May 11, 2009, 5:03 am by dc-agape.

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Surāh 87 – Al-A’lā: The Most High

I seem to have missed actually posting this reading of this surāh. I had it ready to post, but obviously something distracted me.

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. 

Five topics are brought up in this surāh that I want to talk about.  I will bring one new thought to the first five verses because I have already discussed this topic at length.  Secondly, I will continue to discuss the concept that in religion an arbitrary deity can remove freewill without provocation.  The third topic is how some will receive the message and other will not.  The Qur’an is quite clear that this process will occur and discusses how properly to handle it.  The fourth topic is the afterlife.  I have covered this one in great detail as well in previous posts on the Qur’an, but this one has a new twist which I will discuss in a minute.  The last verse will be my final topic.  I will discuss the messages of Abraham and Moses which seem to be related to the afterlife.

The difference between Allāh creating everything instead of a purely natural cause has no resolution.  Either you believe/fear Allāh or you understand the natural forces at work that cause “creation”.  On numerous occasions I have had a Christian witness to me, during one such case, the question was raise as to why I am here on this earth.  I responded with “Because my mommy and daddy had sex 30 weeks before I was born (yes I was a preemie)”.  Occam’s razor is a much better explanation than a supernatural being for this reason alone:

“When you have two competing theories that make exactly the same predictions, the simpler one is the better.”

Believe it or not, the Laws of Thermodynamics, Newtonian Physics, and the Rules of the Quantum State are still simpler than a supernatural being.  Our human minds can create mathematical equations that, though complex, can describe and predict every event in the universe.  It is not perfect, and we do not have the technology to describe everything, but I have faith/hope/trust/optimism in the human capacity to ask, seek, and learn.

Allāh/YHWH seems like a fickle being to me.  “Oh look, humans have changed I must change my message to them”.  So the concept that this Being is unchanging yet we are constantly changing makes no sense.  In the 7^th verse which the Muslim faith attempts to correct this condition with the use of abrogation.  This is where Allāh freely takes away past religious messages when he feels like it.  This arbitrary changing the message is forcing people to change or face dire consequences.  How does this lead to freewill?  “Change your entire structure of your society or everyone in it will burn!” is not loving nor is it proof of a consistent Supreme Being.  Nor is this offering freewill to humanity, changing everything that was “taught” by a Supreme Being to something else “taught” by the same Supreme Being leaves no room for those who fear the Being to use freewill.  They must change.

Third, I like how the Prophet describes the uselessness of attempting to spread the message to those who will not believe.  Somehow all the major religions have corrupted this concept into “believe or I will kill you”.  And it is this corruption that leads to the strife and discord that exists today.  So if there is anything that Allāh/YHWH has created in this world, by far the most powerful is the discord between nations.  A discord created by those who follow the “old” messages and those who follow the “new” messages of the same Supreme Being.

Fourth, the new twist to the afterlife is:

87:13 Then therein he will neither live or die.

The commentary of M Ali tells us that only the righteous can “live” and death is a state of complete rest.  So those souls not in heaven cannot be alive or dead.  But if we are not alive, how can we learn and purify ours “souls”?  We must be conscious or the purification cannot take place by our own experiences.  And the only difference between life and death is the state of consciousness.

Lastly, I find it oddly humorous that the Prophet would end this surāh with reference to Abraham and Moses.  Except for the first five verses this surāh is about the afterlife.  Yet the message from Abraham and Moses do not describe the afterlife once.  In fact, the concept of the afterlife for the Jewish faith is of little value.  Both Abraham and Moses were far more concerned with the “here and now” than with what YHWH did with you after death.  Most of the OT is about YHWH meting out punishment during the lifetime of the Israelites or worse within four generations of the sinful “fathers”.

