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Meaningless Quranic Verses By Abbas Abdelnour
Several Koranic verses are devoid of sense even if exegetes consider themselves in a position to “produce miracles”. They turn the text in order to defend the meaningless and to attribute to it a more profound sense. Haunted by a justifying ideology, they do their best, in dealing with all the contradictions in the Koran, to draw out like a necklace of pearls, something meaningful, based on wisdom, eloquent references and exemplary models of the art of oratory. I selected eleven samples for observation, given each first in Arabic, followed in square-brackets by its transliteration, and by its English translation.
1. Koran 37, 1-4
"والصّافّاتِ صفّا. فالزاجراتِ زَجرًا. فالتالياتِ ذِكرًا. إنّ إلهَكُم لواحدٌ"
[Was-sâffâti saffan, Faz-zajirâti zajran, Fat-tâliyâti zikran, Inna ilâhakum la-wâhid]
(1) [I swear] by those who range themselves in rank, (2) by those who cast out demons, (3) and by those who recite the remind, (4) that your God is one.
What is the meaning of the first three verses, rather of these three enigmas? Do you understand something? I am convinced that you, the readers, have understood nothing. I challenge men as well as djinns to understand something – provided that the latter understand Arabic – and to explain these verses for me. The chapter 72, The Djnns, indicates that some of them (the djinns) are qualified in rhetorical and oratorical art, and are considered greater experts than men in enigmatic matters. Maybe they are Sphinxes!
What can we say? The ulemas did not understand anything. However, according to their status, they are supposed to understand everything. Will they find any meaning to these verses, at least at a lexical level? Nevertheless, it is only the one sense that it is exclusively trifling. Nevertheless, it is not worth that God uses such words to swear before his devotes.
The exegetes themselves do not accept that his Divine Majesty swears by invaluable things even if they presume that behind these verses reside eloquent maxims as well as deep significance worthy of the Creator! With their imagination and with their steadfast faith, inaccessible to doubt, they believe that these enigmatic verses hide some noble significance, sublime objectives that are imperceptible to our poor human faculties. How can they consider that in another way, whereas an “educated expert” has revealed these verses? Therefore, they thought at great length, analyzed, and dissected these verses, but alas, without coming to a successful conclusion. At that moment intervene all together the religious legacy, the legendary tradition, the exegetic techniques as well as the opinions of good and wise men!
So the “sâffât” (those who range themselves in rank) indicate angels who stand in line for devotion and worship, or who open their wings in waiting to receive divine instructions. Even the “zâjirât” (those who cast out demons) are also angels who threaten the clouds and push them ahead. Regarding “at-tâliyât” (those who recite the Koran), are those who read it. In return, using the grammatical form of feminine plural ‘sâffât, zâjirât, tâliyât) instead of masculine plural (sâffûna, zâjirûna, tâliyûna), belongs to rhetorical anecdote. This is considered as enigmatic I’jâz inaccessible to our minds.
Personally I do not deny that repetition of expressions, poetical cadence, alliteration, assonance and other forms of sentences are techniques, which widely help to memorize the text and facilitate its psalmody without falsification. This can be exact provided that the used terms should have a coherent significance. Otherwise it will be the assonance of sooth-sayers (or fortune-tellers) who do not care if the Koranic texts have a sense or not when fixing them in memory.
A text whose significance is coherent contributes moreover to develop the historical, social, scientific and cultural consideration. In return, if it is meaningless, it will be a great calamity. To what awakening did these enigmas really contribute?
Moreover, these verses start with the cryptic Arabic letter [Wa] called grammatically “waw al-qassam”. This is a linguistic particle used of swearing or to take an oath. Even if these verses could have any significance inaccessible to our poor minds, how does God, with His Divine Majesty, swear by an unknown? Is the fact to swear in the name of an unknown before a known not a sign of doubt regarding the latter? Will the significance be changed if we delete them?
