An Atheist Explores the Qur'an Part 23: God Invented Clothes. Plus: no sign of Nicholas Cage, or Michael Caine (The Bee (al-Nahl) 1-128)

The Bee (al-Nahl) 1-128
God Invented Clothes. Plus: no sign of Nicholas Cage, or Michael Caine.

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

The Bee (al-Nahl) 1-20

“He sends down the angels with the Spirit of His command to whomever He wishes of His servants: ‘Warn [the people] that there is no god except Me; so be wary of Me.’”

I must admit that the title ”The Bee” immediately makes me think of the Nicholas Cage remake of The Wicker Man. Not that I’ve ever seen it, nor want to besmirch the honour of the original by watching it, but nevertheless I’ve seen enough memes to know that bees are involved, hysterically.

These verses are one big “look at the trees” argument. Things exist, therefore God. Amongst those things listed are mountains, the sea, sun, moon, rain, various plants and animals and so on. The Qur’an even gives itself an easy out from having to list everything, and the possibility that new species will be discovered - “and He creates what you do not know”, it says, to cover the miscellany.

Even colours are created by God – “And whatever He has created for you in the earth of diverse hues —there is indeed a sign in that for a people who take admonition”. Colour proves God. So there we go. Of course, God could have given humans eyesight comparable to other animals so that they could have viewed a wider band of the electromagnetic spectrum, but for ineffable reasons decided that the near-infrared and ultraviolet were for other species.

The creation note of mankind is interesting -“He created man from a drop of [seminal] fluid”. Whose seminal fluid, you have to wonder. And does this refer to Adam, or is it simply a vague description of normal reproduction?

God is given special thanks for creating livestock (which, ahem, were domesticated by humans…), because they provide food, clothing and “they bear your burdens to towns which you could not reach except by straining yourselves. Indeed your Lord is most kind and merciful.”. Yes, thank you God for not making us strain ourselves. This is at odds, by the way, with the God of Genesis that punishes the disobedience of humanity with suffering and striving. Allah doesn’t seem to be like that. He has no interest in punishing people with their lives, only their afterlives.

The Bee 21-40

“Those whom they invoke besides Allah do not create anything and are themselves created”

This section is a retread of familiar Qur’anic themes; the wicked will be punished in the afterlife, the “godwary” rewarded. In this particular instance it is polytheists and the arrogant who are singled out for censure, but most of it is pretty familiar fair. We get angels coming to take people away (I suppose at death), who ask questions of the recently deceased.  “But to those who were Godwary it will be said, ‘What is it that your Lord has sent down?’ They will say, ‘Good’”. So, the Godwary are those who attribute to Allah all that is good.

The verse “Then among them were some whom Allah guided, and among them were some who deserved to be in error” doesn’t strike me as very fair. So, Allah can decide of you “deserve” to be in error, and then, presumably, you get eternal punishment for “being in error”. That’s all a bit fatalistic.

The Bee 41-60

“Do those who make evil schemes feel secure that Allah will not make the earth swallow them, or the punishment will not overtake them whence they are not aware?”

It’s only really just dawned on me how the style of the Qur’an is loaded with rhetorical questions. “Do they not know that…?” and the like are pretty much the stylistic norm for the Qur’an, which makes it a difficult read at times. I don’t know, do they? You tell me. That’s why I’m reading this thing.

There’s yet more argument from existence, with the strange idea that “whatever thing Allah has created casts its shadow to the right and to the left, prostrating to Allah in utter humility”. I wonder about the two shadows thing and why this comes about. The sun moving across the sky will mean that shadows fall on one side or another, perhaps it’s a reference to this. And then I guess because the shadow lies on the ground it is therefore prostrating itself before Allah. And is the intent that the shadow of a, say, tree, implies that the tree is prostrating itself before Allah?

The verses then warn against polytheism, and also against those that “attribute daughters to Allah”. That’s not something I’ve heard of. Attributing a son, yes, as a jab at Christainity. Daughters of God? Possibly it’s a reference to child sacrifice of some kind, because the verses then go on to warn against what was evidently a practice of burying baby girls alive to get rid of them; the Qur’an talks of the father of a girl - “his face becomes darkened and he chokes with suppressed agony”. You might think, given the general perception of how Islam treats women, that the Qur’an would tacitly support this, but it’s explicitly against it –“Evil is the judgement that they make”.

The Bee 61-80

“And your Lord inspired the bee [saying]: ‘Make your home in the mountains, and on the trees and the trellises that they erect.”

The bees make their entrance, as one of many natural things listed as being a gift from Allah, including in this section various faculties of humans that grow in the womb, and cows –“There is indeed a moral for you in the cattle: We give you to drink of that which is in their bellies from between [intestinal] waste and blood, as pure milk, pleasant to those who drink.”

I’m… not entirely sure that’s the physiologically correct description of milk, although I suppose technically milk is initially created from blood, or rather filtered serum, so I’ll give them half a point. But I think it’s going too far to say that “He made for you homes out of the skins of the cattle” – no, that was people that invented leather. Or is the intent that God made cow skin suitable for turning into robust leather and tents? Or that God gave people the ingenuity to make leather? It’s tricksy this Qur’an.

