An Atheist Explores the Qur'an Part 80: The Nineteen Guardians of Saqar (sounds cooler than it is) (Shrouded (al-Muddaththirl))

Shrouded (al-Muddaththirl) 1-56
The Nineteen Guardians of Saqar (sounds cooler than it is).

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

Shrouded (al-Muddaththirl) 1-28
“O you wrapped up in your mantle! Rise up and warn!”

Like the previous surah, Enwrapped, this one starts with God addressing the Prophet as one wrapped in a mantle. Last time, because of the emphasis on praying at night, I took this to be a reference to a literal cloak against the cold night, but here it seems to be more metaphorical. Perhaps it was always meant to be both.

I think metaphorical because the Prophet is told to “purify your cloak” and to avoid “iniquity”, and in this case it makes more sense if it is a “mantle of faith” or something like that. In fact I can see this in KJV language – “Thy mantle shall be as a mantle of faith unto thee”, or something like that.

There are a few guidelines for righteous behaviour, including “Do not grant a favour seeking a greater gain”; this seems reasonable to me – help someone for the sake of helping rather than for what you can get out of them. Or even if they return the favour, only expect something of a similar magnitude. This advice comes tucked away between larger passages and is easily overlooked.

The text then moves on to describe an ungrateful person whom Allah has gifted with riches and sons, but who does not heed the Qur’an. “Then he frowned and scowled”, it says, and I know that an upcoming surah is titled “He Frowned”. I’d always assumed it referred to Allah, but actually it makes more sense if it refers to a similar incident, especially as I don’t think Allah is supposed to have a face as such. “It is nothing but the speech of a human being”, the ungrateful man says of the Qur’an.

Finally here we get mention of “Saqar”, which is either another name for Hell, or a particular part of Hell. Further explanations continue in the next part, where I predict lots of graphic descriptions of fiery torture [Content Warning].

Shrouded 29-56
“We have assigned only angels as keepers of the Fire, and We have made their number merely a stumbling block for the faithless”

Well, it looks like I was wrong last time, led astray by previous graphic descriptions of Hell, because all we get about Saqar is that “It burns the skin”. Well that and “There are nineteen [keepers] over it”. Apparently nineteen angels guard Hell to stop people getting out. Why nineteen, I wonder. It doesn’t have any great numerological significance that I’m aware of. Perhaps there’s no greater meaning behind it.

Later we get some oaths - “By the Moon! By the night when it recedes! By the dawn when it brightens!” which are interesting in that they seem to carry a pagan significance. Possibly, though, they are meant merely as one of those “Things Exist Therefore God” arguments.

I did, however, like the pithy aphorism that “Every soul is hostage to what it has earned”. I’m not quite sure what it means, but it has the sense that we carry our past baggage with us. Here, it’s obviously got the sense that what you do either sends you to Saqar or the Gardens, and the People of the Right Hand that end up in the Gardens are somehow able to ask the people in Hell what they did to get there. Here we get a good look at what sends you to Hell – not maintaining prayers, not feeding the poor, gossiping, and not believing in the Day of Retribution. The Qur’an refers to people avoiding its revelations as “terrified asses fleeing from a lion” and asks if they want their own personal revelation. Well, why not? Since “they will not remember unless Allah wishes” then pretty clearly God has direct control over everybody’s minds anyway, so could easily give everyone a direct revelation if He really wanted to save people from Hell. 

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