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Sure, why not? Seems as reasonable as the wolf that ate Red Riding Hood's grandma, and granny being rescued alive by the woodsman. The story seems pretty clear that Jonah didn't end up as ambergris, but it doesn't take much stretch of the imagination to think he was probably pretty ripe and stinky after being barfed up on dry land. Hmm, makes me wonder how the whale managed to puke him up on to dry land, unless the whale beached itself and died. It's pretty unbelievable that anyone could survive by avoiding being drowned by seawater and smothered from the enveloping tissues of the esophagus while going down the hatch, not to mention smothered by the stomach itself. But if Red Riding Hood's granny could survive after being eaten by a wolf...
Maybe it wasn't actually the belly of a whale or large fish at all that Jonah was trapped in. Perhaps, as Giorgio A. Tsoukalos would probably suggest, it was the interior of an alien submarine that only resembled a large sea creature to ancient people.
And just like the bible, there's even an inerrant historical book previously written about it. And just like that bible, it's author was very credible! Jules Verne!
The God-Captain was, if I'm remembering correctly, Kirk Douglas!
Wow! Thanks for the memories, guys. Now of course, I was a gullible little kid back then, and now I can separate the truth from unbelievable & fictional imaginary fables....
This is the expected reaction from the atheists ,
They do not believe in the creator , meaning that they do not believe that Allah is the one who created the whale
and Allah has a full a control on it,
they do not believe that Allah is the creator and the owner of every quark in this universe.
And this reaction is similar to a reaction happened from the non believers more than 1400 years in the era of the prophet Muhammad (peace and blessing of Allah be upon him) .
In one night the prophet was taken in a journey by angel Gabriel on a white heavenly horse named Al-Buraq
He was taking from the holy mosque in Makkah to the holy mosque in Jerusalem and then from Jerusalem he was ascended to Heaven and talked to Allah in a long detailed story.
In the next morning he was brought back to Makkah.
In that era the journey from Makkah to Jerusalem takes one month by camels and one month to return back.
In the morning the impact of this exciting and amazing and miracle journey put a noticeable feeling in the face of the prophet and one of the non believers leaders called Abu Jahal was passing by him and notice that feeling on the face of the prophet and he asked him about any new things and the prophet told him that he went to Jerusalem last night ,
and Abu Jahal said him and in the morning you are within us ,
the prophet said yes and Abu Jahal became very happy because he felt that finally got something on the prophet that will destroy his claims and that will make him a liar,
then Abu Jahal called the people and said to them look what Muhammad is saying that he went to Jerusalem and returned in one day and we beat the livers of the camels one month to go and one month to return.
The people did not believe the prophet and some of the believers they apostasy .
Then they went to Abu Bakr the best friend of the prophet and he was the first man to be a Muslim and the first one who believed in Muhammad and they told him about this unbelievable story then Abu Bakr said
If Muhammad said that then I believe him , I believe him in something faster than that , I believe in the word comes from Allah in heaven to the earth in one hour.
That is your personal opinion (the whole "the Quran is the final holy book") and you'll have to forgive the rest of us if we prefer going to the earliest source we have for the Jonah tale, are part of a different tradition or are not interested in letting traditional interpretations (no matter the source) read the Book of Jonah FOR us.
Allah is the source for Moses and David and Jesus and Muhammed peace be upon them.
in other word he is source for the Torah , Psalms, Gospel and Quran .
each messenger and prophet was send to his people only .
Muhammad was the final prophet and he was send to all the people of worlds , human and jinn.
and the Quran is the last of heavenly Books, and it abrogates the books which came before it and is a witness over them.
Quote:
Originally Posted by whoppers
If we admit the miraculous nature of the event, then we must also admit that any speculation of what kind of "great fish" it was is kind of futile in the end, isn't it?
They do not believe in the creator , meaning that they do not believe that Allah is the one who created the whale
and Allah has a full a control on it,
they do not believe that Allah is the creator and the owner of every quark in this universe.
