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BIK01 - Biblical Investigations of the Koran
A Ministry Course on Biblical Content in the Koran
STAGE 2 - Biblical PASSAGES and Biblical PERSONALITIES in the Koran
UNIT 04 - COMPILE: Biblical PERSONALITIES in the Koran
072 - SAUL, the King, in Bible and Koran
BIBLE (631 verses): 1 Samuel 9:1 to 31:13
KORAN (7 verses): Sura al-Baqara 2:87, 246-251
BIBLICAL SAMPLE: Here we choose the passage, in which the elders of Israel demand a king from their Judge Samuel in 1 Samuel 8:4-12 -- “4 Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah 5 and said to him, ‘Behold, you are old and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint for us a king to judge us like all the nations.’ 6 But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, ‘Give us a king to judge us.’ And Samuel prayed to the LORD. 7 And the LORD said to Samuel, ‘Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. 8 According to all the deeds that they have done, from the day I brought them up out of Egypt even to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are also doing to you. 9 Now then, obey their voice; only you shall solemnly warn them and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them.’ 10 So Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people who were asking for a king from him. 11 He said, ‘These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be his horsemen and to run before his chariots. 12 And he will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and some to plow his ground and to reap his harvest, and to make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots.’ ” Their first king then was Saul (see 1 Samuel 9:15 to 10:27).
KORANIC SAMPLE: This passage seems to have left a trace in the following verse of the Koran: Sura al-Baqara 2:246 -- “Have you not watched the assembly of the Sons of Israel after (the time of) Musa (Moses), when they said to a prophet of theirs, ‘Send unto us a king, (who will lead us so that) we will fight for the sake of Allah’? He said, ‘Would you perhaps refrain from fighting, if fighting was prescribed for you?’ They said, ‘And why should we not fight for the sake of Allah, when we have been driven out from our homes and from our children?’ But when fighting was prescribed for them, they turned away, except for a few of them. And Allah is knowledgeable of the wrongdoers.”