So with these five observations it is difficult for a gay Atheist to see the “Truth” in the spiritual world of Islam.  Much of what Islam teaches has great value.  Unfortunately, much of that value has been corrupted and used to oppress and subjugate the followers, not to Allāh, but to men.  This is not to be unexpected.  When humans are put in a place of power over their peers, power does corrupt.  It has occurred in Judaism, Christianity, and even non-religious States such as China and Russia.  That ability of power to corrupt is one of the greatest “Truths” and one of humankind’s greatest weaknesses.

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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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May 3, 2009, 4:36 pm by dc-agape.

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Surāh 79 – Al-Nāzi’āt: Those Who Yearn

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 is quite complex.  Each of the translations that I have is different in many ways.  The opening six verses have at least three meanings.  This, then means that the next eight can also be translated differently.  The rest of the surāh shows a completely different supreme being than in the Old Testament.  The surāh ends with a concept of how short life is.  But closing this way only reminds the Atheist of two things: “eternal” punishment for such a short life seems cruel, and that death is like a black hole – all the laws of nature do not function at the singularity.

Starting with the opening six verses M Esed, M Yusuf, and M Ali differ on the meaning of these verses.  M Esed uses them to indicate how humans are completely subjected to Allāh.  Almost to the point of claiming that we do not have freewill.  M Yusuf sees the opening verses as examples of how different those who love Allāh will be prepared for death.  Oddly, it is the Atheist who is most accepting of personal death, compared to the religious!  But M Ali has a completely different take on theses opening verses.  He interjects that the five steps described in this section are actually what it take to succeed, specifically in the spread of Islam.  As a result, the following verses up to the 14^th verse are about how people will accept the word of the Prophet, not how people will respond to the Day of Judgment.  The five steps in success are: ardent desire to succeed, cheerful attitude to the process, working swiftly to succeed, pushing ahead of any competition/obstacles, and making every effort to control the outcome.  The result of this outlook is that instead of having awe in Allāh (verse 7-14); humans will have awe in Islam, which is the subjugation to Allāh.  Even thought this may not seem that different, it is.  Awe in the power of a supernatural being is one thing; awe in the power of the followers of a supernatural being is completely different.  In the second case, no supernatural being is required, only the belief in that being is required.

Some of the verses that are different than the Old Testament YHWH are quite revealing.  In the translation of M Esed, the concept of Allāh punishing those who are not aware of their misdeeds does not occur.  Yet in the Old Testament YHWH does exactly that.  Nowhere in the story of Sodom and Gomorrah does YHWH give the people a warning.  He comes down sees their “sin” and destroys them.  No warning, no prophet to guide them, only Abraham begging YHWH to have mercy.  And YHWH has no mercy.  The story of the Pharaoh is also different.  In the Old Testament it clearly states that YHWH hardened the Pharaoh’s heart.  This is a clear indication of YHWH removing freewill from those he plans to destroy. Both these stories and many more, show how different Allāh is from YHWH.

I must admit I appreciate the Prophet’s continual reminder to humanity that we are insignificant in the grand scheme of things.  Verse 27 and its commentaries from all three translators indicate this fact.  But one major question arises from this concept.  Why create additional galaxies that do not shine their light on earth, if we are the only species in the universe that Allāh is interested in?  Not a single start, from another galaxy, can be seen by the naked eye in our night skies.  Wouldn’t just the Milky Way be enough?  Why waste the extra energy creating more starts than needed?

I do find verse 32 to be quiet interesting:

79:32 And the mountains, He made the firm,

How firm did he make them?  He did not very firm at all.  Remember Mount Saint Helen’s?  Or do you remember Krakatau?  Worst, of course, is Mount Vesuvius and La Palma (Canaries archipelago).  One of which destroyed an entire city by lava the other having destroyed Native North American civilizations possibly numerous times.  Those mountains he created certainly are “firm”!

The surāh returns to the ever present concept of Judgment day.  Nothing is truly new in this particular passage.  So I will leave my many other posts on the topic to cover my feelings and observations to cover this topic.

The only similarity in this surāh with the Judea-Christian YHWH is the guarantee that the time of Judgment day will not be known.  Instead the Prophet instructs others to continue to warn the unbeliever.  Still some differences do occur.  Christianity requires that each believer life as if that day is Tomorrow, where as in Islam, the believer is required to continue to warn others of the coming upheaval. 

