Some Missed Understandings

May 4, 2009, 9:29 am by dc-agape.

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Surāh 78 – Al-Naba’: The Announcement

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 will be my last post from the Qur’an for a while.  I need to move on; I have discovered that the Dead Sea Scrolls have a number of Tractates about the Book of Genesis.  I also want to get started on the Book of Exodus and following that the Gospel of Matthew. 

This surāh is the first from the material that should be read in one day.  And, of course, it deals with the Day of Judgment.  But it does have some very interesting points.  M Esed describes what the question is mentioned in the first verse.  Later verses 8-11 describe why humans see everything in black or white (duality/polarity).  I find the verses 12 and 16 verse quite humorous.  There are seven heavens and everything was created for a purpose?  Then the Prophet touches again on how hell is not permanent, but that there will be punishment in that state of being.  Very heartening to an Atheist, but the punishment seems wrong for the crime.  Then we get to the often misleading concept of the virgins waiting for men in heaven.  You can already see a problem with that, right?  I will explain that in detail further down, if you can’t!  In verses 39 we get a glimpse at science fiction.  Similar to the movie the Matrix, this world is not real, but only on the Day of Judgment will the Real World appear before humans.  In the closing verse, the Prophet returns to a fact that even a gay Atheist can agree on, how much of our punishment is dealt here on earth.

There is great argument over what will happen after death.  M Esed points out at least five possibilities.  Since no one can know for sure, any one of them may be correct, and they are all mutually exclusive!  Atheist see death as complete annihilation, others see it as rejoining the cosmos, many others believe in reincarnation.  Then two are left who believe that either the soul continues on or even the entire human body, mind, and soul continue to exist.  These last two are the ones who believe that we humans will be rewarded or punished for our deed on this little planet in the middle of an incomprehensibly large universe.  This concept will be returned to in a minute.

It is interesting that duality of nature is described here in this surāh.  As I have pointed out at other times duality/polarity is somewhat misleading.  The day is not divided into darkness and light…there is also dawn and dusk.  The year is also not divided into two seasons; we have four…unless you are very close to the equator or the poles.  With more understanding of science we have even discovered that the commonly thought polarity of the sexes does not occur.  Homosexuality does exist, and some women are born with more or less than one X chromosome. So the whole concept of duality/polarity is humans attempting to put the world in a simple category. 

Why do I find verse 13 and 16 humorous?  Because in verse 12 the concept of seven heavens or firmaments is nothing new to religion and yet has no physical proof (even when you claim that there are 7 major planets…there are actually eight, all equally “major”).  The concept of seven heavens is from many religions; Chinese, Jewish, Christian, Islamic, Norse, and many other ancient cultures.  This concept is nothing new, yet we are supposed to believe it just because it is ancient superstition that has crept into almost all modern day religions.  I also find the concept of everything created having a purpose which will be included in the judgment of humankind hilarious.  That the millions of galaxies in our universe are created to somehow indicate that a supreme being exists is laughable.  Humanity has just now, centuries after the last message from a supreme being, been able to detect the existence of these uncountable numbers of stars.  There is no purpose to humanity in the existence of these stars, nor has their existence made any difference to those people who never knew they existed.

I have three problems with the impermanency of hell.  First, that means that even the most evil of person will someday share heaven with the most virtuous person.  Not quite the most just system devised.  Second, why bother being good, if we are going to make to heaven in the end.  And the third thing is the concept of torture to bring us into the “light”.  How does that reform a “sinner”?  Wishing I were never born for even a second, minute, year, eon; how does that make me any more receptive to the “Truth”?  All I feel is pain from a loving and just dictator.  That doesn’t seem to be the best method for reforming the unbeliever.

Then in verse 33 we get to the part of Islam that everyone has heard about.  This is where the Holy Qur’an promises the female virgins waiting in heaven for the virtuous men.  Isn’t it funny how this is centered on the straight man’s desire?  “Heaven will be filled with sex” just does not seem to fit with what we are taught here on earth of proper behavior.  Women, of course, don’t get the same thing.  And since gay men don’t go to heaven it doesn’t matter.  Fortunately, more enlightened scholars have realized that this is a metaphor and not the actual situation. 

M Esed also claims that the “Ultimate Reality” will be shown to humans on the Day of Judgment.  Similar to the movie the Matrix, what we are experiencing now in reality is just a dream.  But instead of waking up into a different society with horrific machines, we will wake up to face our Spiritual Judge.  Not much difference if you ask me!

In the closing verse, the Prophet returns to a truth that even the most hard core Atheist will agree with.  Punishment here on earth, in this life, does occur.  We could hope that some supernatural being would be the one that does it, but that rarely occurs.  But we do know that people are punished by their own conscience and by regret.  And on many occasions by other humans that enforce the laws of society.  Yet prisons do not rehabilitate criminals nor does it deter crime, so how exactly does the concept of hell rehabilitate the sinner?

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