A response to 5.2

My grandfather did it (or: Is King David going to Hell?)

Al-Kadhi asked if David is going to Hell? What do you think Mr. Al-Kadhi? Are you?

In a certain sense, Al-Kadhi was obviously disturbed that a prophet of God should have such "ignoble" ancestry. He said:

King David's ninth father, Phares the son of Judas (Pharez the son of Judah), according to the Old Testament, was a bastard. Does this mean that king David (pbuh), a great and pious messenger and the ancestor of Jesus (pbuh) (according to Matthew 1:1) shall not enter the congregation of the Lord? Try to remember this when you are told that Jesus (pbuh) inherited the kingdom of David (what then did he inherit?). This is not a Muslim's view of David (pbuh) nor Jesus (pbuh). Does this not reek of tampering hands? Please read section 2.3. (emphasis mine)
We see that Al-Kadhi didn't like the idea of David and Jesus coming with such ancestry which included "bastards". In fact, "to rub it in" even more (so to speak), the geneology of Jesus in Matthew 1:1-17 lists exactly four women, an extremely unusual phenomenon in Jewish geneology: Tamar (v. 3), Rahab (v. 5), Ruth (v. 5) and Bathsheba (v. 6, indirectly as Uriah's wife). Tamar had an incestous relationship with Judah; Rahab was a prostitute; Ruth was a Moabitess and Bathsheba and David had adultery. Such inglamorous ancestry! Such gossip-inviting ancestry! An ancestry that Al-Kadhi wants to deny!

Yet, it is precisely Al-Kadhi's inability to realize that God is a merciful God full of grace and ever willing to come close to a man who truly seeks Him, that mars his vision of God. Every web article of his book begins with "In the name of God, Most Compassionate, Most Merciful", but he doesn't seem to realize the import of it all.

Al-Kadhi, like many people, thinks that prophets and great leaders should only come from noble families, but the truth is God is much more than what we think of Him. God's mercies extends to everyone. He is the one who exalts the humble and resist the proud. David's repentant "I have sinned against the Lord" brought the Lord's forgiveness and judgment (2 Samuel 12:13-14).

It is precisely this point also that vindicates the Jews with tampering of God's word. My first reaction when I read this section of Al-Kadhi was, if the Jews were to tamper with the Bible, why didn't they do a much better job? They all knew the restrictions of "bastards" (which incidentally appeared only twice in the Old Testament). And they also listed David's geneology in Ruth 4:18-22 and 1 Chronicles 2:5-14. Every Jew knew that God have exalted David greatly. Wouldn't the first thing to do would be to go and change that geneology (afterall not much was really at stake, or was it?) [a very simple thing to do. Just shift the ancestry to another son of Judah]? But no, the Jews dared not do it. Of course, no one goes to change their geneology into an ignoble one. Al-Kadhi wants to ignore and deny the ancestry of David (and Solomon) and Jesus! Well, we ask him, then, to give us the "true geneology" of David and Jesus if he knew.

Ak-Kadhi's source of this "problem" appears to be Farrel Till's "No Bastards Allowed". This was responded to adequately in Jerry MacDonald's Even to the Tenth Generation", where he showed that it means "up till the tenth generation". He also answered a related issue of Eleazar's heritage.


The Rebuttal to "What Did Jesus Really Say?"
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