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« Peace and Traditions | The Best Judge »

The “Truth”

Prométhée enchaîné (Prometheus Bound) by Nicol...Image via Wikipedia

Surāh 96 – Al-‘Alaq: The Clot

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. 

Having read this surāh in 5 translations I can guarantee you that I have a “lying, sinful forelock”!  But then you both agree with a Holy Text and become a seeker of “Truth” or you disagree and you have “lying, sinful forelock”!  That is how all Holy Text deal with the “Truth”.  My first problem with this surāh is the certainty.  This certainty includes human creation by Allāh, writing being a gift of Allāh, that Homo sapiens need Allāh, and that Allāh watches us.  My further problems with this surāh include the concept of what is “right” and violence that is condoned to ensure compliance.

We have no certainty that we were created.  None.  Zip, zilch, nada, none.  We have writings, written by men, that claim to be written from a supernatural being.  That’s all we have.  But the real problem is that we have thousands of these stories, each one different in how it was done, who did it, and why they did it. And yes, it does matter who did it!  If it was Zeus, then we are all headed to Hades.  If it was YHWH (Jewish) then we are all headed to non-existence, since hell does not play a big part in their original religion.  And if by chance, science is right, when we die that’s it…no after life at all!  Each one changes how we should live our lives.  If we were created by one of the polytheist gods then we best start worshiping them again and drop this monotheism.  If it happens that we were created by one of the three monotheistic religions…which one?  They are not compatible.  Those who follow Jesus know that Allāh is imaginary, those who follow Allāh know that Jesus was mistaken.  And well, the Jewish, think the other two are crazy!  But as long as we were created by a supernatural being we can leave cleaning up the mess to someone else…mostly Mr. God.  If, on the other hand, we really only have this life and we only have ourselves to measure up to, then we really need to adjust our attitude.  Having the belief that some “Sky Daddy” is watching over us and going to one day judge us (which there is no scrap of proof) is the epitome of arrogance.  The thought that we humans are so special that the entire universe and existence revolves around each one of us individually is just ludicrous. 

With that previous paragraph, comes the concept that humans were not able to create language and writing by ourselves.  Of course, everyone knows that Prometheus gave us fire.  And let’s not forget that Ra carries the sun across the sky.  And who could forget that Atlas holds the world up.  The universe does not need a supernatural being to explain that it exists.  Only humans need an explanation.  And we came up with one on our own, “God did it”.  Animals communicate by sound, smell, and visual clues.  Humans had the exact same need, so we created language.  We know that dolphins and whales communicate in complex languages and we know that certain of the great apes are intelligent enough to learn how to communicate with us.   Occam’s razor tells us:

one should not increase, beyond what is necessary, the number of entities required to explain anything

So why do we need to increase the number of entities beyond what is required to explain the existence of everything in the universe, by adding a supernatural “father”?

The underlying commentaries make it quite clear that either you believe the Qur’an or you are making a mistake (one with terrible consequences).  Unfortunately, humans do have this overwhelming desire to make things into category A or B.  With no other option.  This includes the concept that if I, personally, read the Qur’an and do not accept it…I will pay the price in an imaginary afterlife for “turning” my back on the lessons of the Qur’an.  Of course, each of the Christian sub-religions does the exact same thing.  Worse is this concept:

96:17-18 Then let him summon his council, We will summon the braves of the army.

Summoning a council is rather peaceful, summoning an army is not so peaceful.  Pickthall uses “guards of hell”, M Yusuf uses “angels of punishment”, M Esed uses “forces of heavenly chastisement”.  Please summon a council on me, each of the “good guys” are little more than a pack of bullies to force you to do what someone else tells you to do, when to do it, and what is the correct way to do it.

Humans know right from wrong, not because of some “god-conscience” but because we are taught by experience that certain actions are harmful to ourselves, to our loved ones, or to the structure of society.  We choose, with or without religion, whether we will do good.  It is true that some people need threats (supernatural) to do what is right, but that does not mean that there is a supernatural creature offering the threat.  People push the limit (at work, with parents, with authority) to see what minimum work they can get away with.  Some people find that with more money or power those limits are expanded.  The fact that the only limits that exist are enforced by society tells me, a gay Atheist, that only humans set the limits on what is right and what is wrong.  To say the least, we have done a horrible job of setting those limits.


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This entry was posted on April 8, 2009, 11:04 pm at 23:04 and is filed under Holy Qur'an, Readings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

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2 Responses to “The “Truth””

  1. kay says:
    April 10, 2009, 10:00 am at 10:00

    You sound frustrated in this post. Are things ok? I am not sure if I can write any words of encouragement that may help–I can only say, that we each have our own abilities and we all make important contributions—even if we do not see it ourselves.

    What this verse means to a muslim…..
    1. Proclaim(read)in the name of your Lord and cherisher who created-
    2. Created man out of a leech like clot
    3. Proclaim(read) and your Lord is most bountiful
    4. He who taught (the use) of the pen
    5. Taught Man that which he knew not.
    Comments—The pursuit of knowedge is very important in the Quran. This includes the pursuit of scientific knowledge as well—such as biology—(verse 2 describes the condition of the fetus when it clings to the womb.)
    Knowledge/ideas often comes in what people call “inspiration” —they all of a sudden come up with the “idea”. But most of our knowledge comes from the senses of the body we inhabit—the input from the eyes, ears, skin…etc is processed in our brains which adds creativity/imagination to the data to understand it. This body -through which we understand our world–is “created”. Just as those rocks or metals are “created”—at their most basic–they are a bunch of molecules/atoms. Our bodies are also a bunch of molecules–but we are different from rocks and metal. We are also different from plants and animals—because we are in charge of our own fate—we have free-will.
    Verses….
    7. In that he looks upon himself as self-sufficient
    8. Surely to your Lord is the return (of all)
    commentary….
    But free-will is also a gift that must be used responisibly. If we become arrogant and prideful—we can forget our responsibility in the pursuit of egoic goals.
    verses…..
    9 You see one who forbids-
    10 a votary when he (truns) to pray?
    11 You see if he is on (the path) of guidance?
    12 or enjoins righteousness?
    13 You see if he denies truth and turns away?
    14 Does he not know that God does see?
    15 Let him beware! If he desist not, we will drag him by the forelock
    16 a lying sinful forelock!
    commentary………
    Egoic pursuits often seem pleasurable–power, fame, fortune…etc However, the pursuit of these often requires the denial of “righteousness”—which is justice, compassion and mercy. We have been created with an inherent sense of “right” and “wrong” (of goodness)and the intelligence to understand and the free-will to decide for ourselves. Thus there is really no excuse to do “wrong”(injustice, oppression, greed…etc). Someone who does “wrong” and then tries to convince others to do so… and keeps others from doing “right/good” is not just harming others but also himself.
    Forelock—some think that the use of this word is interesting since in neuroscience–the front part of the brain is considered the inhibitor–the part that prevents us from acting foolishly.
    the rest of the surah encourages people not to pay attention to the egoist but to follow the path of God-consiousness.

  2. dc-agape says:
    April 10, 2009, 1:35 pm at 13:35

    Kay,
    Anytime that I am exposed to extreme right or left-wing people it does cause me to be more urgent in explaining my perceptions. In this particular case I have recently been working (very closely) with a very liberal co-worker. The conversations have been intense. Earlier this week I was at a presentation by Jeff Corwin. If you are not aware of his conservation efforts he is very radical in his opinion. Unfortunately, some of it is unrealistic.
    Including what this surah talks about (v4-7, v13-14, v15-16, v17-19) only increased my drive to create balance.

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