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Do Quranic Stories Sound Like Fairy Tales?
Assalamu-Alaikum. Recently I’ve been caught up by some serious doubts. It’ll be a great help if you elaborate on the topics given below.
Iblish was told by Allah to prostrate before Adam and Iblish defied Allah yes Allah By saying he was made of fire and Adam was made of clay despite of how dreadful consequences it could lead to❕
Adam ate the fruit of the forbidden tree defying Allah for living in the garden forever and by doing so Iblish convinced Adam to commit shirk 👉 He thought eating the fruit of the forbidden tree will cause him to stay in the garden forever or make him angel or something like that❕
DhulQarnyn created a barrier with copper or something to separate the Gog and Magog from rest of the world for doing mischief in the land and Gog and Magog made a little hole on the barrier during the lifetime of prophet Mohammad pbuh ❕
The Jinns goes up to the sky to peep on the realm of angels in order to know what angels are discussing and pass those messages to fortune-teller and Allah destroys those Jinns by throwing the shooting stars at them❕
I find it very difficult to ponder upon these stories. These stories seems very unrealistic and irrational and formed very serious doubts inside me. Can we believe these Quranic stories rationally❔
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14 Replies
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Do Quranic Stories Sound Like Fairy Tales?
updated 3 years, 8 months ago
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14
Replies
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Wa’alaikum as salam.
I wouldn’t call such things fairy tales, however, they do indeed sound strange. That said, strange phenomenons are all around us, but we take them for granted. We sow a dead seed that is smaller than our fingernails, and after a while it grows into a tree that’s much taller and much stronger than us. Then it gives us yummy fruits that we savor year after year! A strange phenomenon, wouldn’t you agree? Same is the case with the birth of human beings. A filthy sperm and an egg mix with each other and go through a process that creates intelligent life. Some of these even turn into the Einsteins and the Newtons of the world, and change the face of the earth forever. Strange, no?
The correct way to ascertain any knowledge is not to immediately start looking for loopholes in it (unless of course, glaringly evident), without first trying to grasp that knowledge from it’s own foundation. This principle is not specific to religious knowledge only – the same concept applies to Geometry and Algebra.
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Speaking of strange phenomenons!
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To be honest that’s not a convincing explanation at all. Because the example you provided with sounds rational and can be proven practically and thus it can be seen as realistic.On the other hand Quranic stories don’t make sense to me. It doesn’t hold any water at all.
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Can you actually use rationale/reason/logic to prove any of the examples I used above?
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We can use our visual senses to observe trees are growing giving us fruit. We can observe the whole process human embryo development through technology. We can prove mathematically at which speed our earth sun and galaxies are orbiting. You can argue that these are all based on testimony or something. But I’m not here to argue, I just need some groundings to accept those Quranic stories on rational basis.
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I’m not arguing with you either – I’m just trying to help you think things through. One can use reason and rationale to prove that the Quran is the word of God. But when a historical event is stated in the Quran, one can only try to disprove it’s occurrence. It can’t be positively proven.
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I’m not telling to prove historical events or Quranic stories. I’m just saying Quranic stories atleast should necessarily make a little sense to my intellect.I feel like it doesn’t make sense at all. I am afraid I’m gonna loose my eman if I ponder upon those Quranic stories.
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You need to accept only Allah’s almighty’s power
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We believe Allah has absolute power and he can do what he wants you should read the last verses of surah Albarooj otherwise you can say that day of judgement seems like fairy tales. If Allah will gather all of us on that day of judgement he can do anything and he has absolute knowledge of everything. Let’s dua on the day of judgement we will standing there among believers with good deeds Ameen May Allah protect us from these kinds of thoughts and standing among the non believers Ameen May Allah protect you emman Ameen but submission is a necessary part of our emman if you cannot understand something now leave it and make dua might be Allah guide you more righteous direction
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Look I’m not doubting Allah’s power.Neither I have doubts on the judgement day.The judgement day seems quite rational to me. Have you read Quranic stories I’ve mentioned above❓Those have nothing to do with Allah’s power. The problem is those stories sound absurd and irrational. I have no problem with the stories of moses splitting the red sea prophet suleiman has been given authority over air he can move through air the story of Joseph. I can reconcile these stories with Allah’s power.But the stories I’ve mentioned above cannot be reconcile with rational beliefs.I believe that Allah is all powerful that doesn’t mean that He can do anything illogical like telling lies or becoming man in flesh or sacrificing his son for the sake of humanity though He has no son. Like these I cannot reconcile the stories I’ve mentioned above with logic and reason.