The image I get while reading the last verse is quite intriguing.  M Esed brings it to my mind best.  Death is very similar to a Black Hole.  They both have an “event horizon” which cannot be escaped from (for long).  The problem for both singularities is that the natural laws of physics and hence the laws of this universe no longer apply “within” these event horizons.  With that being the case, no memories can pass through the event horizon as well.  They are created by biological and chemical events within each of our brains.  The concept that something on the other side of the event horizon can interact with this universe is impossible (and been proven many times).  On a different note, it is quite enjoyable to see that the Prophet understood that life was short, even illusionary (M Esed).  Unlike Christianity, Islam does believe that the Judgment Day will seem to occur immediately after death.

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April 29, 2009, 6:31 am by dc-agape.

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Surāh 80 – ‘Abasa: He Frowned

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 begins with the story of how a blind man humbled the Prophet.  Since this is early in his career, we have to forgive him his arrogance.  We also have to assume that this surāh was his admonishment.  Then the Prophet returns to the concept that it is Allāh that provides life, water, and food to humans.  Allāh is doing such a great job!  The surāh ends on the Prophets preoccupation with the Day of Judgment. 

The story of the blind man and the Prophet is the exact opposite of the stories of Jesus and the blind men.  Here the Prophet shows his human attitudes by being displeased by interruptions by the weak while he is talking to the powerful chiefs of the Quraish.  Jesus on the other hand, ignored the powerful and always treated the downtrodden with great respect.  But this surāh is supposed to remind both the Prophet and all of us that only those willing to accept the spiritual gifts of the Qur’an will be honored.  This concept that only those willing to understand will obtain enlightenment is nothing new to religion or the mystic arts.  Every religion, even Kabbalah and modern-day Alchemy teach that one must first believe before one can learn the art.  Belief is the key to all these mystic religions, if you do not believe you cannot learn the “Truth”.  Islam is no different and this surāh attempts to explain that fact.

Further into the surāh, the Prophet reminds those who believe that only Allāh provides live (the correct “proportions”), water, food, and supplies to humans.  The meaning of this section has changed over the years, whether the Muslim wants to believe this or not.  Since the Prophet was aiming this towards the pagan leaders of Arabia, these men were not people who believed they were self-sufficient in today’s concept of that word.  These men, being pagans, believed in numerous gods instead of one.  So they believed in the requirement to ask for assistance from individual gods for each crisis.  Today Atheist are self-sufficient, and therefore arrogant, in the knowledge that life, water, food, and supplies come directly from a nature that does not require a supernatural being to create these things.  Our proof of this is how good Allāh is providing.  Allah is failing to create humans made in the correct proportions, examples are the rise in birth numbers of children with autism, and other genetic diseases like Parkinson’s Disease, microcephaly, even sickle cell anemia.  Atheists, in contrast, see that all these disease occur because of natural causes. A supreme supernatural being, who creates humans in his likeness or in the correct proportions, would not allow such diseases, because the people suffering from these diseases would not live healthy lives and some would not have the mental capacity to comprehend spiritual abstract concepts like “god”.  Atheists also see that water is a replenishing cycle that can only be broken by direct natural causes.  Food and other supplies are also natural in abundance.  Science has proven that soil chemistry is required to provide the growth of plants, and that seeds will sprout (germination) under selected controlled environments.  And we know how well Allāh is providing these things to certain areas of the world, such as in Kenya, Zimbabwe, and even general potato crops.  Science can explain these horrific conditions with rather unsophisticated methods but religion has to use complex analogies of human sin and “god’s” wrath to explain these events.

