{"id":44301,"date":"2017-09-18T10:01:18","date_gmt":"2017-09-18T16:01:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=44301"},"modified":"2017-09-18T10:01:18","modified_gmt":"2017-09-18T16:01:18","slug":"paganism-condemned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2017\/09\/paganism-condemned.html","title":{"rendered":"“Paganism Condemned”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

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\"Muhammad\" in Arabic<\/a>
A somewhat stylized calligraphic writing\u00a0of the name Muhammad<\/em>
(Wikimedia Commons public domain)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Still going:<\/span><\/p>\n

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Paganism Condemned<\/strong><\/p>\n

Another common theme beginning in the earliest chapters of the Qur\u2019an is a denunciation of paganism, the worshiping of pagan gods. This theme drew enthusiastic praise from Parley P. Pratt:<\/p>\n

Mahometanism included the doctrine that there was one God\u2014 that He was great, even the creator of all things, and that the people by right should worship Him\u2026 On this account, on the simple subject of the Deity and His worship, if nothing more, I should rather incline, of the two, after all my early traditions, education, and prejudices, to the side of Mahomet, for on this point he is on the side of truth, and the Christian world on the side of idolatry and heathenism.<\/strong><\/span>[1]<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

The false gods of the pagan Arabs, says the Qur\u2019an, can create nothing, but are themselves created. They cannot help their worship\u00aders because they are unable to help themselves. They have neither feet nor hands nor eyes nor ears and so can neither move nor perceive.[2]<\/a> (Notice the interesting fact that gods without human shape are seen as helpless and ineffectual.) \u201cThose whom you invoke besides God could never create a single fly though they combined to do this. And if a fly carried away a speck of dust from them they could never retrieve it. Powerless is the suppliant, and powerless he whom he sup\u00adplicates.\u201d[3]<\/a> Polytheism, the Qur\u2019an says, is merely something invented by uninspired men, without authorization or revelation from God. Especially ironic is the fact that, according to the pagan Arabs, the divine beings are goddesses! \u201cIs He to have daughters and you sons?\u201d[4]<\/a> \u201cThey give daughters to God (glory be to Him!), but they themselves would have what they desire. When the birth of a girl is announced to one of them, his face grows dark and he is filled with inward gloom. Because of the bad news he hides himself from men: should he keep her with disgrace or bury her under the dust?\u201d[5]<\/a><\/p>\n

This last passage points to one other part of the early Qur\u2019anic message. Although it can hardly be called a true \u201ctheme\u201d of the book, it is worthy of mention here: Among the pre-Islamic Arabs, female infanticide was a common practice. This means that parents commonly took their newborn infants, upon discovering that they were girls, and buried them alive. (Obviously, this practice was not universal, or there would soon have been no pre-Islamic Arabs.) The reasons for such a practice are fairly obvious. Raising children was an expensive and demanding undertaking, and especially so in an Arabia where life was often still quite uncertain and marginal. And after all the effort expended in raising a daughter, what was the outcome? She joined somebody else\u2019s tribe or clan at just the point she was becoming useful. Better, this attitude said, to raise boys. The irony noted by the Qur\u2019an in connection with the alleged goddess-daughters of Allah is that, of course, while the pre-Islamic Arabs were themselves not at all happy to have daughters, they were perfectly willing to ascribe them to God.<\/p>\n

The Qur\u2019an put an end to the practice of female infanticide in Arabia. Among other things, it said that the day of judgment will be a day on which \u201cthe infant girl, buried alive, is asked for what crime she was slain.\u201d[6]<\/a> Obviously, it is implied, her answer will not help her parents at that day. But the Qur\u2019an does not leave the implica\u00adtion to be puzzled out by its audience. It states the principle clearly: \u201cYou shall not kill your children for fear of want. We will provide for them and for you.\u201d[7]<\/a> It is important, I think, that we in the West remember this reform instituted and enforced by the authority of the Qur\u2019an. For those who like to view Muhammad and Islam as hostile to women, this ending of female infanticide ought to be weighed in the balance.<\/p>\n

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[1]<\/a>* Journal of Discourses <\/em>3:38.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> 7:191-97.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> 22:73.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> 53:19 23.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> 16:57-59.<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> 81:8-9.<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> 17:31; compare 6:151. This passage has implications, too, for the Muslim view of abortion, which has historically been quite negative.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 Still going: \u00a0 Paganism Condemned Another common theme beginning in the earliest chapters of the Qur\u2019an is a denunciation of paganism, the worshiping of pagan gods. This theme drew enthusiastic praise from Parley P. Pratt: Mahometanism included the doctrine that there was one God\u2014 that He was great, even the creator of all […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n"Paganism Condemned"<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"    Still going:   Paganism Condemned Another common theme beginning in the earliest chapters of the Qur'an is a denunciation of paganism,\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2017\/09\/paganism-condemned.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" 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