An Atheist Explores the Qur'an Part Six: Three Thousand Angels Win A Battle. Plus, Allah is Agoraphobic (The Family of Imran (al-Imran) 101-200)

The Family of Imran (al-Imran) 101-200
Three Thousand Angels Win A Battle. Plus, Allah is Agoraphobic.

Welcome to the next instalment of An Atheist Explores Sacred Texts (Qur’an version).

In this series I work my way chapter-by-chapter through the Qur’an, commenting on it from the point of view of the text as literature and mythology.

For more detail, see the introductory post https://bit.ly/2ApLDy0

For the online Qur’an that I use, see here http://al-quran.info and http://quran.com

And now:

The Family of Imran (al-Imran) 101-120

 “Ah! You are the ones who bear love towards them, while they do not love you, though you believe in all the Books; and when they meet you, they say, ‘We believe,’ but when they are alone, they bite their fingertips out of rage at you. Say, ‘Die of your rage!’ Indeed Allah knows best what is in the breasts.”

Some more skipping around in different topics; in these verses we get some advice to Muslims to “hold fast to Allah’s cord” and not become divided into sects, we also get a glimpse of how Islam has united what I would guess to be warring Arabic tribes, with admonishments not to revert to those ways. That’s worked out well. There’s a strange verse about “the day when [some] faces will turn white and [some] faces will turn black”, with the black faces being the ones sent for punishment and the white get to live with Allah. Is this meant to be about race, or is a purely metaphorical light/shadow kind of thing? I’m guessing the latter because of the whole Nation of Islam thing.

We then get some more about the People of the Book, of which the Qu’ran seems particularly to mean Jews rather than Christians. They are not considered very highly – “some are faithful but most are transgressors”, and there’s an odd line –“They will never do you any harm, except for some hurt”. So … they won’t hurt you, except for when they do? Unless with the “some hurt” the emphasis is on “some”; expect for a very slight hurt?

But also apparently there are also “Among the People of the Book is an upright nation; they recite Allah’s signs in the watches of the night and prostrate”. I wonder which particular group this is.

The Family of Imran 121-140

“When you left your family at dawn to settle the faithful in their positions for battle —and Allah is all-hearing, all-knowing.”

There’s some discussion first of all concerning the battle of Badr, of which I as yet know nothing. Evidently the Prophet was leading men on his side (as the verses use the italicised “you” that this translation uses to signify that it is being addressed to the Prophet. A couple of companies lost heart, and it actually sounds the Muslim forces lost, or perhaps were losing, because the verses mention “when you were abased [in the enemies eyes]”.

But Allah sends a force of three thousand angels to help, so I guess the battle was won. What? You don’t believe that? Well “Yes, if you are steadfast and Godwary, and should they come at you suddenly, your Lord will aid you with five thousand marked angels.”. So there. There must have been three thousand angels because there could have been five thousand angels.

Er. Right.

The point of this, of course, is that victory was because Allah wished it, as is everything else that happens. Which is a bit like the justifications given for the various successes and failures of the Israelite forces in the Bible.

The rest of this section reiterates a few articles of faith – don’t do usury, be good, don’t be faithless, Allah likes the faithful and not the faithless (you get a reward of a garden with some nice water features for being faithful). The last verse here is about a kind of random allocation of hardships as a kind of Job-esque test of faith, and also, apparently, a source of martyrs –“If a wound afflicts you, a like wound has already afflicted those people; and We make such vicissitudes rotate among mankind, so that Allah may ascertain those who have faith, and that He may take martyrs from among you, and Allah does not like the wrongdoers.”

The Family of Imran 141-160

“Those of you who fled on the day when the two hosts met, only Satan had made them stumble because of some of their deeds. Certainly Allah has excused them, for Allah is all-forgiving, all-forbearing.”

This is an interesting section. It contains some verses that, taken by themselves, are quite troubling and I daresay the kind if thing used as justification for suicide bombers and other such atrocities. Verses like “If you are slain in the way of Allah, or die, surely forgiveness and mercy from Allah are better than what they amass” and “We shall cast terror into the hearts of the faithless because of their ascribing to Allah partners, for which He has not sent down any authority, and their refuge shall be the Fire”.

But in fact what’s going on here is that the Qu’ran is addressing soldiers who fled battle (possibly Badr, although the introductory notes to this chapter also mention a battle of Udur).