The surāh ends with the goal of using the concept of Judgment Day to inspire readers to come into the “fold”.  Promises of light, laughing, and joy are like the carrot on a stick before the horse.  The earthly reason for this passage is to get humans to follow the Traditions of Men with an unobtainable promise (the carrot).  And if the promise does not work then there is the threat.  The threat consists of doom and gloom.  In the end, we are provided with only two outcomes: paradise or hell.  Either a person follows the religious decrees without question and receives paradise or that person is punished.  The catch, of course, is that the afterlife cannot be proven.  It is true that some humans (maybe most) require this type of dichotomy to do the right thing, but the Atheist movement is directed towards the people who are capable of doing the right thing without external forces encouraging them.

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April 28, 2009, 7:18 am by dc-agape.

Surāh 82 – Al-Takwīr: The Folding Up

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. 

Oddly if you only read the commentaries by M Yusuf and M Esed you will find that the opening prophecy of this surāh is about the end of the world and Judgment Day.  The first thirteen verses start with variations of “And when…”.  When read literally, this would mean that all of these events must take place before the Day of Judgment.  Since I have posted before about how long this will take for the literal interpretation to come into existence, I will not post about that again.  I will only remind my readers that when all the suns are dying is even further in the future than the death of earth and our sun. 

M Ali has a completely different take on these same thirteen verses.  He likens them to events that have already occurred here on earth.  First, he believes that the resurrection of humans occurs here on earth when they accept the Truth of the Holy Qur’an.  Very similar to some Christians believing that being Born Again is a resurrection of the human soul before death.  Following his concept of the followers of Allāh being “stars”, then the verse about the stars darkening is about the oppression of the Truth.  Passing away of mountains is actually the removal of obstacles for Islam.  Gathering wild animals is fulfilled by humans creating zoos.  The seventh verse prophecies about a one world nation.  That one will take a hell of a long time.  Interestingly, M Ali considers leaving the daughters uneducated is similar to the ancient practice of kill girl babies.  Yet today, women are not allowed to have an education in many Islam nations.  So it is obvious, just as in Christianity, that the followers of Islam cherry pick which interpretations they like best. 

The verses 15 through 25 try to prove that this message is not from a madman or magic or a demon.  The two proofs are extremely weak.  First, he attempts to use the rotation of the earth as proof that his message is as natural as the day and night.  The sun rises for every human on the planet, “God” does not speak directly to every inhabitant of this planet.  So the similarities are useless.  Second, he attempts to use the fact that he has hidden nothing from his followers.  Unfortunately this does not prove that he was not a madman nor someone possessed by a demon.  Many madmen have existed that claim to spread new values to humanity.  And, of course, he was not possessed by a demon…demons do not exist!  So as with his other attempts to “prove” the message of the Qur’an is the “Truth”, this one also fails.

The last two verses are quite telling.  All the commentators attempt to blow this one off on human faults keeping us from “knowing” Allāh.  But the direct translation of all five of my copies says the exact same thing:

81:28-29 For him among you who will go straight.  And you will not, except Allāh please, the Lord of the worlds.

There is no doubt that when this is read literally, it proves that we puny humans do not have freewill if Allāh exists.  All five of my translations say the exact same thing.  It may be a mistranslation, it may be my lack of knowledge of the Traditions of Men, but in the end the literal reading of these two verses leaves no doubt that in Islam we do not have freewill.  And it does not matter how much the believer protests, Allāh only allows us to feel like we have freewill.  Similar to it feeling like the sun rotates around the earth.

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April 26, 2009, 8:12 pm by dc-agape.

Surāh 82 – Al-Infiţār: The Cleaving

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. 

I am getting really bored of the same topic in each of these surāhs.  Obviously the Prophet was obsessed with the Day of Judgment.  M Ali believes that this surāh opens with the concept of the victory of Islam (the Truth) over all oppression and all deniers.  Whether this is accurate or not, by the fifth verse the concept has again returned to the Day of Judgment.  This concept of a metaphoric destruction of the earth, sun, and stars would at least make more sense than Allāh waiting until the end of the universe to judge one puny species on one of an infinite number of planets that have existed and will exist before the end of the entire universe. 

I particularly want to point out two verses:

82:7-8 Who created thee, then made thee complete, then made thee in a right good state – Into whatever form He pleases He cast thee.

