An Atheist Explores the Qur'an Part 31: Women’s Charms, the Prophet’s Wives and a Miscellany of Social Rules (The Light (Al-Nur))

The Light (Al-Nur) 1-64
Women’s Charms, the Prophet’s Wives and a Miscellany of Social Rules.

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 Light (Al-Nur) 1-20

“As for the fornicatress and the fornicator, strike each of them a hundred lashes, and let not pity for them overcome you in Allah’s law, if you believe in Allah and the Last Day, and let their punishment be witnessed by a group of the faithful.”

This surah is named after a reference to Allah as “The Light”, which seems like a reasonably expected simile, and not dissimilar to much of the New Testament. However, first it jumps straight into laws concerning accusations of “fornication” (for which I think we can read “adultery”, but “fornication” is always a bit of a weasel word when it comes to religious texts because it could be taken to mean any kind of sexual act of which you do not approve).

So, one hundred lashes for anyone, male or female, who commits “fornication”. Which seems harsh, but at least the Qur’an then goes on to give a way out - “As for those who accuse honourable women and do not bring four witnesses, strike them eighty lashes, and never accept any testimony from them after that, and they are transgressors”. So you’d need at least four other witnesses to back you up if you make an accusation or you get beaten yourself. Of course, if you just happen to have four friends who are willing to lie on your behalf, I don’t see much to control for that particular option. I guess it is to be hoped that anyone wanting to do that will fear that Allah will burn them later for their deceit.

But hold on, because “those who accuse their wives, but have no witnesses except themselves, then the testimony of one of them shall be a fourfold testimony [sworn] by Allah that he is indeed stating the truth”. So a husband doesn’t need four witness anyway, since his testimony magically includes them.

And why this sudden leap into such matters anyway? Well, there’s something interesting in the footnotes to this verse – “Why did they¹ not bring four witnesses to it? So when they could not bring the witnesses, they are liars in Allah’s sight.”. Footnote 1, referring to “they” is “That is, those who had spread the slander accusing the Prophet’s wife and one of the Companions”.

Ah-ha. So it’s personal. Evidently somebody accused (one of) the Prophet’s wives of adultery, probably said “ah, so what are you going to do about that?” to which the response is to come up with some kind of punishment, so as to sound fair, but then also various get-outs so that the punishment can be turned around on the accusers. And furthermore, put in a little message from God to speak of this no further - “Allah advises you lest you should ever repeat the like of it, should you be faithful”. It’s funny, the whole section reads like an abuse of power for personal use!

The Light 21-40

“Let the well-off and the opulent among you not vow not to give to the relatives and the needy, and to those who have migrated in the way of Allah, and let them excuse and forbear. Do you not love that Allah should forgive you? And Allah is all-forgiving, all-merciful.”

“Not vow not to”? Holy Double Negatives Batman. Wouldn’t it have been clearer to write “vow to”? Although I guess not vowing not to is not the same as specifically vowing to do something, it just leaves you at a base state of not vowing either way.

Well, anyway. There’s a lot on good behaviour in this section, which I’m going to quote in a lot of detail. Firstly, “Vicious women are for vicious men, and vicious men for vicious women. Good women are for good men, and good men for good women”. Which kind of doesn’t really say a lot; keep good company, really. It’s sort of a follow-on from the last section, tangentially condemning those who accused the Prophet’s wife.

From there, the verses move onto some basic politeness for entering people’s houses. Did these really need to be divinely mandated? It seems kind of a trivial matter for an all-powerful deity to be involved with (like weights and measures). “Do not enter houses other than your own until you have announced [your arrival] and greeted their occupants. That is better for you”. This goes into even more details – don’t go in if there’s no answer, but you can go into you own storage areas (an uninhabited dwelling where you have goods) without needing to knock first.

And then we get into some propriety conduct. Men should keep their gaze downcast and “guard their private parts”, women get a lot more.  “And tell the faithful women to cast down their looks and to guard their private parts, and not to display their charms, except for what is outward”. What are “charms”? Particularly those that are not “outward”? However, there are a wide number of people to whom a woman need not guard her “charms” - “their husbands, or their fathers, or their husband’s fathers, or their sons, or their husband’s sons, or their brothers, or their brothers’ sons, or their sisters’ sons, or their women, or their slave girls, or male dependants lacking [sexual] desire, or children uninitiated to women’s parts”. Well, that’s actually more relaxed than the Bible. If a woman is okay to “display her charms” to her nephews, compare the Biblical injunctions against seeing aunts and uncles naked.

