A GOOD OLD FASIONED BOOK BURNING!

Is this in fact true? I'm not

Is this in fact true? I'm not expert on the Koran, honestly I know nothing about it. Now, I have considered the idea that in fact, throughout some of the many religions, it could easily be the same God, but different stories. Although say that to particular people of any religion and they'll boot you out.

Also, book-burning is a waste. Recycle instead! (Honestly I don't advocate the destructions of books/knowledge, but if you HAVE to destroy it, do it an eco-friendly way!)

I believe the story in the

I believe the story in the oldest book--the OId Testament--has an interesting beginning for both the Muslims and the Jews stemming from 'Abraham as the father'--and that's with the start of the two nations with their respective sons from Abraham--Isaac for the Jews and Ishmael for the Muslims.  And, it all seems be started by two women haggling over Abraham's preference of son. Here's part of it in Genesis Chapters 16 (NIV version):

Now Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children.  But she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar; so she said to Abram, "The LORD has kept me from having children.  Go, sleep with my maidservant; perhaps I can build a family through her."

Abram agreed to what Sarai said.  So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian maidservant Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife.  He slept with Hagar, and she conceived.

When she knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress.  Then Sarai said to Abram, "You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering.  I put my servant in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me.  May the LORD judge between you and me."

"Your servant is in your hands," Abram said.  "Do with her whatever you think best."  Then Sarai mistreated Hagar; so she fled from her.

The angel of the LORD found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur.  And he said, "Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?"

"I'm running away from my mistress Sarai," she answered.

Then the angel of the LORD told her, "Go back to your mistress and submit to her."  The angel added, "I will so increase your descendants that they will be too numerous to count." 

The angel of the LORD also said to her:  "You are now with child and you will have a son.  You shall name him Ismael, for the LORD has heard of your misery.  He will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone and everyone's hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers." 

So, Hagar goes back and bears the child.  She and her son, Ishmael, live with Abram and Sarai over a decade but, after a decade or so, a new covenant is born with God promising the now-named Abraham (footnotes in the NIV Bible state that 'Abram' means 'exalted father' and 'Abraham' means 'father of many') that his now-named Sarah will bear a son (in their old age) that will start the covenant.  But, Abraham, still concerned about his son, Ishmael, has concerns over the set-up.   Here's that rendition in Genesis 17:18-21:

....And Abraham said to God, "If only Ishmael might live under your blessing."

Then God said, "Yes, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac.  I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him.  And, as for Ishmael, I have heard you:  I will surely bless him; I will make him fruitful and greatly increase his numbers.  He will be the father of twelve rulers, and l will make him into a great nation.  But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you by this time next year."....

That arrangement of Hagar with Ishmael and Sarah with her new son, Isaac, lasts for a few more years but, then, all hell broke loose and Hagar and Ishmael had to go away from Abraham and Sarah and Isaac.   Genesis 21:8-21 tells the story here in part:

The child grew and was weaned, and on the day Isaac was weaned Abraham held a great feast.  But Sarah saw that the son whom Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham was mocking, and she said to Abraham, "Get rid of that slave woman and her son, for that slave woman's son will never share the inheritance with my son Isaac."

The matter distressed Abraham greatly because it concerned his son.  But God said to him, "Do not be so distressed about the boy and your maidservant.  Listen to whatever Sarah tells you, because it is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.  I will make the son of the maidservant into a nation also, because he is your offspring."

Early the next morning Abraham took some food and a skin of water and gave them to Hagar.  He set them on her shoulders and then sent her off with the boy.....

I quote this story in part because it is an interesting story as to the start and beginnings of the two Semitic religions and cultures 'from Abraham'--one, blessed by God's covenant with Isaac and Sarah and, the other, blessed by God to 'go forth and multiply', but, then, destined to be a culture of 'wild donkeys against all his other brothers' in Ishmael and Hagar--all apparently started by the two mothers bickering over their respective son's inheritance and attention from the father, Abraham.  I've stated this story on boards like this before and one Muslim (a physician as I recall) pointed out to me that in patriachal societies like Abraham's, it was the first born son that carried all the rights to inheritance and property--so, God's 'new covenant' with Sarah and Isaac went against God's own patriarchal order. 

And, right in line with 'the history of Jesus', whether this represents exactly what and how it happened, the story, as all good myths go, carries with it the component of human actions and intentions that supercede the real facts of the issue--it all started with two mothers bickering over their sons inheritance and attention from the father as a metaphor to the problems of the two (now three) mono-theisitc religions of 'God' stemming from Abraham (which even has further implications if you consider that Jesus, himself, was raised as a bastard child without a father).   In line with this point, the Koran does not have Abraham leaving Hagar and Ishmael in the desert with those skins of water.   Abraham goes with Ishmael and they, together, build the Mecca....

Keep the faith....