Answering Josh on Prophet’s marriage

Jazz wrote: The fact still remains that there is a contradiction between the two ayats.

Just some words of wisdom from a long time lurker -- NEVER say the above or anything that could possibly be interpreted as implying such a thing (at least in a muslim forum).

Better:
"At present, from my limited understanding, I am having difficulty reconciling these two ayat. Could you please better explain the context to me."

Makes for a much fruitful dialogue.

Jazz... would your next question be: "If a God exists, why is there so much suffering in this world?"

Jazz wrote: Hi Deus, Not at all, the existence of god can not be proven nor dis-proven. This is not the issue here anyway. A question for you Deus.............. If Quran were not to be authored by God and if Mohammed were to be a deceiver and a liar, would this necessarily be evidence of the non-existence of God?

Quoting you, "the existence of god can not be proven nor dis-proven."

Hello Jazz!

If I didn't misunderstanda you have two questions:

1- Why does God punish bad people by the hands of muslims not by himself?

2- why does He punish them here not afterlife?

1- This is the sunnetullah (principles of Allah). He never does what he wishes by himself directly in this world. He uses the reasons. If he wants to recover a patient he uses a doctor and medicine. If he wishes to punish the people he uses natural disasters, wars, deseases etc. That's the virtue of a muslim. A muslim must see God in every events. If God does it by himself nobody denys Him. But this world is a place of test. If you give the answers during the test, the test would be unfair. That's why we pray Allah for recovery, peace, success etc. Doctors and events are means of Allah but he is going to do everything by himself clearly afterlife. Imagine if anyone who makes a bad thing is punished (by a thunder for example  ) immediately nobody would do any bad thing anymore.

2- The punishments of this life are just a little part of the whole punishment. The muslims are also punished in this world. Our prophet says "the prophets are the people who suffered most among whole humanbeing." But every  bad thing you live here erase your sins which will be punished in Hell. The ayat you wrote (9:14) must be evaluated by considering the other ayats in that passage. The ayats ask the muslims to fight against who infringed the agreement. and Allah asks "Are you afraid of them?" He wants to tell that he is not going to live muslims alone.

I mean when you read Quran the question must be asked is :" What does Allah want to say?" instead of asking "what is he saying?" If a finger indicates the moon we must look at the moon not the finger. Meanwhile I appreciate your effort to find the truth. You read and try to understand Quran more than most of the muslims.

I hope Allah helps you find the truth.