The Qur'an as the Criterion · The Prophets Restored
God wrestling with Jacob
Handle with care. Handle with care: acknowledge the angel and theophany readings before pressing. Refusing to hear them makes you look unserious.
In short
- 1.The Bible: When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched his hip socket (Gen 32:25).
- 2.Jacob names the place Peniel: I have seen God face to face (Gen 32:30).
- 3.The Qur'an: there is nothing like Him (Q 42:11); vision does not encompass Him (Q 6:103).
The claim being examined
Genesis 32 has a man wrestle Jacob until daybreak, fail to overcome him, ask to be released, and Jacob concludes he has seen God face to face.
The Islamic position
The Qur'an holds that there is nothing whatsoever like Him, and no vision can encompass Him.
Analysis
Genesis 32:24-30 is the sharpest example of a wider pattern in which God is portrayed in physical, limited terms: He walks in the garden in the cool of the day (Gen 3:8), He is wrestled to a stalemate through the night, He must ask to be let go because dawn is breaking, and He inflicts an injury only after failing to prevail. Jacob names the place Peniel, "for I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered." Jewish and Christian interpreters have long softened this — an angel, a theophany, a vision — and it is fair to acknowledge those readings. But the plain text says what it says, and the Qur'anic position is stated without ambiguity: "There is nothing like unto Him, and He is the Hearing, the Seeing" (Q 42:11); "Vision does not encompass Him, but He encompasses all vision" (Q 6:103); "and there is none comparable to Him" (Q 112:4). This is where the Furqan argument reaches its foundation. Every correction in this section about a prophet is downstream of this one: a God who can be pinned in a wrestling match is a God who can also have a son, and a God of whom nothing is like Him cannot.
Side by side
| The Bible | Genesis 32:24-30 | A man wrestles Jacob all night, does not prevail, asks to be released at daybreak and injures his hip; Jacob says he has seen God face to face. |
|---|---|---|
| The Qur'an | 42:11; 6:103; 112:4 | There is nothing like unto Him; vision does not encompass Him; and there is none comparable to Him. |
From the Qur'an
لَيْسَ كَمِثْلِهِ شَيْءٌ وَهُوَ السَّمِيعُ الْبَصِيرُ
There is nothing like unto Him, and He is the Hearing, the Seeing.
لَّا تُدْرِكُهُ الْأَبْصَارُ وَهُوَ يُدْرِكُ الْأَبْصَارَ
Vision does not encompass Him, but He encompasses all vision.
From the Bible
Hebrew
And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched his hip socket.
Read it in their BibleHebrew
So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, saying, For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered.
Read it in their BibleSources
Qur'an 42:11; 6:103; 112:4 · Genesis 32:24-30 · Qur'an 42:11; Genesis 32:24-30
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