Surah 17

In the Old Testament, the Israelites were seen as people who failed to listen to God’s commandments. Despite knowing beforehand that they would be punished for their disobedience, they still continued to commit sin. God tried to deter their misbehavior by promising them many blessings, but it worked to no avail. Due to the insubordination of the Israelites, He made sure that the promises He made to them would be withheld and that they would face consequences.

“... Religion may be protected… defend the lands of Islam… enforce legal penalties… God’s truth may prevail over every religion (Doc E).” The laws in the law book are made to protect people and let conquered lands to practice their own religion, so they seemed fair to others. For example one law is “defend the lands of Islam.” People want to be protected and Muslims were ordered to protect certain lands, as a result people wanted this protection and moved to these places. Another example is “Religion may be protected.” Some people didn’t want to change religions but were under Islamic rule. This law would appeal to them because they would not have to try and overtake the Muslims, so they could have their way. More peace would be achieved and more people would be attracted to Islam, hence making it

The covenant between people and God also contains punishment for those who violate the agreement (Coogan 68). As a result, one punishment can affect all the generations who had the covenant with God. For example, the covenant of the New Testament, which most Christian believe in, that all human should cleanse their sins by accepting the sacrifice of Christ. It means that every child is born a sinner and should cleanse their sins with the blood of Christ, so one day they will have eternal life. On the other hand, for those who fail to do this, they will go to hell for eternal

     In Exodus 20, God creates moral order. God’s way of separation and categorization is a model for human morality. Morality divides up actions into right and wrong, good and bad. To be moral is to categorize actions and circumstances appropriately and follow the correct rules in each case. The Ten Commandments serve as a guide for human beings to be moral. In disobeying these laws, God is well known to punish, starting with Adam and Eve. God punishes because punishment is necessary in order to create human beings who can be morally responsible for themselves. To be morally responsible, we must be able to do the following things:

He tries to explain his point of view of Hell so we can have an idea of what and how is the afterlife. Every bad decision or action will be paid up in hell. Everyone in hell is divided based on the relationship between the offense committed and the punishments deserved. He wants people to understand and identify themselves with the importance of life and a person’s relationship with God. Based on committing good actions and decisions, we must leave to look for salvation in the afterlife. The action of doing the right thing is what lead you to better outcomes and fewer punishments in the

“Be quick in the race for forgiveness from your Lord, and for a Garden (paradise) whose width is that of the heavens and of the earth, prepared for the righteous – Those who spend (freely), whether in prosperity or in adversity, who restrain (their) anger and pardon (all) men – for God loves those who do good.” Qur’an:3:133-134

“For we know him who said, ‘Vengeance is mine; I will repay.’ And again, ‘The Lord will judge his people’” (Hebrews 10:30).

The first question that Lamb raises is if God’s anger in the Old Testament is justifiable. In other words, can God be concerned with Love and still kill people in his anger? Lamb argues that God 's anger, although sometimes extreme is justified and necessary. To prove his point, Lamb uses the story of Uzzah (2 Sam. 6:1-8). In this story, King David recovered the Ark of The Covenant and paraded it throughout Israel in the back of an ox cart. In front of a large crowd of Israelites the Ark became unstable and Uzzah reached out to steady it, because of this God killed Uzzah instantly. At first this seems completely unjustified, it looks as though Uzzah was just protecting the Ark. But, the more we look into God’s motives, the more it makes sense. First, God commanded the Israelites to carry the Ark by two long poles that attach to the side of the Ark, and he was very clear about this. Second, by killing Uzzah in front of all of these people, God sent a message that said his laws shall not be disobeyed. It

The Qur’an stated that God does not love aggressors. The Qur’an stated that you should fight for the sake of God against those that fight against you, but only if they attack first. Upon being attacked, you should slay them where you find them and drive them out of the places from where they drove you; fight against them until God’s religion reigns supreme. For nonreligious violence, the Qur’an stated mankind has the right to guard himself against evil, but only if the means are just; one should not devour one's property by unjust means or be the first to attack.

The divine blesses the righteous and punishes the evil man to remind their limitation and worship to the God.

Fortunately, God alters his ideology over time.  After destroying the world with a flood in the story of Noah, God realizes He has made a mistake, and accepts that no one is flawless.  “I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh.” (28).    God’s promise never to flood the world again has much meaning to it, and displays a change in God’s nature.  From a very early age, when one commits a wrong doing he promises never to do repeat the mistake again.  By making this oath, one acknowledges the fact that he is at fault.  Admitting to a wrongdoing by pledging never do the same again is simply human nature.  Since God is the creator of mankind, He is the one who originally sets the base for human nature.  Therefore, His actions can be decoded similarly to the actions of humans.  After destroying the world with a flood, God regrets it, and admits His wrong doing by vowing never to destroy the world again.  The flood incident allows God to realize that even a divine figure can make a bad decision, and to accept the fact that humans have flaws.  The Lord is not longer so strict

Instead, from its onset, Islam spread as a conquering power and remained that way for some time. Explaining it this way, the reader gets a sense of the psychology behind Islam and why, besides being a religious task, spreading Islam is such a goal. By showing the issues Islam faces today in the context of past Islamic traditions, Lewis paints a much clearer picture of the skewed view today’s radicals have and the way they use history to manipulate. He examines influential Muslim voices like Saddam Hussein and Usama Bin Laden, who have used history to give Islam victim status or to claim the continuance of a predecessor’s mission to not only justify terrorist activities, but also to recruit followers. He tells the history of Bin Laden’s statement referring to the “humiliation and disgrace” Islam supposedly has suffered. What Bin Laden was referring to was the defeat of the Ottoman sultanate in 1918 and the imperial presence of Westerners on sacred Muslim lands. Lewis explains the offense many Muslims take to the desecration of their holy lands by foreigners. He describes how the discovery and exploitation of oil in the Holy Land of the Hijaz has exacerbated the growing resentment many Muslims

Furthermore, if you cannot have ethics without God, which one of God’s teachings should be following. Should the teachings in the old testament championing an “eye for an eye” be tossed aside in favour of the new testament teaching of us to “turn the other cheek”. If God’s will is good, then it is both morally right to exact revenge, as well as demonstrate forgiveness to an injustice. I argue that this argument challenges the premise that God is omniscient as in the old testament, God commands and permits one act, and in the new testament contradicts and supports an entirely different act. If we follow the DCT and assume that as God’s will is good then both commands are correct, then it is up to the individual to decide which moral action to take. If such freedom is possible in making moral decisions, then divine command may not always be needed to satisfy our moral duties.

Surah 80 of the Quran, which is also known as “`Abasa” or “He Frowned”, was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad at an important time in Islam’s expansion. The surah makes use of many literary techniques to indicate the historical context to the reader, as well as strengthen the surah’s themes. Surah 80 has also a topic of interest for Islamic scholars, such as Abu’l ‘Ala Mawdudi and Muhammad Asad. Their interpretations and

The Quran asserts to be highly inimitable and usually challenges its rivals to offer works that are similar to it. According to Sell (24), the individuality was later created in literary terms which made the theologians believe in the matchlessness of the book popularly used by the Muslim community. During its historical exhibition, the inimitability doctrine made the Koran literal study a handmaiden to the scriptural, theological aspect. Nonetheless, the set of guidelines neglects an essential fact because the Quranic challenge was primarily addressed to the unbelievers. It was not considered a denunciation of the infidels but entailed an invitation for them to scrutinize the book and ascertain if it was a publication of possessed human