2. Koran 52, 1-7) وَالطَّورِ . وَكتابٍ مَسطورٍ . في رَقٍّ منشورٍ . والبيتِ المعمورِ وَالسَّقفِ المرفوعِ . والبحرِ المسجورِ إنّ عَذابَ ربّكَ لَواقعٌ .
[Wat-tawri. Wa kitâbin mastûrin. Fî riqqin manchûrin. Wal-bayti al-ma’mûri. Wal-bahri al-masjûri. Inna ‘azâba rabbika lawâqi’un.]
(1) [I swear] by the mountain, (2) by the scripture penned (3) on unrolled parchment, (4) by the visited house, (5) the lofty vault, (6) the swelling sea! (7) Your Lord’s punishment is inescapable.
These verses are also part of the assonance of sooth-sayers, although they are not deprived of sense. Who had said that the assonance of sooth-sayers is meaningless, though it is only an arrangement of riddles? If we delete them, nothing will change in following verses. These become rather clearer and more precise. However, the verse “the visited house”, led the exegetes to rack their brain or their legendary imagination. They mean that it is a house located at the sixth or at the seventh heaven near al-Kaaba. [This is the “scientific” explanation, the most precise]; “Seventy thousand angels are daily visiting this house for procession and prayer, but they will never return”.[1][1]
3. Koran 72, 1-7 : "وَالمُرسَلاتِ عُرفًا . فَالعاصِفاتِ عَصفًا . والّنّاشِراتِ نَشرًا . فَالفارقاتِ فَرقًا . فالمُلقِياتِ ذِكرًا. عُذرًا أو نُذرًا . إنّ ما توعَدون لَواقِع."
[Wal-mursilâti ‘urfan. Fal-‘âssifâti ‘assfan. Fal-fâriqâti farqan. Wal-nâchirâti nachran. Fal-mulqiyâti zikran. ‘Uzran ‘aw nuzran. Inna ma tu’adûna bihi lawâqi’un.]
(1) [I swear] by the gales, sent forth in swift succession! (2) By the raging tempests! (3) By the rain-spreading winds (4) and scattered themselves in all sides! (5) By those who recall (6) and admonishing by plea and warning! (7) That which you have been promised shall be fulfilled!
Here also is another sample of assonance of sooth-sayers and whose deletion will remain without any importance. This is only pleonasm, verbiage and even a play on words. I think God is on the top of all. It is evident that by what or by whom it is sworn, has to be always more noble or higher than he who swears, whether you are or I am concerned. How is it possible that God swears by the name of inferior creatures? There are only redundancies, it is said, that God put aside - for a reason that belongs to His own wisdom – in order to integrate them in short chosen verses ranged in the last part of the Koran.
4. Koran 79, 1-6 : "وَالنازِعاتِ غَرقًا . والنّاشطاتِ نَشطًا . والسّابِحاتِ سَبحًا . فَالسّابِقاتِ سَبقًا . فَالمُدَبِّراتِ أَمرًا. يَومَ تَرجِفُ الرّاجِفَة."
[Wal-nâzi’âti gharqan. Wal-nâchitâti nachtan. Wal-sâbihâti sabhan. Fal-sâbiqâti sabqan. Fal-mudabbirâti amran. Yawma tarjifu ar-râjifa.]
(1) [I swear] by those who snatch away with violence! (2) By those who run ardently! (3) By those who float at will! (4) By those who speed headlong! (5) By those who govern the affairs! (6) On that day the Trumpet sounds!
That is also another pattern of Koranic assonance of sooth-sayers whose objective is nothing less than useless chattering, which is colorless and odorless. These verses serve neither to realize something nor to fight perversion. Would it not be desirable to leave out or to delete them? The exegetes said that this concerns only angels and God swears by the name of angels only in respect of their greatness and their high consideration for him.
In fact, “those who snatch away” are the angels who draw out with violence the skin of the impious and miscreants. Regarding the strange expression “gharqan” it literally means “in drowning”, and eventually in figurative sense “an action carried out with violence”. Who knows? Maybe this expression implies an exceptional rhetorical function, which is beyond my own intellectual faculties.