Also, women should not “thump their feet to make known their hidden ornaments”, presumably making jewellery jangle or something like that. Again, that seems oddly specific. There are some hidden assumptions in these injunctions as well “Do not compel your female slaves to prostitution when they desire to be chaste”. Which on the one hand, okay, you can’t force people into prostitution, but of course the unspoken assumption here is that owning female slaves is perfectly okay.

Then the narrative moves to the discussion of The Light, and I’ll quote this in full because the poetry is quote nice - “Allah is the Light of the heavens and the earth. The parable of His Light is a niche wherein is a lamp —the lamp is in a glass, the glass as it were a glittering star— lit from a blessed olive tree, neither eastern nor western, whose oil almost lights up, though fire should not touch it. Light upon light. Allah guides to His Light whomever He wishes”. Compared to this, things that are not Allah (which, if Allah is everything and everywhere, ought not to be anything, but never mind), well, compared to this we get some darkness metaphors which are also nicely written - “like the manifold darkness in a deep sea, covered by billow upon billow, overcast by clouds, manifold [layers of] darkness, one on top of another”.

The Light 41-64

“Have you not regarded that Allah is glorified by everyone in the heavens and the earth, and the birds spreading their wings. Each knows his prayer and glorification, and Allah knows best what they do.”

And now for an odd assortment of ideas to finish with. The surah begins with a discussion about how Allah does everything, including deciding who to hit with hailstones, apparently. There’s some stunningly in-depth zoology as well - “Allah created every animal from water. Among them are some that creep upon their bellies, and among them are some that walk on two feet, and among them are some that walk on four”. I think that’s pretty comprehensive, don’t you?

Next the surah moves on to the differences between believers and non-believers, or those that claim to believe and then slink away without really meaning it “Is there a sickness in their hearts? Or do they have doubts or fear that Allah and His Apostle will be unjust to them?” asks the Qur’an. Or possibly they just don’t believe the assertions?

By contrast, good believers say “We hear and obey”. There’s more as well along the lines of “shut up and do what I say”, which was a common theme in the Bible as well, particularly in Proverbs. What’s of note, however, is that there are some actual promised rewards for being good little obedient believers. “He will surely make them successors in the earth”, for one thing, and it’s interesting to me that this is plainly a material reward in the current life, not some promise of afterlife glories or gardens with streams. “He will surely change their state to security after their fear”, again evidently meant as an imminent reward rather than a transcendent one. Question: Are there many predominantly Muslim nations that are in a “state of security” rather than fear?

Next, the verses get weird. This huge verse appears out of nowhere with no, as far as I can tell, prior context. “Let your permission be sought by your slaves and those of you who have not reached puberty three times: before the dawn prayer, and when you put off your garments at noon, and after the night prayer. These are three times of privacy for you. Apart from these, it is not sinful of you or them to frequent one another [freely].”

I wondered, at first, what was meant by reaching puberty three times, but the grammar is dodgy – it means seek permission at three times, by slaves and pre-pubescents. Seek permission for *what* is not at all clear. What, exactly, is meant by “frequenting” one another? I think, on about the fourth reading, I *think* it means that during those three particular times, slaves and pre-pubescent children should not fraternise with “you” without permission. I *think*. My first reading of it was a lot less innocent than that.

“As for women advanced in years who do not expect to marry, there will be no sin upon them if they put off their cloaks, without displaying their adornment.” Again, I’m not sure where this verse lies on the innocent or innuendo scale, but again it’s not really very clear since what “cloaks” and what “adornment” are being referred to is left vague.

There are a few other huge verses before the end, one of which includes the fair sentiment that blind, or lame, or sick “have no blame”, which is nice. But then the verse wanders off into a list of relatives that you may eat with, and covers so many options (“…or the houses of your paternal aunts, or the houses of your maternal uncles…”) it may as just as well have said “everyone”.

And that’s kind of it. An odd mix, even by the standards of the Qur’an to suddenly shift topics. There is, though, some good poetry and imagery in this chapter, definitely one of the better ones so far and one I’d recommend reading yourself.