An Atheist Explores the Qur'an Part 104: Schisms Prove God. Plus: A deep dive into psychological integration (The Proof (al-Bayyinah))
The Proof (al-Bayyinah)
Schisms Prove God. Plus: A deep dive into psychological integration.
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 Proof (al-Bayyinah) 1-8
“The faithless from among the People of the Book and the polytheists were not set apart until the proof had come to them:”
Finally! Some undeniable proof demonstrating that the claims in the Qur’an are based on solid factual observation. What is this proof?
“an apostle from Allah reciting impeccable scriptures, wherein are upright writings.”
Oh.
Okay everyone, repeat after me: “The claim is not the evidence”. However, let’s overlook that for now. What this surah is saying, if we strip away the claim of proof, is that the People of the Book (i.e. Jews, mainly, but also Christians) and the polytheists (one assumes those still following pre-Islamic Arabic traditions) became divided when they heard the word of the Qur’an. What’s not entirely is who was “set apart” from whom. Is it that these people became set apart from Muslims by their refusal to believe in the Qur’an, or is it that people within these groups took up Islam and became divided from their former co-religionists? The implication by the phrasing that the faithless were “from among” them is that it’s not referring to all Jews, Christians and polytheists by the term “faithless”.
The surah continues “And those who were given the Book did not divide, except after the proof had come to them” which seems to solidify the idea that division arose among the existing religions between those that turned to Islam and those that did not. Somehow, I doubt that it was that easy to get these people to give up their long-held beliefs, and I suspect the number of willing apostates were few. To be honest there’s very little in here that, having read the Bible, I would say was a particularly strong argument towards this form of worship and away from that in the Bible.
“Yet they were not commanded except to worship Allah, dedicating their faith to Him as men of pure faith, and to maintain the prayer and pay the zakāt. That is the upright religion.” This verse makes it sound like a small matter, but consider: if a person’s identity is bound up in their faith in Jesus Christ, then to denounce that and turn to a religion that considers Jesus to be a mere prophet rather than a supernatural saviour figure – ain’t going to happen easily. And I suspect much the same is going to happen with somebody bought up in the Jewish faith with a long, long tradition of rituals and cultural identity and the concept that God is looking out for your people specifically. Compared to that, this new Islam thing is a little thin on historical establishment.
“Indeed the faithless from among the People of the Book and the polytheists will be in the fire of hell, to remain in it [forever]. It is they who are the worst of creatures”.
Of course they are. Worse than the “faithless” from anywhere else? The polytheists I can understand from the point of view of Islam, because they are “attributing partners to Allah”. But elsewhere it’s been said that the People of the Book already follow Allah (The whole Moses was a Muslim thing, for example). I think it was even considered that their version without the newest revelations (the Qur’an) may well be lacking and out-of-date, but at least they are worshipping one God. This is surah, number 100 in the chronology, is a late Medinan one. So of course it’s going to be down on the Jews.
The last two verses finish by contrasting with the fate of the faithless. “Indeed those who have faith and do righteous deeds —it is they who are the best of creatures. Their reward, near their Lord, is the Gardens of Eden, with streams running in them, to remain in them forever. Allah is pleased with them, and they are pleased with Him. That is for those who fear their Lord.”
I’m not sure if I’ve specifically mentioned it before, but the Gardens described as the paradisial afterlife are specifically referred to as the Gardens of Eden. Presumably the idea here is that humanity can, through faith and righteous deeds, return to Eden from whence it was cast out. As I recall the Qur’an doesn’t really give any reasons for Adam and “the woman” being cast out of Eden, but I could be wrong.
Can we look at this metaphorically? What is Eden, but a state of bliss or a state of grace. In Islam it doesn’t seem to be the case that mankind is thought to be inherently sinful; there’s no mention of “original sin”, but nevertheless mankind has been separated from Allah. Through faith, and some works, it’s possible to regain this contact with the Divine and so enter permanently into a state of peace. There’s a certain psychological feel to this, that of one whose thoughts are out of equilibrium, suffering from an excess of fear or worry or stress, perhaps. It takes conscious effort and time, and possibly outside intervention, to bring one’s thoughts back to a balance, where one emotion or thought isn’t overwhelming the others. I don’t know how consciously these revelatory religions play into this kind of notion, but possibly they express such ideas couched in supernatural terms because they lacked the language and background to be able to consider it from a more scientific point of view.
As with some of the New Testament teachings, there are similarities to some Buddhist ideas – your attachments (to the wrong gods) make you suffer, says the Qur’an. Let go of them and surrender yourself to the ineffable, and you will feel better.
