept and ruled it damnable heresy.
Several times Mohamed declares that Jesus was just an apostle, like Moses. He makes a bit of hay over the fact that Jesus ate food like any other mortal, an item which wouldn't have bothered true Christians, though the Gnostics might have had a hernia over that comment. In fact some of Mohamed's blathering makes me wonder if the "Christian" influences to which he was exposed were gnostic? IMHO that would explain his frequent diatribes against the divinity of Jesus because he saw in the gospels the humanity of Jesus.

Jammed in the middle of this section is a very brief command not to gamble, divine the future or use "intoxicants". A little later another interesting tidbit reveals that Allah will tempt people on pilgrimage. It's a far cry from James 1:13.

Blogging The Quran: Surah 7

Sura 7 is named "The Heights" in one version and in another "the faculty of discernment". I presume we'll find out why as I read. (Note I really didn't find a reason.) Maybe it's a bad policy but I keep looking at the number of verses (ayat) in each Sura and this is yet another long winded one weighing in at 206 meandering thought units.

vv1-9 salvation, or something like it

We start with the premise that the book of the Koran/Quran is revealed to "you". I'm presuming that "you" means the people to whom Mohamed was speaking/writing. The point of the book is to teach believers and warn those who don't believe. It's a perfectly reasonable use for a religious book. Too bad Mohamed never thought systematically or for that matter in a linear fashion. But I digress. It's no use complaining about the distinctions between an eastern and western mindset in terms of directness and linear thought.
"How many towns have we destroyed for their sins?" moans Mohamed as he once again prepares to threaten his followers against the possibility that they somehow don't submit to his teaching.
In the end those who have done enough good will be saved, those who have only a little good will not.
Of course there is an awful lot of vagueness in that we mortals have no way of measuring our good, nor do we know by what scale we will be measured. Thus for the Muslim - there is no assurance of salvation. It's a crap shoot - and you only get to roll the dice once. Islam is a man made religion (though demon inspired) as such the best that man can conceive is the need to be good enough to be "saved".

v10-34 the fall

The fall narrative (it is just about as much a narrative as any I've yet read) begins with the brief creation of Adam and I presume Eve though that isn't entirely clear. God commands all the angels to worship Adam (sounds like a misunderstanding of Hebrews 1:6 /Psalm 97:7 which are aimed at Christ not Adam.) Iblis/ the Devil refuses because he is made of fire while Adam is made of clay. Subsequently the devil is kicked out of heaven. Then Iblis tempts Adam and Eve to sin saying

Sura 7:20 Your Lord has not forbidden you this tree except that you may not both become two angels or that you may (not) become of the immortals.

Interestingly enough Allah claims that he has made the demons as guardians of the unbelievers (surah 7:27). I find that to be somewhat odd considering that one verse later we discover that Allah does not enjoin indecency. It sounds like Allah is talking from both sides of his imaginary mouth.
Finally at the end of the section we discover that Allah claims to have fixed an immovable day for each person they will die when he says so.

v35- 58 Fire and brimstone

Ayat 35 begins with another one of those distinctions between believers (they believe the Quran) and unbelievers (they of course don't believe the Quran). Lump me in with group two please. The threat upon the unbelievers is "...the fire, therein to abide." The true measure of wickedness is not believing the message.
Once again we come to the decisive mark of a Muslim. Muslims, true Muslims believe every word of the Quran. Fake Muslims don't. This is why the insurgents in Iraq as well as radical Muslims in general are the way they are. The Quran is a book focused upon the earthly destruction of every non-Muslim; for the fundamentalists - only non-Muslims doubt this. Neither moderate Muslims nor anyone else can speak their thoughts to the contrary or they'll be killed. (reference some of my recent news posts on the matter).
Hell fire is the topic of this section. It's the destiny, claims Muhammad, for non-Muslims. I'm not sure if Muhammad was enjoying himself or not but he describes in moderate depth how as each person is thrown into hell he will curse everyone who went in before him and they in turn will curse him. I really get the feeling - though I can't prove it just yet, that Mohamed really liked the idea of hell. Yes I know a lot of "Christians" do to. That's because they don't know what they're talking about.
Think about it. If it was godlike to love hell, why would God have sent his son Jesus to take our place? No, the real God did everything possible to keep people out of hell. Allah or maybe just Mohamed just plain likes the concept of hell for his enemies. He even includes a passage promising a taunt from those in heaven to those in Hell.

Sura 7:44 And the dwellers of the garden will call out to the inmates of the fire: Surely we have found what our Lord promised us to be true; have you too found what your Lord promised to be true?

