the Quran Judges people by their own intellect and circumstances (do not delete)
Brief article as I am short on time given my life circumstances. (article not yet completed).
Quran 43:18 (when read in context) expresses Allah's disapproval of the Arab polytheists attributing the child they don't want (their female children) to Allah. Allah expresses he disapproves of this because they are associating the thing they think is inferior to Allah. What we see here is although they are wrong, the issue Allah takes with them is not that they are wrong, but that they attribute what they think as inferior to Allah.
I will add the explanation of other verses which demonstrate this case, but these verses cumulatively show that you are also being judged by what you believe with respect to Allah. So that means it may be the case that if you think a certain behavior is wrong and it goes against Allah, and you still do it to go against Allah--even if it is not wrong and you only think it is wrong, you are still being held accountable for the actions you believe go against Allah because you are still doing them despite believing them to be the case. This is indeed a possible understanding. Likewise just as Al-A'raf 7:159 says, And among the people of Moses is a community which guides by truth and by it establishes justice. This may refer to the Jews who sincerely believe they are doing the right thing and guiding the best way they can, or it may refer to Jews who converted to Islam. Indeed, there are people of Moses who became Muslim at the time of the prophet. more likely it is the latter because the Quran commands Jews in Quran 4:47 to believe in the Quran.
In any case, I definitely need to advance this understanding and explain it in detail. I'm leaving this article here for me so that I come back to it in the future and explain this. See also the Joseph Islam article about how Allah may judge people based on their own intellect and circumstances. Indeed, there could even be an equation (similar to our mathematical equations) which Allah (omniscient being) has and knows that normalizes each individuals choices to their intellect and circumstances and as such can allow for a fair judgement between people with different intellects and circumstances through that normalization from the divine equation Allah knows. We do similar things in science, however, we aren't always certain of how well our equations normalize and the difference is Allah who is omniscient and his knowledge extends far beyond what we are capable and would know the exactly correct equation with perfect normalization.
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[Supplement]
Note, there are 2 possible interpretations of this verse:
[43:18] "Does God choose for Himself the kind of children who grow up wearing ornaments and who are not able to defend themselves in conflict?"
[43:18]“What! [Am I to have a daughter -] one who is to be reared [only] for the sake of ornament?” and thereupon he finds himself torn by a vague inner conflict.
The first interpretation is saying that the polytheists see females as good for just looking pretty but not able to fend for themselves--and Allah is using this as a rhetorical statement back at them--"if this is what you believe about females, how could you ascribe with me this inferiority"
The second interpretation is saying that the polytheists see females as good for just looking pretty, and similarly Allah is using this as a rhetorical statement back at them, but instead the polytheist is the one who finds himself unable to defend this flawed position.
Which one is the right interpretation? I think both mean the same thing either way. Both show the polytheists misogyny and underappreciation of girls. So it doesn't matter, the message is the same
Quran 43:18 (when read in context) expresses Allah's disapproval of the Arab polytheists attributing the child they don't want (their female children) to Allah. Allah expresses he disapproves of this because they are associating the thing they think is inferior to Allah. What we see here is although they are wrong, the issue Allah takes with them is not that they are wrong, but that they attribute what they think as inferior to Allah.
I will add the explanation of other verses which demonstrate this case, but these verses cumulatively show that you are also being judged by what you believe with respect to Allah. So that means it may be the case that if you think a certain behavior is wrong and it goes against Allah, and you still do it to go against Allah--even if it is not wrong and you only think it is wrong, you are still being held accountable for the actions you believe go against Allah because you are still doing them despite believing them to be the case. This is indeed a possible understanding. Likewise just as Al-A'raf 7:159 says, And among the people of Moses is a community which guides by truth and by it establishes justice. This may refer to the Jews who sincerely believe they are doing the right thing and guiding the best way they can, or it may refer to Jews who converted to Islam. Indeed, there are people of Moses who became Muslim at the time of the prophet. more likely it is the latter because the Quran commands Jews in Quran 4:47 to believe in the Quran.
In any case, I definitely need to advance this understanding and explain it in detail. I'm leaving this article here for me so that I come back to it in the future and explain this. See also the Joseph Islam article about how Allah may judge people based on their own intellect and circumstances. Indeed, there could even be an equation (similar to our mathematical equations) which Allah (omniscient being) has and knows that normalizes each individuals choices to their intellect and circumstances and as such can allow for a fair judgement between people with different intellects and circumstances through that normalization from the divine equation Allah knows. We do similar things in science, however, we aren't always certain of how well our equations normalize and the difference is Allah who is omniscient and his knowledge extends far beyond what we are capable and would know the exactly correct equation with perfect normalization.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Supplement]
Note, there are 2 possible interpretations of this verse:
[43:18] "Does God choose for Himself the kind of children who grow up wearing ornaments and who are not able to defend themselves in conflict?"
[43:18]“What! [Am I to have a daughter -] one who is to be reared [only] for the sake of ornament?” and thereupon he finds himself torn by a vague inner conflict.
The first interpretation is saying that the polytheists see females as good for just looking pretty but not able to fend for themselves--and Allah is using this as a rhetorical statement back at them--"if this is what you believe about females, how could you ascribe with me this inferiority"
The second interpretation is saying that the polytheists see females as good for just looking pretty, and similarly Allah is using this as a rhetorical statement back at them, but instead the polytheist is the one who finds himself unable to defend this flawed position.
Which one is the right interpretation? I think both mean the same thing either way. Both show the polytheists misogyny and underappreciation of girls. So it doesn't matter, the message is the same
