By Harris Abdullah
From one site’s translation of this video interview: “Sheikh Al-Tayeb explained to his host that the Messiah came to “save societies from the throes of materialism, unbridled passions and deadly selfishness, and to prepare them for a new paradigm.”
In our previous study of the Sermon on the Mount (2), if you could understand what ‘blessed are the mourn’ experientially meant, you would naturally come into the experience of the third paradigm, it flows organically like fluid that you would come to this state. It is going down through deep and genuine mourning; in this direction you would not be arrogant, puffed up so to speak but a new build-up of internal nature follow suit. This nature is “Blessed are the gentle”. We can see this in the following verse
Matthew 5:5
SCR Μακάριοι οἱ πρᾳεῖς· ὅτι αὐτοὶ κληρονομήσουσιν τὴν γῆν.
“Blessed are the meek/gentle, for they shall inherit the earth.”
WTT Psalm 37:11 וַעֲנָוִ֥ים יִֽירְשׁוּ־אָ֑רֶץ וְ֜הִתְעַנְּג֗וּ עַל־רֹ֥ב שָׁלֽוֹם׃
JPS Psalm 37:11 But the humble shall inherit the land, and delight themselves in the abundance of peace.
LXT Psalm 36:11 οἱ δὲ πραεῖς κληρονομήσουσιν γῆν καὶ κατατρυφήσουσιν ἐπὶ πλήθει εἰρήνης
LXE Psalm 37:11 But the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.
πραεῖς, adjective normal nominative masculine plural no degree from πραΰς –Meek/Humble/Gentle. The Hebrew word: עֲנָוִ֥ים (adjective form of root word: עָנָו) mostly translated as humble/meek/poor.
One of the very important matters to take note, that is significant to this verse of Matthew 5:5 is the importance of a simple grammatical tense for the word πρᾳεῖς which is in an adjectival form. Why using adjectival form instead of some other simple noun forms ἐπιεικείας (ἐπιείκεια) (2Co 10:1) “gentleness/kindness” or verb forms such as ταπεινώθητε (ταπεινόω) (James 4:10) “to humble/gentled” in common Helenistic Greek language in those days? Basically, the use of noun/verb forms in Helenistic Greek would not be able to point back to Psalm 36:11 (37:11) of the Septuaginta of Old Greek Jewish Scripture (The Hebrew Scriptures). Therefore, Matthew 5:5 is to fulfill the vision of Psalm 36:11(37:11) by making it a reality.
The beauty of using adjectival form is to describe or to stress on the constant unchanging quality of the person regardless of any situation. This brings us to further understanding of the meaning, is that in every moment of your daily life’s challenges and stress/pressure your disposition would be the same. Would you still able to remain humble and gentle? It is to say that you will not lose your cool in the most stressful situation. Is this possible or not possible to achieve consistently? No wonder the belated Gandhi was saying if anyone could live this beatitude, he would become a believer. This is one of the most difficult and challenging expositions for me to write. Humanly it is not just difficult to achieve but it is impossible. I would not want to water down the Word of Allah/Yahweh and make it cheap like many religious people do. Their concerns are to get people just to believe and believe in Allah means that you must follow their formalities, human traditions, and archaic laws without knowing that this kind of believe does not match the one that the scriptures tell us. With this I hope the Imam would have the insight and realisation that this new paradigm is not achievable by our own endeavour or strength. This new paradigm requires the grace and mercy of Allah/Yahweh to change us into this quality of life that the scripture called the new creation and hence this new paradigm is the New Creation.
Why would this word “πραεῖς” being translated as meek/humble in some translations while others as gentle? Definitely they are both related in a unique sense. Why? What we could deduce here is this: it is the reality of the natural character of a man/woman that you could be so gentle but in your heart you are so proud, arrogant and as stubborn as a donkey! This is how we could put it, if you are truly meek/humble you would be gentle but not the other way round.
What do you think would be the natural man’s preference of behaviour or attitude? It should be the tough, strong and proud who leads. There were a few stories in the Hebrew bible that recounted very remarkable incidences where Allah/Yahweh would choose differently from man’s preferences or views. The classic example was during Prophet Samuel’s time when Allah/Yahweh was looking for a person to be the king of Israel when Israel was having a tough time with their neighbor, the Philistine. Even at that time Allah/Yahweh had to teach Prophet Samuel not to look at outer appearance and Prophet Samuel at first did not expect and even surprised at who Allah/Yahweh preferred. This incident was recorded in 1 Samuel 16:1ff. In these days and age, humility and gentleness is deemed as weakness such that no one values it. Only the strong ones are of value. That is the reason why the scriptures are not the words of man, because God’s values and goals are completely opposite to that of man. Is that the reason why mankind keeps on portraying themselves to be like animal behaviours where the strongest survive! Then humankind is nothing more than animals if that is the idea and to top it all, mankind is so proud about it.