What can I say?  Here the Prophet is suggesting that Allāh took 4.567 billion years (yes, four significant figures) just to bring humans to the pinnacle of evolution.  But is Homo Sapiens the pinnacle of “human” evolution?  Only the most arrogant fool would think that we are the top dog or the final form.  Life on earth is not stagnant!  Even the young earth creationists agree that micro-evolution occurs.  If you multiply out the “micro” to centuries, boom, you have macro-evolution.  Humans will continue to evolve.  Hopefully our brains will get larger, our cultures will become more peaceful, and historians will look back on this century as the changing point to a better society.  It is truly ironic that the religious teach humankind to be humble, yet the concept of a personal “god” and Judgment Day are the greatest form of human pride and arrogance.

The Prophet ends this surāh attempting to describe the indescribable.  Both the 17^th and 18^th verse ask the same question.  How will humankind know what the Day of Judgment is when it cannot be described with human language?  Unfortunately, the final verse does nothing for the question.  The Prophet uses the question to tell us that Allāh will be in control of that day.  Big help, that does not tell the reader anything about the Day of Judgment.

As an Atheist, the Prophet is not helping.  His preoccupation with the Judgment Day is getting boring.  And he has repeated himself in numerous surāhs without clarifying the reasons for believing that this event will occur.  I will be ending this part of the reading of Qur’an when I finish the 78^th surāh: Al-Naba’ – The Announcement.

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April 25, 2009, 7:04 pm by dc-agape.

Surāh 83 – Al-Taţfīf: Default in Duty

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 is extremely long compared to the others I have read.  But surprisingly it does not cover many more topics.  The opening is about calling people to account, not just in business, but in social and spiritual responsibility.  The next section is about the records kept of every human that has ever (and will have) lived, both the good and the bad.  Even though two separate words are used to describe these books, the books themselves hold the exact same information.  The Prophet ends this section with proof that religion has not changed in six centuries.  The same argument is used today as was used in the Prophet’s time.

M Yusuf starts the commentaries on the opening verses by generalizing the meaning of the concept of “measure from men”.  Oddly, it is not the sinner that shortchanges others when the generalization is taken into account.  For is it not the religious that what their particular mythology to receive the highest respect?  And is it not the exact same religious people that want no other religion to be accepted as equal?  Who is doing the short-changing? 

When the opening is seen in this light the section about the two different “books” makes complete sense.  Both types of books will record every action, but which one will be the Sijjīn and which will be the ‘illyyūn?  This surāh assumes that it will be the faithful of Allāh.  But as with Pascal’s Wager, who can be certain that it will be any one particular form of Islam (at least a total of 72), Christianity (over 40,000), Judaism (at least 5), or Atheism (1 or ∞, depending on definition)?  Just because this religion believes they are the “Truth” does not guarantee that it is true.  And to use a phrase directly from the Qur’an:

83:13 When Our messages are recited to him, he says: Stories of those of yore!

Which yore shall we pick?  Why is your yore better than my yore?  Because of some Holy Text written centuries ago, that makes it more True?  The question that needs to be asked is simple: which religion fits the facts of existence?  Do the good followers of one religion have a better life?  Do the disbelievers of one particular religion get punished here on earth more often?  The fact is simple: no religion is treated differently here on earth.  No one gets special supernatural treatment.  We all suffer from bad weather, bad choices, and bad accidents.  We all enjoy the outcome of good weather, good choices, and good events (accidents?).  So, if a Day of Judgment occurs (and that’s a big IF), whose spirituality will be the sijjīn and which will be the ‘illyyūn?

The final topic of this surāh is about how the “tables will be reversed”.  But which tables will be reversed?  It is clear from verse 13 above that even in the Prophet’s day there were differences of religion, and those individual religions scoffed at each other.  This is the one thing in religion has not changed in all these years.  Each one still laughs and makes fun of the others.  Yet not a single one knows that on this mythical Day of Judgment that it will be their religion that is proved right.  Hence, that is why the Atheist finds all this brouhaha so intriguing.  Each religion is so certain they are right, but have no data to back up the argument, and still they kill one another over such a question.  It boggles the mind!