The bee only lasts a couple of verses, again with some slightly poetic physiology - “There issues from its belly a juice of diverse hues in which there is a cure for the people”. Honey does have actions as an antiseptic and promoter of wound healing, so another half point there.

After this the discussion moves into concepts of haves and have-nots, and it’s all a bit confusing. Not least because it is couched in terms of “parables”, about comparing, say, a dumb, blundering servant vs someone who pursues justice. Are they equal? The Qur’an asks. In what sense? I reply. I can’t work out if it’s trying to imply that, yes, all people are equal before Allah, or if it’s trying to draw some kind of parallel between believers and non-believers (or more accurately believers in the wrong way). I mean, “Those who have been granted an advantage do not give over their provision to their slaves so that they become equal in its respect. What, will they dispute the blessing of Allah?”

Is that saying that both should see the natural world as “blessings of Allah?” Or is the man with plenty blessed by Allah and should therefore… what? Share it with the one who doesn’t? Or *not* share it because it’s giving away the blessing? Clarification needed.

The Bee 81-100

“Indeed Allah enjoins justice and kindness and generosity towards relatives, and He forbids indecency, wrong, and aggression. He advises you, so that you may take admonition”

The first verses list some more things, following on from before, about what Allah has provided, including  “shade from what He created, and made for you retreats in the mountains”, but also listing  “garments that protect you from heat and garments that protect you from your [mutual] violence” – surely these last things are man-made? Is the intent here that Allah gave people the ideas and skills to make clothing and armour? That’ at least, fits within the Qur’anic idea that there isn’t a single thing that isn’t due to Allah.

The verses then shift to the usual threat of punishments for polytheists and apostates (or possibly heretics). For the polytheists and idolators, “what they used to fabricate will forsake them”, i.e. their manufactured gods will not avail them at the “Day of Resurrection”. Those who seek to oppose Islam are promised “punishment upon punishment”.

And then, incongruously, we get a shift to some actual rules for good behaviour, although mostly fairly vague – the kind treatment of relatives given above (but not, I note, to anyone else), and lots about keeping oaths and not treating them like “her who would undo her yarn”, i.e. unravelling them after forming them. Sounds Like Penelope in the Odyssey, except that this is considered a cunning ruse because of loyalty to her long-missing husband.

The Bee 101-128

“Do not say, asserting falsely with your tongues, ‘This is lawful, and this is unlawful,’ to fabricate lies against Allah. Indeed those who fabricate lies against Allah will not be felicitous.”

The first verses of this section cunningly deal with various arguments against the veracity of the Prophet’s revelations, and turns the doubt against the doubter. It deals with any accusations that the words of the Qur’an are simply man-made rather than divinely inspired, although the argument for seems to be just that it’s written in Arabic, which doesn’t seem *that* convincing - “We certainly know that they say, ‘It is only a human that instructs him.’ The language of him to whom they refer is non-Arabic, while this is a clear Arabic language”

But, of course, if you dare to question in the first place, you’re a liar, and a fool, and a dire punishment awaits you - “Only those fabricate lies who do not believe in the signs of Allah, and it is they who are the liars”. There’s more, about it being wrong to question the veracity of the Qur’an; it’s sneakily put, in that it merely states that Allah knows what you’re thinking. “It doesn’t matter to me if you believe this or not,” it says, “but it’s the true inspiration of Allah, who’ll know if you’re a doubter or not. Are you a doubter…?”

There’s a brief “parable” about a town that doesn’t believe a prophet and gets punished; light on detail and this is covered more in all the Sodom and Gomorrah variants we’ve already had. After that, it’s back to some actual guidelines for living. Dietary requirement are covered - “He has forbidden you only carrion, blood, the flesh of the swine, and that which has been offered to other than Allah”. I think we’ve had this before, and there’s a sub-clause about this not counting if you are forced to break the rules, which is one of those nicely magnanimous and non-dogmatic clauses that the Qur’an throws in occasionally on its doctrinal rules. I suppose the idea is that Allah knows the difference between deliberate disobedience and accidental or coerced infraction, and, actually, I like the fairness of that.

I don’t really understand what is meant by “The Sabbath was only prescribed for those who differed about it”. Does that mean it’s a thing meant only for the Jews? (In context, the verse is in a section talking about how Abraham was hanif, a proper monotheist.). I know Islam has Friday prayers, but to my knowledge it doesn’t observe a “day of rest” in the Jewish or Christian sense.

Finally we get “And if you retaliate, retaliate with the like of what you have been made to suffer, but if you are patient that is surely better for the patient”. Which to me seems to be saying that “an eye for an eye” is okay, but actually it’s better to not do that and to be forebearing instead.

And that’s “The Bee”. There’s some nice poetry in there, particularly in the “trees therefore God” parts. Once again the surah was a real mish-mash of ideas, but it felt like a few were given more expansion that in other chapters. I’m beginning to see the revelatory structure of the Qur’an – each surah gives little hints and vague references to concepts (except the burning, that’s always explicit), but the more surahs you read, the more the little hints begin to add together to something more complete. I don’t know how intentional it is, but it’s an interesting technique.