Similar questions of Allah are found in many hadith, e.g. Sahih Bukhari, Vol. 8, No. 487 & 488 where Allah has to ask a man what his motivation was for what he did.

In Surah 5:116 we find another example:

And behold! Allah will say: "O Jesus the son of Mary! Didst thou say unto men, `worship me and my mother as gods in derogation of Allah'?" He will say: "Glory to Thee! never could I say what I had no right (to say). Had I said such a thing, thou wouldst indeed have known it. Thou knowest what is in my heart, Thou I know not what is in Thine. For Thou knowest in full all that is hidden.

The Qur'an makes clear two things in the same one verse. God knows all that is hidden AND he nevertheless asks about certain things that he already knows. What is it that drives Al-Kadhi to such senseless attacks on the Bible? Is it truly the desire for objective examination of the Qur'an and the Bible?

Certainly such polemical arguments are of no use to the honest seeker of truth. However, Al-Kadhi continues:

God does not know if Adam ate from the tree or not (not all-knowing):

Genesis 3:11 "And he (God) said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?"

Al-Kadhi's polemical little story about child rearing needs not comment. Adam was not a child.

God becomes tired and needs to be refreshed:

Exodus 31:17 "It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed."

Notice that the verse does not claim that God Almighty "abstained from work," but rather that He "rested." This implies that it is possible for God Almighty to experience fatigue and that He is not All-Mighty and All-Powerful since He sometimes needs to be "refreshed."

Before we look at the Biblical passage, let me quote from Sura 47:7 where we find the following astonishing words:

"O ye who believe! If ye help Allah, He will help you ..."

Does this not clearly show, that Allah has at least some area of weakness and is in need of help of the believers? This clearly is not the intended meaning, but if we would read the Qur'an as Al-Kadhi reads the Bible, that is what we would have to conclude.

As so often, Al-Kadhi has failed to inquire about the meaning of the words in Hebrew and instead speculates based on the English and even that with the intent to give it the worst possible interpretation. It does not say God was tired. This is Al-Kadhi's imagination. Again, what should then think about this statement about God in the Qur'an, presented to us in Surah 32:4,

Allah it is Who created the Heavens and the Earth, and that which is between them, in six days. Then he mounted the throne. ...

The last phrase of the above is

Thumma	Estawa	Ala-	Al-`arsh
Then	He sat (to rest)	upon	the throne

Does this indicate that God was so tired after his creation work that he had to sit down and recuperate? Or maybe this means that creating heaven and earth was so difficult for him that he had to do it "standing up" and only after he was done he could sit down (again)?

Clearly this is not the meaning of it, but Al-Kadhi has forgotten to think more deeply about the Qur'an before he mounted his throne of contempt from which he thought to talk down on the Word of God.

Muslims can easily find explanations for this verse showing that the above suggested interpretations would only reveal ignorance and evil intent. Why then should they be surprised that there are meaningful explanations for the Biblical formulation as well?

God's Holy Word is very clear about this.

Isaiah 40:25-28

"To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?" says the Holy One. Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? ... Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.

As you see, here God speaks about his work of creation and clearly repudiates the notion that this has caused him to grow tired.

Another passage is in Psalm 121

1   I lift up my eyes to the hills - where does my help come from?
2   My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth.
3   He will not let your foot slip - he who watches over you will not slumber;
4   indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.
5   The LORD watches over you - the LORD is your shade at your right hand;
6   the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night.
7   The LORD will keep you from all harm - he will watch over your life;
8   the LORD will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.

Muhammad only listened well to the Jews. They taught long before that God is not tired and that God does not sleep. This was well known long before. The Qur'an is bringing nothing new in this respect.

What then does it mean when it says God "rested" and "refreshed Himself"?

God took pleasure in creating, and took pleasure in resting and enjoying his creation. He did not rest because he was tired. He rested because it is in God's nature - as it is in ours - both to work and and to rest. And although he was not physically tired, I believe God was refreshed as he simply looked at his creation and enjoyed it. Just as we are refreshed as we stand still and simply look at a beautiful piece of God's creation, whether or not we are physically tired.

We only have to go back to the creation account itself. God Almighty rested (ceased) from His creative work since it was complete. God who made trillions of stars, the sun and the moon, the earth and all that is in it, this God is Spirit and is never tired! The Scriptures tell us that God rested because He had "finished the work." (Gen. 1:31-2:3)

God refreshed Himself (rejoiced) in the magnificence of His creation. If you finish an important project, you like to sit back and admire it, rejoice in what has been accomplished. You have the energy to continue on, but you rest from your labors because your project is done. There is nothing to add to it.

However, this passage is worth looking at in more detail since there is indeed a different understanding of God in the Bible compared to the Qur'an. What is the "higher, more dignified" view of God might not be possible to decide by a casual look and certainly not on the basis of Mr. Al-Kadhi's personal taste. Please find the time to read a careful exposition on Exodus 31:17 in the Bible Commentary section.

The above quotation from Psalm 121 already makes obvious that Al-Kadhi continues with his misunderstandings when stating:

God is not cognizant and/or is not eternally aware (not all knowing, all seeing, attentive and aware):

Psalms 44:23 "Awake, why sleepest thou, O Lord? arise, cast us not off for ever."

Reading all of Psalm 44 will make it abundantly clear that this is a prayer of anguish, a believer calling out to God that he may finally answer. It is to him (the one praying) as if God is asleep. The author of the Psalm would be horrified to find out that Al-Kadhi takes this to mean that God actually sleeps. No, he expresses the feelings of his heart in all honesty. The Psalms are poetry. They are not teaching doctrine. But they teach us how we can pray to God and how we are invited to speak out all that is on our heart just the way we feel it. He seeks the true heart of the one who approaches him in worship or supplication, not a fixed collection of words, not a rote prayer of doctrinally correct formulas. Praise be to God who has given us these prayers so that we may learn to pray by observing them.

