Peace and Traditions

April 7, 2009, 8:42 am by dc-agape.

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Surāh 97 – Al-Qadr:  The Majesty

Surely We revealed it on the Night of Majesty –

And what will make thee comprehend what the Night of Majesty is?

The Night of Majesty is better than a thousand months,

The angels and the Spirit descend in it by the permission of their Lord – for every affair –

Peace! It is till the rising of the morning.

I have included the translation of the Holy Qur’an by M Muhammad Ali to the beginning of these posts.  This will be the last surāh that I reprint.  I will finish reading the Qur’an when I reach the Al-Naba’: The Announcement.  I will need more space in my post to fully relate my experience reading the next few surāhs.  I will start each post on the Qur’an with a link to M Mohammad Ali’s translation of the Qur’an with his commentaries.  This does not mean that I will not return to the Qur’an, it is just time to work on some of the other Holy Books.  The Dead Sea Scrolls are filled with commentaries on the Book of Genesis.  When I have read the introduction to these Scrolls some are quite intriguing.  Remember, I have not read any of the material I am posting on prior to writing the post.  Only the Bible is an exception to this, but then I did grow up in a “Christian nation”.

This surāh reminds the reader of the first night that the Prophet had a revelation, hence the “Night of Majesty”.  Describing that night as “a thousand months” is basically saying that the Prophet learned more in one night than most people learn in an entire life time.  It could also be describing how wonderful it would be to be enlightened by new knowledge. 

Oddly, this translation uses the word “Spirit”.  Very similar to Christian doctrine that the “Spirit of God” filled the disciples in Acts 2:4.  The Traditions of Men have attempted to differentiate this experience from the Day of Pentecost by introducing the concept that “Spirit” in this case was the angel Gabriel.  But M Ali does not make this distinction.  And for good reason, the verse starts with “The angels”, Gabriel would be included in that phrase.  There would be no need to repeat such as “The angels and the Angel descend”, that would make no sense.  M Ali understands that there is difference between angels and Spirit. 

This surah ends with the concept of peace.  Reading only the verse, it seems that the “peace” ends with the rising sun.  But instead, this peace is permanently given to anyone who receives the message of the Qur’an and becomes a devoted follower.

Here, as with the OT and NT, Traditions of Men attempt to add more to the writings of the prophets.  In this case, even if the Prophet, himself, attempted to explain what he recited, he would be adding to the Word of God.  In the end that is what is wrong with the Word of God, it is vague, it has multiple meanings, and it adds confusion instead of undeniable evidence. 

It can be said that translating the message of “God” to different languages is at fault.  But two problems exist with this “cop-out”.  First, an all powerful loving “god” would ensure that his message was understood in all languages.  Second, it is “God” who created all the different languages:

Gen 11:9 That is why it was called Babel – because there the Lord confused the languages of the whole world.  From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.

Since “God” confused the languages, it is his responsibility to make his words understandable to us.  There should be no need to have men explain “His” words to us.  “His” words should resonate inside us and transcend the language barrier that “He” created.  Instead, we have the Traditions of Men that claim to understand “His” words better than us average mortal beings.

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