An Atheist Explores the Qur'an Part 39: The Yathribi and their (((Sponsors))). Plus: Allah’s Special Marriage Rules for The Prophet (The Confederates (Al-Ahzab))

The Confederates (Al-Ahzab) 1-73
The Yathribi and their (((Sponsors))). Plus: Allah’s Special Marriage Rules for The Prophet.

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 Confederates (Al-Ahzab) 1-20
“Allah has not put two hearts within any man, nor has He made your wives whom you repudiate by ẓihār your mothers, nor has he made your adopted sons your sons. These are mere utterances of your mouths. But Allah speaks the truth and He guides to the way.”

I’m not sure what “ẓihār” is even with the footnotes. But no matter because apparently we’ll get a more detailed explanation in a later chapter (an earlier chronological one?). And besides, this verse has little to do with the rest of the section, which instead describes a battle against the polytheists, after a brief interlude to discuss the best way to look after adopted children (“name them after their fathers”, if you know who their fathers were. I suppose this is meant to stop disinheritance or something).

I’m not sure if the battle is the same one as described in an earlier chapter, where here the faithful are defending Mecca against an army of non-Muslims and, as the verse quaintly puts it ,“the faithful were tested and jolted with a severe agitation”. Evidently the agitation was too severe for one particular group, the people of Yathrib, who try to get out of the fight by claiming that they need to go back to defend their homes. They are rebuked by the Prophet who tells them (if not at the time then later, via the Qur’an) that it’s of little import if they save themselves short-term because they will be punished by Allah in the long term.

The “confederates” of the title are the attacking non-Muslims, by the way, which we get in verse 20.

Now, this concept of the fearful trying to get out of fighting is one that gets a bit unstuck when dealing with an all-powerful God. Presumably Allah could have bolstered the resolve of the Yathribi if He’d wanted, but seems content to let people do as they will but punish them after. And although the Qur’an accuses the Yathribi lying about their homes being in danger, how do we know that this isn’t merely propaganda? Anyway, I guess the confederates were defeated regardless.

The Confederates 21-40
“But when the faithful saw the confederates, they said, ‘This is what Allah and His Apostle had promised us, and Allah and His Apostle were true.’ And it only increased them in faith and submission.”

Apparently the faithful know that the words of the Prophet are true because he predicted that they would be attacked. Given the time and place, this doesn’t seem like a breath-takingly unlikely prophecy. And also, I knew it – “Allah sent back the faithless in their rage, without their attaining any advantage, and Allah spared the faithful of fighting, and Allah is all-strong, all-mighty”. So regardless of the actions of the Yathribi, Allah sticks His oar in and sorts out the battle. So I suppose that the “crime” of the Yathribi is not having faith that Allah would do this, much like some of the occasions in the Bible where the Israelite armies didn’t put enough faith in God.

And it turns out that the confederates had Jewish backers, like any good modern conspiracy theory, and this is used as an excuse to kill them and take their land - “And He dragged down those who had backed them from among the People of the Book from their strongholds, and He cast terror into their hearts, [so that] you killed a part of them, and took captive [another] part of them.” So I guess we’re past the “respect the People of the Book” stuff now? Or perhaps it was the Christian Byzantines who sponsored the attack, since they’d also be classed as “people of the Book”. Either way, a bit of a backfire.

And then suddenly the text jumps from the battle to a section on obedient wives, but not just any wives, but specifically the wives of the Prophet. “O wives of the Prophet! Whoever of you commits a gross indecency, her punishment shall be doubled, and that is easy for Allah”. And the prize for being obedient, of course, is also increased. They are told to “Stay in your houses and do not display your finery”, but instead do a lot of praying.

And if you think this sounds rather authoritarian on behalf of the Prophet, you’re not wrong, and it gets worse. “A faithful man or woman may not, when Allah and His Apostle have decided on a matter, have any option in their matter, and whoever disobeys Allah and His Apostle has certainly strayed into manifest error”. That’s pretty much elevating an Apostle of Allah (which at this current time and place happens to be the Prophet) on a par with Allah when it comes to authority. And also “There is no blame on the Prophet in respect of that which Allah has made lawful for him”, so not only must you obey the Prophet without question, the Prophet is always right. In this case the “blame” seems to concern marrying another man’s ex-wife. Sounds like the old Nixon Defence to me.

The Confederates 41-60
“Indeed those who torment Allah and His Apostle are cursed by Allah in the world and the Hereafter, and He has prepared a humiliating punishment for them.”

In the last section I noted a growing authoritarianism on behalf of the Prophet, and here it continues to hilarious effect. As well as telling people who bother him that they’ll be sent to hell (and providing the correct way to have dinner with the Prophet), there’s a lot, and I mean a lot, that seems to be a self-justification for his behaviour with women. Reading between the lines, that on the one hand try to give divine justification for his number of wives and concubines, and on the other threatens divine punishment on rumourmongers, I suspect that there was some muttering about the Prophet keeping all the women to himself, and so what you get here amounts pretty much to “God said I could, so nyah-nyah-nyah”.

In fact I’m going to quote one of the verses in full, even though it’s long:

O Prophet! Indeed We have made lawful to you your wives whom you have given their dowries, and those whom your right hand owns, of those whom Allah gave you as spoils of war, and the daughters of your paternal uncle, and the daughters of your paternal aunts, and the daughters of your maternal uncle, and the daughters of your maternal aunts who migrated with you, and a faithful woman if she offers herself to the Prophet and the Prophet desires to take her in marriage, (a privilege exclusively for you, not for [the rest of] the faithful; We know what We have made lawful for them with respect to their wives and those whom their right hands own so that there may be no blame on you,) and Allah is all-forgiving, all-merciful.”

Several things here – its decreed lawful that the Prophet can marry his cousins. “Those whom your right hand owns” refers’ to slave women. And finally note the special privilege granted to the Prophet by a very generous Allah to marry whoever takes his fancy. And then there’s an amusing bit of self-deprecation in the following verse - “Beyond that, women are not lawful for you, nor that you should change them for other wives even though their beauty should impress you, except those whom your right hand owns”. It’s like the Prophet is saying “I can have any woman I want, except a small number not on the list. Unless of course they’re slaves”.

The Confederates 61-73
“The day when their faces are turned about in the Fire, they will say, ‘We wish we had obeyed Allah and obeyed the Apostle!’”

Regarding the rumourmongers mentioned in the last section, here it’s said that “they will be seized wherever they are confronted and slain violently”. Nice. Mob justice. And lest we forget there’s more about obeying the Apostle (see quote above for example), which contrasts with the “I’m just a humble messenger” concept given in earlier surah.

That’s kind of about it for this chapter, but in case you missed the message earlier we get this verse just before the end - “Allah will surely punish the hypocrites, men and women, and the polytheists, men and women, and Allah will turn clemently to the faithful, men and women, and Allah is all-forgiving, all-merciful.”

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