But would this meek/gentle person then be equivalent to or the same as a milquetoast person? As you can see that when Allah/Yahweh’s Spirit was upon King David 1 Samuel 16:13ff, he was not such a milquetoast person. He was gifted and brave yet meek/humble. King David also showed his gentleness even on how he treated the unrighteous king Saul whom Allah/Yahweh had rejected. I cannot go into detail on this character of King David now, will have to wait for future studies.
Why could the meek/gentle inherit the land/earth?
WTT Psalm 25:9 יַדְרֵ֣ךְ עֲ֭נָוִים בַּמִּשְׁפָּ֑ט וִֽילַמֵּ֖ד עֲנָוִ֣ים דַּרְכּֽוֹ׃
JPS Psalm 25:9 He guideth The humble in justice; and He teacheth the humble His way.
It is precisely only this type of people that Allah/Yahweh could communicate with. Allah/Yahweh would not speak to the proud and arrogant. What would He do with this type of people? As the scriptures constantly stress, He would put down the high and mighty and bring up the lowly and contrite of heart.
WTT Psalm 147:6 מְעוֹדֵ֣ד עֲנָוִ֣ים יְהוָ֑ה מַשְׁפִּ֖יל רְשָׁעִ֣ים עֲדֵי־אָֽרֶץ׃
JPS Psalm 147:6 The LORD upholdeth the humble; He bringeth the wicked down to the ground.
There is so much beauty in this quality that many ages ago even before the time of Al Masih Isa, there was one great Chinese thinker who was different from all the others of his time and people around him would regard him as out of his mind or crazy. His name was Laozi. This man had seen something of the nature where no men could have seen. You could say that he received the hidayah of Allah’s teaching through the natural creation surrounded him.
Laozi spoke about the dynamic nature of water and the soft quality of water. Firstly, it flows downward and not upward. This dynamic flow of water is downward and can be compared to a unique person that seeks to be lowly and meek unlike a natural man who always seeks to be above everyone, climbing to the top to be number one. Secondly, when you look at the way water flows into the rivers, the water with its soft nature would slowly shape the rocks into smooth round stones. He said that it took the softest nature of the natural world to cut and shape the hardest form of the natural world. Such a beauty to behold so many types of pebbles and smooth round stones like rubies or blue quartz/sapphires that could be found in the rocks and washed into the rivers. Isn’t it amazing that an old Chinese thinker spoke about the quality of life described in the Beatitudes even before the time of Al Masih Isa. How wonderful is the insight of Yahweh bestowed on people who thought deeply about life!
And here is what the historical events on the shameful act by the three religions (Islam, Christianity and Judaism)- fighting one another, conversion by force and many people became more and more phobic of a certain religion as it had become a form of hard and brutal religion in the eyes of many non-believers. But unfortunately it just did not stop there in the history as it was brought forward to today, you see more shameful acts being done by the extremists in the name of God. They want people to conform to their religion by forcing them to follow the archaic laws, traditions of man and with no questions asked. They are likened to blind guides guiding the blinds as was rightly put into words by Prophet Isa Al Masih that describe the spiritual bankruptcy of the religious hypocrites we have today.
But let’s see where the Quran echoes with Matthew 5:5 –
Surah 31:18-19
وَلَا تُصَعِّرْ خَدَّكَ لِلنَّاسِ وَلَا تَمْشِ فِي الْأَرْضِ مَرَحًا إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يُحِبُّ كُلَّ مُخْتَالٍ فَخُورٍ
وَاقْصِدْ فِي مَشْيِكَ وَاغْضُضْ مِن صَوْتِكَ إِنَّ أَنكَرَ الْأَصْوَاتِ لَصَوْتُ الْحَمِيرِ
And swell not thy cheek (for pride) at men, nor walk in insolence through the earth; for Allah loveth not any arrogant boaster
And be moderate in thy pace, and lower thy voice; for the harshest of sounds without doubt is the braying of the ass.
Note: Lower your voice (voice/sound – 3 times)
You could already deduce from the Surah 31:18 the quality of a person that Allah/Yahweh seeks – those who are meek/humble. A unique person of this quality is a person who is of no hurry, very patient and speak as seasoned with salt. The Quran stresses again and again about what kind of person Allah/Yahweh seeks and communicates with. How do we assess if a person has truly been transformed? This is the outcome and quality of a person that is not easily shaken by and reactive to the surrounding but patient and understands the challenges faced every day. And when Allah/Yahweh says ‘be moderate (description of humble/meek)… and lower (description of soften/gentle)…’ لْحَمِيرِ and وَاغْضُضْ it is an imperative form which gives a command that was used of creation and in this context does Allah not command through His Word to create a new person in you? If you can understand the Quran in this way, you will look at Allah/Yahweh’s Word in a totally different perspective that can impact and transform your life.
