Tuesday, May 26, 2009

God's Changing Vision Part 7

Pagan Arabs were not the only inhabitants of Mecca and the surrounding areas. Christians and Jews lived in close proximity and many Arabs of the day converted to one of these faiths. Sometimes entire nomadic groups turned (Katsh, [1954] 1980). This caused Arabs of the area to feel “an acute sense of inferiority: it seemed as though God had left the Arabs out of his divine plan.”[1] Also, this was one of the last remaining bastions that had not completely converted to monotheism so there was an expectancy of an Arab prophet (Armstrong, The History of God, 1994).

Somewhere around 610, an Arab merchant in the city of Mecca had an experience similar to those of hundreds of years before. And though the man had never had the opportunity to read the Bible, his visions were uncannily similar to Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel. In his dream an angel told him to recite the words of God. When Mohammad refused the angel hugged the man so tightly that Mohammad could barely breathe. When the angel made the request again, Mohammad still refused to capitulate. It was after the third request that he found the first words of a new scripture which was to become The Holy Qur’an.

[1] Armstrong, Muhammad, 45-46[99

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