The Cow vs. 48 and 60 – Who then is righteous?

The Cow vs. 48 and 60 – Who then is righteous?

How to be fit for Heaven

Verse 48 introduces an interesting concept in the midst of another long declaration of how the sinful will perish forever and the sinless will earn paradise. It mentions the attempt to “deserve” Heaven by joining yourself to a “servant of God” as a model. Apparently, if you can identify with someone who certainly deserved Heaven and model yourself after him as much as possible, you may make your way in with the help of an ‘intercession’, the mechanics of which were not laid out. Maybe we will get more detail on that later. However, the very concept of following another human as an example seems strange to Christians, who believe that none of us are without sin and the only perfect example is Jesus Christ.

At this point, it is necessary to understand and remember the difference between the Christian and Muslim view of “sin”. In Islam, unintentional sin is not enough to keep you out of Heaven, but intentional sin is. In Christianity, the bar is raised much higher, but so is the level of hope. Even intentional sin, even the worst sort, can be forgiven through acceptance of Christ’s atonement. Christian faith is an all-or-nothing proposal, with no way to attain righteousness on your own. Islam is a little more vague, with the basic idea that you may be able to refrain from sin sufficient to bar you from Heaven, with Allah’s help and a great deal of prayer.

Sinless prophets through revisionist history

My first thought when reading about intercession was helpfully answered only a few verses later. Being a lifelong Christian, I instantly wondered how you would go about finding a sufficiently righteous man to emulate. “After all, even the prophets of the Bible, even the greatest people sinned. David committed adultery. Moses disobeyed God in Kadesh.”

What was Kadesh? It was the place where the Israelites, once again, complained about lack of water. Moses was told by God to ‘speak to the rock’ and that waters would gush out for the Israelites. Instead, Moses took them to task. “Do you expect me to bring water out of this rock for you?” And he struck the rock with his staff, twice. God answered, and brought the water, but informed Moses later that his punishment for disobedience was that he would never be able to cross over into the Chosen Land. Moses’ disobedience here, by the way, was a little more subtle than the plain story suggests. He did things his own way, and he neglected to give credit to God.

Verse 60 in the Koran, however, tells a different story. It claims that “We (Allah) told Moses to strike the rock, so that water would come out…” in the midst of it’s tirade, admittedly not unlike tirades among Old Testament prophets, about Israel’s unfaithfulness.

Now those who are not well versed in the Bible, not only what it says but why, would probably see the difference between ‘speaking’ and ‘striking’ in God’s orders to be so unimportant that it would not even need to be mentioned. God spoke to Moses, Moses struck the rock, the miracle happened. However, like the changes made from the Biblical account in earlier verses, a slight edit changes the entire story. A sinful human like the rest of us is transformed into a sinless paragon suitable for identification and capable of intercession.

Remember that Islam, unlike Christianity, is a ‘new revelation’ religion. The New Testament completes and explains the Old Testament, but it does not rewrite. The system of atonement for sin and the need for a Savior runs throughout the entirety of both Scriptures. However, Mohammed’s visions, to the Muslim, represent new revelation that overrides and corrects the old. So if the Bible says that God told Moses to speak to the rock and the Koran says that Allah told Moses to strike the rock, for the Muslims, the ‘newer revelation’ takes precedence. In that way, revisionist history is justified in order to protect a claim not defensible through the Old Testament that Jews, Christians, and Muslims all claim to hold in common.