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Assalamualikum!
“Iblish was told by Allah to prostrate before Adam and Iblish defied Allah yes Allah By saying he was made of fire and Adam was made of clay despite of how dreadful consequences it could lead to❕”
Here you’re underestimating the power of ego (ananiyat), wishes, whims, emotions, and biases. It is the same ananiyat that makes a man murder another human being despite knowing the severe consequences. The same ananiyat that makes a person reject a true messenger even after knowing that He is a true messenger. And it was the same ananiyat that made Iblis commit istakbaar in front of God. It is the same istakbaar for which there is eternal punishment of hell and for which Quran has rightly said:
نَّ الَّذِيْنَ كَذَّبُوْا بِآيَاتِنَا وَاسْتَكْبَرُوْا عَنْهَا لَا تُفَتَّحُ لَـهُمْ أَبْوَابُ السَّمَآءِ وَلَا يَدْخُلُوْنَ الْـجَنَّةَ حَتَّى يَلِجَ الْـجَمَلُ فِي سَمِّ الْـخِيَاطِ وَكَذَلِكَ نَـجْزِي الْمُجْرِمِيْنَ. لَـهُمْ مِّن جَهَنَّمَ مِهَادٌ وَمِن فَوْقِهِمْ غَوَاشٍ وَكَذَلِكَ نَـجْزِي الظَّالِمِيْنَ. وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُواْ وَعَمِلُوْا الصَّالِـحَاتِ لاَ نُكَلِّفُ نَفْسًا إِلاَّ وُسْعَهَا أُوْلَـئِكَ أَصْحَابُ الْـجَنَّةِ هُمْ فِيْهَا خَالِدُوْنَ. وَنَزَعْنَا مَا فِي صُدُورِهِم مِّنْ غِلٍّ تَـجْرِي مِنْ تَـحْتِهِمُ الأَنْهَارُ وَقَالُوْا الْـحَمْدُ لِلّهِ الَّذِي هَدَانَا لِـهَـذَا وَمَا كُنَّا لِنَهْتَدِيَ لَوْلا أَنْ هَدَانَا اللّهُ لَقَدْ جَاءتْ رُسُلُ رَبِّنَا بِالْـحَقِّ وَنُودُوْا أَن تِلْكُمُ الْـجَنَّةُ أُورِثْتُمُوهَا بِـمَا كُنْتُمْ تَعْمَلُوْنَ. (40-43)
This is certain that those who denied Our revelations and arrogantly turned away from them, for them the doors of the heavens will not be opened and they will not enter Paradise unless a camel passes through the eye of a needle. This is how we punish the wrongdoers. For them is the bedding of Hell and also their covering from above. This is how we punish the unjust. [On the other hand,] those who professed faith and who did righteous deeds – and [in this matter] we do not burden a soul beyond it capacity – they are the companions of Paradise. They will abide in it forever. Every grievance of their hearts will be taken out by Us. Rivers will flow beneath them and they will say: “Gratitude be to God who guided us to this path and had God not given us this guidance we would never have been able to reach this path.” Indeed, the messengers sent by Us brought the absolute truth. [At that time,] they will be called: “This is the Paradise that you have been made heirs of because of your deeds.” (7:40-43)
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“Adam ate the fruit of the forbidden tree defying Allah for living in the garden forever and by doing so Iblish convinced Adam to commit shirk 👉 He thought eating the fruit of the forbidden tree will cause him to stay in the garden forever or make him angel or something like that❕”
The point you are raising is not in concordance with Quran. There was no shirk involved in this whole incident. The tree that Quran is referring to was the tree of progeny that would’ve resulted as a result of marital relationship between Adam (AS) and Eve (AS). It was this marital relationship that was prohibited for them, but Adam (AS) did a mistake not to favour his wishes but it was a natural mistake to favour a good cause originally i.e marital relationship between a husband and wife to give rise to progeny. There are two kinds of mistakes that are committed by people, one to favour one’s wishes, emotions etc and the other ones when someone makes a mistake for a good cause for something that is originally not a bad thing, these are the kinds of mistakes committed by the Prophets (very rare though).