And this reaction is similar to a reaction happened from the non believers more than 1400 years in the era of the prophet Muhammad (peace and blessing of Allah be upon him) .
In one night the prophet was taken in a journey by angel Gabriel on a white heavenly horse named Al-Buraq
He was taking from the holy mosque in Makkah to the holy mosque in Jerusalem and then from Jerusalem he was ascended to Heaven and talked to Allah in a long detailed story.
In the next morning he was brought back to Makkah.
In that era the journey from Makkah to Jerusalem takes one month by camels and one month to return back.
In the morning the impact of this exciting and amazing and miracle journey put a noticeable feeling in the face of the prophet and one of the non believers leaders called Abu Jahal was passing by him and notice that feeling on the face of the prophet and he asked him about any new things and the prophet told him that he went to Jerusalem last night ,
and Abu Jahal said him and in the morning you are within us ,
the prophet said yes and Abu Jahal became very happy because he felt that finally got something on the prophet that will destroy his claims and that will make him a liar,
then Abu Jahal called the people and said to them look what Muhammad is saying that he went to Jerusalem and returned in one day and we beat the livers of the camels one month to go and one month to return.
The people did not believe the prophet and some of the believers they apostasy .
Then they went to Abu Bakr the best friend of the prophet and he was the first man to be a Muslim and the first one who believed in Muhammad and they told him about this unbelievable story then Abu Bakr said
If Muhammad said that then I believe him , I believe him in something faster than that , I believe in the word comes from Allah in heaven to the earth in one hour.
That's quite a move to dodge and completely avoid the subject. You have no answer so you switch to a story (as interesting as it may be) about Abu Jahal, Abu Bakr and Muhammad which is unrelated and has nothing to do with the subject of Jonah being swallowed by a large sea creature.
There are different ways to view the story of Jonah. Not all people will agree with you. Some people may believe it actually happened. Others may believe it is only a story that illustrates the behavior of people. And still others may give other alternative examples (as weird as they may be) to explain such a story. Are you the creator? Are you a prophet? If not, then perhaps you should exercise restraint and avoid putting meaningless labels on other people based on your own personal disagreement and assumptions. Because someone disagrees with your point of view, it's okay for you to automatically label them as an atheist? Maybe you should take a good look at your own self to see what kind of example you're setting and showing to others.
Allah is the source for Moses and David and Jesus and Muhammed peace be upon them.
in other word he is source for the Torah , Psalms, Gospel and Quran .
each messenger and prophet was send to his people only .
Muhammad was the final prophet and he was send to all the people of worlds , human and jinn.
and the Quran is the last of heavenly Books, and it abrogates the books which came before it and is a witness over them.
From what I recall from my reading of the Quran - the same God of Islam (Allah) is the same God of the Hebrew Bible (using the non-Yahwistic terms for God: El, Elohe, Elohim, etc.). That point is hammered home many times, if I recall correctly, and parts of the Quran recall how the Arabs reached out to the Jews to show them this. It's fairly easy to see the linguistic relationship between the Quranic term Allah (derived partly from "ilah")and the Israelite El-derivatives - the initial vowel shouldn't confuse people in this regard. Even further back beyond Israel's Elohim and El lie the main god El of Ugarit, and beyond that the standard term for "a god": Ilum, from Akkadian. The main differences between the various terms are the case-endings (or lack thereof), and vowel assignations to the initial aleph. It gets complicated, but the basic picture is there.
Christians tend to find this information a little hard to digest since they do not use the terms El or Elohim, and either rely on the catch-all translation "God" or "Theos", etc.. Therefore, they miss the obvious connection between El, Elohim, Elohe and Allah. For those reading who are curious about the relationship, check out this short summary here: Allah - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The main difference I find with the Hebrew and Arabic terms for "God" is that the personal name of God in the Hebrew Bible is Yahweh (usually pronounced today superstitiously [or reverently] as "Adonai" by observant Jews, and usually translated as "The LORD" in English Bibles unfortunately) and Elohim and El are used as generic terms for God (or in combinations such as El Shaddai, El Elyon), while in the Quran the personal name of God is actually Allah, with ilah being the generic term for "a god".
