An Atheist Explores the Qur'an Part 108: Visiting Graveyards, or Counting Ancestors (Rivalry (al-Takathur))
Rivalry (al-Takathur)
Visiting Graveyards, or Counting Ancestors.
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
Rivalry (al-Takathur) 1-8
“Rivalry [and vainglory] distracted you
until you visited [even] the graves.
No indeed! Soon you will know!
Again, no indeed! Soon you will know!
No indeed! Were you to know with certain knowledge,
you would surely see hell.
Again, you will surely see it with the eye of certainty.
Then, that day, you will surely be questioned concerning the blessing.”
As you can see, this is a pretty straightforward eight-verse surah. I had a look at the Arabic and there’s not as much in the way of poetic device I could see as compared to the last chapter, except that the last three lines employ a para-rhyme in the form of “l-jaḥīm” (hell, or hellfire), “l-yaqīn” (certainty) and “ʿani n-naʿīm” (the blessing or Day of Pleasure, as Quran.com translates).
It’s basically about how pursuit of earthly riches and power, leading to the competition to be the best, or richest, or top of the heap in some way, is a distraction from spiritual matters and of absolutely no use when the End Days come and a person is judged by Allah. I’m not sure if the “eye of certainty” in verse 7 is meant to imply seeing through the lens of faith, or if it’s meant to imply that *nobody* can see with certainty. I think the former, or something like that, is more likely.
Possibly the repetition of the “indeed, soon you will know” line is meant to have a deeper meaning, I couldn’t say. I recall from an earlier surah it was suggested that a repeated line was meant as a warning of two tests for the Prophet, or something like that. Or it could just be used as emphasis.
About the only other things I have to say about this surah, and in fact on some perfunctory research it also seems to be about the only thing Islamic scholars have to say about it also, is the second verse. Translated here as “until you visited [even] the graves” and on Quran.com as “Until you visit the graveyards”, the general interpretation seems to be that the rivalry persists until death – until you “go to the grave”, or in the lyrics of Where Have All The Flowers Gone, “gone to graveyards”. At first glance, though, to me, it read a little like a trip to the graveyard – you don’t exactly “visit” the graveyard when you die; a “visit” tends to imply a journey that you return from. Maybe that’s the intent, because you’re only “dead” until the Judgement Day. An alternative reading, apparently, is that this refers specifically to a the rivalry between the tribes of Banu Abd al-Manaf and Banu Sahm that became so intense in their boasting about relative wealth that they included the dead when counting the sizes of their tribes. This is according the commentary known as Nahj al-Balagha. This may be the inspiration, but I’d like to think that the general meaning is a bit broader than that.
Visiting Graveyards, or Counting Ancestors.
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
Rivalry (al-Takathur) 1-8
“Rivalry [and vainglory] distracted you
until you visited [even] the graves.
No indeed! Soon you will know!
Again, no indeed! Soon you will know!
No indeed! Were you to know with certain knowledge,
you would surely see hell.
Again, you will surely see it with the eye of certainty.
Then, that day, you will surely be questioned concerning the blessing.”
As you can see, this is a pretty straightforward eight-verse surah. I had a look at the Arabic and there’s not as much in the way of poetic device I could see as compared to the last chapter, except that the last three lines employ a para-rhyme in the form of “l-jaḥīm” (hell, or hellfire), “l-yaqīn” (certainty) and “ʿani n-naʿīm” (the blessing or Day of Pleasure, as Quran.com translates).
It’s basically about how pursuit of earthly riches and power, leading to the competition to be the best, or richest, or top of the heap in some way, is a distraction from spiritual matters and of absolutely no use when the End Days come and a person is judged by Allah. I’m not sure if the “eye of certainty” in verse 7 is meant to imply seeing through the lens of faith, or if it’s meant to imply that *nobody* can see with certainty. I think the former, or something like that, is more likely.
Possibly the repetition of the “indeed, soon you will know” line is meant to have a deeper meaning, I couldn’t say. I recall from an earlier surah it was suggested that a repeated line was meant as a warning of two tests for the Prophet, or something like that. Or it could just be used as emphasis.
About the only other things I have to say about this surah, and in fact on some perfunctory research it also seems to be about the only thing Islamic scholars have to say about it also, is the second verse. Translated here as “until you visited [even] the graves” and on Quran.com as “Until you visit the graveyards”, the general interpretation seems to be that the rivalry persists until death – until you “go to the grave”, or in the lyrics of Where Have All The Flowers Gone, “gone to graveyards”. At first glance, though, to me, it read a little like a trip to the graveyard – you don’t exactly “visit” the graveyard when you die; a “visit” tends to imply a journey that you return from. Maybe that’s the intent, because you’re only “dead” until the Judgement Day. An alternative reading, apparently, is that this refers specifically to a the rivalry between the tribes of Banu Abd al-Manaf and Banu Sahm that became so intense in their boasting about relative wealth that they included the dead when counting the sizes of their tribes. This is according the commentary known as Nahj al-Balagha. This may be the inspiration, but I’d like to think that the general meaning is a bit broader than that.
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