Ezra was called the son of God?How and what it means? [Qur'an 9:30]

**Imam** · 02-04-2009

Peace be upon you

Before answering the Question there is introduction for those who not aware yet of the meaning of monotheism according to Islam ...Muslims could skip the introduction and go straight to the verse inshaAllah...

Introduction

Why we been created ?

Holy Quran 51:56 I have only created Jinns and men, that they may serve Me.

How to serve God?

Holy Quran 4:36 Serve Allah, and join not any partners with Him; and do good

in other words be true monotheists and to keep the commandments...

Have all human beings been true monotheists and kept God's commandments?

No they haven't ....and the reason they have an enemy who

Holy Quran 7:16 He said: "Because thou hast thrown me out of the way, lo! I will lie in wait for them on thy straight way:7:17 "Then will I assault them from before them and behind them, from their right and their left: Nor wilt thou find, in most of them, gratitude (for thy mercies)."

Satan swore to lead humans astray .....and he has some tools which he used all over hsitory to do the job.......
his target is specific and clear ,to lead human astray from the purpose which God created them for (to worship him as a unique being who is independent of the creation; a real being indivisible into hypostatic entities or incarnated manifestation and to to single-out God alone for all worship without any kind of mediation , whether it be an angel, a Messenger, a prophet,a so called saint, the virgin Mary, a pious person, a tree, a stone, the sun, the moon, or other than these.",or Calling upon others [graves, mystics, saints, idols, etc.] for help ...

so no wonder,according to the Quran the following prayers are nothing but a pure blasphemy and indeed, violates the difinition of Monotheism according to Islam:

(A christian praying to such Lord who is sitting down at the right hand of God.Mark 16:19)

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.

(A christian praying to the mother of God)

Holy Mary,
help those in need,
give strength to the weak,
comfort the sorrowful,

Mary, all who seek your help
experience your unfailing protection.
Amen.

The same case if a christian pray to saint....

Christian would say ,we believe in one God we just make such pray in that way as mediation .....
well, you just exactly repeat the same sayings of the pagans before the coming of Islam ....

Holy Quran39:3 Is it not to Allah that sincere devotion is due? But those who take for protectors other than Allah (say): "We only serve them in order that they may bring us nearer to Allah."

If you like to call yourself a monotheist just do it, nothing cheaper than words ....... but if you didn't practice it as it should be ,your words are of no merit

If they think this way ,that monotheism means for Muslims only the believe that who created the world is one God not three ,then you are misleaded as we already pointed out what monotheism means for muslims ......

The Verse

Now after such introduction that highlighted what violates the true monotheism according to the Quran......... let's deal with the verse

Holy QuranThe Jews said, “Ezra is the son of God,” while the Christians said, “Jesus is the son of God!”. That is the saying from their mouth; (In this) they are intimate; what the Unbelievers of the old used to say

1- The verse is a criticism of not only The Jews and Christians but all those groups who ever assigned the rank (Son of God) to any of those, kings , pious persons, God’s messengers etc......

2- The verse is one of the verses which criticize the human use of the term (son of God) in both senses (allegorical and meta-physical)

The verse claims that both Jews and christians believe that Ezra and jesus are sons of God in meta-physical sense?

No, it doesn't.....

by reading the rest of the verse 9:31 we can safely make a distinction and not to treat the term son of God as used by christians and Jews equally ....

what basis for that?

9:31 They take their priests and their rabbis to be gods in derogation of Allah, and (they take as their Lord) Christ the son of Mary; yet they were commanded to worship but One Allah. there is no god but He. Praise and glory to Him: (Far is He) from having the partners they associate (with Him).

Though verse obviously condemns both Jews and christians ,but it made a distinction between the act of the Jews taking their rabbies as gods which is not meta-physical (they are the same nature as God)sense but in another sense....

and the act of christians taking Jesus as God in a meta-physical sense (being the same nature as God)

the grammatical structure of the verse seemed to me at first surprising

«
اتخذوا أحبارهم و رهبانهم أربابا من دون الله »
و المسيح بن مريم

if someone never studied Arabic in academic way would translate it wrongly as (They took their rabbies as gods in derogation of Allah and the christ son of Mary)

while the correct meaning would be:

(They took their rabbis and the christ son of Mary as gods in derogation of Allah )

the word christ was separated from their rabbis ...is one of the amazing ways of the Quran to give a hint of meaning...

as taking the rabbis as gods is not like taking jesus as God.....

the same way

1- The Jews said, “Ezra is the son of God

doesn't means they believed him (being the same nature as God)

but God condemned their using of the title ,cause ,though it is mere a rank title but the evil begins with mere titles that would people eventually would believe in them as facts and a living example of that is Jesus who is turned from son of God ,to, God the son.

Why would Allah blame them for using this term even if not meta-physical yet?

Two negatives accompanied with using such term:

What if I use it for myself?

