An Atheist Explores the Qur'an Part Sixteen: Charity, Hypocrisy, Killing. Not necessarily in that order (Repentance (al-Tawbah) 1-129)

Repentance (al-Tawbah) 1-129
Charity, Hypocrisy, Killing. Not necessarily in that order.

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:

Repentance (al-Tawbah) 1-20

“How shall the polytheists have any [valid] treaty with Allah and His Apostle?! (Barring those with whom you made a treaty at the Holy Mosque; so long as they are steadfast with you, be steadfast with them. Indeed Allah loves the Godwary.)”

A picture is emerging here, where the Muslims overcome fellow non-Muslim Arabs, who presumably worship the kind of traditional animism, of jinns etc., here called the polytheists. The polytheists look after sacred places that the Muslims have now decided are *their* sacred places.

This section discusses what to do with the polytheists. They have the duration of the time of the “greater hajj” to convert, and after that time the Muslims are enjoined to “kill the polytheists wherever you find them, capture them and besiege them, and lie in wait for them at every ambush”. Exempt from this slaughter are any that have converted (natch), but also there’s what seems to be typical Qur’anic pragmatism – any polytheists that either seek asylum or have already made some kind of deal with the Muslims. There’s a bit of back-and-forth about exacting oaths that the polytheists will convert at some point, with threats of punishments if these oaths aren’t looking like they’ll be fulfilled, and also some stuff about being a person who provides water to pilgrim is not as worthy as being amongst the pilgrims.

Repentance 21-40

“The Jews say, ‘Ezra is the son of Allah,’ and the Christians say, ‘Christ is the son of Allah.’ That is an opinion that they mouth, imitating the opinions of the faithless of former times. May Allah assail them, where do they stray?!”

This section opens with an assertion that gardens await the faithful, and later on we get a detailed description of burning punishment awaiting the faithless, including being branded on the forehead. I wanted to use the quoted verse above to illustrate the thought that occurred to me whilst reading those bits – they are just assertions. Just as the Qur’an dismisses the beliefs of Judaism and Christianity as unsupported (although more on that in a minute), there’s actually nothing to support the assertions made here about the afterlife.  Think about it – if somebody now told you that an angel had given them a revelation from God, how much would you trust them? I guess this is where belief has a certain amount of confirmation bias to it; you might believe in communications from angels if you wanted it to be true.

The assertions against the Jewish and Christian religions are not entirely without some kind of reasoning – the Qur’anic God is one without equals, and one that does not procreate. Thus any assertions about “sons” must be false, as would any kind of divinity for Christ. Plus, since the Muslims have been winning battles in which they are outnumbered, I can see why they might think that their revelations must be correct and that Allah really is helping them.

What else do we get in this section? Some mention of four holy months which must be kept sacred, contrasted with non-Muslims that only observe this every second year (and are thus inconsistent in the eyes of the Prophet). Some mention against keeping gold or silver for non-worthy purposes, and mention of how the Prophet was once a refugee and his faith sustained him.

Repentance 41-60

“Only those seek a leave [of exemption] from you who do not believe in Allah and the Last Day, and whose hearts are in doubt, so they waver in their doubt”

We’ve had something like this before – these verses are directed at those who did not step up to the fight, and so are now being berated by the Prophet. The Qur’an says that it’s probably just as well that these people stayed behind rather than enter battle, or follow the Prophet, since they would only eventually have caused trouble –“they would have only added to your troubles, and they would have surely spread rumours in your midst, seeking to cause sedition among you”.

There’s a touch of God berating the Prophet for not weeding them out more carefully in the first place – “May Allah excuse you! Why did you grant them leave [to stay behind] before those who told the truth were evident to you and you had ascertained the liars?” which I thought was interesting, implying that the Prophet can make mistakes by God.

Those who stayed back are also berated for their hypocritical charity, even though their money is accepted – “Nothing stops their charities from being accepted except that they have no faith in Allah and His Apostle and do not perform the prayer but lazily, and do not spend but reluctantly”.

Repentance 61-80

“The hypocrites, men and women, are all alike: they bid what is wrong and forbid what is right; and are tight-fisted. They have forgotten Allah, so He has forgotten them. The hypocrites are indeed the transgressors”

This section talks about the hypocrites who only pretend to follow the Prophet’s beliefs, but “gossip” amongst themselves and give the zakat only grudgingly. Of course, an eternal burning apparently awaits them – are you surprised? If they repent they will be saved, but it would seem that repentance must come from the transgressor themselves, pleading on their behalf doesn’t work –“Whether you plead forgiveness for them or do not plead forgiveness for them, even if you plead forgiveness for them seventy times, Allah shall never forgive them because they defied Allah and His Apostle; and Allah does not guide the transgressing lot”.

Repentance 81-100
“There is no blame on the weak, nor on the sick, nor on those who do not find anything to spend, so long as they are sincere to Allah and His Apostle. There is no [cause for] blaming the virtuous, and Allah is all-forgiving, all-merciful.”

This section harangues those who held back at the battle and sought excuses not to fight with “all their possessions and person”. Exempt are women, children and the sick. Likewise those who were willing to fight but unable to find (or afford?) a mount. Special opprobrium is reserved for those who were wealthy enough to provide a mount (and, I’d assume, arms) for the fight but made excuses not to fight. Give you three guesses what fate awaits them.

This section reminds me a bit of the beginning of Revelation, in that it speaks out specifically against opponents of faith under a specific set of circumstances and promises an afterlife punishment for them. In Revelation it was the seven church leaders who weren’t doing Christianity the way the John approved of, here it’s people that didn’t join the Prophet in a particular battle. Both, however, are vague enough to cherry-pick verses to mean a more general sense. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not.

Final note here: These verses mention the Bedouin, the first time a particular Arabic culture has been mentioned. Also mentioned are the Emigrants and the Helpers, whomever they may be.

Repentance 101-120

“Take charity from their possessions to cleanse them and purify them thereby, and bless them. Indeed your blessing is a comfort to them, and Allah is all-hearing, all-knowing”

It gets a bit mixed in these verses. The first few speak of those who have “mixed up righteous conduct with that which was evil”, for which the Prophet is exhorted to cleanse them by taking their possession, as per the quote above. A nice excuse for plunder! “It’s for your own good, I need to purify you”.

There’s some savage imagery here, even compared to all the death and burning and humiliating punishments described before – “they fight in the way of Allah, kill, and are killed", “The building they have built will never cease to be [a source of] disquiet in their hearts until their hearts are cut into pieces”.

Mixed in with this is a discussion about those who sought to wait in ambush in a mosque – one assumes an actual event in the battle. This leads into a discussion about prostrating oneself in prayer, and also a kind of metaphorical talk about the unrighteous having a “building” that will collapse around them, one assumes a kind of metaphor for their incorrect beliefs.

Repentance 121-129

“There has certainly come to you an apostle from among yourselves. Grievous to him is your distress; he has deep concern for you, and is most kind and merciful to the faithful.”

These last few verses continue the themes from the previous couple of sections; basically that anyone that doesn’t listen to the Prophet will be punished by Allah, including paying attention to any new surahs that come their way. Considering some of the ones we’ve had so far have been about things like dividing the spoils of battle or following battle orders, it’s a cunning method of exerting control – “It’s not me saying this, it’s Allah. He thinks you need to give away all your money, or He’ll burn you.”

And that was “Repentance”. Of all of the surahs this one seemed the most nakedly political in its aims, written as a warning to disobedient followers more than any particular kind of revelation about how to live a good life according to God.