Children of Abraham
Richard
L. Shafer
Many of us, at one time or
another in our lives, fall into the “If I’d only known” trap. “If I’d only known how much fun this would
be,” or, “If I’d only known that my action would hurt you. . .” You get the picture – we claim to have been
ignorant, uninformed.
The Koran[1],
chapter 6, warns us away from this trap.
“To Moses, [God] gave the Scriptures, a perfect code for the righteous
with precepts about all things, a guide and a mercy, so that they might believe
in meeting their Lord. And now [God has]
revealed this Book truly blessed.
Observe it and keep from evil, so that you may find mercy and not say:
‘The Scriptures were revealed only to [Jews and Christians] before us; we have
no knowledge of what they read’; or, ‘Had the Scriptures been revealed to us we
would have been better guided than they.’”
Moreover, when we look at the
clues, cues, or just plain knowledge we’ve had to work with, we find that,
despite our earlier moaning and kvetching,
we’re without excuse: We have been told
before. The more I read the Koran, and
the Old and New Testaments, the more convinced I am that we have indeed – all
of us - been given much the same precepts from the one, the same God. Here’s an example: Our heritage tells us to care for widows and
orphans. In Exodus 22:21, we find this
directive:
“Any widow or orphan you are not to afflict.”[2]
James writes the same message
to the 12 tribes:
“Religion
that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their
distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” (James 1:27)[3]
Muhammad had brought similar
instructions to the nascent Muslim community several hundred years later. As he received the Koran, he recited:
“Do
not tamper with the property of orphans, but strive to improve their lot until
they reach maturity.” (Chapter 6)
And
“Have
you thought of him that denies the Last Judgment? It is he who turns away from the orphan and
has no urge to feed the poor.” (Chapter
107)
That’s just one example. When you read all three texts, you must
conclude that the basic premises they bring are indeed quite similar: The one and same God requires of us – all of
us in the three Abrahamic traditions - justice and fair dealing, kindness to
orphans and widows, and charity to the poor.
So, we have been well and fully informed of God’s requirements, and the
penalties for ignoring them.