I would highly recommend you to please listen to this lecture in the following thread to know the actual basis of the whole Adam and Eve incident:
Also, after watching the video above, listen to the video provided in the following thread, which will further elaborate on the nature of mistakes of Prophets and will also specifically discuss the nature of mistake by Adam (AS):
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DhulQarnyn created a barrier with copper or something to separate the Gog and Magog from rest of the world for doing mischief in the land and Gog and Magog made a little hole on the barrier during the lifetime of prophet Mohammad pbuh ❕
Creation of wall is in accordance with Quran, but this whole hole on the barrier thing is something mentioned in Ahadith. If you agree with the arguments on who are Gog and Magog as presented by Ghamidi Sahab, then you shouldn’t be bothered by these ahadith because there are many factors that can turn the real meaning of any Hadith into something totally different (could be misunderstanding of a narrator, his personal bias, his own preference / choice of words etc.) that’s why among other principles, one principle of understanding Ahadith is to judge it on yardstick of obvious logic as well. So those ahadith need to be reconsidered. Please refer to the second video in the following thread for Ghamidi Sahab’s view on Gog and Magog and Quranic perspective on them:
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The Jinns goes up to the sky to peep on the realm of angels in order to know what angels are discussing and pass those messages to fortune-teller and Allah destroys those Jinns by throwing the shooting stars at them❕
If you want to question the meta-physical realm, why only question what jinns do, why didn’t you question the existence of God and the existence of Angels? The rational approach would be to question everything related to meta-physical realm and then we should have a discussion on existence of God first.
As far as the falling stars incident is concerned, if you look more deeply, its whole detail is mentioned in Surah Jinn. Now as we know, that both Angels and Jinns have the capability to interact with both realms i.e. both the physical and meta-physical realm. Since we don’t know the nature of their interaction with both realms, therefore, the falling stars phenomenon, among other reasons for its happening, was also used for this purpose temporarily. Since it has to do with Jinns and Angels, whose nature of interaction with this material world we don’t know, therefore we cannot say how this interaction happened but it did happen as a temporary measure to protect the revelation of Quran. This is how Quran describes the whole incident:
Tell them [O Prophet!] ‘It has been revealed to me that a group of jinn listened [to it and went to their people and] then said to them “We have heard a Quran wondrous, which shows guidance to the right path; so we have professed faith in it and we will not by any means associate any one with our Lord”, and [these words of theirs which they said to their people when they went to them have also been revealed to me] “Exalted is the majesty of our Lord; He has neither taken a wife [for Himself] nor a son”, and “This foolish of ours [–this leader of ours–] used to utter absolutely false things about Allah”, and “[If we followed him before this, it was only because] we believed that no man or jinn could forge a lie against Allah”. And “[Men were already a little rebellious and then] some foolish ones among them had been seeking refuge with some mischievous among the jinn so they only increased them in their rebellion”. And “[As a result of this] like you, they also thought that Allah would never raise the dead”.
And “[Before listening to the Quran we were in search of something because] we had groped our way through the heavens and had found it filled with stern guards and darting meteors”. And “Previously we were able to sit in some of its stations to eavesdrop, but now [we see that] whoever tries to eavesdrop finds a darting meteor in wait for him”. And “[At that time], we did not know whether ill was intended for those on earth or whether their Lord intended something good for them”. And “There have remained some amongst us who are righteous and some who are otherwise [and before this also] our paths had been separate”. And “[We were never rebellious]; we knew that we cannot escape Allah in this earth nor elude His grasp by flying away from Him in the heavens”. And “[In this background and with this awareness] when we have heard this Guidance we have believed in it and [we also call upon you that those among you] who believe in their Lord will have no fear of any loss or injustice”. And “[Now after this also], there will be those among us who submit to the truth and those also who insist on their disobedience; so those who submit will find themselves on the right path, and those who are disobedient [their fate then is that] they will become the firewood of Hell”. (72:1-15)
Please also refer to the following video from 21:11 to 23:27 for further insight:
https://youtu.be/6tZYLtAIhGA?t=1271
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Could fortuneteller contact the jinns❓if so can we also able to contact the jinns❓
Could prophet Solomon alone or Solomon and his subordinates move through air❔
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According to some verses, it seems like a possibility that contacting their realm is possible but this is not domain of religion whether we can contact jinns or not, or how to contact them. For that, you need to refer to the people /experts of this field who claim to have done so.