The remainder of the section is a longer dialog between those in hell and those in paradise. But there really isn't any new information.

v59-171 Other testimonies

vv59-64 is the testimony that Allah sent Noah and people didn't listen. He destroyed them in a flood of course.
vv65-72 a similar testimony concerning Hud and the people of Ad. I had to cheat again and read a footnote. The footnote says Hud was the first Arabian prophet, identified with the Biblical Eber (Gen. 10:21, 24f; 11:14ff; Num. 24:24; 1 Chr. 1:18f, 25; 5:13; 8:12, 22; Neh. 12:20). Allah promptly destroyed the people of Ad in a sandstorm (surah 66)
vv73-79 is another testimony of Salih to the tribe of Thamud. The footnote answers the "huh?" with news that Thamud was a Nabataean tribe descended from Ad. The testimony here again is the same, Allah sent Salih and nobody listened. This time an earthquake did them in.
vv80- 84 Ever one to dredge the Old testament to his diabolical purpose, Mohammed now calls on Lot as a great example of someone who gave the message to the people of Gomorrah and was ignored to their destruction. At least from this I get the first knowledge that Islam does despise homosexuality (v81).
vv85-93 Shuayb was sent to the people of Madyan - same story, he spoke, they ignored him and were destroyed in another earthquake. (redactionists probably would have fun with the similar earthquakes mentioned if they weren't afraid of losing their heads.)
vv94-102 is a summary of the concepts above. Allah has always sent a messenger. He has always tried to humble people but they wouldn't listen.
vv103- 171 Moses is the next in line to stand as testimony. The snake staff incident of Exodus 7:8-12 is extended with a rounding up of the sorcerers in Egypt. Only this time when Moses' staff (the Bible says it was Aaron's - go read it) ate the snakes of the sorcerers, the sorcerers became Muslims!
The plagues are usually mentioned briefly and even the crossing of the red sea is mentioned down around verse 138, the incident of the golden calf, the gathering of the ten commandments. Mohamed includes his typical embellishments from time to time but if you step back and squint you get the idea that he at least had something of a grip of the exodus somewhat accurately.

v172-206 Wrapping it all up

Mohammed tries to sum up, which is quite unusual. I haven't yet see him summarize anything in an orderly fashion. Not that I would call this orderly but compared to the preceding this is an orderly chapter! v177 probably summarizes the concept of this section best.

Sura 7:177 Evil is the likeness of the people who reject Our communications and are unjust to their own souls.

To put it plainly evil is defined by rejecting the Quran.
As far as the end times, almost every chapter thus far has talked about judgment day but this is the first time I've seen the question of "when" addressed. Mohamed didn't know, only Allah does and it will drop on your head suddenly.
vv189- address issues of idolatry. It is very reminiscent of Jeremiah. "Your idols are rocks and they can't talk" kind of stuff.

Summary

For the first time I sensed that Mohamed had a plan in this sura. He at least managed to stay mostly on target. This is the chapter which develops the fall of Satan, original sin, Allah's repeated sending of prophets and subsequent rejection. Of course there is lots of hellfire and brimstone. I've never like a hellfire Christian sermon myself - though some do like them. More power to them.
In short I didn't witness any tirades against Christians or Jews in particular though subtle hints throughout did raise my eyebrows concerning the issue.
One thing is for certain. Islam cannot see itself compatible with any other religion. And the defining characteristic isn't mere good works but full acceptance of the Quran. Anything less is not true Islam.

Blogging The Quran: Surah 8

The footnote (sorry I had to) says that the whole sura has something to do with the battle of Badr in which Muhammad informed his followers that they were going to attack a trade caravan from Mecca. Apparently they were in open warfare with the Meccans at that time.
That explains why Surah 8 is titled "The spoils of war".
Who's the real Muslim?vv1-4
The real Muslim according to Mohamed here is the one who's heart becomes full of fear whenever Allah is mentioned. They keep up prayer and spend benevolently out of what they have.
Now I have to stop right there because I've noticed already several times before but haven't commented about it, that Mohammad lumps himself in with Allah all the time in phrases like "whatever we have given them." Since Mohammad had a big problem with the trinity, I know he's not quoting allah here. He must have meant he and Allah. Seems a bit presumptuous to me to claim that Mohamed gave you something. Last I heard he was just a man. I urge you to look through the Bible and find for me another prophet (besides Jesus) who would claim this kind of equality with God. That my friends really is blasphemy.
To War!vv5-18
Apparently there was some dissension in the ranks. Two enemy parties had revealed themselves and quite a few muslims wanted to kill the weaker one (sounds like murdering terrorists to me). Apparently however they became convinced to attack the other group. (I'm not really sure of that but I'm guessing from the context).
We get down to nitty gritty when Allah apparently tells the angels to embolden the true believers (hence vv1-4) and to strike fear into the hearts of the unbelievers.

"I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Therefore strike off their heads and strike off every fingertip of them." Sura 8:12

I'm guessing this is one of the verses that gives explanation to why Muslim terrorists are so keen to chop off thier victims heads. I've seen pictures of the bodies of Christians stacked in one pile and heads stacked in the other for this very reason. I wish I could forget those images, they were terrible! It brings to mind Revelationⁱ 20:4
"And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony of Jesus and because of the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received the mark on their forehead and on their hand; and they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. "

Never surrender

Ok, Hands up - how many of you think that the war in Iraq will end with some kind of militant surrender? Anyone? If you raised your hand you don't understand what's driving these people.
Starting with v15 Muslims are commanded *never* to retreat from unbelievers period.

Don't ignore Allah or his prophet... or else

vv 19-41
The title says it all. This next block is a long warning against anyone ever resisting Mohamed or Allah. (to resist Mohammad is to resist Allah). According to Mohammad an instant guarantee of hell is the penalty for ever daring to second guess the prophet Mohamed. Disagreeing by the way includes not just doing something different or ignoring him, it also includes spending your money in a way that might in some way hinder the spread of Islamⁱ.
No wonder his followers ascribe demigod status to the guy. The first group of believers were so taken by the guy and believed him enough to be too scared to point out his inconsistencies and maniacal tendencies. He demanded absolute power and received it by threatening eternal damnation on anyone who would disagree with anything he said. Mohammad was a bit capricious to say the least.