When God finally becomes cognizant attentive and aware, He acts like a drunkard:

Psalms 78:65 "Then the LORD awaked as one out of sleep, and like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine."

First we note that the psalmist is careful not to state that the Lord awoke from sleep. He never slept. But for the one waiting for God to act, it is as if he had been asleep. Awaked as one out of sleep is poetic hyperbole used to highlight the contrast between God's action in behalf of his people in the days of David and the preceding time of Israel's troubles.

For the second line, there are better translations and the KJV opts for a derivation that is both grammatically less likely and offensive even in the setting of poetic hyperbole as we agree with Al-Kadhi. But there is no reason to take this to be the true meaning.

  Then the Lord awoke as if from sleep, 
  Like a warrior overcome by wine.       (NASB translated text)
            (Or: sobered up from wine)   (NASB footnote, alternative translation)

  Then the Lord awoke as from sleep, 
  as a man wakes from the stupor of wine. (NIV)

According to BDB [1,2] (p. 929) and the Theological Wordbook of the OT [1,2] (p. 839) the word *mithronen* is the Hithpolel participle of the root *run*, meaning "be overcome," not of the root *rnn* meaning "shout." From a grammatical perspective, the root *run* seems more likely. [This is also supported by an Arabic word: *rana* - the first "a" is lengthened by quiescent *alif* (see BDB p. 929); it means "overcome" as of wine.] However, *rnn* is also possible. Therefore, the NASB is supported by good evidence. The NIV follows the same analysis of the word, but employs paraphrase to make the sense more clear in English.

Assuming the analysis and translation by NIV and NASB are correct, let us read this line in context to understand it better.

Psalm 78:

53  He guided them safely, so they were unafraid; 
    but the sea engulfed their enemies. 
54  Thus he brought them [the Israelites] to the border of his holy land, 
    to the hill country his right hand had taken. 
55  He drove out nations before them 
    and allotted their lands to them as an inheritance; 
    he settled the tribes of Israel in their homes. 

56  But they put God to the test and rebelled against the Most High; 
    they did not keep his statutes.
57  Like their fathers they were disloyal and faithless, 
    as unreliable as a faulty bow.
58  They angered him with their high places; 
    they aroused his jealousy with their idols. 

59  When God heard them, he was very angry; 
    he rejected Israel completely. 
60  He abandoned the tabernacle of Shiloh, 
    the tent he had set up among men. 
61  He sent [the ark of] his might into captivity, 
    his splendor into the hands of the enemy.
62  He gave his people over to the sword; 
    he was very angry with his inheritance.
63  Fire consumed their young men, 
    and their maidens had no wedding songs; 
64  their priests were put to the sword, 
    and their widows could not weep.

65  Then the Lord awoke as from sleep, 
    as a man wakes from the stupor of wine. 
66  He beat back his enemies; 
    he put them to everlasting shame. 

The Psalm is a passionate recounting of God's dealing with Israel. It is a lesson in the history of God with his people. Verses 53-55 recount God leading Israel from Egypt through the desert to the Holy Land and how he gives them this land and drives out their enemies before them. It is about God's great care and favor on Israel. Vv. 56-58 recount the ungratefulness, disobedience and idolatery of Israel in the years following the conquest. Vv. 59-64 recount God's devastating punishment on them because of their sin. God's wrath was poured out on a the nation and the memory is one of horror. God used other nations to punish Israel, just as he used Israel to punish the abominable sins of idolatery and immorality and thus destroyed the people that lived in the land before.

But, at last, the Lord turns to Israel again with mercy. He ends the punishment, he is no longer against them, but there are still those enemies attacking them. So, God now turns to help Israel, and defeats her enemies (v. 66).

To the psalmist the time before God's renewed grace felt as if God was raging against them like a powerful drunken warrior, like one who didn't know what he was doing. How can he turn so devastatingly on his own people? The psalmist does not say that God was drunk and didn't know what he was doing. He has already carefully explained that the devastation (vv. 59-64) was on account of Israel's sin (vv. 56-58). Nevertheless, its effect on Israel was like the devastation that a drunken strong man might create in his uncoordinated anger. It certainly felt to Israel that God was hitting the wrong target. When we suffer this is always wrong according to our feelings. When God finally turns to Israel again to help them, it is to them like God woke up from sleep (he hears and answers their prayer again) and the "stupor of wine" and its devastating results are over. It is strong imagery expressing how this time felt to Israel, not a teaching about the state of God as he actually was. This is clear when this verse is read together with the part that precedes it in vv. 56-64.

Understood this way and read in its context of the preceding verses, I can accept it as poetic language. I hope this explanation makes sense also to our Muslim readers.

This section is not complete yet. More at another time...

Maybe our Muslim readers will find themselves more gracious and lenient in their approach of interpreting Bible verses like those above when they ponder about Qur'an verses which can easily be read with similarly uncomfortable conclusions if one should seek and insist on doing so in the manner of Al-Kadhi.

Surah 33:57 "Those who hurt God and his messenger ..."

So Allah can get hurt! Can man hurt God???

Surah 57:9-11 speaks of lending to Allah. The believers' spending money on Mohammad's raids is considered as if they have lent Allah this money. Is Allah in need to borrow from the believers? What does this do to God's self-sufficiency?

More passages with the potential for bad misinterpretation could be found, but this should be enough.

See also the articles under Who is God?

The Rebuttal to "What Did Jesus Really Say?"
Answering Islam Home Page