An Atheist Explores the Qur'an Part 112: A Brief History of the Battles of the Prophet (Quraysh)
Quraysh (Quraysh)
A Brief History of the Battles of the Prophet.
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
Quraysh (Quraysh) 1-4
“[In gratitude] for solidarity among the Quraysh,
their solidarity during winter and summer journeys,
let them worship the Lord of this House,
who has fed them [and saved them] from hunger, and secured them from fear.”
As with the previous surah, this one, I think, requires a bit of research for context. The Quraysh were an Arabic tribe, made up of smaller clans, that developed into a large mercantile organisation based at Mecca but controlling trade all across the Arabian peninsula. As a part of this they developed pretty sophisticated commercial organisation.
The Prophet was born into the Banu Hashim tribe of the Quraysh, who had hereditary rights to the pilgrimage routes to Mecca; right off the bat the Prophet’s people were in charge of making money from the pilgrims, in this case polytheists, travelling to the sacred site of the Ka’aba.
So, this is interesting. It almost feels like this position serves as a power base for the Prophet to build up his following. But it’s also interesting that at some point he was evidently ousted from the Meccan trade, since many of the later Medinan surahs deal with taking Mecca back from the polytheists. And indeed, this appears to have been the case. Like Jesus before, the Prophet was not revered in his own country; he was opposed by the polytheistic Quraysh and ousted, where he escaped to Medina before a series of battles with the Quraysh. First attacking a Qurayshi caravan at the Battle of Badr, and then defending Medina from a Qurayshi assault at the Battle of the Trench. Both of these we’ve seen mentioned in previous surahs, usually where the Prophet both grants the victory to Allah and condemns allies that stinted in their support.
Eventually, the Prophet won back Mecca and made a truce with the remaining Quraysh (date given as 630AD) who converted to Islam.
The question is, then, where I this timeline does this surah exist? It’s given as a relatively early (29th) Meccan one, so presumably it happens before disagreements with the Quraysh really blew up into violence. It looks a little like an attempt to flatter the Quraysh and bring them over to the new religion – God will “allow” them to worship as a reward for their steadfastness. It would kind of work too as a conciliatory piece once the Quraysh had finally converted to Islam.
I don’t have much to say on the chapter itself; it’s short and pretty much to the point. I couldn’t see any obvious motifs in the Arabic version, which is why I didn’t bother posting it. But as a gateway to a history lesson, it’s a useful piece.
A Brief History of the Battles of the Prophet.
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
Quraysh (Quraysh) 1-4
“[In gratitude] for solidarity among the Quraysh,
their solidarity during winter and summer journeys,
let them worship the Lord of this House,
who has fed them [and saved them] from hunger, and secured them from fear.”
As with the previous surah, this one, I think, requires a bit of research for context. The Quraysh were an Arabic tribe, made up of smaller clans, that developed into a large mercantile organisation based at Mecca but controlling trade all across the Arabian peninsula. As a part of this they developed pretty sophisticated commercial organisation.
The Prophet was born into the Banu Hashim tribe of the Quraysh, who had hereditary rights to the pilgrimage routes to Mecca; right off the bat the Prophet’s people were in charge of making money from the pilgrims, in this case polytheists, travelling to the sacred site of the Ka’aba.
So, this is interesting. It almost feels like this position serves as a power base for the Prophet to build up his following. But it’s also interesting that at some point he was evidently ousted from the Meccan trade, since many of the later Medinan surahs deal with taking Mecca back from the polytheists. And indeed, this appears to have been the case. Like Jesus before, the Prophet was not revered in his own country; he was opposed by the polytheistic Quraysh and ousted, where he escaped to Medina before a series of battles with the Quraysh. First attacking a Qurayshi caravan at the Battle of Badr, and then defending Medina from a Qurayshi assault at the Battle of the Trench. Both of these we’ve seen mentioned in previous surahs, usually where the Prophet both grants the victory to Allah and condemns allies that stinted in their support.
Eventually, the Prophet won back Mecca and made a truce with the remaining Quraysh (date given as 630AD) who converted to Islam.
The question is, then, where I this timeline does this surah exist? It’s given as a relatively early (29th) Meccan one, so presumably it happens before disagreements with the Quraysh really blew up into violence. It looks a little like an attempt to flatter the Quraysh and bring them over to the new religion – God will “allow” them to worship as a reward for their steadfastness. It would kind of work too as a conciliatory piece once the Quraysh had finally converted to Islam.
I don’t have much to say on the chapter itself; it’s short and pretty much to the point. I couldn’t see any obvious motifs in the Arabic version, which is why I didn’t bother posting it. But as a gateway to a history lesson, it’s a useful piece.
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