5:18 (Both) the Jews and the Christians say: "We are sons of God, and his beloved."Say: "Why then doth He punish you for your sins? Nay, ye are but men,- of the men he hath created: He forgiveth whom He pleaseth, and He punisheth whom He pleaseth:

No doubt If I feel and call myself; a son of God and his beloved ,I would feel arrogant within myself ,secure not to be punished for my sins, and as I feel to be God's beloved ,I would have no strong motive to serve him and obey his law,the best I could ever do is to lead a sinful life and just to go sunday to sing for my father !! .........

As a matter of fact christians and Jews are living example of how sinful a human being could be if thinking of himself as automatically a God's beloved ......

What if I use it for others?

This inclination towards ranking God’s messengers,pious people (son of Gods) allows the devil to inject what violates true monotheism into the worship of God alone

as we said before the evil begins with mere titles that would people eventually would believe in them as facts and a living example of that is Jesus

The Jews said, “Ezra is the son of God....refers to all the Jews? proofs?

It refers to a particular group of the Jews

It is exactly as the verse:

5:64 The Jews said: "Allah's hand is tied up." Be their hands tied up and be they accursed for the (blasphemy) they utter. Nay, both His hands are widely outstretched: He giveth and spendeth (of His bounty) as He pleaseth.

2:80 And they(The Jews) said: "The Fire shall not touch us but for a few numbered days:

there is nothing to make us think that neither all Jews or even their majority, said "Allah's hand is tied up." nor “Ezra is the son of God.......
the same nothing in 1 Thessalonians 2:14-15 You suffered from your own countrymen the same things those churches suffered from the Jews, 15who killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets would make us believe that (The Jews killed jesus) would mean all the Jews and all times......

Is there another way would Allah use to convey the meaning (all Jews)?

"There is none of the People of the book but must believe in him(or it) before his death. And on the Day of Resurrection, he (Jesus) will be a witness against them." [an-Nisa, 4:159]

the gramatical structure of the previous verse makes it without doubt that all the People of the book would believe ....
had the verse the same structure "There is none of The Jews but said, “Ezra is the son of God
one could argue the same

but there is nothing in the old testament about such saying?

1- The Jews said, “Ezra is the son of God

or The Jews wrote, “Ezra is the son of God?

2- What kind of a book is such book that will include all what Jews said and done all over history?!!!

3-The following New Testament claims though possibly true,nowhere it is recorded...

Paul claimed that Jesus said, "It is better to give than to receive".

but nowhere it is recorded in the whole gospels.......

The Gospel of Matthew quotes Jesus as referring to "Zechariah son of Berekiah," as having been "murdered between the (wall of the) temple and the (courtyard) altar" (Matthew 23:35).

3-The Jews claim that The exodus ,such huge event , took place according to the bible never been recorded by ancient Egyptians..

The difference between you and me ,is that I trust the Quran in the unseen while you not......

the Quran told me about lots of unseen facts recently discovered.......

If I accept it in the scientific miracles ,I don't find much difficulty accepting what it says about a highly possible thing (some Jews, called Ezra Being considered by Jews a second Moses, the son of God)especially this verse was read to the Jews and they did not contradict it; which they were ready enough to do in other instances.

The cases when we have to look for something in the Old Testament ,is when Allah ever says IT WAS WRITTEN

eg; Verses 7:157 "Those who follow the Messenger, the unlettered prophet, whom they find written in what they have of the Torah and the Gospel

Jews and christians have all the right to ask muslims where is such thing is written.....

Who is to be criticized the one who said (Jews said) or (Jews wrote)?

We have lots of cases when we find New Testament allegation of something Jews wrote but objective reading to verify the claims we find nothing at all writing...

Speaking to his disciples on the night of his alleged resurrection, he said,
Luke 24:46. "Thus it is written and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day."

Matthew 2:23 "and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets: "He will be called a Nazarene.

Peace on those who follow the guidance

**Woodrow** · 02-11-2009

This subject may have been discussed before. but it has been some time so for those who may have missed it I approve this thread for posting.

**Grace Seeker** · 02-11-2009

So, to summarize some of your points, you are saying that the Qur'an does not make a claim that this is the belief of Judaism as a whole, but represents only the belief of some Jews. Further that it was used by Jews in a titular way (which the you say is still wrong), while Christians use it in a metaphysical way in refering to Jesus, which is even worse.

Do I understand you correctly?

**Imam** · 02-12-2009

Originally Posted by Grace Seeker

So, to summarize some of your points, you are saying that the Qur'an does not make a claim that this is the belief of Judaism as a whole, but represents only the belief of some Jews. Further that it was used by Jews in a titular way (which the you say is still wrong), while Christians use it in a metaphysical way in refering to Jesus, which is even worse.

Do I understand you correctly?

Grace-seeker
believe me when I tell you,I expected you to be the first to post here

yes you understood me right..

and that is my reflection with this verse

**Grace Seeker** · 02-12-2009

Originally Posted by Imam

Grace-seeker
believe me when I tell you,I expected you to be the first to post here

So glad to not disappoint you.

yes you understood me right..

and that is my reflection with this verse

OK.

