An Atheist Explores the Qur'an Part 57: Scatterers, Spreaders and Walt Whitman (The Scatterers (al-Dhariyat))

The Scatterers (al-Dhariyat) 1-60
Scatterers, Spreaders and Walt Whitman.

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 Scatterers (al-Dhariyat) 1-20

“By the scattering [winds] that scatter [the clouds]”

There are a lot of insertions in the English translation for the first few verses of this chapter. I don’t know if it’s because the inserted nouns are implicit in the way the Arabic is structured, or if the Arabic is also somewhat elliptical and this is a common guess as to what is meant. Take the first verse quoted above – Is the word use in the Arabic phrase “wa-dh-dhāriyāti dharwa” (“وَالذّارِياتِ ذَروًا”) for the scattering winds – “dhāriyāti” – does that mean “any kind of thing that scatters” or can it only refer to winds. Otherwise the exact translation would be “By the scattering that scatter”, or at best “By the scattering [things] that scatter [other things]”. It’d be interesting to know how much meaning has to be implied from context.

It continues in simllar vein - “by the [rain] bearing [clouds] laden [with water]; by [the ships] which move gently [on the sea]”, which is a lot of implied words, and other verses have discussed similar themes without needing to insert so many words so again I wonder what’s going on.

As for the content of these verses, the opening verses are basically swearing by the scattering things that scatter other things, etc., that the Qur’an is the Book, and that people who don’t accept that end up in Hell and those that do go to Paradise; the usual, in other words. We do get a brief glimpse of righteous behaviour, though. As well as maintaining regular prayer (which is mentioned first), “there was a share in their wealth for the beggar and the deprived”. So charity is considered a good thing (I assume this refers to the zakat, which is a “share” of wealth).

The Scatterers 21-40

“Then his wife came forward crying [with joy]. She beat her face, and said, ‘A barren old woman!’”

Once again the Qur’an brings up previous apostles and prophets, starting with Abraham. There are some elements from the Old Testament here that I don’t think we’ve been given in the Qur’an as yet. Some messengers arrive at Abraham’s door, and he invites them in a offers them a “fat roasted calf”, and then, for no obvious reason becomes afraid. Now, we know that they’re meant to be angels, but they’re only referred to as “honoured guests” to begin with. The rest we have to infer.

In gratitude, one assumes, for Abraham’s hospitality, the visitors promise him a son, prompting Sarah (un-named here) to behave as described above. Abraham then asks them what they’re up to next, to which they reply “We have been sent toward a guilty people, that We may rain upon them stones of clay”. There’s a difference in chronology here – in the OT, Abraham meets some angels on their way to Sodom and Gomorrah, and does that haggling thing where if ten righteous men can be found the city will be saved. It’s after that the angels call in at the house of Lot and escape a gang-raping. However, here this part has already happened, because the visitors tell Abraham that “We picked out those who were in it of the faithful, but We did not find there other than one house of muslims”.

The narrative then moves onto Moses, but that’s probably covered in more detail in the next section.

The Scatterers 41-60

“We have built the sky with might, and indeed it is We who are its expanders”

Okay, I was wrong. Moses just gets a few verses in which he comes before Pharaoh, who accuses him of being a “magician and a crazy man” (for which I can’t help but think “sway-toothed madman” from Dead Poets Society, referring to Walt Whitman), and is then killed in a flood. Story over.

The people of Noah get a mention, “And in ʿĀd when We unleashed upon them a barren wind” which leaves everything scoured bones, whereas Thamud is struck by a lightning bolt that paralyses everyone. It’s nice to get some variety, although I’m sure elsewhere it’s been mainly rains of stones.

And then the language gets weird. “And the earth We have spread it out, so how excellent spreaders We have been!”. We’ve been excellent spreaders. No … that, that really doesn’t be good English. At least the “we are expanders” given above is alternatively translated as “we are the one that expands it”, which is better (and, shock, Qur’an has evidence of the expansion of the universe really/not really revelation).

I didn’t get the purpose of “In all things We have created pairs so that you may take admonition” – is this meant to refer to all *living* things, i.e. male and female (which isn’t true of hermaphrodite and asexual species), or does it mean, well, everything?

“I did not create the jinn and the humans except that they may worship Me” seems mightily egotistical; possibly its meant as a warning against worshipping other gods, but it really sounds like the only purpose of the fire and earth elementals is to worship God. But no need to offer sacrifices, because “I desire no provision from them, nor do I desire that they should feed Me”.