An Atheist Explores the Qur'an Part 45: Does Allah Care What You Think, Or Not? I Really Can’t Tell (The Throngs (al-Zumar))

The Throngs (al-Zumar) 1-75
Does Allah Care What You Think, Or Not? I Really Can’t Tell.

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 Throngs (al-Zumar) 1-20

“As for those who stay clear of the worship of the Rebel and turn penitently to Allah, there is good news for them. So give good news to My servants”

The Throngs begins in a familiar fashion, declaring that there is only one God, Allah, who created the night and day and all things in their place, and that the Qur’an is the word sent down by God. It’s pretty much a formula for the opening of each surah, at least something along those lines, and it kind of follows on from each surah beginning with the “bismillah” formula; the idea I suppose is to reinforce that what follows is a piece of holy writing.

The rest of these verses are largely familiar too, about not being a polytheist and about how people ask God for help and then attribute successes to their own capabilities. For which God has no time - “If you are ungrateful, indeed Allah has no need of you”.

There are a few verses concerning creation - “He created you from a single soul, then made from it its mate, and He has sent down for you eight mates of the cattle”. I don’t remember anything about eight mates of cattle, despite a footnote referring back to surah 6. Also God “creates you in the wombs of your mothers, creation after creation, in a threefold darkness”. I wonder what the “threefold darkness” refers to.

The Throngs 21-40

“What! Is someone who fends off with his face the terrible punishment [meted out to him] on the Day of Resurrection? And the wrongdoers will be told, ‘Taste what you used to earn.’”

I include the quote above to give an example of the rather mangled English that the translation sometimes becomes. Is the language clearer in the original Arabic? Are the translators trying too hard to sound erudite? Given that there have been a few passages where the footnotes have either filled in an ellipsis of given alternative interpretations of verses, I suspect that even in the original Arabic the writing is a bit circumspect and strangely phrased.

Which is to say that most of this section is more of the same we’ve had before. The Prophet is told to take heart against enemies that threaten him with their polytheistic gods, since these are empty entities and only Allah is able to hand out punishment, which He will to those who do not believe.

“Allah draws an example: a man jointly owned by several contending masters, and a man belonging entirely to one man: are the two equal in comparison?” – One Man, Two Guv’nors in other words; isn’t there a Biblical verse about a man can’t be a servant to two masters? Same sentiment here.

The Throngs 41-60

“Indeed We have sent down the Book to you for [the deliverance of] mankind with the truth. So whoever is guided is guided for his own sake, and whoever goes astray, goes astray to his own detriment, and it is not your duty to watch over them.”

The Prophet is absolved from responsibility over whether people believe or not, which seems a bit laissez-faire but does fit in with the stories of the earlier prophets. The message is the message, and it’s up to the listener to hear it or not. You’d think that a deity that wants to save people from The Fire ™ would make the message a bit more compelling, but never mind.

“Allah takes the souls at the time of their death, and those who have not died in their sleep. Then He retains those for whom He has ordained death and releases the others until a specified time.” I’m not sure what the concept is here – presumably “the time of death” and “not died in their sleep” covers all eventualities of death, if the “time of death” is a death in sleep. But then some get put aside somewhere if death is ordained (which, as mentioned earlier, is for everyone), and is being “released until a specified time” some kind of resurrection or getting better from death, or are both these references to holding soul until Judgement Day. It’s really not clear what this verse means

Then we get a reference to Allah’s mercy - “O My servants who have committed excesses against their own souls, do not despair of the mercy of Allah. Indeed Allah will forgive all sins” which would seem to be the opposite to “So the evils of what they had earned visited them, and as for the wrongdoers among these, the evils of what they earn shall be visited on them and they will not thwart [Allah’s might].” But reading on, it’s clear that the difference is seeking atonement. Allah will forgive those that “turn penitently towards Him”, whereas the “wrongdoers” in the verse above have not, and denied the signs given to them.

The Throngs 61-75

“And the Trumpet will be blown, and whoever is in the heavens will swoon and whoever is on the earth, except whomever Allah wishes. Then it will be blown a second time, behold, they will rise up, looking on!”

We get a little glimpse of Judgement Day here, and these verses suggest that my thoughts about that complex verse above about God setting aside souls is to do with reserving them for Judgement Day, since “throngs” are sent to Heaven or Hell. It would seem, then, that this is not something that immediately happens when you die, but that the soul is kept in a limbo until the end of days.

I must admit that the vision of the end of days is a lot less vivid and colourful compared to Revelation - “And the earth will glow with the light of her Lord, and the Book will be set up, and the prophets and the martyrs will be brought, and judgment will be made between them with justice, and they will not be wronged” – but not only is this typical of the more summary style of the Qur’an, in some ways it makes it seem less fanciful with the hordes of angels and great beasts etc.

And that’s kind of it for The Throngs. The “losers” get sent to Hell, the faithful get to enter Paradise and, well, is that it? As with Christian theology I can’t help but wonder what if this next step isn’t an eternal one (because how dull and pointless) but simply another step. What if this supposed eternal set-up becomes disrupted. Because if angels can rebel, what’s to stop something like that happening *after* Judgement Day. All that happens there is that the material universe gets subsumed back into the supernal. But things like the rebellion of Satan/Iblis happen within the supernal and not the material. I feel a plotline coming on.