An Atheist Explores the Qur'an Part 114: Complex Arabic Superlatives (Abundance (al-Kawthar))
Abundance
(al-Kawthar)
Complex Arabic Superlatives.
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
Abundance (al-Kawthar 1-3)
“Indeed We have given you abundance.
So pray to your Lord, and sacrifice [the sacrificial camel].
Indeed it is your enemy who is without posterity.”
This is such a short surah I doubt I’ll have much to say about it. There’s not even anything particularly notable about the poetic structure that I can comment on – the transliteration runs
“ʾinnā ʾaʿṭaynāka l-kawthar
fa-ṣalli li-rabbika wa-nḥar
ʾinnā shāniʾaka huwa l-ʾabtaru”
And as you can see there’s not particularly much there in the way of alliteration of internal rhyming within verses, nor echoed words. At least not to my Western eyes anyway.
Compare, also, the above version from al-quran.info with the version given at Quran.com
“Indeed, We have granted you, [O Muhammad], al-Kawthar.
So pray to your Lord and sacrifice [to Him alone].
Indeed, your enemy is the one cut off.”
The first thing I notice is that Quran.com shies away from sacrificing camels, instead giving a very different slant to the second line, reinforcing monotheism. It’s also interesting that Quran.com chooses to keep the word “al-Kawthar” rather than translate it as “Abundance”. Which brings me to about the only interesting thing about this surah that was on Wikipedia, that , apparently, the way the word “Kawthar” is constructed (“الكَوثَرَ”), it is not only a superlative stacked onto a superlative (“Kathra” = “A Lot”, “Kawthar” = “A lot of a lot”), but that also by using the “Wa” to make it Kawthar rather than Katheer (also “A lot of a lot”), this makes the word specifically refer to good things only. One can only have a “kawthar” of good things, and not bad. In which case, using “abundance” is not a bad translation.
Other than linguistics, what is there to this verse? Allah tells the Prophet that he has been granted lots of good things and so it behooves him to make sacrifice, and then promises that the Prophet’s enemies will fail and be forgotten. It’s sort of, I guess, a little mini creed, summarising Allah’s relationship with His faithful, and it also seems to serve as a little “so there” to anyone hearing it as well.
Complex Arabic Superlatives.
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
Abundance (al-Kawthar 1-3)
“Indeed We have given you abundance.
So pray to your Lord, and sacrifice [the sacrificial camel].
Indeed it is your enemy who is without posterity.”
This is such a short surah I doubt I’ll have much to say about it. There’s not even anything particularly notable about the poetic structure that I can comment on – the transliteration runs
“ʾinnā ʾaʿṭaynāka l-kawthar
fa-ṣalli li-rabbika wa-nḥar
ʾinnā shāniʾaka huwa l-ʾabtaru”
And as you can see there’s not particularly much there in the way of alliteration of internal rhyming within verses, nor echoed words. At least not to my Western eyes anyway.
Compare, also, the above version from al-quran.info with the version given at Quran.com
“Indeed, We have granted you, [O Muhammad], al-Kawthar.
So pray to your Lord and sacrifice [to Him alone].
Indeed, your enemy is the one cut off.”
The first thing I notice is that Quran.com shies away from sacrificing camels, instead giving a very different slant to the second line, reinforcing monotheism. It’s also interesting that Quran.com chooses to keep the word “al-Kawthar” rather than translate it as “Abundance”. Which brings me to about the only interesting thing about this surah that was on Wikipedia, that , apparently, the way the word “Kawthar” is constructed (“الكَوثَرَ”), it is not only a superlative stacked onto a superlative (“Kathra” = “A Lot”, “Kawthar” = “A lot of a lot”), but that also by using the “Wa” to make it Kawthar rather than Katheer (also “A lot of a lot”), this makes the word specifically refer to good things only. One can only have a “kawthar” of good things, and not bad. In which case, using “abundance” is not a bad translation.
Other than linguistics, what is there to this verse? Allah tells the Prophet that he has been granted lots of good things and so it behooves him to make sacrifice, and then promises that the Prophet’s enemies will fail and be forgotten. It’s sort of, I guess, a little mini creed, summarising Allah’s relationship with His faithful, and it also seems to serve as a little “so there” to anyone hearing it as well.
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