These deserters lost their faith that Allah would see them victorious, and feared for their lives. The verses say that Allah has ordained when every man will die, and so running away didn’t save their lives – they are alive because they would have been anyway (“No soul may die except by Allah’s leave, at an appointed time.”). There are shades of the Final Destination films here.

Although there is a sense that the Prophet is angry at the deserters, in fact they get forgiveness. The Qu’ran says that it is Satan’s fault that they ran away (but also it’s a test by Allah, it would seem), and Allah puts mercy into the Prophet’s heart to understand that these men were just afraid for their lives. So, apart from “a drowsiness” there doesn’t seem to be any punishment for the deserters. They are forgiven, told that they should put their faith in Allah, and, I guess, sent back out to fight. We shall see.

The Family of Imran 161-180

“Let the faithless not suppose that the respite that We grant them is good for their souls: We give them respite only that they may increase in sin, and there is a humiliating punishment for them.”

Ah, well maybe I was too hasty about the forgiveness part. Because, you see, the battle was a test of faith from Allah, and so now those who lack sufficient faith have marked themselves out (“What befell you on the day when the two hosts met, was by Allah’s permission, so that He may ascertain the faithful”).

But it would appear that Allah likes to play with the faithless like a cat with a mouse, for no apparent reason. They are allowed to live only so that they can “increase in sin” and will be punished. Not so they can repent and make amends? That would seem more merciful and forgiving. It’s also stated “Do not grieve for those who are active in unfaith; they will not hurt Allah in the least: Allah desires to give them no share in the Hereafter, and there is a great punishment for them”, which makes the whole thing seem even more of a game. If the faithless “do not hurt Allah”, then sure, don’t give them a share of the “Hereafter” but then why inflict eternal punishment?

Really, this reads like the Prophet is annoyed at his military loss and is on the one hand claiming that those who died for the faith are getting a reward in the afterlife and on the other hand laying into the ones who ran away, which I guess you would. But it serves to make Allah’s motives sound really weird.

The Family of Imran 181-200

“Never be misled by the bustle of the faithless in the towns.”

I think that’s quite a sad verse. We are then told that “It is a trivial enjoyment; then their refuge is hell, and it is an evil resting place”. What is the “bustle of the faithless”? Just ordinary town business? That’s just life, it’s rather sad if human interactions are said to be a bad thing. What would an immortal omnipresent singular entity know of such things, really? Presumably Allah has no need of friends, or catching up on gossip, or haggling for groceries and yet has He audacity to say that this is a bad thing?

I’d assume, perhaps, that these verses refer to other religions or perhaps “debauched” behaviour, but it still shows a shocking lack of understanding of the psychology of His creation.

Then there’s this verse (or fragment) that I found interesting – “Then their Lord answered them, ‘I do not waste the work of any worker among you, whether male or female; you are all on the same footing[…]’”. The rest of the verse goes on about if people die in the service or fighting for their faith then they get to go to heaven, but really? Men and women on the same footing? We’ll see if that isn’t contradicted elsewhere.

There are more bits in these verses of interest; some verses that seem to make the argument that Allah must exist because night follows day, and people can look at the world and wonder about it. Certainly I’ve heard these kinds of argument from Muslim apologists more than Christian ones. There’s some more complaining about how most of the “People of the Book” are faithless, and a repetition of something from earlier about they kill the prophets. Do they? I mean, the Jews had Jesus crucified, but any other Biblical prophet was pretty much revered and respected. Others that the Qu’ran mentions, like Abraham and Moses, live long lives and die of old age. So which prophets are we talking about here?

Finally, another ongoing point, all this talk of being rewarded in the afterlife with “gardens with streams running in them, to remain in them [forever]”. Er… not to sound ungrateful, but that sounds dull, like living in a rest home. Sure, I can see the appeal to a desert nomadic people ca. 600AD, but, really? What if you *like* travelling the wastes of the desert? What if you like mountains and glaciers, or sailing on the open sea? Do you have to stay sat in your garden (which, by the way, you can have in the present life if you want), forever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and…..

And so that’s it for the Family of Imran. Like The Cow, it was a real mix of stuff, and already I can’t recall which bits were in which book exactly. There’s some stuff about a battle in this one, and a confused version of the story of Jesus, and lots of stuff about how untrustworthy the Jews are. Oh, and burning. Lots and lots of burning. My abiding recollection of Leviticus was that God really likes the smell of burning flesh. I’m kind of worried for His sanity.