“Those who snatch away” are a group of angels, and “those who run ardently”, are another group of angels. They are entrusted to activate the souls of believers. The latter have been exhausted and plunged in apathy during long night pf prayers, fasting and devotion. Therefore, God sent them, from the seventh heaven, his specialized angels to stimulate them and to dispel their weariness before they fail in lethargy. One has to understand here, according to al-Jalâlayn, when they pass away, they have to draw the souls of believers softly. In this manner, they will not suffer from pangs of death and can quickly rejoin the higher companion, although God never sent his angels when his friend and messenger Muhammad died. Effectively, the latter said in moaning: “Oh! Death has its torpors!” He was therefore an ordinary sinner!
The third
category of angels is “those who float at will”. They are so called,
for, by order of God, they swim in heaven. Regarding the race to reach
However, as “God
is not ashamed of the truth” (K 33, 53), it should be respected,
particularly on the day of Great Judgment when neither money nor children can
help. For this reason, it is said, God has created “those who speed headlong
or participate in the race-meeting”. They are angels who hurry to remove
the souls of believers into
5. Koran 86, 1-4 "وَالسّماءُ والطّارِِقُِ . وما أَدراكَ ما الطّارقُ . النّجمُ الثاقِبُ . إنّ كلّ نفسٍ لمّا عليها حافِظ." ٌ [Was-samâ’u wat-târiqu! Wama adrâka mat-târiqu ! An-najmu ath-thâqibu! Inna likulli nafsin lamma ‘alayha hâfizun.]
(1) [I swear] By the heaven and by the nightly visitant! (2) Would that you knew what the nightly visitant is! (3) It is the star of piercing brightness! (4) For every soul there is a guardian watching it.
In another kind of assonance of sooth-sayers, the exegetes did not enroll the angels of heaven, not by generosity because they are tired of those angels who came to assist them in difficult circumstances, but because these verses do not allow it. The “târiq” (the nightly visitant) is not an ordinary angel, but one who “threw darts”, that means piercing sparks. In fact, all stars are piercing, but they pierce the darkness by their light. For this reason, it has been established that it concerns the Pleiades. However, these do not constitute one star, but many, a constellation. On the other hand, other exegetes shorten and consider that each star is a piercing one. What is the result? Nothing.
There are
verbal free works. It can issue from anybody. However, attributing it to God is
inconceivable, and it is a strange and paradoxical for the Prophet to claim
this in a hadith: “He who believes in God and in the last day, has to
speak in his right mind or be silent.” In considering this verbal absurdity
as I’jâz, and provided that men and djinns are unable to produce a
similar thing, it appears as sheer make-believer. This is a ridiculous but
cynical way of despising people who cannot be always considered as minor. Today
they are knocking on the gates of
“Each soul has her guardian angel”, that is the reply of the oath. Guardians are supposed to be angels. So we come back to the same old story. He who is waiting for a long time for the angels, the messengers of heavenly militias, will find them. So our exegetes are pleased with this good news.
If the oath is accompanied in the previous verses by a reply, we find also in the Koran numerous other verses without a reply to an oath. That is well illustrated in the following example. However, the reply will be always found by specialized ideologues as justification, patching up and camouflage. That is the ideology that hides obvious faults.
6. Koran 38, 1-2 "ص . وَالقُرآنِ ذي الذّكر بَل الذين كَفَروا في عِزَّةٍ وَشِقاقٍ."
(Sâd. Wal-qur’ân zil-zikr Bal al-lazîna kafarû fî ‘izzatin wa chiqâqi)
(1) Sâd. [I swear] By the Koran with all its precepts! (2) Surely the unbelievers are imbued with arrogance and perverseness.
