An Atheist Explores the Qur'an Part Twelve: I Demand More Dogmatism! Plus Halal Meat and Dodgy Uncles (Cattle (al-An’am) 101-165)

Cattle (al-An’am) 101-165
I Demand More Dogmatism! Plus Halal Meat and Dodgy Uncles.

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:

Cattle (al-An’am) 101-120

 “Do not abuse those whom they invoke besides Allah, lest they should abuse Allah out of hostility, without any knowledge. That is how to every people We have made their conduct seem decorous. Then their return will be to their Lord and He will inform them concerning what they used to do.”

This section of verses is bookended by a couple of carry-overs in either direction- the first, Verse 101, continues from the discussion of Jesus, saying that Allah can’t have a Son, because He has no spouse (checkmate, Christians). The last part starts with discussing food that “has Allah’s Name spoken over it” and then goes onto discussing sinning in your heart. We’ll probably get more into that next time. I wonder what is meant by “Allah’s Name”, because “Allah” is surely a title for an entity that has no name, or at least not one given to mortals to pronounce.

The meat of this section, though, talks about polytheists and non-believers, and is basically Allah telling the Prophet not to worry too much about them because, if Allah wished it, they would believe. The Qur’an, at this point, on the one hand says that if you don’t listen to the words of the Qur’an, eh, your problem, not mine (““[Say,] ‘Certainly insights have come to you from your Lord. So whoever sees, it is to the benefit of his own soul, and whoever remains blind, it is to its detriment, and I am not a keeper over you.’”). But also, because these logical knots can only exist if omnipotence is assumed, polytheists and non-believers are only that way because Allah wants them to be, for ineffable Divine purposes obviously.

But the section also warns the reader (the verbs are not italicised, so it’s perhaps not just a command to the Prophet) not to make fun of the polytheist’s gods, lest they return the favour to Allah, but also as a PR move, wisely reasoning that this is more likely to make them double down rather than consider the monotheistic alternative. It all seems very… reasonable, compared to the previous books, written later. Evidently the Prophet tried this approach, it didn’t work, so he got angry and put in a lot of stuff about burning instead.

Cattle 121-140

“They are certainly losers who slay their children foolishly without knowledge, and forbid what Allah has provided them, fabricating a lie against Allah. Certainly, they have gone astray and are not guided.”

I’d argue that perhaps anyone slaying their children *with* knowledge is a loser as well, but there you go. Finally we get to some stuff about cattle, in this case cattle sacrifices dedicated to pagan gods. This whole section is about polytheists, and has a typically ambiguous analysis of them – they are closed to Allah by Allah (see last time, because obviously as mere mortals they can’t be seen to be able to resist the omnipotent Allah), but also for being polytheists they are condemned to the fire because they are closed to Allah. So it kind of sounds like a no-win situation for them. I suppose the gist is something along the lines that you should leave fools to their foolishness, but this in itself seems to be counter to the goals of a proseletysing religion which ought, surely, to be trying to win converts to itself both to gain temporal strength in the number of worshippers but also to save these poor benighted heathens from “the fire”.

There’s mention of “jinns” and “satans” (plural), which I guess are a reference to the polytheistic deities. The implication here is that there are still supernatural entities being worshipped, but that they are mere spirits and demons, not a proper monotheistic deity. This is different to the Biblical version where the idols are said to be simple statues empty of any spiritual nature (except when they are). Also interesting that satans is plural, but I think it just means “deceiver”, which would fit with deceptive spirits and demons.

Finally the verse “This is because your Lord would never destroy the towns unjustly while their people were unaware”. Um. Earthquakes?

Cattle 141-165

“Eight mates: two of sheep, and two of goats. Say, ‘Is it the two males that He has forbidden or the two females, or what is contained in the wombs of the two females? Inform me with knowledge, should you be truthful.’”

The other two are camels and oxen. The Qur’an doesn’t give us the answer, though. Perhaps it’s meant to be that it doesn’t matter, that all things are permitted (except “carrion, spoilt blood and the flesh of swine”); there’s a juxtaposition with the dietary rules of the Jews, and how those rules are for the Jews and the rules in the Qur’an are for Muslims, because that’s how Allah ordained things (of course).

There are a few verses about how people asking for any kind of proof of Allah are wasting their time and displaying their lack of faith (nice get-out clause…) before we get to some more verses concerning actual rules for living, and they are wonderfully non-specific as usual – “you shall not kill a soul [whose life] Allah has made inviolable, except with due cause” for example. Well, as long as you have due cause to kill someone, I guess that’s okay. Also “Do not approach the orphan’s property, except in the best [possible] manner, until he comes of age”. Don’t worry young orphaned nephew, I’m convinced that the best possible manner to approach your property is to spend it all on some new camels for myself; think of it as an investment.

There’s some more about the Book having been sent to Jews and Christians before, and that this Book is new proof of Allah, I guess. Also “Indeed those who split up their religion and became sects, you will not have anything to do with them”. Oops. Islam split into factions in pretty much the next generation after the Prophet.

That’s really about it for the Cattle. There’s some more about the “strait path” etc., about following the ways written in this book. What I rather like is how flexible and vague they are, rather than dogmatic, although in some cases it strikes me that perhaps they ought to be a *bit* more dogmatic.