An Atheist Explores the Qur'an Part 118: Subtle Pokes At Trinitarian Christianity (Monotheism (al-Ikhlas))
Monotheism
(al-Ikhlas)
Subtle Pokes At Trinitarian Christianity.
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
Monotheism (al-Ikhlas) 1-4
“Say, ‘He is Allah, the One.
Allah is the All-embracing.
He neither begat, nor was begotten,
nor has He any equal.’”
- Al-quran.info
“Say, "He is Allah, [who is] One,
Allah, the Eternal Refuge.
He neither begets nor is born,
Nor is there to Him any equivalent."”
- Quran.com
A quick note: although Al-quran.info calls this one “Monotheism”, the Arabic title it gives is translated as (variously) “Sincerity”, “Fidelity” or “the Purity”. It is given the alternative title “Monotheism” but apparently this should be “al-Tawhid”. I don’t know why the website chose to do it that way. Either title, in Arabic or the translations, are considered correct.
This is pretty much a fundamental declaration of creed, laying out clearly the nature of Allah (or at least some of His aspects). “Neither begat nor was begotten” is clearly a poke at not only Christianity but also any kind of mythology where gods are born in some fashion or other. I guess this was a pretty radical idea at the time (you can see the evolution of this reading between the lines on the Bible as well). People see that things in the natural world have beginnings, and so therefore even stuff they don’t know how it began, like rocks and the sea, must have begun at some point. And of gods were the cause of that, then gods must have begun as well at some point. The notion that a god could be timeless requires thinking outside of general experience, so no wonder most older pantheistic gods are born from other gods or hatch from cosmic eggs or whatever.
The second jab at other religions is the last verse, that “nor has He any equal”. Polytheisms are wrong for having multiple gods, even Christianity would fall under this for either the notion of the Son of God or (one worse) Trinitarianism (which kind of misunderstands the thinking behind both concepts, but we’ve seen before how the Qur’an has only the loosest grasp of the Bible). Similarly henotheism, particularly a blend of Islam and the old polytheism, is wrong.
The two translations given here of “All-Embracing” and “the Eternal Refuge” are very different interpretations. Both carry a sense of someone being held safe in the arms of another, but “All-Embracing” also carries a meaning that God encompasses everything, that He is at every part of the universe. “The Eternal Refuge”, on the other hand, has the sense that God is the last resting place, the eternal refuge of the soul when it dies. Maybe the original text is ambiguous enough to be able to portray all sense, in which case that’s cleverly written.
Subtle Pokes At Trinitarian Christianity.
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
Monotheism (al-Ikhlas) 1-4
“Say, ‘He is Allah, the One.
Allah is the All-embracing.
He neither begat, nor was begotten,
nor has He any equal.’”
- Al-quran.info
“Say, "He is Allah, [who is] One,
Allah, the Eternal Refuge.
He neither begets nor is born,
Nor is there to Him any equivalent."”
- Quran.com
A quick note: although Al-quran.info calls this one “Monotheism”, the Arabic title it gives is translated as (variously) “Sincerity”, “Fidelity” or “the Purity”. It is given the alternative title “Monotheism” but apparently this should be “al-Tawhid”. I don’t know why the website chose to do it that way. Either title, in Arabic or the translations, are considered correct.
This is pretty much a fundamental declaration of creed, laying out clearly the nature of Allah (or at least some of His aspects). “Neither begat nor was begotten” is clearly a poke at not only Christianity but also any kind of mythology where gods are born in some fashion or other. I guess this was a pretty radical idea at the time (you can see the evolution of this reading between the lines on the Bible as well). People see that things in the natural world have beginnings, and so therefore even stuff they don’t know how it began, like rocks and the sea, must have begun at some point. And of gods were the cause of that, then gods must have begun as well at some point. The notion that a god could be timeless requires thinking outside of general experience, so no wonder most older pantheistic gods are born from other gods or hatch from cosmic eggs or whatever.
The second jab at other religions is the last verse, that “nor has He any equal”. Polytheisms are wrong for having multiple gods, even Christianity would fall under this for either the notion of the Son of God or (one worse) Trinitarianism (which kind of misunderstands the thinking behind both concepts, but we’ve seen before how the Qur’an has only the loosest grasp of the Bible). Similarly henotheism, particularly a blend of Islam and the old polytheism, is wrong.
The two translations given here of “All-Embracing” and “the Eternal Refuge” are very different interpretations. Both carry a sense of someone being held safe in the arms of another, but “All-Embracing” also carries a meaning that God encompasses everything, that He is at every part of the universe. “The Eternal Refuge”, on the other hand, has the sense that God is the last resting place, the eternal refuge of the soul when it dies. Maybe the original text is ambiguous enough to be able to portray all sense, in which case that’s cleverly written.
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