An Atheist Explores the Qur'an Part 64: Strange Divorce Customs, Plus Allah Acts Like the Stasi (The Pleader (al-Mujadilah))

The Pleader (al-Mujadilah)
Strange Divorce Customs, Plus Allah Acts Like the Stasi.

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 Pleader (al-Mujadilah) 1-22
“Allah has certainly heard the speech of her who pleads with you about her husband and complains to Allah.”

There’s a more than normal stream of consciousness feel to this surah, probably because it starts with a purely legalistic matter and then goes off into talking about “secret talks” before getting carried away with how the Jews and the hypocrites will be burned in Hell. Yes, it’s a late Medinan surah, so we’re having a go at the Jews again.

The opening matter, and presumably what “she who pleads” is pleading about, is the pre-Islamic custom of getting rid of a wife - “As for those of you who repudiate their wives by ẓihār, they are not their mothers”. The term comes from using an expression that means “Be as my mother’s back” (no, me neither) to effectively divorce a wife. So, “they are not your mothers” refers to this. It’s a little unclear what the judgement on this is, as it is deemed an “outrageous lie” but this is immediately followed up by saying that Allah is all-forgiving and all-excusing (which He isn’t). So possibly it’s a bad thing but, hey, go and do it anyway, God won’t mind. Because the penalties listed are only for taking back a wife after ẓihār, which first of all is to free a slave, and if you can’t do that then you must fast for two months, and if you can’t do *that*, you have to feed sixty hungry people. It’s a strange hierarchy of penance.

And then the verses use this as a jumping off point to discuss how the guilty will be punished by Allah (the all-forgiving and all-excusing), including malicious gossips. There’s an almost 1984-esque element to the reminder that Big Broth … I mean Allah, is always watching you “There is no secret talk among three, but He is their fourth [companion], nor among five but He is their sixth”.

We then get a vague example of “they who were forbidden from secret talks”, which according to the footnotes are Jews and hypocrites, who “instead of as-salāmu ʿalaykum (peace be on you), would greet the Prophet (ṣ) with such words as as-sāmu ʿalaykum (death to you)” (from the footnotes) as a kind of test; if the Prophet spoke for God then they would be punished for insulting him. Naturally he Qur’an offers the explanation that they’ll be punished when they end up in Hell.

There’s some more about doing what you’re told, and also that offerings ought to be made before “secret talks” with the Prophet, if you can afford them (it’s funny how the Qur’an veers between magnanimity and absolute certainty). “Indeed [malicious] secret talks are from Satan, that he may upset the faithful, but he cannot harm them in any way except by Allah’s leave”. Which is kind of odd. Satan can only “hurt” people if Allah lets him, but at the same time he seems perfectly capable of misleading people so that they “forget the rememberance of Allah”. For which, for some reason, God seems bound to some other force to have to burn them because it’s some kind of law He has to adhere to.

Oh, and I mused last time about how the “good” people in Paradise seem completely unconcerned by the suffering of those in Hell, and can even see them suffering. Well, it seems that they do get Divine Mogadon after all - “He has written faith into their hearts and strengthened them with a spirit from Him”. So, there you have it. God makes it so you don’t care about other people suffering. And this is somehow a good thing?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dr Simon Reads... Appendix N. Part One: Poul Anderson

Image
Dr. Simon Reads Appendix N: Introduction This is a new series that will feature sporadically, in which I explore classic fantasy and science fiction works. You will either know what I mean by “Appendix N”, or you will have no clue. In the original Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Dungeon Masters Guide, Gary Gygax provided a large number of appendices, from random smells to reputed magical properties of herbs and gemstones. Appendix N was a bibliography of works that inspired him. Back in 1982 when I first got hold of this book, there were only a couple of items on there that I’d read, and only a few other authors that I’d even heard of. Many years later, after, much reading, I returned to Appendix N expecting to have added greatly to the works on there that I’d read; but actually, there were still very few. Many of the authors were obscure or out of print authors of, for want of a better expression, golden age pulp; the kind that feature in Amazing Stories and the like. Now, ...
Read more

An Atheist Explores the Qur'an Part 121: Closing Thoughts

It took half as many posts to tackle the Qur'an as it did the Bible, 120 compared to 248, but it felt like longer sometimes. Perhaps because the Qur'an is written by a single man and deals with pretty much the same topic over and over, whereas the Bible is a compilation of multiple works, some of which are historical, some apocalyptic, some laws or building instruction, some philosophical, some poetic, some a bit of each. From that point of view, I'd have to say that the Bible was the more interesting work to read. Have I learned any great wisdom from the Qur'an? I'd have to say … no, not really. Granted, I probably didn't approach it with a particularly deep understanding of the material in the first place, but that (as with the Bible readthrough) was always my intent. Picking through line by line is still something of a deep dive, and in both books I tried to be alert for symbol and metaphor. Doing it that way, however, it's easy to miss thematic callb...
Read more

An Atheist Explores the Bible Part 140: The Fall and Rise of (Slightly Tarty) Cities (Isaiah 21-25)

Isaiah 21-25 The Fall and Rise of (Slightly Tarty) Cities Welcome to another instalment of An Atheist Explores Sacred Texts (Bible version). In this series I work my way chapter-by-chapter through the King James Bible, commenting on it from the point of view of the text as literature and mythology. For more detail, see the introductory post http://bit.ly/2F8f9JT For the online KJV I use, see here http://bit.ly/2m0zVUP And now: Isaiah 21 “And he cried, A lion: My lord, I stand continually upon the watchtower in the daytime, and I am set in my ward whole nights:” Isaiah has a vision that causes him pain like the pain of childbirth, apparently. From out of the desert comes a chariot bearing news that Babylon has fallen, but I don’t know to whom. This chapter says to “ watch in the watchtower ”, from which I guess the Jehovah’s Witnesses get the name of their little newsletter. Also Isaiah, or the people to whom he speaks, are told to “ go set a watchman ”; another line ...
Read more