The topic of religion usually produces strongly opinionated statements about each others, now coming from myself who wouldn’t be considered religious but couldn’t be called non religious either, the past few weeks of reading excerpts from each of the three major religious books have been quite enjoyable. The Qur’an has to be one of the most inspiring yet confusing pieces of literature that i have read. While Islam, judaism, and Christianity all share the idea that God revealed himself to Abraham it is the variations of each that have sparked my interest. I love the islamic infatuation with the idea of being just one God. It makes a lot of sense if someone is all powerful and all knowing and basically can control all facets of life why should we focus our energy away from that one individual?
Now my favorite word in the entire Qur’an CORRUPTION!!! What a debatable word and one to me i think will forever remain in the grey. When we look at the words, “if any kills a person-unless in retribution for murder or spreading corruption in the land” (76.37-38..). The penalty for corruption is death, but what is corruption? In a time where stealing was punishable by getting your hands cutoff, why was corruption seen as a crime equal to that of murder? While it can be seen in the meaning of corruption being anything that is to be different then that of the teaching of God, does all religious beliefs other then islamic equate to a punishment of death? The real major question that derives from this thinking is, why does any individual have the authority to enforce God’s work? This is something that i cannot seem to grasp, especially when in the verse of Jonah it states “Your Lord knows best those who cause corruption… say, ‘I act for myself, and you for yourselves'”(85.4-6..). It seems to really contradict the earlier saying of corruption is punishable by death because it seems as if the only one who can and shall judge corruption is God himself. I believe both sides of supporters and non supporters of the notion of corruption being punishable by death are simply looking too deep into the words and a true understanding of the definition of the word corruption given the context will never be known, so to all don’t take words too literally.
I too thought of corruption as an interesting point in the texts we have read. I think it is also important to note corruption inside and outside the context of the text. For example, what does it “mean” to be corrupt in the Qur’an versus, the Hebrew Bible. or what about outside the context of the texts? I think this is an important topic to explore, especially in this day in age when we are faced with crookedness on a daily basis, whether its in our government, social structure, workplaces, etc… How and what can we learn or gain from reading these ancient texts in terms of their publication and practice up until today?