Remember

vv42-63
Remembering allah is the key to victory. To which I must assume that those who die in battle are the ones that forgot him? I'm not entirely certain if that's what this passage means but it sure sounds that way to me. If however you quarrel with other Muslims your "power" will leave you and you'll be vulnerable.
A constantly repeated theme is the distinction between unbelievers and believers.
Muslim believers not only adhere to giving 5% of everything to Allah and Mohammad, but they don't turn back in war. After all unbelievers are the vilest of animals in Allah's site (Sura 8:55). I wonder by the way if that's why Muslims consistently refer to Jews as pigs, monkeys and other animals but never as men.

To War!vv64-75
We end where we started. Here Allah commands Mohammad to urge Muslims to go to war.
Of course when they go to war, the rule is simple "Take no captives" (Sura 8:67). Captives are only acceptable when you have triumphed completely in the war (not just the battle). I'm assuming then that the rule of war for Muslims is "kill them all" end of story. Isn't that exactly what we see? The clerics have declared jihad and now mothers hope their sons grow up to blow themselves up and take out a few Jews and Americans with them. What fosters that kind of hatred? It's not Muslim extremism. It's Muslim believism.
They're allowed to take the spoils of war but are commanded to kill anyone that isn't a Muslim.

Anyone still interested in wondering why "Islamic fascism" is so violent?

Blogging the Quran: Sura 1

So now we're off with Sura 1 in which there are only six verses.
I didn't know what "Sura" meant so Wikipedia to the rescue:

Sura (sometimes spelt "Surah" سورة sūrah, plural "Suwar" سور) is an Arabic term literally meaning "something enclosed or surrounded by a fence or wall." The term is commonly used to mean a "chapter" of the Qur'an, each of which is traditionally ordered roughly in reverse order to its length.

The Sura are traditionally ordered in roughly reverse chronological order, with Madinan suras coming first and Makkan ones last for the most part. Each Surah is divided into ayat, or verses." I take that to mean that Muhammad got his visions/messages first in Mecca and then in Medina later on.

translations

I should note that Muslims consider the actual Arabic to be inspired and so a translation is unacceptable as a final authority. Therefore any translation is viewed as little more than a foreign language commentary on the "real" Quran (I think I've settled on a spelling now. Is Quran the one preferred by Muslims?). which explains the differences. I however am not about to learn Arabic for this exercise. My hat is already full with a pathetic smattering of Greek, and virtually nonexistent Hebrew add a few other "Phrasebook" type collections of other languages and I'm not certain I have room for Arabic. Though I'd eventually like to learn English too so I could become proficient in it's proper use.
verse one: Already the differences in my translations become evident. But not to worry I have Muhammad Asad's footnotes!

I've discovered already that Muslims call the first Sura "the oft repeated verses" because they not only condense the entire Quran (does that mean I can quit here?) but they also repeat them in the daily prayers. (Five times a day). Even though this is the first chapter it seems the scholars are disagreed as to whether or not this was the first stuff that Muhammad wrote.
So Muslims believe that Allah is the Lord of the worlds ( not planets but all areas of life, so say the footnotes.) Suddenly I'm aware of a question I should have already asked. Should I rely on footnotes to help me interpret? What if I just read it like an ignoramus ala David Plotz? I think I'm going to lean on that more because my goal is not to become an Islamic scholar who holds Mr. Asad's views but to take the text in its raw -albeit English- meaning.
I'm going to limit my usage of footnotes then. That will help the reading move along a bit quicker too. Please note that I will capitalize Allah as it is appropriate in English to capitalize names. I will also use the word "Allah" and not "God" to refer to the Islamic deity because I do not believe that the God of Israel is the same as Allah the deity of Islam.

Eternal Insecurity

Sura 1 is a proclamation of the character of Allah and a prayer that he keep them from falling off the good path and onto the path of those upon whom wrath is brought down.
Apparently (cref 1:7) Muslims view salvation (do they believe in salvation?) as tenuous rather than certain because God's wrath will fall on those who go astray. So they share that much with Armenian theologians. Whereas I'll just go on record here as a "once saved always saved" kind of Christian guy. Lots of false Christians out there who look and smell like it but aren't. The proof in the pudding is the fact that they leave the church proving they were never really in it in the first place. (1 John 2:19). But I digress.
So Muslims don't have eternal security. Lots of Christians [think they] don't either.

I am a little curious about the second ayat/verse which calls Allah merciful and beneficent. I'd be interested to hear from Muslims and others who know if they really see Allah like that. Personally I don't see much beneficence in blowing up the world trade center and murdering thousands of innocent civilians. Damnable heresy against sura 1.2 in my opinion.

Summary

The rest of it is pretty average deity speak. Allah is the master of the day of judgment and Muslims serve him. However, It's clear that the Quran teaches that non-Muslims are the ones upon whom favor is not bestowed and upon whom wrath is brought down.

