Raisins

I'm reading a book by a Canadian journalist named Irshad Manji. She's Muslim. And, a lesbian. Needless to say, she has lots of questions about her faith, and the book is mostly an account of her journey to understand her faith and what it means. She poses lots of sharp, but valid questions to Islam; ones which I'm considering in regard to Christianity as well. Here's one point she makes:

In Arabic there is the word 'hur'. Depending on intonation, hur has a few possible meanings. One meaning is raisins. Now in Arabia grapes do not exactly grow with reckless abandon. So, one can imagine that in Muhammad's time, to Arabians grapes were almost unheard of. The only way an Arabian could taste a grape was in the dried form of a raisin, and even this was rare and most like something that was costly. This is the kind of delicacy that rich merchants could bestow upon people they were attempting to charm. To receive raisins was to receive the favor of someone who was rich and influential, because in all likelihood the rich were the only ones who would have raisins.

There is another meaning to 'hur' should the intonation be different. Virgin.

If you can't see the problem here, allow me to elaborate:
In the Qur'an, martyrs of Jihad are assured of 70 'hur', and Arabic has no scripting for intonation. Depending on the unsure pronunciation of this one word extremists imagine a heaven where they will have a full-blown harem, when it is possible they might merely receive a sack of raisins, representing God's favor. It's impossible to discern absolutely what Muhammad meant, and it's possible that even he did not know which inflection God used in revealing the Qur'an. The problem is that Muslims are taught to not interpret the Qur'an, but to simply follow . . . mindlessly. So, when your imam tells you it means 70 virgins, it means 70 virgins. Period. This carries all kinds of implications: the inferiority and subjugation of women, that sex is a petty tool of Allah, that violence is ultimately the will of God, that paradise is euphoric because of its "earthly pleasures" and not because of the Presence of Allah . . . on and on.

Or, it could just mean that God shows favor to those who die for his sake . . . and they get a snack.

If it sounds trivial, Manji asks, would those involved in the September 11 attacks been near as likely to take such extreme and horrific actions if the Qur'an had been subjected to criticism? If they had been exposed to the slightest degree of doubt would 5000 people have died on that day?

I think our current world is filled with people who sadly know the hideous evils that have been done, mostly by people of undoubting faith. I hear preachers time and time again criticize the pluralism of our current context. That people are not willing to take a stand, but what are we standing for??? The past 2 years, the message of Jesus has shown me more an more that we stand far too often for the trivial. We stand for family values! We stand for decency in the media! We stand for the American Dream!

We stand. . . . but too often we stand with our backs turned to the fact that we stand for consumption. We stand on greed, blind patriotism, and demonic ideologies that ravage the world around us while we watch baseball, and talk about cars. We assume that our religion supports us in this. A preacher I've been listening to in my car says that our culture is one of "highly sophisticated unbelief." Maybe. But, how often is our belief a system of 'highly sophisticated blindness' that allows horrific actions because we have no doubt?

Another point that Manji makes is that Judaism embraces the diversity of interpretation. The Talmud places conflicting concepts of different rabbis side by side for mass consumption. Diversity of thought is embraced. What a profound idea.

Then there's Christianity, which stands somewhere in between. There's a staggering array of divergent opinions about our Scriptures and what they mean. Yet, there is also the all too common voice of fundamentalist evangelicalism that demands exclusive thought and action. A voice that is strikingly similar in tone to that of extremist Islam.

The more I understand our Scriptures, the more I come to see how the book we believe is truly a pluralistic book. There are many different voices represented in it. Polytheists, henotheists (one God above many), strict monotheists, extreme nationalists, philosophers and pluralists, rabbis, evangelical enthusiasts, and a Gentile who thinks its all awesome: all these voices can be heard from our Book. Yet, we still say that the Bible says what it means? This book that has been edited countless times, passed down orally, translated from language to language . . . but some still seek a single unified meaning out of it.

This Bible has resulted in the greatest acts of compassion and mercy the world has known. It has evolved human character immensely beyond the greater evils of our nature. It has been a cornerstone in the transformation of humanity. Yet there have been Crusades with the most staggering of atrocities, cruelty, persecution, deplorable justification of evils ranging from suicidal cults to Rwanda. Would these evils have occured had dissent and doubt been voiced?

I agree Modernity often overwhelms us with a deluge of conflicting ideas that can leave us without hope and faith if we would allow it. Yet, these ideas arose from the Christian context. Modernity is an extension of Christianity, and I believe we can firmly reject its evils while still appreciating its amazing value. I believe that pluralism is a part of this inheritance, and like all things taken to an extreme, it is subject to human sinfulness. I don't advocate that we stand still in the pretense that all things are ok as they are. Yet, I firmly reject the sort of dogmatic assertion that would tell us to flee doubt as a tool of the devil. I reject that faith would EVER place one human above another, or justify war and oppression in the name of God. I reject any faith that has the slightest room for hate or indifference, whether that be displayed in terrorism or imperialism. I reject that God's will is to see me become a petty king whether in paradise with my virgins, or in suburbia with my personal mansion, wife, and 2.5 children. Especially when his favor is all Jesus claimed to bring.(Lk. 4)

Bring on the raisins. Long live Christian pluralism.