This is the fourth article of the series:
"The Foreigner woman in Bible versus Quran"
Few quotes from the previous articles of this series are given here.
In language, the foreign or the strange woman is the alien or the exotic or the outsider woman. However, as determined by the Bible (e.g. 1 Kings 11:1), the foreign or the strange woman is the non-Israelite woman.
Subsequently, all non-Israelite women are foreign or strange women.
This indicates that the women in the Bible are but one of two categories; they are either Legitimate or Foreign.
Moreover, the Bible (Ezra 10:2) states that you break faith with God if you marry foreign women.
Ezra 10:2 (English Standard Version):
"…We have broken faith with our God and have married foreign women from the peoples of the land…"
According to the inspired word of God (1 Kings 11:1-11), the Bible says that
- The mouth of the strange woman is a deep pit: He that is abhorred of the Lord, Jehovah, shall fall therein. Why be captivated by a strange woman? Why embrace the bosom of a foreigner? Your eyes will see strange women, and your heart utter perverse things; then, you will be like one who lies down in the midst of the sea, like one who lies on the top of a mast.
The commandment is a lamp and the law is light to keep you from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman which flatters with her smooth words. Do not let your heart turn to her ways or stray into her paths. Her (the strange woman) house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death. She has cast down many wounded: many strong men have been slain by her.
Herein, there is an interesting remark:
Proverbs 22:14 Says that the mouth of the strange women is a deep pit.
On the other hand, Proverbs 23:27 says that a prostitute is a deep pit…
Proverbs 23:27 (English Standard Version): For the prostitute is a deep pit…
(Read the second article of this series: The Foreigner woman in Bible versus Quran (2)
Meaning-wise, does this indicate that the mouth of the strange women is equivalent to a prostitute?
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On the other hand, all women are equal in Islam.
Historical backgrounds:
There were some historical events that happened before the Quran puts the Law that all men and all women are equal in their duty and responsibilities regardless of their race, color, location etc.
(1)The first eventwas when Thabit ibn Qays who was hard of hearing and when he came to see the Messenger of Allah, the Companions made room for him in order for him to sit next to the Prophet so that he could hear him. He came one day when people were already seated and started stepping over people, saying: “Make room! Make room!” One man said to him: “You have found a place, so sit down!”
- Immediately, Muhammad said: 'Who mentioned that woman (which Thabit gave her names)?
Thabit stood up and said: 'I did, O Messenger of Allah!'
The Messenger said to him: 'Look at the faces of those present'.
And when he looked, he asked him: 'What do you see?'
He said: 'I see white, red and black people'.
The Prophet Muhammad said: 'Well, you are not better than any of them unless it be through your good deed and faith and God- fearfulness and apprehension.
(2)The second event; on the day Mecca was conquered, Muhammad ordered Bilal (a black Ethiopian slave) to climb on the roof of the Ka'bah and perform the call to prayer.
A man commented on this: 'Praise be to Allah, that Allah has taken my father to Him and made that he did not see this day'.
Another man said: 'Did Muhammad not find any other caller to prayer except this black raven?'
One person said: 'O servants of Allah! How can this black slave be allowed to perform the call to prayer on top of the Ka'bah?'
Another man said: 'If Allah is displeased, He will change him'.
- Muhammad summoned them and asked them about what they said and they admitted it. Allah then revealed this verse warning them against boasting about their lineages and abundance of wealth and against looking down on the poor, the color, the race etc.
(3)The third event; Safiyyah bint Huyayy ibn Akhtab (a Jewish wife of the Prophet Muhammad) went to Muhammad, and said: ‘O Messenger of Allah, women revile me, saying: O Jewess, daughter of Jewish parents!’
Muhammad said to her: ‘could you not have said to them in reply: my father is Aaron, my uncle is Moses and my husband is Muhammad’.
In response to such events, Allah revealed Verse 49:11 and 13 of the Quran.
The meaning of Verse 49:11
- Evil is the name, mentioned out of mockery, derision and mutual reviling, of immorality after faith!
And whoever does not repent, of such immorality, those, they are the evildoers.
In other words, do not defame one another nor backbite against each other, nor insult one another by nicknames that he or she dislikes to hear. Bad is the name of lewdness after having accepted faith. And whoso turned not in repentance from doing that after having accepted faith, such are those who are evil-doers and they harm themselves with punishment in the Hereafter.
The meaning of Verse 49:13
O mankind! Lo! We have created you male and female from Adam and Eve, and have made you nations and tribes that you may know one another. Lo! The noblest of you in the Hereafter, in the sight of Allah on the Day of Judgment, is the best in conduct in the life of the world Lo! Allah is Knower of your status and lineage; He is Aware of your works and standing in His sight.
In other words, the verse says:
O mankind! We have indeed created you from a male and a female, from Adam and Eve, and made you nations and tribes that you may come to know one another that you may acquire knowledge of the customs of one another and not to boast to one another of whose is the more noble lineage, for pride lies only in the extent to which you have fear of God. Truly the noblest of you in the sight of God is the most God-fearing among you. Beyond doubt, God is Knower of you; He is Aware of your inner thoughts.
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The Bible (King James Version)
Proverbs 5:20
And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger?
Proverbs 6:23-24
23For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life:
24To keep thee from theevil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of astrange woman.
Proverbs 7:4-5 and 25-27
4Say unto wisdom, Thou art my sister; and call understanding thy kinswoman:
5That they may keep thee from thestrange woman, from the stranger which flattereth with her words.
25Let not thine heart decline to her ways, go not astray in her paths.
26For she hath cast down many wounded: yea, many strong men have been slain by her.
27Her house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death.
Proverbs 23:33-35
33Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things.
34Yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast.
Proverbs 22:14
14The mouth of strange women is a deep pit: he that is abhorred of the LORD shall fall therein.
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The Quran (Yusuf Ali Translation):
Verse 49:11 and 13
11) O ye who believe! let not some men among you laugh at others: it may be that the (latter) are better than the (former): nor let some women laugh at others: it may be that the (latter are better than the (former): nor defame nor be sarcastic to each other, nor call each other by (offensive) nicknames: ill-seeming is a name connoting wickedness, (to be used of one) after he has believed: and those who do not desist are (indeed) doing wrong.
13) O mankind! we created you from a single (pair) of a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes, that ye may know each other (not that ye may despise (each other). verily the most honored of you in the sight of Allah is (he who is) the most righteous of you. and Allah has full knowledge and is well acquainted (with all things).
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Back to my question to the smart and interested reader:
Are the Scholars honest when they claim that the Quran quoted from the Bible?