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April 24, 2009, 8:43 am by dc-agape.

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Surāh 84 – Al-Inshiqāq: The Bursting Asunder

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 is going to be difficult to describe because M Ali has a completely different interpretation than either M Esed or M Yusuf (who just happen to agree with each other).  The main difference between the two different translations is that M Ali does not see this surāh to be about the afterlife, yet the other two commentators see this verse as how events will take place on the Day of Truth. 

I will start with the commentaries of M Yusuf, first because no proof of this future event can be relied upon.  Second because it is more positive than the outcome that M Ali describes.  In M Yusuf and M Esed opinion the opening of this surāh is about the day when this universe stops.  In their opinion it is due to the will of Allāh.  As a scientific Atheist this is actually quite easy to recognize as pure bluster.  The age of the universe at present is between 10,200,000,000 and 13,900,000,000 years old.  Interestingly, in science, three different tests come to the same result.  The present age of this planet is 4,500,000,000 years old.  When the same concepts are used to date the end of earth and then the end of the universe, the worst case scenario is that the sun will continue to burn hotter and hotter and the habitable zone around the our sun will shift.  This may occur as soon as 500,000,000 years from now.  The universe itself will take another 1 trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion years to die.  For those of you waiting for the Day of Judgment, it’s going to be a very long wait.

Another part of the interpretations of M Esed and M Yusuf is that working (striving) for Allāh is painful while living in sin is pleasurable.  This is clearly not the case.  In psychology it is well known that the persistence of bad experiences remain much stronger in our memory than do happy ones.  So everyone feels exactly the same way that the Prophet felt when this revelation came to him.  There is nothing surprising that a dichotomy between “good Muslims” and “disbelievers” would arise.

M Yusuf has an interesting interpretation of verse 14.  In his perspective evil is due to human’s lack of taking responsibility.  Even with the “fear” of Allāh/YHWH/God evil is still present in those that actually fear this supernatural being.  And yet, it is the Ethical Humanist that teaches humans to take responsibility for each of our action.  Not due to fear of an ever watching super being but due to the harm our action cause to other humans and the earth.  So the same teaching with a much stronger motivation is given by the Ethical Humanist.  Fear is a powerful emotion, but it drains you of life.  Where, on the other hand, the desire to not hurt others is a powerful concept that most humans cannot overcome.  The easiest way to overcome this prerogative is to create the “us vs. them” attitude, and then harming other people is not about harming other people but about removing a threat.

Somehow M Esed claims that since the moon and the earth go through phases so does the human.  Yet the phases of humankind include phases that the earth and moon do not experience.  M Esed somehow jumps to the conclusion that man must have more phases than just this existence on earth.  It is true that humans go through at least four stages: birth, youth, maturity, and old age.  But to add an additional stage of afterlife has no earthly example.  Animals and plants rot away when they die, yet for some odd reason, human life does not end at the rotting stage.  Why?

M Ali has a completely different take on this surāh.  The opening verses are not about the Day of Judgment, but instead are about the daily and yearly cycles of the planet.  The “heavens bursting asunder” is an example of rain.  And when the earth “casts forth what is in it” is when plants stretch forth after the rain.  With this concept the rest of the surāh is not about a specific day, no, it is about the conquest of Islam over the rest of the world.  M Ali even goes so far as to use the writings of ‘Abd Allāh ibn ‘Abbās and the commentary Al-Tafsir al-kabir by Imām Fakhr al-Dīn Rāzī (I hope I got all the proper names and documents right) to prove that the cycles of the earth (seasons and days) are proof that the Muslim tradition will face surges and ebbs of power until the day of complete triumph over the unbelievers.  With a major Maulana writing in about triumph and conquest, no wonder that some Muslim sects are bent on world domination and that some non-believers see the Muslim religion in general as one of world conquest. 

