49:13 O men! Behold, We have created you male and female, and have made you into nations and tribes, so that you might come to know one another. Verily, the noblest of you in the sight of God is the one who is most deeply conscious of Him. Behold, God is all-knowing, all-aware.

How does making us into nations and tribes help us come to know one another? 

What am I missing?

Howdy WC

Feb 22, 2012 -- 11:27AM, world citizen wrote:

visio ~

And this time from another Baha'i, unfortunately.

????  Could it be that Christians also feel it is "unfortunate" when a Muslim interprets things from the Bible for them, or Jews feel it is "unfortunate" when a Christian or Muslim tries to interpret things from the Torah for them? 

It could be as "unfortunate" as when a Bahia interprets the Quran, the Gospels, and the Torah for them.  

It could be "unfortunate" the "believers" of the Abrahamic Faiths mistake "different" interpretations with "mis-interpretations".  

It could be "unfortunate" when the "believer" believe that their interpretation is the "true" interpretations.    

Feb 22, 2012 -- 11:27AM, world citizen wrote:

What, then, should progressive revelation (as explained by Muhammad) be about, if not, among them, possibly correcting finite man's (mis)interpretations?

It is "unfortunate" is that Muslims disagree that Bahia is a progressive revelation.  They disagree with the Bahia explanation of what Muhammad-Quran.  

They are as firm and sincere in their interpretations that Muhammad explained that the Quran is the final and perfect revelation, that it is perfect and  the final revelation. 

What is "unforunate" is that people act on their different interpretations in different ways.  

For example there are believers in Afghanistan who are acting on their interpretations with regards to the burning of the Quran in an "unfortunate" way.  

Feb 25, 2012 -- 9:23AM, turner_chris1 wrote:

49:13 O men! Behold, We have created you male and female, and have made you into nations and tribes, so that you might come to know one another. Verily, the noblest of you in the sight of God is the one who is most deeply conscious of Him. Behold, God is all-knowing, all-aware.

How does making us into nations and tribes help us come to know one another? 

What am I missing?

One way to understand this verse is that God created human diversity (gender, race, cultures) as an excuse to become curious about each other -- to learn about one another -- rather than an excuse to fight and kill one another. It continues by implying that we shouldn't put much stock on the gender, race or culture that we belong because in the sight of God the only thing that truly matters is how close we are to God, irrespective of our gender, race and culture.

There's another verse in the same surah in which tribes are told not to mock one another since it may well be that the other is better than us.

Kind regards,

LilWabbit