Blogging the Quran: Sura 2

Sura 2 is called the cow. Apparently it's a reference to the golden calf of Aaron's craftsmanship. (I still can't believe he claimed it came out of the fire all on it's own! (Exodus 32:24) Talk about a kid caught this his hand in the cookie jar, turning around and then starting to "cry" because his arm was being "eaten by the cookies".) Back to the Quran though...
This is, I'm told the longest sura (boy am I glad) it was really tough to wade through. I started making lots of comments which you'll see in just a moment but eventually decided around half way through that I just wanted to get the main idea. Scattered all over this chapter are dozens of warnings against rejecting the Quran. That appears to be the main theme holding it all together.
It begins with a claim that this book is a guide to those who guard against evil.
I'm guessing the sixth verse describes me, "those who disbelieve...will not believe." Yup, that's me.
The opening talks about true believers being just that and unbelievers being just that and fake believers deceiving themselves. Kind of smacks of the book of James actually. (James 1:26)
The eleventh verse starts to get into the meat of the matter. These unbelievers who think they believe, also happen to think they are peacemakers when in fact Allah calls them mischief makers - and they just don't get it.

Now stop right there. I fully anticipate (because of what I've been told, not because of what I've read yet) to find commands later on for Muslims to murder the unbelievers. But here in Sura 2 the idea so far seems to be let Allah take care of them on the last day.

Further down we find a parable. Supposedly I'm like the guy who lit a fire but Allah took the light away. Let me see, I recall a similar passage in the Bible. Jesus is the good sower who sowed good seed and Satan took the word away before it could grow. (Matthew 13:1-23) Yup, parallels are all over the place. That's not a big surprise since the Koran / Quran came some 600 years later.

creation

The 21st verse begins an impassioned plea to serve Allah "who made the earth a resting place..."
Stop right there. For anyone wondering if God and Allah are the same being, they aren't. God, the God of Abraham, Jacob and Me made the earth and in it he placed a garden. There he set the man he made that he might work in the garden. Mind you, work came before the fall. God did not create the earth as a resting place. Allah claims he did. Not the same being no matter what you claim.
Incidentally I'm only obeying the Quran (can't believe I said that) when I state the above.
The 23rd verse says, "if you are in doubt...then produce a chapter like it and call on your witnesses besides Allah if you are truthful."

Fine.
I call upon the Omnipotent and True God to stand beside his word In Genesis 1-3 (three chapters not just one mind you). Acknowledge O God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and of me that your word is eternal and true and that your word is at enmity with the words of the Quran. Not in my own name do I ask, but in the name of Jesus your son and my savior I ask you to defend your name and your word. So be it.

Sowing to the Flesh

Verse 24 introduces us to that which was earlier alluded, namely a fiery torment (hell) for the unbelievers. Believers on the other hand (v25) get gardens with rivers and "pure mates". Ah, that would be the fabled 70 virgins which a Muslim is supposed to get for blowing himself up and killing women and babies right?
Is it just me or does the Quran cater to the flesh? I mean, what exactly are you going to do with 70 virgins in the afterlife? You know exactly what the implications are. Lots of sex. But is that anything like what The God of Israel offers? No, Jesus tells us that in Heaven there is neither marriage nor giving in marriage (Matthew 22:30, Mark 12:25) and by implication there is no sex going on in heaven. Our hearts there will be turned away from the flesh which is in this life is passing away and will instead be bent towards God and worshipping him. It's a far cry from the promise of having a bunch of virgins. Kind of makes me think all these Muslim clerics are just horny teenagers with long beards.
Can't you see how the Quran caters to the flesh, do you not see how it clouds the minds of it's readers with promises meant to make them destroy life in order to get sexual gratification? It is a sad acknowledgement but a true one. Consider yourselves my Muslim readers and ask yourself what you are running towards. Are you not running towards the very thing you claim to run away from? You claim to pursue holiness but are in pursuit of nothing more than the flesh. Turn from this foolish race and embrace Christ's truth - rejecting the false claims of Mohammad who is himself very likely the prophet of Allah, but Allah is not God I assure you.

Adam and Satan

Sura 2:29-39 starts a longish section on creation. Allah supposedly creates Adam and the angels and teaches Adam to name them. When then Allah tells all the angels to bow to Adam one named "Iblis" refuses because of his pride. (sounds an awful lot like what tcblack described on: Angelology, Demonology and Satanology concerning Satan's possible origins.)
Anyway this whole portion of the second surah is basically a not completely accurate rehash of the first part of Genesis - so I won't spend lots of time writing about it.

Mohammad, Israel and Christianity

Sura 2:40 starts a call to Israel to follow Allah. It mirrors bits of Romans 2:21 and similar Biblical passages. Mention is made of the Exodus and finally we get in 2:51 to the golden calf from which this sura gets it's name.
Or maybe the name comes from Allah's call for a yellow cow to sacrifice in v67 I'm not certain. After a very long and painful to read diatribe accusing the Jews of all kinds of refusing to accept Allah we get to Mohammed's beef in 2:111 "And they say, none shall enter paradise except he who is a Jew or a Christian..."
Mohammad hated Christianity and reacted against it with a very long book of his own version of morality. Of course part of the problem is hinted at in 111-113. Christians claim the Jews are wrong, Jews claim the Christians are wrong and both quote from the same book. It's even worse than that really, hundreds of Christian denominations do the same thing.

