An Atheist Explores the Qur'an Part 81: Bones ‘n’ Woe ™ (Resurrection (al-Qiyamah))

Resurrection (al-Qiyamah) 1-40
Bones ‘n’ Woe ™.

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

Resurrection (al-Qiyamah) 1-20
“I swear by the Day of Resurrection! And I swear by the self-blaming soul! Does man suppose that We shall not put together his bones?”

The Day of Resurrection appears to be another term for Judgement Day, when the dead are bought back to life in order to be rewarded or punished, possible for God because He can even assemble your fingertips, apparently.

I find the notion of the “self-blaming soul” intriguing, it’s a shame it isn’t elaborated on. Of course, a lot depends on how the translation is managed, but is this a soul that carries any mark of sin with it, or is it a person aware of their own faults? Google Translate gives me “I swear not to myself”, which doesn’t help as usual.

Well, anyway, the non-believer refuses to believe that such a thing will happen, but according to the Qur’an they’re in for a nasty surprise when “the moon is eclipsed, and the sun and the moon are brought together, that day man will say, ‘Where is the escape?’”

Astronomically, this is a lunar eclipse *and* a solar eclipse, which is geometrically impossible (cue excuses about nothing being impossible for Allah). Either that, or the Day of Resurrection lasts for at least six months. Oh, and of course both phenomena would be localised.

Let’s assume that this is poetic license and/or a miracle for a moment, then, and look at the second part. It’s a common motif in the Qur’an but I feel stupid for only just recognising the similarity to the same sentiments in Revelation. Not because it reminded me directly of the Bible, but indirectly through the Nina Simone/gospel song “O Sinner Man”, in which the sinner tries to get the rocks and mountains to hide him but they refuse, or are melted away.

Resurrection 21-40
“Some faces will be fresh on that day, looking at their Lord, and some faces will be scowling on that day, knowing that they will be dealt out a punishment breaking the spine.”

It’s very bony, this surah. From having bones put back together in the first couple of verses, to having the spine broken in Hell, to the metaphor for dying where “the soul reaches up to the collar bones”. Actually, it’s anatomical all round, as there’s another idiom for dying where “each shank clasps the other shank”. Both the soul reaching through the collar bone and the spasming legs, if that’s what that is, are evidently expressions that would be known the original hearers of the Qur’an, but don’t translate so well to English.

The anatomy lesson continues, “Was he not a drop of emitted semen? Then he became a clinging mass; then He created [him] and proportioned [him], and made of him the two sexes, the male and the female”. Yeah, I think I’ve mentioned before how the Qur’an is somewhat lacking when it comes to understanding reproductive physiology. Charitable version: it was written so as to be understandable by the original audience.

Flesh and bones aside, this chapter is really just another retelling of how the faithless are punished and the righteous rewarded, only with more of an anatomical motif running through it. It’s actually pretty good, except two whole verses are spent on saying “So woe to you! Woe to you! Again, woe to you! Woe to you!”

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