The Ultimate Altruism

April 13, 2009, 9:16 am by dc-agape.

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Surāh 92 – Al-Lail: The Night

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 surāh has a lot of good talking points.  It is very powerful, not just spiritually but for the physically human (Atheist) as well. In no way am I saying that this surāh will inspire Atheist to convert. I can say this with confidence, because Atheist will see similar things to what I am about to post.  The dichotomy of religions is again pointed out at the beginning of this surāh.  In verse 6 the commentaries describe in detail what is meant by “good”.  The opposing dichotomy is described in verse 9 (again only in the commentaries).  In between these verses on the dichotomy of good/evil are the promises of earthly recompense for the acts of the good and evil persons.  Verses 13-14 bring up the promise of the afterlife, but with no proof such a thing exists, these warnings are idle threats.  In verse 15 something similar to the Christian blasphemy challenge is stated.  I particularly like verse 18.  But verses 18-19 are self-contradictory. 

The first verses describe the usual dichotomy of religion: only good or evil exist.  Just as only daylight and night exist.  But of course humankind knows that there is such a thing as the dawn and dusk.  So instead of having a two-fold dichotomy nature has a four-fold dichotomy, similarly as the four seasons cannot be broken into only two seasons.  Unlike Christianity, the Islamic religion does comprehend that a mixture of the two extremes does exist.

In verses 6 and 9 the definitions of good actions and evil actions are detailed.  As for verse six only the commentaries give an account of what is good.  M Yusuf tells us that the acts of goodness are: sacrifice, correct actions with corresponding thoughts, and supporting what is “beautiful”.  He does leave off an explanation of how and what this support of beauty is.  Sacrifice is a large umbrella of actions.  So even the commentaries are so what useless. Many of the suicide bombers are sacrificing their lives for the greater good of Allah.  But is that what the Prophet intended when he received this revelation?  Is there not a better way to sacrifice for the greater good? 

Evil is much better described in this surāh and in the commentaries of this passage.  Selfishness, arrogance, and rejection of good are described in the surāh.  The commentaries describe selfishness as greed (something that the US Christians struggle with beyond absurdity) and the rejection of good is described as disbelief in Islam. 

The promises of verses 7 and 10 are wishful thinking.  Verse 7 promises facilitation to ease for those who do good.  Historically this has been proven to be a lie.  The entire life of those who strive to do good is filled with battling evil until their deaths. Martin Luther King, Jr is an excellent example of the failure of this “promise”.   There is no guarantee that those who reject the “Truth” of Islam will experience any more distress than a “good” Muslim.  So the promise of this verse 10 is also proven a lie.

Fortunately, verse 15 tells us that only one type of person is guaranteed the fires of Punishment.  These are the same people who will never be forgiven in Christianity: those that turn their backs on the religious “Truth”.  In Christianity it is called the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit.  This concept has sprung up a website on U-tube called the Blasphemy Challenge sponsored by the Rational Response Squad (as of today nearly 1500 people have taken the challenge).

Now as a scientist and an Atheist I particularly like the M Yusuf commentary on verse 18.  The actual verse says this:

92:18 Who gives his wealth, purifying himself,

But the commentary goes further; the giving of wealth can be to charity, good works, knowledge, science, or just supporting ideals.  Without doubt, no one can claim that this is a bad/evil thing…except young earth creationists, childhood immunization denialist (post by Dr. Hoofnagle on the topic) and HIV denialist (post by Greta Christina on the topic).  How as an Atheist more people would donate to science and knowledge.

I do find verse 19 and 20 to be quite contradictory.  Verse 19 tells how these good acts should be done with no expectation of reward.  Yet in verse 20 there is a reward for the acts done…pleasing a supernatural being and receiving his reward.  Under these conditions the acts of doing good are not true altruism.  True sacrifice gets nothing in return, not even a “heavenly nod”.  This is type altruist sacrifice is the only sacrifice that I see as proof of a “good” person.  All other forms of sacrifice are built around gaining favor from man, self, or a supernatural being.  And since all these forms of sacrifice do have a return value, no sacrifice has been made.

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