The first "mention" of Jesus

Jesus is alluded to in 87, 136, 253rd verses. "some people assert, "God has taken to himself a son!" (2:116) Of course the Quran denies that truth. Once again The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is not the same being as Allah. Jesus comes up again in v 136 where the Quran claims that the Muslim truth was given to him.

The Origin Of the Middle East Conflict

Islam firmly divides between Jew and Muslim at Abraham. When Allah promises to make Abraham a leader because he was obedient, Abraham asks to make his offspring leaders too and Allah's reply is, "My covenant does not embrace Evildoers" (Sura 2:124) That's it and that's that. Just a short way down the Line we discover that the Muslims believe Ishmael was the son of promise. Well how can the Muslims call the Bible respectable if they disagree with everything it says after Genesis 17:19?

Morality

There is lots of morality in the Quran, I will give it that. Long passages of the second Sura are dedicated to describing what you can and can't do. I did find the month of Ramadan set out in sura 2 as a time of fasting.

War

Verse 154 makes an allusion to Islamic martyrs being a good thing because they are really still alive.
Finally in 2:190 we get to war. I knew it had to be in there somewhere after all I've been told.
Interestingly enough all three of my copies start to translate this as a self defense passage. "Fight ...those who fight with you..." And by the way, don't fight from a mosque unless they start fighting you there. But boy when they do fight, slay them! "...such shall be the recompense of those who deny the truth." (2:191)
OH, and by the way (sura 2:193) "Fight with them until...religion should be only for Allah" In other words, kill them until they convert to Islam.
I don't want to hear another word about the crusades. Christians sinned by murdering and forced conversion during the crusades. Unfortunately even most Christians are ignorant of the fact that the Crusades were just another phase in a war initiated by Islam. Christians finally took the war to the enemy. Up to that point, Muslims had been encroaching on Christian territory and murdering or forcing conversions. Fortunately for Islam that's part of the goal! Terrorism is alive and well in the Quran.
Reading back through this little segment I understand the interpretation of people like Osama Bin Laden. They consider that anyone who is not a Muslim is a combatant. That's why they kill women and children and call it glorious. They really are being honest with the Quran. They're evil but they are honest none-the-less. Many times they are encouraged to "fight in the way of Allah" (sura 2:244)

Fund a terrorist

From 2:196 we begin a list of rules for the Mecca pilgrimage. I think I remember hearing that every Muslim is required to make the trip once? But even here there is a provision for those who live far away to "just send money". Yeah, great - can't get to Mecca? Fund a terrorist instead.
Lest we Christians feel left out, don't worry all you have to do is fill your gas tank to fund a terrorist. (http://factsofisrael.com/blog/archives/000580.html) Every time we tank up we're funding terror. Multiple times this sura commands Muslims to give money to the war effort. Islam is glad to comply because "Fighting is enjoined" on them. (2:216)

Marriage and Divorce

Marriage and more specifically divorce are a longish section of this sura. Muslim can only marry Muslim. Divorce is cool and you can even remarry if your ex-wife divorces again and you still want her. It's certainly not Christianity or Judaism though (Deuteronomy 24:1-5) which requires more purity in Marriage. Too bad even Christians have a problem obeying God's view on marriage.
It's permanent people!

Cameo's

So far there have been many Biblical Cameo's
Adam is mentioned early on while Abraham is a repeated mention; not to mention Ishmael whom is the progenitor of the Arabs.
Moses sixteen times.
Solomon is mentioned and the Prophet Samuel is alluded to as he anointed Saul as King. King David's victory over Goliath is mentioned as well.
Jesus: appears three times and Mary twice. 2:244 declares Jesus has been blessed with all truth. "we gave Jesus the son of Marry all evidence of truth and strengthened him with holy inspiration."
This is the Jesus who declared: (John 14:6) "...I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me."
There is no way to salvation outside of Jesus. it is not Allah, nor Muhammad. Jesus. He alone is the path to salvation. Even the Quran declares that he is correct, gifted with holy inspiration. If you believe the Quran you must confess Jesus as Lord. It is Jesus who declared, "I and the Father are one." (John 10:30). It is Jesus who claimed to be the Son of God (Luke 22:20, John 3:26, John 5:25, John 10:36, John 11:4) who also accepted worship as God (Matthew 14:33; Matthew 28:9; Matthew 28:17; John 9:38)(Matthew 16:16, John 20:28)and who is God (John 1:1).

Blogging the Quran: Sura 4

When Jill Carroll was kidnapped in Iraq the videos of this helpless woman pleading apparently for her life ran shockwaves around the world; well at least in my living room. Despite being treated "well", as we hear in the aftermath, my response was "Monsters!" or something like that. They murdered her friend and interpreter during her kidnapping and then stuffed her into a room...

"You are to stay in this room. And this window, don't put one hand on this window," he continued. "I have a place underground. It is very dark and small, and cold, and if you put one hand on this window, we will put you there. Some of my friends said we should put you there, but I said, 'No she is a woman.' Women are very important in Islam." -- One of Jill Carroll's kidnappers

I am curious to know just how important women are in Islam outside of the 70 virgins that horny martyrs are supposed to get for murdering non Muslim women and children. That's why I was at least partially excited to open the fourth sura and find out that it's title was "women". So what does the Quran teach about women in this Surah? let's begin our meandering journey. There in the first verse we at least acknowledge that God created one man and one woman. Following that are a number of warnings. Treat orphans equitably - don't try to rip them off. But if you can't be nice to an orphan marry a few wives; up to four of them. (I remember reading that Mohamed had nine wives?)