Here the question is not limited to this strange oath without reply, for we find another similar case where God swears by the Koran, but about what? The Koran replies: “His knowledge is in the mind of God. Our Lord does not err, neither does He forget!” (K 20, 51)
7. Koran 50, 1-2 "ق. وَالقُرآنُِ المجيدُ. بَل عَجِبوا أن جاءهُم مُنذرٌ منهُم. فقالَ الكافِرون هذا شَِيءٌ عَجيب".ٌ
[Qâf. Wal-qur’ânu al-majîdu. Bal ‘ajibu an jâ’ahum munzirun minhum, faqâla al-kâfirûna haza chay’un ajîbun]
(1) Qâf. [I swear] by the glorious Koran ! (2) They marvel that a prophet of their own has arisen amongst them. The unbelievers say: This is indeed a strange thing.
This oath is also without reply. It also the case of the four verses in the chapter al-Fajr (The Dawn) that we are going to review. If God, in the two previous verses, swears by the glorious Koran, a rewarded book, He swears in the four following verses by things where the good and the trivial re mixed. However, what is stranger in these verses, is that they are also without reply, unlike the case when the exegetes are always able to find for them a meaning for them.
8. Koran 89, 1-4: "وَالفَجرِ . وَلَيالٍ عَشرٍ . وَالشَّفعِ وَالوَترِ . وَالليلِ إذا يَسر(ي). هَل في ذلك قَسَمٌ لِذي حِجرٍ؟"
[Wal-fajri. Wa layâlin ‘achrin. Wach-chaf’i wal-watri. Wal-layli iza yasrî. Hal fî zâlika qassamun lizî hijrin?]
(1) [I swear] By the dawn and the ten nights! (2) By that which is dual and by that which is simple! (3) By the night, when it comes! (4) Is there not in this a mighty oath for a man of sense!
What does it mean that God swears “By that which is dual and by that which is simple”? In addition, what are these ten nights? They said that they are the first ten days of the lunar calendar Dhoul-hijja. Are these ten days so important that God has to swear by them and reveal the Koran during that period? For our exegetes, they are much more important. In fact, all this happened in a closed universe of legends. The earth is its bottom, and all concerns of God are emphasized there, particularly prayers, fasten, pilgrimage, devotion, ablutions, menstrual indisposition of women, purification, etc.
By asking an exegete about the reply of the oath, he answers: “God does not mention it for a reason belonging to Him alone. Do you think that God is unable to reply? You, the ignorant, keep silent! Cursed you are by God!” What can we do in a world which only likes utterances and does not produce other things than riddle! If I have to pity someone, I will complain about these people who lived in palaver and spend their time to defend it and to draw from it lessons which do not exist. In fact, there are jewels and pearls that only the great masters in phraseology can discover!
Let us examine once more this local, static, legendary and closed character of these verses, particularly “the ten nights”, which are considered as the nights of a cosmic wedding. The ten nights of Dhul hijja are a universal event and not local. Consequently, the dawn was equally revealed as universal as well as the feast of sacrifice (that of sheep). The angels celebrate it with the prophets who are sparked in different heavens. Also, “what is dual and by that which is simple”, the configuration of numbers in this vision, as well as the cosmic night corresponding the cosmic dawn … would be only the consecration of an old legendary vision of earth, which was earlier widespread in that area.
There is no dawn other than that of earth, which would be the bottom of the world. Even the pilgrimage to the visiting house remains a universal feast celebrated not only by the earth, but also by the heavenly kingdom, particularly if we remember the previous verses quoted indicating that the noble Kaaba is located in a strategic and very important place on the map of universe. It is exactly under “the visiting house” that the ulemas have not succeeded in identifying its place. Someone says that it is in the third heaven, others in the sixth, and some others in the seventh. This entire question has bean tackled in the framework of the chapter “The Mountain”.
If the exegetes could not agree together regarding the heaven where “the visiting house” is located, they nevertheless locate it exactly beyond the Kaaba. Maybe, thank God; they can agree on it!
Another strange thing emerges in the negative question asked by the Koran: “It is not here an oath done with intelligence?” As if the question is asked in these verses, when everything is considered perfectly clear!