So - with that as background (for those who were not aware), it's easy to see why the Quran insists that Allah is the same God that the Jews and Christians both worshipped, and that Mohammed was another prophet in the long line of important prophets (as you pointed out: Moses, Jesus, etc.) bringing new information from God, and that such information should supersede previous prophetic messages. Of course, this relegates Jesus to a mere prophetic-status (which, while I may agree with you on this 100% - will grate against most Christian sensibilities, who believe him to be much more divine), but that is the choice the Quran made. But I have two points to add to this, and a question or two:
1: Scholars working closely with the texts the Sacred Scriptures of Judaism and Christianity have come to the conclusion that Moses did not write the entire Pentateuch (if he wrote any of it at all - see here), David did not write the entire collection of Psalms, the Gospels were not eye-witness accounts and borrowed heavily from both oral and written sources AND each other and that these works can not withstand the suggestion that they came from the mouth of God himself. While most scholars will readily admit that the Quran was penned by Mohammed, they find it hard to believe that it was dictated to him from a messenger from God.
So while we may say that all of these works were the works of human hands, we cannot say for certain how much of a role God played in them.
2: How does Inspiration work? Is it a mindless writing down of dictation? Is it a muse? What is it? We just don't know for certain. We can say that Yahweh or Allah was the source for these prophets, but we really don't know exactly how it worked (thought the Quran is specific in how it worked in Mohammed's case). In fact, it's impossible to accept the suggestion you made without a large leap of Faith.
3: Is God the source of all the writings of the Hebrew Bible? Were all the works written under direct inspiration? This has a bearing on the Book of Jonah - it's a prophetic book unlike the other ones: there are no poetic oracles, for one. Most scholars view it as an entirely non-historical work of creative fiction, meant to teach - but not meant to be taken seriously historically. Even so - does it's historicity matter? It still has the power to move us.
4: Again - you'll have to understand (or at least tolerate) the fact that most Jews and Christians have not been willing to accept Mohammed's claim to be the final word on the matter of God's relationship with the people of the world. You many use the claim for a personal argument that has much weight, but it will not have much weight with those who do not agree with you. You might have to find a middle ground in order to discuss the Prayer of Jonah - one that does not automatically dismiss previous religious traditions.
Can you tell us - what do you get from the story of Jonah? What do you perceive is it's main message, or do you perceive multiple messages and themes?
And can you please tell me how to pronounce the arabic word for "whale" you provided earlier? I'd really appreciate that.
Judaism predates Islam. So whatever you want to quote from an Islamic source is a change from the original.
all the current holy books are not as they were inspired by Allah except the Quran.
they are the one that got changed be men.
and the source of the Quran is not the previous holy books .
the source is Allah to the angel Rooh al-Qudus ( Holy Spirit) (gabriel) to Muhammad (peace and blessing of Allah be upon him) .
prophet Moses is before prophet Jesus and Jesus is before prophet Muhammad and prophet Ibrahim is before them all peace be upon them.
O People of the Scripture! Why will ye argue about Abraham, when the Torah and the Gospel were not revealed till after him? Have ye then no sense?
Lo! ye are those who argue about that whereof ye have some knowledge: Why then argue ye concerning that whereof ye have no knowledge? Allah knoweth. Ye know not.
Abraham was not a Jew, nor yet a Christian; but he was an upright man who had surrendered (to Allah), and he was not of the idolaters.
Lo! those of mankind who have the best claim to Abraham are those who followed him, and this Prophet and those who believe (with him); and Allah is the Protecting Guardian of the believers. The Noble Quran.
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