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April 23, 2009, 11:14 am by dc-agape.

Surāh 85 – Al-Burūj: The Stars

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. 

I have put off posting the experience that I received from reading this surāh because it has left me quite shaken.  The “us vs. them” theme within this surāh was so overpowering to me that I could not focus on the other more subtle nuance within the surāh.

One overwhelming thought reaches me as I read this surāh.  Simply by changing the meaning of the word “believer” this entire surāh can be applied to Muslim, Jewish, Christian, Agnostic Christian, scientist, or Atheist.  This becomes very easy when the commentary of M Ali describes the “Promised Day” not as the Day of Judgment but the day that Truth is victorious.  For each group has a different perspective on the “Truth”.  And when M Ali uses the fires of verses 5 as war the entire surāh becomes historically accurate for each group.   Unfortunately for the Atheist (and some scientist) there will be no punishment for the unbeliever.  We (the Atheist and scientists) must watch those that believe other “truths” die for unjust reasons.  These unjust reasons include religious warfare, denying scientific truths, and unrealistic dogma.  In that same concept the Gnostic Christians were persecuted to the point that only a hand full of their Holy Texts survive.  Worse is that it does not have to be supernatural vs. natural beliefs, nationalism also has the same attitude.  The attitude “We are better than you, because…our god is stronger, our nation is older, our nation is stronger, etc, etc” is identical to this Surāh.  What an Atheist like me finds the most ironic is that neither religion nor nation will survive time itself.  Even the governance of a single nation will change over time.  Science itself will be barely recognizable in 100 years.  How will the national boundaries look in 100 years?  What did they look like 100 years ago?  What will be the major religions in 100 years?  What were they 100 years ago?  Multiply the years in those questions by a factor of five and what are the answers?  Hopefully we humans are headed towards a unified Truth.  But without significant bloodshed will that unification ever occur?  As the 8^th verse says:

85:8 And they punish them for naught but that they believed in Allāh, the Mighty, the Praised.

All you have to do is change that last from Allāh to Jesus, YHWH, The Father of Light, science, or Atheism, and it fits any condition of the minority.  Until humankind has compassion for all, we will never find the Truth.  As long as there are “us and them” there will be no Truth.  This is because as we eliminate each individual group, that opposes the “Truth”, we just might be eliminating the Truth.  But a compromise cannot be reached either, for only one group can have the Truth, or at least that is what the Holy Texts and the religious leaders tell us. 

Christians will never be unified with any other group unless that group agrees that “Jesus is Lord”.  Muslims will never unify with a group that does not believe the Qur’an.  Some small groups from both religions might grudgingly accept others, but once one group has major dominance human corruption will replace religious tolerance.  One only need look at Marxism to see how that perfect utopia of equality can never be reached due the fact that power corrupts.

What scares the Atheist more than anything is the thought that one human, with the will of “God”, takes action to unify the rest of humanity.  It matters not which religion, or for what “human good” the action starts with…in the end a bloody war will ensue that will make life on earth a living hell.  Hopefully the cockroach, the rat, and a few plants survive.  The religious believes that “god will sort out the dead”, and with that thought every living being has something to fear.  That concept alone short changes the value of human life.  With that concept, the “us vs. them” theme brings the value of human life only to the group “us”.  As an Ethical Humanist I have learned that the value of human life is not scared, it is much more than that.  Each human has the right to pursue dreams, pleasures, and liberty.  Unfortunately, some of these “Rights” conflict with the “Rights” of other humans beings.  Religion does not solve this problem, when religion invokes the “us vs. them” concept the “Rights” of one group are compromised.  Only by recognizing that all humans deserve the same treatment can the “Rights” of individuals be protected.  Some individuals believe they have the “right” to subject other humans to hideous treatment.  What I have seen is that religion sits there and watches, either encouraging the evil-doer, waiting for “God” to intervene, or worse claiming that the martyr will have glory in the afterlife.  To an Ethical Humanist, this is horrific!  We must work together to rid this planet of any such acts of tyranny.  Some we may seem powerless to change, but that does not mean that we should not try (peacefully) to change the collective worldview that such actions are evil. 

