Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!”Then God said, “Take your son, your only son… Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering…Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. 11 But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”“Here I am,” he replied. 12 “Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”13 Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram[a] caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. – Genesis 22 (NIV)
Is God really omniscient?
“Now I know” – If god is all knowing how could he not have known in the first place? Why did god only realize the prophet fears him till he was about to ‘slay’ his own son?
And if god did know what the outcome would be – Why would god even bother in the first place? Why make a dad and son suffer such a traumatic ordeal to finally find out what you already knew?
Is Allah contradicting himself?
The Quran says killing an innocent person is forbidden (haram):
“do not take the life which God has made forbidden, except in justice” Quran 6:151
and that killing your own children is a great mistake:
“Indeed killing them (children) is a great mistake (khit-an kabeeran)!” Quran 17:31
- Did the son commit an evil act for him to be killed ‘in justice’?
No he never in fact the son that was to be sacrificed was called a ‘compassionate son’ and his birth was lauded by Allah as a ‘good news’ – Quran 37:101
So from the traditional rendering of the story and in light of the above Quranic passages, which were not taken out of context we only come to one conclusion:
Allah is contradicting himself by commanding Abraham to break a law which he himself set. So not only is god not all-knowing he also contradicts himself!
What the Quran really says
“Then when he reached the (age of) working with him he said, “O my son! Indeed, I have seen in the dream that I am sacrificing you, so look what you see.” He said, “O my father! Do what you are commanded. You will find me, if Allah wills, of the patient ones.” Then when both of them had submitted and he put him down upon his forehead,And We called out to him that “O Ibrahim! Verily, you have fulfilled the vision.” Indeed, We thus [We] reward the good-doers” – Quran 37:102-105
Did Allah really command Abraham to carry out the sacrifice?
“{Allah commanded} “And cast down your staff.” So when he saw it vibrate as if it were a Jinn, he turned around to flee and would not return. {Allah called} “O Moses, come forward and do not be afraid. You are of those who are safe.”
Also God explicitly states that Quran is a “clear book”
“These are the verses of the clear book (l-kitabi l-mubeeni)” – Quran 28:2
Allah also states his word are non-exhaustive:
“And if all the trees on the earth were made into pens, and the ocean were supplied by seven more oceans, the words of God would not run out. God is Noble, Wise” – Quran 31:27
How much more proof is needed to show you that if god really did command Abraham, he would have explicitly said so.
This dream was not a commandment from god otherwise god would have said so and this was a dream which nearly made Abraham commit a major sin! The Quran specifically mentions that it is only the devil who entices humans to commit sin and Quran clearly how Satan promised Allah that he will do all he can to lead us all to err by disobeying Allah.
“Iblis said: By Thy Great Glory, then, I will certainly lead them one and all into error” – Quran 38:82 & Quran 15:39
Prophets are not infallible they too make mistakes
- Prophet David – Quran 38:24 – speaking hastily on a matter of justice
- Prophet Muhammad – Quran 66:1 – made a mistake by prohibiting what was made lawful
- Prophet Moses – Quran 28:15-16 – Killed a man
- Prophet Joseph – Quran 12:24 – nearly committed adultery
These are just a few examples of Prophets making mistakes and the reason why god included these mistakes instead of omitting them from the Quran is to evidently show us they too were not infallible. What makes you think prophet Abraham is any different?
If we investigate more deeper into the Quran you come across other scenarios where Allah allows us to see the power of temptation Satan has over whole societies let alone individuals;
“And the devil adorned their work for them, and he said: “No people can defeat you today, and I am by your side” – Quran 8:48
If Satan was able to make the populace of two major societies feel pleased in what they were doing certainly Abraham’s son went through the same beguilement as he inferring form the quranic text seems to do it out of obedience to god and knowing that he was a forbearing boy personality wise coulda implye also felt a sense of being pleased as he was pleasing god in this case. – also satan able to beguile abraham himself
Allah stopped the sacrifice because he forbids evil!
“God orders justice and goodness and that you shall help your relatives, and he prohibits immorality and vice and transgression. He warns you that you may remember!” – Quran 16:90
Allah orders ‘justice’ the event was unjust as written earlier as the Abrahams son was innocent. Allah also says at the end of the passage that he ‘warns’ us its interesting as the arabic word in the Quran for this word is much more powerful the trasnlation does quite a disserive to the actual importance god is trying to convey to the reader of how we should carry out those orders. By using the word “yaʿiẓukum (يَعِظُكُمْ)” Allah is adivising us iwth urgency to take heed and remember those orders. Now why would god break a rule he vehemtnly enforces uponus?
Allahs prevention of the sacrifice was Allah cancelling out Satans deception as seen in the following quote:
“And We sent not before thee any Messenger nor Prophet, but when he fantasized, Satan cast fantasies into him. But God nullifies what Satan casts. Again, God set clear His signs. And God is Knowing, Wise”
God cancelled the fantasies that Satan had cast into prophet Abrahams dream.
Allah is the most merciful (Ar Rahmaan) Remember a merciful god would not make his own prophet undergo such a traumatic event just to prove his faith. Neither would god command his prophet to prove his faith by making him commit a ‘major sin’. Allahs ‘reward’ to Abraham as seen in the final part of the Quranic passage was by preventing him from committing the sin and falling prey to the devils whispers. To add, the reason why I added the bibical verse from the Genesis was to make readers ponder and realize tha talot of what we have in our current Islamic traditoin stems from the bible more than the actual Quran itself. To add, I also included the Quran and bible not to do a compartive blog on which is best but to make the reader understand the Qurans words even more when Allah stated the following:
“And We caused the Book to descend to thee with The Truth, that which establishes as true what was before it of the Book and that which preserves it” – Quran 5:48
The Quran as seen in this example subtly avoids the mistakes that come up in hte prevoius scriputres hpwever we only found out the diffrences in the Quran narrative when we use passages from throughtou the Quran to analyse this story and this was a reason why I chose to stay in Islam as what crossed my mind was if Muhammad really made the Quran as he went along then its too much off a coincidence for him to complete a narative without the prevoius scriptures inconsistencies
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