Schisms Prove God. Plus: A deep dive into psychological integration.
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 Proof (al-Bayyinah) 1-8
“The faithless from among the People of the Book and the polytheists were not set apart until the proof had come to them:”
Finally! Some undeniable proof demonstrating that the claims in the Qur’an are based on solid factual observation. What is this proof?
“an apostle from Allah reciting impeccable scriptures, wherein are upright writings.”
Oh.
Okay everyone, repeat after me: “The claim is not the evidence”. However, let’s overlook that for now. What this surah is saying, if we strip away the claim of proof, is that the People of the Book (i.e. Jews, mainly, but also Christians) and the polytheists (one assumes those still following pre-Islamic Arabic traditions) became divided when they heard the word of the Qur’an. What’s not entirely is who was “set apart” from whom. Is it that these people became set apart from Muslims by their refusal to believe in the Qur’an, or is it that people within these groups took up Islam and became divided from their former co-religionists? The implication by the phrasing that the faithless were “from among” them is that it’s not referring to all Jews, Christians and polytheists by the term “faithless”.
The surah continues “And those who were given the Book did not divide, except after the proof had come to them” which seems to solidify the idea that division arose among the existing religions between those that turned to Islam and those that did not. Somehow, I doubt that it was that easy to get these people to give up their long-held beliefs, and I suspect the number of willing apostates were few. To be honest there’s very little in here that, having read the Bible, I would say was a particularly strong argument towards this form of worship and away from that in the Bible.
“Yet they were not commanded except to worship Allah, dedicating their faith to Him as men of pure faith, and to maintain the prayer and pay the zakāt. That is the upright religion.” This verse makes it sound like a small matter, but consider: if a person’s identity is bound up in their faith in Jesus Christ, then to denounce that and turn to a religion that considers Jesus to be a mere prophet rather than a supernatural saviour figure – ain’t going to happen easily. And I suspect much the same is going to happen with somebody bought up in the Jewish faith with a long, long tradition of rituals and cultural identity and the concept that God is looking out for your people specifically. Compared to that, this new Islam thing is a little thin on historical establishment.
“Indeed the faithless from among the People of the Book and the polytheists will be in the fire of hell, to remain in it [forever]. It is they who are the worst of creatures”.
Of course they are. Worse than the “faithless” from anywhere else? The polytheists I can understand from the point of view of Islam, because they are “attributing partners to Allah”. But elsewhere it’s been said that the People of the Book already follow Allah (The whole Moses was a Muslim thing, for example). I think it was even considered that their version without the newest revelations (the Qur’an) may well be lacking and out-of-date, but at least they are worshipping one God. This is surah, number 100 in the chronology, is a late Medinan one. So of course it’s going to be down on the Jews.
The last two verses finish by contrasting with the fate of the faithless. “Indeed those who have faith and do righteous deeds —it is they who are the best of creatures. Their reward, near their Lord, is the Gardens of Eden, with streams running in them, to remain in them forever. Allah is pleased with them, and they are pleased with Him. That is for those who fear their Lord.”
I’m not sure if I’ve specifically mentioned it before, but the Gardens described as the paradisial afterlife are specifically referred to as the Gardens of Eden. Presumably the idea here is that humanity can, through faith and righteous deeds, return to Eden from whence it was cast out. As I recall the Qur’an doesn’t really give any reasons for Adam and “the woman” being cast out of Eden, but I could be wrong.
Can we look at this metaphorically? What is Eden, but a state of bliss or a state of grace. In Islam it doesn’t seem to be the case that mankind is thought to be inherently sinful; there’s no mention of “original sin”, but nevertheless mankind has been separated from Allah. Through faith, and some works, it’s possible to regain this contact with the Divine and so enter permanently into a state of peace. There’s a certain psychological feel to this, that of one whose thoughts are out of equilibrium, suffering from an excess of fear or worry or stress, perhaps. It takes conscious effort and time, and possibly outside intervention, to bring one’s thoughts back to a balance, where one emotion or thought isn’t overwhelming the others. I don’t know how consciously these revelatory religions play into this kind of notion, but possibly they express such ideas couched in supernatural terms because they lacked the language and background to be able to consider it from a more scientific point of view.
As with some of the New Testament teachings, there are similarities to some Buddhist ideas – your attachments (to the wrong gods) make you suffer, says the Qur’an. Let go of them and surrender yourself to the ineffable, and you will feel better.
Comments
Post a Comment