9. Koran 90, 1-4
لا أُقسِمُ بهذا البلدِ . وأنتَ حِلٌّ بهذا البلدِ . وَوالدٍ وما وَلَدَ . لقد خَلَقنا الإنسانَ في كَبَدٍ.
[Lâ ‘uqsimu fî hâzal-baladi. Wa ‘anta hillun fî hâzal-baladi. Wa wâlidin ma walad. Laqad khalaqna al-insâna fî kabadin]
(1) I swear by this city, (2) in which you are a resident. (3) By the begetter and all whom he begot. (3) [I swear] We created man to try him with afflictions.
Here we are in an ambiguous situation, with a negation, which means an affirmation. This negation in swearing is effectively equivalent to an authentic curse. Our exegetes mean that this negation’s particle [lâ = No] is an additional extension without clarifying the reason of its addition. What is really its purpose? I do not find a justification for these oaths, because the answer is known either with oath or not. Nobody denies that life on earth is punctuated by suffering, difficulties and dishonesty. In addition, I do not find any reason to deny this form of oaths. The only thing we can mention in this regard is the saving, at any price, of rhyms, and the insuring of the Arabic letter “dal” at the end of the verse, in order to avoid any imbalance in the assonance of sooth-sayers. Here we reach the height of stupidity. Each oath in previous verses requires its preferential rime, whereas the meaning has no importance. The main thing therefore consists in adjusting the assonance of sooth-sayers and insuring rhyms in a monotonous chanting.
10. Koran 92, 1-4) "وَالليلِ إذا يَغشى . وَالنّهارِ إذا تَجَلّى . وما خَلَقَ الذَّكَرَ والأُنثى . إنّ سَعيَكُم لَشَتّى"
[Wal-laylu iza yaghcha. Wan-nahâru iza tajalla. Wama khalaqa az-zakara wal-‘untha. Inna sa’yakum lachatta]
(1) [I swear] By the night, when she lets fall her darkness! (2) By the day! (3) By Him that created the male and the female! (4) Your endeavors have varied ends!
What a great discovery the Koran sets out in these four verses. Otherwise, there would not be the complicated oath. Who knows this great discovery that man was unaware of until now and the Koran is announcing it? “Your endeavors have varied ends!” What is this great brainwave and what is this famous news? Here is the brilliant and masterful announcement for believers, for people of the house! Here is the revelation of the great mystery of mysteries! Do you think that the assonance of sooth-sayers will be presented in another form?
11. Koran 100, 1-6:
"وَالعادِياتِ ضَبحًا . فَالمورِياتِ قَدحًا . فَالمُغيراتِ صُبحًا. فَآثَرنَ بِهِ نَفعًا . فَوَسَطنَ بِهِ جَمعًا . إنّ الإنسانَ لِرَبِّهِ لَكَنودٍ."
[Wal-‘âdiyâti dhabhan. Fal-muriyâti qadhan. Fal-mughirâti subhan. Fal-mughirâti subhan. Fa’âtharna biha naf’an. Fa wasatna bihi jam’an. Innal-insâna lirabbihi lakanûdin]
(1) [I swear] By the snorting war steeds, (2) which strike fire with their hoofs (3) as they gallop to the raid at dawn (4) and with a trail of dust (5) cleave a massed army. (6) Man is ungrateful to his Lord.
Maybe the phrases and the arrangement of riddles had never reached such a level as in the last six verses quoted. It is the best example, and the most meaningful, and representative regarding the chaotic and flimsy level of assonance by sooth-sayers in the Koran. Even horses that gallop in invasions are accepted and mentioned in God’s oath. Does this description indicate something? It illustrates at least the lack of meaning of such oaths, and subsequently it underlines the humility of man to whom this oath is intended.
I renounced this God because of this frenzied excess in his sayings! I wish that He had kept silent. The word reflects the frame of mind of its author. Either he hides inside its light or he increases its darkness… What confusion! What a shame! If the word is only verbiage, what can we think about the author? “Empty vessels make the most noise!”
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