Secondly, according to my knowledge, no where has this been mentioned that Solomon (AS) or his men used to move through air. What’s been mentioned is this fact that air was made subservient to him which refers to the flow of air which then could be used to optimize other operations that are dependent on Air flow. The most prominent verse in this regard is the following:
وَلِسُلَيْمَانَ الرِّيحَ غُدُوُّهَا شَهْرٌ وَّرَوَاحُهَا شَهْرٌ وَأَسَلْنَا لَهُ عَيْنَ الْقِطْرِ وَمِنَ الْجِنِّ مَنْ يَّعْمَلُ بَيْنَ يَدَيْهِ بِإِذْنِ رَبِّهِ وَمَنْ يَّزِغْ مِنْهُمْ عَنْ أَمْرِنَا نُذِقْهُ مِنْ عَذَابِ السَّعِيْرِ. يَعْمَلُوْنَ لَهُ مَا يَشَآءُ مِنْ مَّحَارِيْبَ وَتَمَاثِيْلَ وَجِفَانٍ كَالْجَوَابِ وَقُدُوْرٍ رَّاسِيَاتٍ اِعْمَلُوا آلَ دَاوُودَ شُكْرًا وَقَلِيْلٌ مِّنْ عِبَادِیَ الشَّكُوْرُ.
In a similar way, We subdued the wind for Solomon.[1] The going of the wind [taking along his ships] would be of one month and return too would be of one month.[2] And We made a spring of molten brass to flow for him and had also subdued the jinn who would work in front of him at the behest of his Lord and had said: “Those among them who shows disobedience to Our directive, We will make him taste the flavour of Fire. They would make for him whatever he wanted from among arches, statues, basins as large as watering-troughs, and gigantic cauldrons stationed on hearths – “Be grateful [to your Lord]! Family of David.” In reality, few among My servants are grateful. (34:12-13)
(Excerpt from Quranic Exegesis: Javed Ahmed Ghamidi)
(Translated by Dr. Shehzad Saleem)
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[1] i.e., put it into his service. The لِ in لِسُلِيْمَان shows that the verb سَخَّرْنَا is suppressed here. Solomon (sws) was the son of David (sws) who succeeded him both as a prophet and as a ruler. His era was around 965 to 926 BC. The meaning of subduing the wind for him is that his fleets were so advanced that they could travel for months in the sea. Explanation follows.
[2]. The cause is mentioned to connote its effect and the purpose is to refer to the sailing of ships from one place to another, as has been mentioned in the translation. Imam Amin Ahsan Islahi writes:
… This is because the real power Solomon (sws) had was regarding winds. Obviously, the long travels were only possible if these ships were of large size and at the same time the system to control the wind so profound and stable that they were able to sail in every type of sea while facing various types of winds. (Amin Ahsan Islahi, Tadabbur-i Qur’an, vol. 6, 300)
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The fact that right now I am travelling (because of the movement of planet/universe) even though I am perfectly sitting on my sofa is not at all rational/logical. even in this time, we can find people who will mock and laugh at us for saying such things. why? beacuse they don’t have the necessary knowledge to understand such phenomenons.
The people of the past wouldn’t even begin to fathom that in this century there are absurd machines with something round (wheels) fixed under them taking people around cities. even if you tell them all the engineering details, they would be completely skeptical unless they see them with their own eyes.
looking at the past it seems like whole humanity had been indulged in polytheism, when even from a non-religious point of view monotheism makes far more sense.
conclusion: some concepts are blatantly based on falsehood. while with others it is difficult to extract logic because of our mindset nurtured by knowledge of specific time and space.
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