An Atheist Explores the Qu'ran Part 102: God’s Gang, Lying Forelocks, Rebellious Contentment and the Power of Writing (The Clinging Mass (al-‘Alaq))
The Clinging Mass (al-‘Alaq)
God’s Gang, Lying Forelocks, Rebellious Contentment and the Power of Writing.
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 Clinging Mass (al-‘Alaq) 1-19
“Read in the Name of your Lord who created;”
Here we are, the first, chronologically, of the chapters of the Qur’an. Although I must admit I’m a little unsure about the whole sequence of chronology. I’ve read somewhere that the chronological orders of the surahs does not necessarily follow the order of revelation, rather that they follow the order in which the Prophet wrote (or dictated) his revelations as he recalled them. In fact the notes to this chapter say that it was revealed/written in two parts. (It says “the second part came later”, which isn’t clear if that means revealed later, or was added on at a later date, or both).
I did wonder as well, along these lines, if the tradition is that the entire Qur’an was delivered to the Prophet in one block, but for one thing the comment above suggest not, and for another many of the later chapters (chronologically) address errors in thinking and behaviour that have cropped up amongst the Muslims, and so they must have been written in response to an established religion around the existing block of revelations.
Anyway, the title comes from a reference to Allah having created man “from a clinging mass”, which we’ve seen before in Qur’anic embryology, where a drop of seminal fluid becomes a clinging, or clotted, mass of blood, which the grows bones and then flesh to cover the bones. But this is actually irrelevant to the rest of the chapter.
The first part emphasises the importance of reading and writing, with a divine command to read, and also a reference to Allah having “taught by the pen” what mankind did not know. I suspect this is to reinforce the authority of the Qur’an – it’s a written document, and writing is a more permanent and therefore authoritative and correct version of events compared to oral tradition. Its words are fixed in time, and anyone who reads it anywhere and at any time gets the same words as everyone else. I can see how a more or less functionally illiterate people could be awed by such an invention.
The latter part of the chapter concerns itself with transgressors, juxtaposed I guess with this concept of the infallible written word against the changeable nature of humanity. The surah asserts that “man becomes rebellious when he considers himself without need”. I don’t know how true that is. For one thing it runs counter to the maxim about people being “one square meal away from a revolution”, but also people whose needs are met have a tendency to become “domesticated” and docile. It’s the unsatisfied who are rebellious. What it could mean is that if people have the leisure time to stop and think they begin asking awkward questions about the nature of things that can discomfit religion.
It also seems to run counter to the later visions of the paradisial Gardens where every need is met. By the logic of the argument presented here, that means that everyone that goes to Heaven will become rebellious. And if they don’t, why not?
That’s really about it for any arguments of substance. The last few verses include some amusing translations. Concerning the transgressor, “If he does not stop, We shall seize him by the forelock, a lying, sinful forelock!” Like a vindictive schoolmaster from the 1950s. “You Boy! Stop Sinning!” [Grabs forelock and gives it a twist]. It goes on “Then let him call out his gang! We [too] shall call the keepers of hell”, which is basically God saying “Yeah? You want some? Bring it on. Bring your gang, I’ll bring mine, let’s rumble.”
God’s Gang, Lying Forelocks, Rebellious Contentment and the Power of Writing.
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 Clinging Mass (al-‘Alaq) 1-19
“Read in the Name of your Lord who created;”
Here we are, the first, chronologically, of the chapters of the Qur’an. Although I must admit I’m a little unsure about the whole sequence of chronology. I’ve read somewhere that the chronological orders of the surahs does not necessarily follow the order of revelation, rather that they follow the order in which the Prophet wrote (or dictated) his revelations as he recalled them. In fact the notes to this chapter say that it was revealed/written in two parts. (It says “the second part came later”, which isn’t clear if that means revealed later, or was added on at a later date, or both).
I did wonder as well, along these lines, if the tradition is that the entire Qur’an was delivered to the Prophet in one block, but for one thing the comment above suggest not, and for another many of the later chapters (chronologically) address errors in thinking and behaviour that have cropped up amongst the Muslims, and so they must have been written in response to an established religion around the existing block of revelations.
Anyway, the title comes from a reference to Allah having created man “from a clinging mass”, which we’ve seen before in Qur’anic embryology, where a drop of seminal fluid becomes a clinging, or clotted, mass of blood, which the grows bones and then flesh to cover the bones. But this is actually irrelevant to the rest of the chapter.
The first part emphasises the importance of reading and writing, with a divine command to read, and also a reference to Allah having “taught by the pen” what mankind did not know. I suspect this is to reinforce the authority of the Qur’an – it’s a written document, and writing is a more permanent and therefore authoritative and correct version of events compared to oral tradition. Its words are fixed in time, and anyone who reads it anywhere and at any time gets the same words as everyone else. I can see how a more or less functionally illiterate people could be awed by such an invention.
The latter part of the chapter concerns itself with transgressors, juxtaposed I guess with this concept of the infallible written word against the changeable nature of humanity. The surah asserts that “man becomes rebellious when he considers himself without need”. I don’t know how true that is. For one thing it runs counter to the maxim about people being “one square meal away from a revolution”, but also people whose needs are met have a tendency to become “domesticated” and docile. It’s the unsatisfied who are rebellious. What it could mean is that if people have the leisure time to stop and think they begin asking awkward questions about the nature of things that can discomfit religion.
It also seems to run counter to the later visions of the paradisial Gardens where every need is met. By the logic of the argument presented here, that means that everyone that goes to Heaven will become rebellious. And if they don’t, why not?
That’s really about it for any arguments of substance. The last few verses include some amusing translations. Concerning the transgressor, “If he does not stop, We shall seize him by the forelock, a lying, sinful forelock!” Like a vindictive schoolmaster from the 1950s. “You Boy! Stop Sinning!” [Grabs forelock and gives it a twist]. It goes on “Then let him call out his gang! We [too] shall call the keepers of hell”, which is basically God saying “Yeah? You want some? Bring it on. Bring your gang, I’ll bring mine, let’s rumble.”
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