Ayat (verses) 1-18

Women are permitted to inherit from their parents as are the men (The same occurs in Numbers 27:1-7). There's a lengthy section dealing with orphan's rights here which really boil down to don't cheat them, treat them equitably, be nice to them, don't forget to speak to them about Allah. When it comes time for the inheritance though men get twice what the women get if there is two or 2/3 if there are three. Whatever the case men get more than the women. Immorality however is given an equal shake. Men and women must both die, but curiously enough it is only mentioned that the women are to be locked up and given a chance to repent. But even then repentance is only accepted if they sinned out of ignorance. (How could you commit adultery ignorantly? Ok it might be possible but I think not entirely probable.)

v19- 21 Divorce

Divorce is not exactly shunned but if you're going to divorce a woman, you can't renig on the dowry you gave her. If you divorce one woman in order to marry another you have to let her keep her bride money. I'm not sure why you would divorce #1 when you're allowed up to four wives. I suppose if number 5 was a hotty under that burkha you might consider it. Or just go blow yourself up and get 70 virgins if you're so inclined. v22 - 28 Inappropriate marriages This section is reminiscent of Leviticus 18 in it's list of immoral sexual relations. You can marry a woman and her daughter as long as you don't have sex with mom until after you've married and had sex with the daughter. Another twist is that concubines are out; if you sleep with a slave woman it had better be after you married her. As we come to the end of this section there is a curious comment that "man is created weak". Biblically too there is some truth to that statement in that we were created weaker than the angels. But here I have to say that the Quran apparently teaches that mankind was created sinful. That's a pretty gross departure from Genesis' picture of perfect in creation. The weakness of man is not due to creation but to Adam's awful choice.

v29-35 Beat them!

I've found the secret to Muslim salvation, well maybe, but the thirty-first verse says

Sura 4:31 If you shun the great sins which you are forbidden, We will do away with your small sins and cause you to enter an honorable place of entering.

I'm guessing that "we" means Allah and Mohamed. At any rate it's clearly a mirror of Catholicism's seven deadly sins. Avoid the big ones and the small one's won't matter much. That's a far cry again from the perfection which the True God demands (and provides in Jesus' sacrifice.) In this section we discover that men are the caretakers of women; which is to say that men are supposed to make sure their needs are met. However if you fear that a woman is going to leave you, beat her. Yes, you read it here folks, wife beating is perfectly justified in Islam. I cheated again and read a footnote on this verse. Apparently in a few places throughout the Koran the prophet says don't beat her. Of course this latter speech causes then quite a tizzy, even with Mohamed I guess. It's kind of hard to get past the clarity of this particular text though. vv36 - 44 Good morals. As I keep moving through, I am continually noticing how many injunctions to worship Allah are scattered throughout this book. It's really hard to find the doctrines of a given passage when I have to keep trying to figure out if this verse is a scattered worship verse or an integral part of the teaching. Muslims I suppose would say I'm splitting a hair because you can't have one without the other. Many verses are reminders to not be stingy, selfish, mean, dishonest, self-centered, self-glorying and the like. Don't pray when you're drunk or having sex. Thus far I'd call this the "moral chapter".

vv45- 100 kill the Unbelievers (and Jews)

Well maybe not yet so moral, Allah has cursed the Jews. in sura 4:47 we come again to the warning to the Jews to either repent and accept the Koran or "before we alter faces then turn them on their backs..." I believe that means kill them. Either way a lengthy diatribe begins against anyone (notably the Jews) who are not Islam. Eventually they'll be thrown into hell and when their skin burns through they'll be given another skin to burn through. Talk about graphic. However if they repent now and become Muslim the Jews can have gardens and virgins too! Farther down around the 71'st verse we begin injunctions for the [Islamic] believers to go out in bands (raiding parties?)

Sura 4:74 Therefore let those fight in the way of Allah, who sell this world's life for the hereafter; and whoever fights in the way of Allah, then be he slain or be he victorious, We shall grant him a mighty reward.

Dying for Allah is again a good thing. And in a war, any war - there are only two sides. The side of believers (Islam) and the side of Satan (non -Muslims)

Sura 4:76 Those who believe fight in the way of Allah, and those who disbelieve fight in the way of the [Satan]. Fight therefore against the friends of the Satan; surely the strategy of the Satan is weak.

Despite all the really good moral teaching found earlier it is, for me, completely obliterated in this section of militant orders to go out and fight for Allah. Those who would deign to claim that the Quran is a peaceful book haven't read it or are lying. It is indeed a peaceful book to the Muslim, but for the non Muslim it is a book of warning and war. If you are not Muslim you must die, that is the message of the book. Of course all these warnings I mention are not written to the unbelievers but they are warnings to Muslims to not refuse to fight for Allah. In fact don't even allow yourself a friend who is not Muslim. And if a Muslim turns away from Islam "Kill them" (Sura 4:89) It is always Allah's will to fight people unless they turn away from you. If people back down in front of Islam it is a sign that "Allah has not given you a way against them. " (4:90) Whatever the case, kill the unbelievers; but don't kill a believer. If you kill a Muslim on purpose - hell is your only option. So the unforgivable sin for a Muslim is killing a Muslim intentionally. (4:93).

v101- 126 Prayer

Even shortening your prayers as a Muslim is ok if the reason you do is is because you're afraid of the unbelievers. And lest you forget:

Sura 4:101 "...the unbelievers are your open enemy."

