An Atheist Explores the Qur'an Part 50: Who or What is a Tubba’? (Smoke (al-Dukhan))

Smoke (al-Dukhan) 1-59
Who or What is a Tubba’?

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

Smoke(al-Dukhan) 1-20
“So watch out for the day when the sky brings on a manifest smoke enveloping the people.”

The opening verses give the familiar formula that the Qur’an is the word of God, in this case revealed on a single night and that “Every definitive matter is resolved in it”. “It” here apparently being the night of revelation rather than the Qur’an itself, although that is rather implied. I think that’s a bit of an oversell based on what I’ve read so far; maybe we’ll get a more definitive list of resolved matters later on.

The main gist is of the “smoke” that will envelope the disbelievers who “play around in doubt” and claim that the Prophet is “a tutored madman”. It’s painful, apparently, but not fatal, and although their supplications are lost on Allah, He will relent a little bit, for ineffable divine reasons obviously.

And then we go back to examples of prior prophets, in this case, our old pal Moses.

Smoke 21-40
“Certainly We delivered the Children of Israel from a humiliating torment, from Pharaoh. Indeed he was a tyrant among the profligates.”

There’s a very brief skip over the story of Moses, mostly centring around the “field and splendid places” that either the Israelites or the Egyptians left behind. It’s not entirely clear if it’s meant to mean that the Israelites gave up a lot of good things of the material world in order to follow God (which given that they were slaves seems improbable) or if it’s the Egyptians killed by the Red Sea that lost all their good things by seeking vengeance and defying God. It feels more like the latter, to be honest.

I’ve discovered, by the by, that the Qur’an reads a lot more smoothly if one just ignores every “Indeed” or “Certainly”. It’s a little like the modern abuse of “Literally” or “Actually”. Try it with the quote at the top.

The text skips back to non-believers and asks “Are they better, or the people of Tubbaʿ, and those who were before them? We destroyed them; indeed they were guilty.” Tubba’, apparently, is the name of a Yemenite king and also the generic title for ancient kings of Yemen. I’ve learnt something new.

Smoke 41-59
“Like molten copper it will boil in the bellies, boiling like boiling water.”

These last few verses compare the fates of those who go to hell, in this case lots of boiling rather than burning - “then pour over his head the punishment of boiling water”.

In Paradise, however, the believers are “dressed in fine silk and brocade, sitting face to face”, with girls aplenty - “and We shall wed them to black-eyed houris”. Which seems a bit awkward if we compare it to passages in the previous surah about going to Paradise with your spouse, but then again the Qur’an doesn’t seem too fussed about multiple wives and mistresses. I guess the women get the pleasure of being able to serve their men faithfully, or some such dud reward.

“That is the great success” proclaims the Qur’an, with its usual strange understatement.

Since the verses in that chapter were very short, that’s about all there is for Smoke. I’d hoped for a bit more about how horrible the smoke was – the Bible would have gone into great and salacious detail about how horrible it was and what effects it would have. It feels like 7th century Arabic is somewhat lacking in adjectives, or the translators are a bit lazy. Either way I was hoping for something a bit more Stephen King.

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