Is God All Knowing (clarification for verse 5:116)
Question:
If God is all knowing why does he ask Jesus (pbuh), in 5:116, if he told his followers to worship him and his mother ?
Answer:
The language of the Qur’an is the language of common sense (Urf), not the language of science. There are many expressions like this in the Qur’an and all of them are based on common sense way of expression among human beings in general, and Arabs of the time in particular. For example look at 6:130, 7:22, 9:70, 38:75.
This particular case (5:116) is to establish the fact that there was nothing in the teaching of Jesus (pbuh) that would make his followers to worship him as God. This is the same language that many of us use in our daily life. Consider the following example:
"You live your small cousins alone and ask the elder one to take care of the younger one. While apparently being out of the room you still watch them through the window and you see that despite the elder cousin doing his best, the younger one is so naughty that he messes up the room. When you are back in the room, you call both your cousins, then you ask the elder, did you tell your brother that he could mess up the room? What is the reason you are asking this? Is it because you really don’t know the answer? You were watching them through the window so you do know the answer. You ask this so that through this question and answer the bad behavior of the younger cousin is pointed out and to emphasize that this mess was his own fault."
Also consider another point. We know that the description of the hereafter is among the ambiguous verses of the Qur’an. God describes what is beyond our current understanding in a way that it benefits us now. One of the ways of describing what is happening in the hereafter is to illustrate in the form of dialogue in between different parties involved. There are dialogues presented in the Qur’an that are supposedly taking place in between angels and people, prophets and their followers, Satan and his followers, and God and his servants, all in the hereafter.
Now, one way to see the above is that these dialogues will really take place as described in the Qur’an so God is telling us exactly what is going to happen in order to warn us. Another way to see it is that narration of these dialogues are there of course to warn us about the hereafter, but they are only a form of illustrating the points we need to be aware of and warned about, meaning, they may not be necessarily, literally taken place in the hereafter.
Both the above are possible and we, with our limited worldly knowledge, are not in a position to say which one (if any) is correct. However in both cases, the point about the language of Common Sense (Urf) that I explained above applies.
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November 2015
If God is all knowing why does he ask Jesus (pbuh), in 5:116, if he told his followers to worship him and his mother ?
Answer:
The language of the Qur’an is the language of common sense (Urf), not the language of science. There are many expressions like this in the Qur’an and all of them are based on common sense way of expression among human beings in general, and Arabs of the time in particular. For example look at 6:130, 7:22, 9:70, 38:75.
This particular case (5:116) is to establish the fact that there was nothing in the teaching of Jesus (pbuh) that would make his followers to worship him as God. This is the same language that many of us use in our daily life. Consider the following example:
"You live your small cousins alone and ask the elder one to take care of the younger one. While apparently being out of the room you still watch them through the window and you see that despite the elder cousin doing his best, the younger one is so naughty that he messes up the room. When you are back in the room, you call both your cousins, then you ask the elder, did you tell your brother that he could mess up the room? What is the reason you are asking this? Is it because you really don’t know the answer? You were watching them through the window so you do know the answer. You ask this so that through this question and answer the bad behavior of the younger cousin is pointed out and to emphasize that this mess was his own fault."
Also consider another point. We know that the description of the hereafter is among the ambiguous verses of the Qur’an. God describes what is beyond our current understanding in a way that it benefits us now. One of the ways of describing what is happening in the hereafter is to illustrate in the form of dialogue in between different parties involved. There are dialogues presented in the Qur’an that are supposedly taking place in between angels and people, prophets and their followers, Satan and his followers, and God and his servants, all in the hereafter.
Now, one way to see the above is that these dialogues will really take place as described in the Qur’an so God is telling us exactly what is going to happen in order to warn us. Another way to see it is that narration of these dialogues are there of course to warn us about the hereafter, but they are only a form of illustrating the points we need to be aware of and warned about, meaning, they may not be necessarily, literally taken place in the hereafter.
Both the above are possible and we, with our limited worldly knowledge, are not in a position to say which one (if any) is correct. However in both cases, the point about the language of Common Sense (Urf) that I explained above applies.
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November 2015