I think this section is the first one I've seen on prayer - at least the first extended treatment of prayer. It's here we discover that

Sura 4:103 "...prayer is a timed ordinance for the believers."

Even here the prayer doctrine is wrapped in war. Everything else in this section seems to me to be random. There are warnings against making Allah idols. Warnings against the desires of unbelievers

v127 -130 Women

It's hard to summarize this section but it comes down to a repeating of the earlier injunctions to treat your wives well (without repeating the "beat 'em" lesson from earlier.)

v131-176 The Bible

I cannot help but notice that many times in Sura 2,3 and 4 that "the book" or the Bible is frequently praised as a revelation of Allah. As Christians we should surely use this to help bring Muslims to Jesus.

Sura 4:136 "O you who believe! believe in Allah and His Apostle and the Book which He has revealed to His Apostle and the Book which He revealed before..."

Even the last several verses of this Sura is spent as a diatribe against Jews and Christians for holding to the trinity (v171) for calling Christ "God" (v171) and many more things. The larger part of the argument is that the Bible contains pointers to Allah (so they say) but that Jews and Christians are choosing Christ over Mohammed. Ah, I think therein lies the problem does it not? Mohammed, like any dictator wanted power; what better way to gain it than to elevate yourself to demigod status? It seems that the Bible itself which Muslims are told to obey is enough to guide them to truth. Judgement day is another often repeated theme. Like the hellfire and brimstone preachers I have known, every few sentences is punctuated with warnings of hell. Hell for killing Muslims, for backing down from Jihad, for being mean to orphans, for not praying with the right motive, or for failing to believe all of the Quran/Koran and on and on it goes. Finally or rather near to finally the Quran places a number of charges against Jews and Christians. Which is not surprising. If I were going to make up a new religion, I would have to rail against the ones already in existence. One of the accusations leveled is that the Jews boast in crucifying Jesus, but Mohammad claims that Jesus was not even crucified. But rather Mohammad claims that Jesus was taken in the same manner of Elijah and Enoch."

Sura 4:157-158 "...they did not kill him nor did they crucify him... Nay! Allah took him up to Himself..."

Allah has accordingly sealed Jews and Christians out. There is no longer a doubt in my mind that Strict Islam demands the death of any non Muslim. We are not in a battle against people who have "hijacked a peaceful religion" (bleh!) We are being pursued to death by a people who are taking their religion seriously. When Jill Carroll was kidnapped in Iraq her captors made her watch video's of them killing American Soldiers.

One video showed all these men who were going to be suicide car bombers. They interviewed them, and then showed a field, with cars lined up, and each man getting into a car - waving, just euphoric - and then driving off. Others had pictures of an American Humvee driving along - and then it would blow up, and they'd cut to a graphic of a lightning flash, and thunder clapping. To [my captors]... this was their mission, a righteous path; this was their work for God....They hate Americans so much, they're proud of these attacks. It's normal to them.
-Jill Carroll, commenting on videos which her captors made her watch.

And what would happen if we Christians would take our religion seriously? We would hold more firmly to Christ and we would despise the trappings of this world. We would jettison our Televisions or at least shut them off more frequently. We would train our children in the scriptures and we ourselves would know them. But we would not kill our enemies. No, we would pray for our enemies - loving them even though they persecute us. It is here then that I find my greatest challenge. I am moved somewhere from seething anger and tears when I remember 9/11. But am I moved to love? It is the doctrine of Satan to hate those who disagree with you. It is the doctrine of God to love them in the name of Jesus and to plea with God the almighty one for their hearts to be changed and their souls redeemed.

Dear Father in heaven,
I see that those taken by the deception of Islam are held captive by the enemy of our souls. How I plead with you O my God to show them whom is the real God. Remember, my Lord, when you showed the prophets of Baal who could answer by fire and who could not. Show them, O dear Father, show them your love! Open their eyes to see Jesus Crucified for their sin - open their eyes to see his resurrection and ascension. Open their eyes and touch their lips that they might yet in this life confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. And Father, this is my prayer for me: Teach me to love them as you love them. This is my desire which I ask for in the name and authority of your Son Jesus Christ. So be it. AMEN.

Blogging the Quran: Sura 6

Welcome Back to me! It's good to be back at it. Sorry I've been gone so long, life got out of control on a large scale.
As we get ready to dive into Sura 6 I'd like to share a quote from a German newspaper:

"In the Koran there is the anathema, at Christians there is the prayer for the bless of God, this is the basic difference between Islam and Christianity." (http://www.businessportal24.com/de/Fear_Moslems_66777.html)

In other words, the Koran teaches you to kill the Bible teaches you to pray. Pretty succinct.

