Dear sister Cariad,
and dear brothers and sisters in Islam,
Assalamu alaikum
I do not want to interrupt the vivid discussion going on here but I feel I also have a few things to share with you guys.
Names of God
Quran tells us, that all good names belong to Allah. However, the name should be unique because we believe in the oneness of God. We are fine with YHWH, because there is no tradition in or out of bible to use that word for Jesus. Yeshua is Hebrew form of Jesus. The arabic christians call Jesus Yesu’ , which is a possible arabification of Yeshua. Muslims usually call him Isa, which is another arabification of the same root (Yeshua).
It is your right to believe in trinity and it is our duty to call you towards pure monotheism. YHWH is fine but Yeshua is preoccupied as a name of the son of man, and God is not the son of man.
Was Lot a Messenger?
For me the decisive argument for him being a messenger (Rasul) of God is the fate of his nation. God sends His "Rasu'ls" as symbols of His final Judgment. A "Rasu'l", in contrast to a "Nabi" (Prophet) is not just a deliverer of God's message. In addition to being a deliverer of God's message, he decides the fate of his addressees, on the basis of the response that he receives from them. The Qur'an, regarding "Rasu'ls" says:
"Those who oppose God and His Rasu'ls shall be brought low. God has decreed: I will surely triumph, Myself and My Rasu'ls. God is Most Powerful, Mighty." (Al-Mujadilah 58: 20, 21)
The second argument is the following verse of Quran:
And [We had sent] Lot when he said to his people, "Do you commit such immorality as no one has preceded you with from among the worlds? (7:80)
Understanding Bible in the light of Quran
Quran tells us, that it is "Muhaiman" over previous scriptures. This means that the Quran is the only criteria to evaluate the truth and debasements in them. It is the Quran only which can tell us what is from Allah and what is adulteration of later generations. I have so many examples of the verses of bible, which we muslims can understand better in the light of Quran, that we can write a doctoral theses about them. Since you are here among muslims, I would like to invite you to try to understand bible in the light of Quran. You will see, that a whole new world of the meanings of the bible will open for you.
My understanding of the verses of Genesis about Lot
For me the decisive verses to interprete the whole chapter are the following ones:
36 So both of Lot’s daughters became pregnant by their father. 37 The older daughter had a son, and she named him Moab; he is the father of the Moabites of today. 38 The younger daughter also had a son, and she named him Ben-Ammi; he is the father of the Ammonites of today.
So we can derive from these verses that the Narrator is not from the time of Lot. Instead, he is most probably somebody from the 9th century before Christ, after David and Solomon, when israelites were having wars against Moab and Ammon. Therefore, there are good reasons to believe, that this animosity for Moabites and Ammonites has led the narrator to this story. Please excuse me my blunt use of the language, but this is what the narrator really wants to drive at: “When the older daughter slept with her father, these bastards called Moabites were born and when the younger daughter slept with the father, these bastards called Ammonites were born.”
Secondly, the fear of extinction of humanity was unjustified, as Lot was a nephew of Abraham and they were not too far away from Abraham. They at least knew, that there are people living in Kanan.
Thirdly, the availability of products like wine requires some civilization. When you are leaving your home because everything would get destroyed, you don’t pack enough wine in your luggage to get drunk during your stays.
Fourthly, what kind of a righteous man was he, as you put it, who could unknowingly get so drunk, that he would not know, what he was doing? Such a man should not be the choice of God or the choice of Abraham to send to any nation. And if such was the messenger, then his nation had not deserved that end. I can imagine, dear sister Cariad, that even you are more righteous than the man depicted in those verses.
So I hope, dear sister Cariad, that in the light of the above arguments, you will reconsider your opinion towards those verses in Genesis.
Peace to you all
Wassalamu alaikum
