An Atheist Explores the Qur'an Part 101: Humanity: Lowest of the Low (The Fig (al-Tiin))
The Fig (al-Tiin)
Humanity: Lowest of the Low.
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 Fig (al-Tiin) 1-8
“By the fig and the olive, by Mount Sinai, by this secure town”
This is another 8 verse surah, so again you get the lot. It begins with an oath, by now a familiar format, but in this case the oath is sworn by things that evoke the Middle East. The “secure town” is a reference to Mecca. I’d guess at Mt. Sinai being considered sacred since that’s where Moses is supposed to have been given his Laws by God. Figs and olives – are they meant to specifically evoke thoughts of the Holy Land, as the commentary suggests, or are they simply things that the Prophet would have been familiar with? He’s probably not going to refer to the Norway spruce or yuccas.
What, in this case, is sworn to attest to? It is that “We certainly created man in the best of forms; then We relegated him to the lowest of the low, except those who have faith and do righteous deeds. There will be an everlasting reward for them.”
Interesting. I don’t recall anything in the Qur’an about mankind being relegated to the lowest of the low before. I can vaguely recall some references to Adam, but I’m pretty certain there wasn’t the whole serpent/tree of knowledge of good and evil thing going on. In which case there seems to be no reason for Allah to demote mankind. The juxtaposition and directionality is made clear, though. The default position, although not mentioned and only conspicuous in omission, is that mankind is destined for The Fire™ unless he has faith and does righteous deeds. Not for the Qur’an the Epistolic argument over faith vs. deeds. You need both to win the “everlasting reward”. Which, to be honest, is a much more pragmatic way of seeing things, and is, one assumes, less likely to lead to people that think living in a cave in quiet contemplation is in any way useful.
The “righteous deeds” aren’t spelled out here, but we’ve seen charity to orphans and the like mentioned before. Sadly also striking at the necks of the unbelievers, if one wanted to cherry pick verses in order to create an army of violent fundamentalists. Hint to God the next time He wants to give a revelation to some prophet – maybe don’t include any verses involving “fighting” or “struggle” or violent actions of any kind. Even metaphorically or describing a particular occasion. Because, you know, people seem to get the wrong idea.
Anyway, this surah isn’t a violent one, that was a digression. It ends with what I assume to be rhetorical questions. “So what makes you deny the Retribution? Is not Allah the fairest of all judges?” Apart from the fact that this surah hasn’t exactly made a water-tight argument for the Retribution, nor Allah’s fairness, and so these are not really questions that follow on from the rest, I would have to say, based on all the previous chapters, that my answers would be “Because all you’ve done is make assertions with no evidence to support them, further the whole set-up seems to run counter to what experience has shown in terms of what is possible and probable” and “Given that He doesn’t appear to take extenuating circumstances into account and offers no possibility of repentance and reform after judgement; no.”
Humanity: Lowest of the Low.
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 Fig (al-Tiin) 1-8
“By the fig and the olive, by Mount Sinai, by this secure town”
This is another 8 verse surah, so again you get the lot. It begins with an oath, by now a familiar format, but in this case the oath is sworn by things that evoke the Middle East. The “secure town” is a reference to Mecca. I’d guess at Mt. Sinai being considered sacred since that’s where Moses is supposed to have been given his Laws by God. Figs and olives – are they meant to specifically evoke thoughts of the Holy Land, as the commentary suggests, or are they simply things that the Prophet would have been familiar with? He’s probably not going to refer to the Norway spruce or yuccas.
What, in this case, is sworn to attest to? It is that “We certainly created man in the best of forms; then We relegated him to the lowest of the low, except those who have faith and do righteous deeds. There will be an everlasting reward for them.”
Interesting. I don’t recall anything in the Qur’an about mankind being relegated to the lowest of the low before. I can vaguely recall some references to Adam, but I’m pretty certain there wasn’t the whole serpent/tree of knowledge of good and evil thing going on. In which case there seems to be no reason for Allah to demote mankind. The juxtaposition and directionality is made clear, though. The default position, although not mentioned and only conspicuous in omission, is that mankind is destined for The Fire™ unless he has faith and does righteous deeds. Not for the Qur’an the Epistolic argument over faith vs. deeds. You need both to win the “everlasting reward”. Which, to be honest, is a much more pragmatic way of seeing things, and is, one assumes, less likely to lead to people that think living in a cave in quiet contemplation is in any way useful.
The “righteous deeds” aren’t spelled out here, but we’ve seen charity to orphans and the like mentioned before. Sadly also striking at the necks of the unbelievers, if one wanted to cherry pick verses in order to create an army of violent fundamentalists. Hint to God the next time He wants to give a revelation to some prophet – maybe don’t include any verses involving “fighting” or “struggle” or violent actions of any kind. Even metaphorically or describing a particular occasion. Because, you know, people seem to get the wrong idea.
Anyway, this surah isn’t a violent one, that was a digression. It ends with what I assume to be rhetorical questions. “So what makes you deny the Retribution? Is not Allah the fairest of all judges?” Apart from the fact that this surah hasn’t exactly made a water-tight argument for the Retribution, nor Allah’s fairness, and so these are not really questions that follow on from the rest, I would have to say, based on all the previous chapters, that my answers would be “Because all you’ve done is make assertions with no evidence to support them, further the whole set-up seems to run counter to what experience has shown in terms of what is possible and probable” and “Given that He doesn’t appear to take extenuating circumstances into account and offers no possibility of repentance and reform after judgement; no.”
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