Weighing in at 165 verses of varying length this is a long Surah but not as long as the second one which is just plain killer when you try to boil it down. I'm hopefully getting more practiced and I might even have some skill at it by the time I finish all of this.

vv1-67 Monotheism yes, Christianity no

Right out of the starting gate this surah is on the attack with Christianity. "Those who disbelieve [Christians] set up equals with their Lord." In other words, Christians have equated Jesus with God. Yup, that's right. Jesus is God. In him all the fullness of deity dwells. (Col 2:9).
Of course, Mohammad never quite understood that and he launches into yet another attack on Christianity and Judaism. He accuses the Jews of rejecting the revelation of Allah, and presumably lumps the Christians in with it. The warning however in v5 is clear "They shall soon learn the reality of what they used to mock at."
It seems that Mohammad was getting tired of having his spew defined as deception so the 7th verse claims that even if Allah had given him the Quran printed on nice paper unbelievers would naturally reject it. To which I say, "Hey, Satan probably does know how to write."
The block includes a number of commands to "say" something. Most of them are affirmations of Allah and rejections of making anyone equal to Allah. Of course it's a not exactly veiled reference to Jesus.
The entire rest of this verse block is dedicated to different things that Muslims should say to Christians and perhaps also Jews. The sayings are not apologetic arguments in favor of Islam but rather simple - terse statements which to a certain degree all say, "you'll say different when judgement day comes."
The introductory notes say this Surah came at the end of the Medina period so hostility towards Mohammad was building and that of course pours out in the Surah as seething hatred of all Mohammed's enemies. It's amazing to watch this man's theology twist and turn to respond to his circumstance. I wonder how many Islamic scholars actually take note of it.

vv68--73 Back to Basics

Finally the vitriol begins to abate a little and we're returned to standard affirmations of Islamic faith.

vv74-94 Abraham turned from Idolatry

Mohammad now returns to Abraham and uses him as an example. He imagines a dialog between Abraham and his father which the Quran mislabels as Azar. Footnotes claim all kinds of gymnastics in the Talmud to get us there but I just can't help but see this as a clear issue where Mohammad just got it wrong again. Anyway the section begins with Abraham rebuking his father for worshiping idols. (For the real story read Genesis 12).
After Abraham rebukes his father he alternates between beginning to worship a star, then the moon, the sun. They all go down so Abraham counts them false and an argument begins with "his people".
I am continually amazed with Mohammed's fascination with hell. He describes it quite frequently and in many different ways. The torment of it is almost always on his lips. For instance here's a brief one:

if you had seen when the unjust shall be in the agonies of death and the angels shall spread forth their hands: Give up your souls; today shall you be recompensed with an ignominious chastisement because you spoke against Allah other than the truth and (because) you showed pride against His communications. --Sura 6:93

vv95-99 What has Allah ever done?

Someone asked me recently, "What has Allah done for Muslims?."
well here it is. He's supposed to be the one making the seeds grow, the sun to rise and the one who gives life to the dead. Rain, stars the whole bit of nature is claimed to be from the hand of Allah.

vv100 -117 More attacks on Christianity

One thing that I've become increasingly aware of is how much trouble Mohammad had accepting the virgin birth. He accuses Christians of believing God had a "consort" whom he slept with to have a son. I remember reading other complaints about Mary. Mohammad didn't understand that God never had sex with Mary. There was a spontaneous generation of Christ in her. I cannot explain it. The Angel Gabriel didn't attempt. He just told Mary that the power of the most high would overshadow her. (Luke 1:35). Sex is not a part of the nativity story.
Christians are accused of being "polytheists" (Surah 6:106)

vv118-158 Eat Food Correctly

As usual, by the time you're this deep in the sura it's hard to tell when one topic ends and another begins. But eating is a far cry from blasting Christians so I picked a new topic here. Basically the section begins with an admonition to only eat food that has been blessed in Allah's name. As I noted before, it makes me want to bless every meal in Jesus' name even louder.
I'd love to walk into an Islamic cafe and start praying over all the food in the name of Jesus. Sure they'd kill me, but wouldn't they go bankrupt because they'd have to throw all the food out?

The rest of a block is a continued threat of judgement for not believing Mohammad. The frequency of it is almost sickening. However I notice a frequent trend that seems almost to say "don't worry about infidels, God will judge them." That would certainly fly in the face of people like Osama-Bin-Laden. But then the Quran turns to more threats and that feeling is quickly lost.
There is such a huge difference between the Koran and the bible. Where the Bible normally reads like a well reasoned treatise or a collection of related stories, the Quran is such a morass of confusion. It's verses are so disconnected one from another the coalescing of all of it into a systematic theology of Islam would be like reassembling a thousand documents after running them through a crosscut shredder.

When we get to v 140 it almost seems like Islam should be against Abortion.

Sura 6:140 ...They are lost indeed who kill their children foolishly without knowledge...

Of course I think the real issue in the text here is sacrificing your children to idols, in which case Mohammad has finally turned away from the Christians for awhile to attack a different set of animistic religions.

vv159-165 Islamic Denominationalism is bad

Watch the news and you read about this or that breed of Muslim but even the Quran says there is only one kind and the division is terrible.

Sura 6:159 Surely they who divided their religion into parts and became sects, you have no concern with them; their affair is only with Allah, then He will inform them of what they did.

I'm no fan of Christian denominationalism - I've never been a member of any denomination. "Independent Bible Church" is all I'd ever put for a label. The coming generations are putting less and less emphasis on denominations as well. I don't see that happening in Islam though. It seems the divisions are getting broader. The largest division today seems to be between Muslims who are fundamentalists and "Christians" who think there are Muslim moderates.
I'm not seeing any Muslim moderates make a difference anywhere. Just look at the ground war in Iraq.