The beauty of these words Surah 31:19 “be moderate in thy pace”…also can be said as “walk modestly/moderately..”. But with whom do you walk moderately? This expression can be found in the Hebrew Scripture:
NAB Micah 6:8 You have been told, O mortal, what is good, and what the LORD requires of you: Only to do justice and to love goodness, and to walk humbly with your God.
WTT Micah 6:8 הִגִּ֥יד לְךָ֛ אָדָ֖ם מַה־טּ֑וֹב וּמָֽה־יְהוָ֞ה דּוֹרֵ֣שׁ מִמְּךָ֗ כִּ֣י אִם־עֲשׂ֤וֹת מִשְׁפָּט֙ וְאַ֣הֲבַת חֶ֔סֶד וְהַצְנֵ֥עַ לֶ֖כֶת עִם־אֱלֹהֶֽיךָ ׃
In what way do you manifest yourself as walking humbly with Allah/Yahweh? One way is how you relate to Allah/Yahweh’s servants. Here is another quote from the Quran where the believers could stray from that quality of life by not fearing Allah/Yahweh in their hearts and the test is how they relate to the servants of Allah/Yahweh and to one another. The condition has to with your heart Surah 49:2-3:
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا لَا تَرْفَعُوا أَصْوَاتَكُمْ فَوْقَ صَوْتِ النَّبِيِّ وَلَا تَجْهَرُوا لَهُ بِالْقَوْلِ كَجَهْرِ بَعْضِكُمْ لِبَعْضٍ أَن تَحْبَطَ أَعْمَالُكُمْ وَأَنتُمْ لَا تَشْعُرُونَ
إِنَّ الَّذِينَ يَغُضُّونَ أَصْوَاتَهُمْ عِندَ رَسُولِ اللَّهِ أُوْلَئِكَ الَّذِينَ امْتَحَنَ اللَّهُ قُلُوبَهُمْ لِلتَّقْوَى لَهُم مَّغْفِرَةٌ وَأَجْرٌ عَظِيمٌ
O ye who believe! Raise not your voices above the voice of the Prophet, nor speak aloud to him in talk, as ye may speak aloud to one another, lest your deeds become vain and ye perceive not.
Those that lower their voices in the presence of Allah’s Messenger, – their hearts has Allah tested for piety: for them is Forgiveness and a great Reward. – (Yusuf Ali.)
From the saying of Surah 49:2 – does that mean, since Allah/Yahweh’s Messenger no longer exist, as according to the most popular belief and understanding, we could then speak however loudly to one another? No of course not, as we see in Surah 49:3 Allah will test our piety and only if we are pious in our hearts that we would treat one another the same as well otherwise you will not receive forgiveness. Am I reading this correctly? More so now after reading this surah, we find a rather interesting fact that receiving forgiveness now has a condition! This is another subject we will look into in the future. The fact remains the same, how then do we understand this “in the presence of Allah’s Messenger” when he no longer exists? The matter of the fact is if you do not know the principle laid down in the teaching of Isa Al Masih found in the Injil, it is nearly impossible to find out the answer. There is a parable by Isa Al Masih; if you give a cup of water to these least of my brethren, you are giving it to me. Just as written in the Parable of the Sheep and Goat in Matthew 25:40 –
Mat 25:40 And the king will say to them in reply, ‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.’
Now something interesting here to think about, does the ‘king’ here refer to Isa Al Masih or Allah/Yahweh? Could we say that ultimately it is referring to Allah/Yahweh as the King of kings. Carefully think this through, even the Quran had already mentioned that the King/Sovereign of all is Allah/Yahweh – Surah 20:114; 23:116; 59:23 and 62:1.
Finally, how are we able to become that meek/gentle person as required by Allah/Yahweh? It is by His power of transformation in you for without this we could not live up to the life in Matt 5: 5 day by day. In order to continue to be consistent in our lives, we have to live by the grace of Allah/Yahweh and to walk humbly with Him every day. This is the only way to save mankind from destroying themselves by biting and devouring one another and possibly one day would consume one another.
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Note:
- All Al-Quran verses are sourced from English Translation of Al-Quran by Abdullah Yusuf Ali, with thanks.
- SCR – Scrivener 1894 (of the Greek bible), with thanks.
- LXT – LXX Septuaginta (Old Greek Jewish Scriptures), with thanks.
- LXE- LXX English translation, with thanks.
- JPS- Jewish Publication Society (1917), with thanks.
- The Hebrew verses are sourced from Leningradensis Hebrew Text, with thanks
- All Injil verses are sourced from The New American Bible (Revised Edition 2011), with thanks.