Blurred Lines

            I found the Averroes article dense but thought-provoking. The law does not say exactly what you are supposed to believe, but instead gives you guidelines. This is similar to the interpretation we have discussed for both other faiths. It depends, of course, on how Orthodox or fundamental the believer is. You can infer what you want from Scripture, but if you are an Orthodox Jew, you are supposed to believe in and follow very specific interpretations.

            Here, while there is a “wrong” way to interpret, the lines are more blurry. It is more about a false belief and a true belief and how the Law can be used and explored through reason. It is really important, Averroes claims, to know about God, God’s teachings, and all the beings God has made. This is to help understand what makes up those people, animals, or plants. Thinking outside the box is not only helpful but necessary. For example, thinking about God’s stance in religion on being gay is interpreted wildly different. Whether God allows for homosexuality or not is a huge issue for many people. The author seems to be arguing that you must study reasoning before attempting to apply it to reasoning about the Quranic law and the being that make up the world under Allah. Reason and understanding of those beings are tools in understanding God.

           Having your own interpretation of the Quaran does not mean that what you get out of your studies goes against what is law in the Quaran. Two truths cannot oppose each other; what the Quaran is saying and what you believe need to intertwine. You are given the freedom to interpret, but within the boundaries of relating to what the text and sayings actually mean. When you are studying the text and learning about any being in relation to the Quranic texts, it is mentioned in a straightforward way or not at all: there is no in-between. There is no contradiction. This is useful, but it puts a strict set of regulations upon interpretation. Although interpretation is generally positive, it does not lend itself to

You go into an interpretation with a slightly closed mind, making inferences limited.

God the creator vs. God the Father

To open and close every prayer when I was little I was taught to say "in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit" while touching my right hand to my forehead, then my heart, then the left shoulder then the right shoulder. These words and movements were suppose to connect me to God by placing the three forms of God on different parts of my body. Now that I'm older this practice is now only practiced in front of my parents to show them I haven't forgotten my years of Catholic education.  What I didn't realize until I was older was how my Catholic schooling exposed me to a male God. They never said God was a man but they told me he was my Father and he had a Son that was him too but in human form. We always said he when talking about God and anyone who said she was received with chuckles. I got to know this omnipresent force as a man because God was always described to me in masculine terms.

I see this understanding of God as a patriarchal society's conception of divinity and things inexplicable. They need to describe God as male because in those societies men hold the power, and God is all powerful. To understand something as complex as God societies had to understand it and explain it to themselves as something more concrete. Man is what they came up with. This used to bother me until I was exposed to the Quran.

Through reading the Quran and seeing the use of feminine pronouns and feminine words, the holiest book of Islam is able to paint a fuller picture of God. God in Islam is a father to no one but the creator of all. This idea of a genderless or "genderful" God allows me to better understand God's presence in all life.

Discovering the Qur'an

After presenting on Destiny in the Qur’an I have had learned a lot about the sacred text. Before starting this unit on the Qur’an I never really learned anything about the sacred text of Islamic faith. Yes, I had a brief overview of the religion as a whole and I could identify some core teachings of Islam, but the sacred text was an absolute mystery to me. At first when I opened the book, Approaching the Qur’an, introduced and translated by Michael Sells, I had no idea what to expect. Coming from a loving Catholic family I had never even laid eyes on the Qur’an let alone read it.

            My first assignment was to do a brief presentation on Destiny in the Qur’an. I was lost in a world of utter confusion. I had never even opened the Qur’an and I had no idea what to expect awaiting in the pages. When I first started to read the passage I found it pretty. It had a slight melodic tune and was pleasing to read. After I read the passage a couple times I began to wonder if the meaning would be any different if I listened to it because of the sound visions we have been learning about in class. After listening to it, I found that it sounded more like a song. Each word was drawn out and pronounced like a tune.