**YusufNoor** · 02-13-2009

Peace be upon those who follow the guidance,

according to this post on "ask Moses," and as we have explained before, Ezra is the de facto "default" Jewish leader:

Is it a Mitzvah (commandment) to pray?
by Rabbi Shais Taub

The Short Answer:

Yes.

The Askmoses Answer:

Essential Prayer

The Torah tells us,1 "You shall serve the L-rd, your G-d,” and2 “You shall serve Him with all your heart.” Clearly we are being commanded something here, but what exactly are we being told to do. What does it mean to “serve” G-d, and how does one do this with all of one’s heart?

The Talmud3 tells us that to serve G-d with your heart means, just like it says, to open your heart to G-d and turn to Him in prayer. Prayer here doesn’t mean reading words from a book or standing and sitting at certain paragraphs. It means to speak to G-d and let your deepest feelings come forth. It means telling Him whatever is on your mind, to praise Him and to ask Him for your needs.

Prayer here doesn’t mean reading words from a book or standing and sitting at certain paragraphs

Thus, to fulfill the Biblical commandment of prayer, one need not say certain words at certain times, but rather, at some point every day – or many times a day if one wishes – to turn to G-d and connect to Him on a personal level. That is the Mitzvah of prayer.

And so it was in ancient times – from the days of Moses through the First Temple Era – Jews would fulfill the Biblical commandment of prayer in exactly this way. However, after the Jews were exiled to Babylon, the general population lost the art of arranging meaningful prayers on their own. Their once pure Hebrew with which they could describe the loftiest of holy concepts became muddied and the common Jew was no longer able to compose eloquent praises or supplications.

Standardized Prayer

Thus, Ezra the Scribe and his court composed a standard text for every Jew. By using this script which includes in it general references to all matters one might wish to discuss with G-d, everyone would be sure to address G-d as articulately as possible. Each Jew’s personal signature, so to speak, would be in the feelings aroused in the heart during prayer.

Ezra and his court also enacted that Jews should pray at set times. Today one prays three times every day -- morning, afternoon and evening -- and four times on Shabbat, Biblical Holidays and Rosh Chodesh. Nevertheless, if one feels like speaking to G-d at any other time, one may and should do so as well. Indeed, that is the actual mitzvah from the Torah; that’s what it means to serve G-d with the heart.

Of course, one should try to arouse as much feeling as possible when reciting the text the sages compiled according to deep and hidden mystical ideas. However, the mitzvah of prayer is still something that is between you and G-d, and you may speak to Him at any other time as often and with whatever words you wish.

Maimonidies and Nachmandies

The above explanation is based on the opinion of Maimonides.4 However, it should be noted that there is an alternative view on prayer posited by a sage of equal stature. That is the opinion of Nachmanides. Like Maimonides, Nachmanides holds that prayer is a scriptural obligation. However, he attributes the source for this commandment to a different verse in Torah, namely, "And when you go to war in your land against the adversary that oppresses you, then you shall sound an alarm with the trumpets: and you shall be remembered before the Lord your G-d, and you shall be saved before your enemies."5 Nachmanides interprets this verse to mean that whenever one faces distress, it is a mitzvah to call out to G-d for salvation and rescue.

Whenever one faces distress, it is a mitzvah to call out to G-d for salvation and rescue

Thus, according, to his view, the obligation to pray only pertains in such an event – should it arise – where one is in need of G-d’s help. As Nachmanides writes:6 "It is a mitzvah to plead fervently with G-d through prayer and teru'ah (Shofar blasts) whenever the community is faced with great distress...for it is a mitzvah to affirm in moments of distress our belief that the Holy One listens to prayers and intervenes to grant aid."

It then follows that if one has no particular reason to petition G-d then there is no need to pray and, hence, no commandment to do so. According to this view, one could go for an indefinite amount of time without praying, i.e. however long it is that the person goes without having any distressing reason to cry out to G-d.

Bottom Line

However, since the court of Ezra enacted set prayer rites and times – as noted above – one should go ahead and pray anyway even though in doing so one does not fulfill the obligation of prayer in its true Biblical sense; unless, of course, they happen to have some pressing need, which, in that case, they would be complying to both the rabbinical requirements and the Biblical mitzvah as well

source:

http://www.askmoses.com/en/article/5...t-to-pray.html

so we see that the Laws of God had been lost and the Laws of Ezra were substituted, putting Ezra in the position of Lawgiver.

**Grace Seeker** · 02-13-2009

Yusuf, in your above post I have trouble following what is from the source and what is your personal commentary upon it -- or is all of it the writings of the original author. As you tend to use multiple colors and make comments within a source document you quote, perhaps you could provide us a key to your color coding. Thanks.

**YusufNoor** · 02-13-2009

Originally Posted by Grace Seeker

Yusuf, in your above post I have trouble following what is from the source and what is your personal commentary upon it -- or is all of it the writings of the original author. As you tend to use multiple colors and make comments within a source document you quote, perhaps you could provide us a key to your color coding. Thanks.

it's only color coded to break up the text, the highlighted parts are merely [my] emphasis added.

my words are outside of the quote.

i put the link. [didn't i?]