While the good news circulates that Terry Jones decided to call off his planned burning of the Qur’an, many Christians bloggers have gone ahead with their plans to blog about the Qur’an in response.
Randy Olds shared one of my favorite verses from the Qur’an, Sura 2:62:
“Those who believe (i.e. Muslims), and those who follow the Jewish (scriptures), and the Christians and the Sabians (i.e. Mandaeans),- any who believe in God and the Last Day, and work righteousness, shall have their reward with their Lord; on them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve.”
Hacking Christianity has a post “Holy Wars, Holy Texts, Holy Living” and shared sura 4:36
“Worship Allah and join none with him (in worship); and do good to parents, kinsfolk, orphans, the poor, the neighbor who is near of kin, the neighbor who is stranger, the companion by your side”
Near Emmaus blogged about the basic definition of religion (as well as sharing a parable), and shared Sura 107:
“Have you seen the one who denies the Recompense (Judgment)? For that is the one who drives away the orphan and does not encourage the feeding of the poor. So woe to those who pray but are heedless of their prayer – those who make show and withhold simple assistance.”
Joel Watts shared a meditation and included Sura 3:113-115:
“Not all of them are alike: Of the People of the Book are a portion that stand (for the right); they rehearse the Signs of God all night long, and they prostrate themselves in adoration. They believe in God and the Last Day; they enjoin what is right, and forbid what is wrong; and they hasten in good works: They are in the ranks of the righteous. Of the good that they do, nothing will be rejected of them; for God knows well those that do right.”
There’s not much I can add, but here’s Sura 2:136, where Muslims are commanded to respond to Jewish and Christian calls for them to convert to Judaism or Christianity as follows:
Say: “We believe in God, and the revelation given to us, and to Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, and the Tribes, and that given to Moses and Jesus, and that given to (all) prophets from their Lord: We make no difference between one and another of them: And we bow to God.”
Also related to this topic are Craig Martin’s post on religious violence, and a short Riverfront Times piece noting that Terry Jones and Rush Limbaugh went to the same school.
One last thing to note is that, in the case of Islam every bit as much as in Christianity and Judaism, the fact that something is in the Qur’an or the Bible doesn’t mean either (1) that most believers know it is there, or (2) if they know about it, they actually practice it today.
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