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April 20, 2009, 8:35 am by dc-agape.

Image by Lulu Vision via Flickr

Surāh 86 – Al-Tāriq: The Comer By 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. 

Three things strike me as I read this surāh.  The Prophet uses the same euphemism as Jesus about the time not being known.  This surāh also points out that humans come from bodily fluids.  Some commentaries even go so far as to describe both the male and female fluids.  Others talk about the how the backbone and ribs give humans their personality, actions, and heart.  But the last part of the surāh is most interesting.  It is one of the first places I have read in the Qur’an where Allāh is described as having a plan.  Other places refer to this plan, but have not made it so clearly stated that one exists.

Whether the “piercing brightness” is a physical star or a spiritual light does not matter.  For both Jesus and the Prophet uses this euphemism to describe a specific event in each individual human’s life.  Whether it is the return of Jesus, death (Day of Judgment), or enlightenment also does not matter.  All three events cannot be predicted.  Of course, only one has any significance on earth: when an individual is enlightened.  We individuals have no control over the first two, but we can increase the possibility of enlightenment.  By providing proper education to the next generation, slowly attitudes change and societies become for civil towards individuals and to other societies.  The Qur’an uses the spread of Islam as an example of this, but there are two more that have occurred since then.  Within one lifetime, the concept that humans are different than animals has been crushed.  We have learned that animals uses tools, that they use complex communication (frogs, no less), that some of their brain size/ratio (sorry about the opening advert) are similar to humans, and that the DNA of humans and the great apes is surprisingly similar (by the way this is an Answers in Genesis article).  The other change in one generation is the US society change in perception of the gay community.  In 1988 when I ‘came out’ everything was hush-hush, you did not ‘advertise’ your sexual identity.  Less than two decades later…TV shows with main characters are gay, schools are protecting gay students, and we even have a few states that allow gay marriage.  All three of these examples show how quickly human perception changes.  Unfortunately, the opposite can occur as well…before 9/11 the US and most European countries were tolerant (if not ignorant) of Muslim culture and society.  In a single day with one single outcome, a new revolution in the human attitude occurred.  Suddenly, Islam went from being another religion in the world to a multimillion (if not trillion) dollar war industry.  Hopefully, one day the leaders of our world will understand that this was the act of radical religious people instead of lumping all Islam into the ‘enemy’ category.

This surāh also strikingly describes the creation of life (human) and compares it to the rain and plant life.  The purpose is to attempt to explain how a supreme being can also raise the human dead on this unknown night/day of Judgment.  But this is not a decisive word!  Spring time, rain, and plant life cycles are repeated cyclically.  We also know what causes each of them, whether it is the rotation of the earth around the sun, or the Water Cycle, or germination.  The once in a million years Day of Judgment is not a cycle, unless you believe the Matrix! 

In the closing three verses, the Prophet tells about the plans of humans and the Devine.  Humans rarely have grand schemes, but to create the ‘us vs. them’ concept one side will create the idea of the enemy having a grand scheme.  For example, the Christian right here in the US believes there is a “Gay Agenda”.  I use the link to a poe here for special effect.  Below is the true Christian Agenda against the made up ‘Gay Agenda’:

I have learned as a gay Atheist that it is usually not the disorganized populous that creates plans.  No, it is the organized, in many cases, religious groups that make plans and carry them out with devastation results.  Neither the gay nor the Atheist community have an Agenda, yet both are claimed to have one by those who oppose equal rights, freedom of expression, and tolerance.  So as my favorite quote from Susan B Anthony says:

I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do because I notice it always coincides with their own desires.

Allāh does not have a plan either.  It is only his followers that have the plan.  So please, followers of the Prophet, listen to the last verse of this surāh:

86:17 So grant the disbeliever a respite – let them alone for a while.

How I wish that the Christians had such lessons.

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