An Atheist Explores the Qur'an Part 33: Talking Ants and Talking Hoopoes (The Ants (Al-Naml))

The Ants (Al-Naml) 1-93
Talking Ants and Talking Hoopoes.

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 Ants (Al-Naml) 1-20

“Solomon inherited from David, and he said, ‘O people! We have been taught the speech of the birds, and we have been given out of everything. Indeed this is a manifest advantage.’”

At a guess, I’d have to say that the argument is going to be either that the ants are industrious and cooperative and therefore a good example to follow, or that ants exist, therefore God made them and also exists. Let’s see.

The surah begins with the now familiar formula of declaring the Qur’an to be a sign from God for the believers, with the strange statement that “As for those who do not believe in the Hereafter, We have made their deeds seem decorous to them, and so they are bewildered.” In other words God has decided to make those who don’t believe think that they are right, just so they’ll be more surprised when they end up in eternal punishment. Because that the way He rocks.

Next the surah moves onto a brief discussion of Moses meeting God. “When Moses said to his family, ‘Indeed I descry a fire! I will bring you some news from it, or bring you a firebrand so that you may warm yourselves.’” If it were me, I’d think that the burning brand would be the most likely outcome and not the news. “Hold on, that bush is on fire over there, I’ll see if it can tell us something.” Of course that’s what you’ll do. I guess if you believe in auguries and portents then yes, you would. There are a few verses where God shows Moses the miracles of turning a stick into a snake, and turning his hand white (still not impressed by that one…) before saying “now go and do this to the Egyptians because they are bad people”.

But then we skip quickly over to David and Solomon, where the ants come in. “Solomon’s hosts were marched out for him, comprising jinn, humans, and birds” – that’s an unusual ensemble right there. It’d make a great bit of artwork (but, oops, not allowed!). “When they came to the Valley of Ants, an ant said, ‘O ants! Enter your dwellings, lest Solomon and his hosts should trample on you while they are unaware.’” This was not what I was expecting. Solomon overhears some ants, and “smiled, amused at its words”. Solomon’s amusement is that he can understand the speech of ants because God is great. I suppose I’m biased in thinking that my ideas are perhaps more of a meaningful fable, but this is cute at any rate, even if any deeper meaning eludes me.

The Ants 21-40

“[One day] he reviewed the birds, and said, ‘Why do I not see the hoopoe? Or is he absent?’”

Solomon is reviewing the birds in his fantastic retinue and notices that the hoopoe is missing. For some reason this makes him really angry and vengeful - “‘I will surely punish him with a severe punishment, or I will surely behead him, unless he brings a clear-cut excuse’”, which doesn’t strike me as the response of a wise king who understands about migratory birds. But this is plainly meant as a fable, so I’ll let that slide.

The hoopoe, it transpires, has been visiting the court of the Queen of Sheba, which it finds a fantastic place but where they worship the sun and not Allah. Solomon sends it back with an invitation to come to meet him, whereupon the Queen of Sheba call her advisors for advice (they essentially say, “We don’t know, you decide, you’re the queen”).

So Sheba sends an envoy to Solomon with treasure, Solomon claims that his knowledge of God is better than any treasure and sends the envoy back with thinly veiled threats. And then asks his retinue who will bring him the throne of Sheba. This version of Solomon had serious anger and entitlement issues.

Having had a featuring role by speaking birds, now it’s the turn of magical creatures, since “An afreet from among the jinn said, ‘I will bring it to you before you rise from your place. Indeed I have the power for it and am trustworthy.’” But then also “The one who had knowledge of the Book said, ‘I will bring it to you in the twinkling of an eye.’” According to the footnotes, the “one who had knowledge of the book” is said to have been Solomon’s vizier and successor, Āṣif ibn Barkhiyā.

It looks to me that, going into the next section, it’ll be a contest between the afreet and the vizier as to who succeeds (my money’s on the guy who’s read the Book).

The Ants 41-60

“He said, ‘Disguise her throne for her, so that we may see whether she is discerning or if she is one of the undiscerning ones.’”

Things get a bit confusing here with the convoluted language. Solomon’s people decide to hide the Queen of Sheba’s throne, and it seems like it’s the one that she’ll be using when she visits Solomon. But then nothing really comes of that. Instead, when she enters the palace of Solomon she mistakes a crystal floor for a pool of water which she tries to paddle in - “It was said to her, ‘Enter the palace.’ So when she saw it, she supposed it to be a pool of water, and she bared her shanks. He said, ‘It is a palace paved with crystal.’ She said, ‘My Lord! Indeed I have wronged myself, and I submit with Solomon to Allah, the Lord of all the worlds.’”

I’m guessing this is meant to parallel her worshipping the sun rather than Allah; she’s fooled by outward appearances or something like that. But then that’s where the narrative leaves Solomon and the Queen of Sheba (with her shanks bared) and jumps to some prophets – Salid in Thalmud, and Lot in Sodom.

In Thalmud “There were nine persons in the city who caused corruption in the land, and did not bring about any reform.” (The footnotes say that this could be nine families or gangs). They plan to kill Salid and … some other people, but God has a plan of His own. Which we then don’t get to hear about apart from “So observe how was the outcome of their plotting, as We destroyed them and all their people”. Well that’s really lazy storytelling.

Lot’s story is pretty familiar – there’s an explicit reference to homosexuality being the crime of the Sodomites, and this time it’s definitely Lot’s wife who is destroyed rather than some unspecified “old woman” as given in The Poets. –“So We delivered him and his family, except his wife. We ordained her to be among those who remained behind.” Nothing, however, about her disobeying and looking back.

The Ants 61-80

“There is no invisible thing in the heaven and the earth but it is in a manifest Book”

There’s a nice rhetorical device used here, with a series if verses where a question or statement is made, then a formula that runs “What! Is there a god besides Allah?” followed by an answer, of sorts. For example “Is He who answers the call of the distressed [person] when he invokes Him and removes his distress, and makes you the earth’s successors… ? What! Is there a god besides Allah? Little is the admonition that you take.”

In other words, we’re back to more arguments for the existence of Allah, which are once more along the lines of “Things exist therefore God”.  The faithless say things like “yeah, we’ve been told about everlasting life before, why should we believe you?” to which the answer is to direct the hypothetical questioner to the examples of destroyed towns as proof of what happens when you don’t listen.

The Ants 81-93

“Indeed you cannot make the dead hear, nor can you make the deaf hear the call when they turn their backs [upon you],”

In other words, there’s no helping some people. Except that earlier in this chapter God decided to let these people think they were safe, for … reasons. So that they are surprised on Judgement Day when “We shall bring out for them an Animal [or Beast] from the earth who shall speak to them that the people had no faith in Our signs”. That’s kind of it, except that I bet that the verse “And you see the mountains, which you suppose to be stationary, while they drift like passing clouds” has been used by one of these “Science predicted by the Qur’an” lot to be evidence of plate tectonics.

I liked the fantasy fables of Solomon in this one, they were quite colourful. Shame that the rest is the same old stuff.