An Atheist Explores the Qur'an Part 33: Moses. Again. Yay. (The Poets (Al-Shu’ara))

The Poets (Al-Shu’ara) 1-100
Moses. Again. Yay.

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 Poets (Al-Shu’ara) 1-20

“If We wish We will send down to them a sign from the sky before which their heads will remain bowed in humility.”

This is one of the longest books for a while, but if these first 20 verses are anything to go by they’re short verses. According to the notes, the title refers to poets whose works are not nearly as good as the Qur’an, presumably because they have an earthly origin. I somehow suspect that we won’t get any comparative examples though, merely assertions.

This is another of those surahs that begin with some mysterious Arabic characters, in this case “Tā, Sīn, Mīm”. So, a couple of options, Ta Ha and Ya Sin, apparently stand for The Prophet. I wonder if these other letters are shorthand for something else.

The rest of this chunk of verses is fairly straightforward – believers are good, non-believers are foolish, and then we move on to the story of Moses, where God tells Him and Aaron to go and talk to Pharaoh, who quite rightly points out to Moses that he was raised amongst Egyptians and given all that he needed (Except, of course, the freedom of his fellow ethnic group).

The Poets 21-40

“So I fled from you, as I was afraid of you. Then my Lord gave me judgement and made me one of the apostles.”

The Moses story continues, and the above verse reminds me that Moses originally had to run away because he killed a man. And here also he brings up explicitly what I mentioned above, that the slavery of the Hebrews is the main reason for Moses’ rebellion.

Here Moses turns his staff into a snake, and then Pharaoh sends for magicians from all over, to contend with Moses. These verses end where the messages are sent out.

The Poets 41-60

“So when the magicians came, they said to Pharaoh, ‘Shall we indeed have a reward if we were to be the victors?’”

The re-telling of the Moses story continues. The magicians arrive and ask what their payment will be. It isn’t mentioned explicitly but this is probably meant to contrast with Moses who is doing this for the freedom of his people rather than monetary gain. Moses wins the magical duel (again it’s implied that Pharaoh’s hired magicians are merely doing conjuring illusions whereas Moses’ staff actually turns into a snake; in the Bible the implication was that the Egyptians did magic as well).

After this, God warns Moses to get his people ready for a journey, whilst Pharaoh gathers his forces,

The Poets 61-80

“Thereupon We revealed to Moses: ‘Strike the sea with your staff!’ Whereupon it parted, and each part was as if it were a great mountain.”

Moses parts the sea (Red, Reed or otherwise is not mentioned), and the Israelites escape. And then, the narrative moves on to Abraham, relating again the Qur’an incident where young Abraham confronts idol-worshippers.

There’s a nice discussion about doing things just because it’s traditional, with some back and forth between the idol worshippers (“they”) and Abraham (“he”).

“They said, ‘Rather we found our fathers acting likewise.’ He said, ‘Have you regarded what you have been worshipping, you and your ancestors?”. Ironically, I don’t think most people look at their own religion in the same way. They’ll claim that they aren’t doing it just because they were raised in an environment where it was the normal thing to do, instead it’s all about how it’s evidently the right religion, etc. etc.

The Poets 81-100

“My Lord! Grant me [unerring] judgement, and unite me with the Righteous”

These verses read like they are a prayer, and it reminds me a little of the Lord’s Prayer. It isn’t, however, such a request to grant simple humility; it feels somewhat more solipsistic - “Confer on me a worthy repute among the posterity, and make me one of the heirs to the paradise of bliss.” It’s all about the rewards for the petitioner, who also asks that he not be judged for the actions of his father.

It then goes into the usual Qur’anic stuff about heaven “being bought near” the Godwary, and hell being the reward of the “perverse” (basically, idolators of other gods). This continues into the next section I’ll be looking at as well.