This is the third of a series of articles detailing my experience of re-reading of Marmaduke Pickthall‘s English translation of the Quran. It’s available for free by Project Gutenberg here.
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Only three chapters in, I frequently find my mind wandering away from the relentless repetition of the Quran. During one of these mental excursions, I wondered if there exists a Quranic equivalent to the Jefferson Bible.
Thomas Jefferson, thinking that the story of Jesus had something morally interesting to say (I disagree) took it upon himself to remove any of the supernatural elements of the four Gospels, merging the repetitions of what remained into one narrative.
The result, as you might imagine, was a rather slim volume.
However, that was only four books of the Bible. If I attempted the same with the entire Quran, I should expect to see the majority of its content falling to the foot of my desk as discarded clippings.
Dwelling on which editorial rules I would impose, I have made a small list of themes I would exclude from future editions:
- Threats towards non-believers (of hell/doom/fire).
- Promises of rewards to the believers.
- Reminders that the book is revealed truth to Muhammad.
- Proclamations of Allah’s qualities (as wise/merciful/beneficent/eternal…).
Performing the operation on this chapter alone, I found that only 28 of the 200 verses remained, and the words (in translation) fell to less than one fifth of the original.
Of course, a public release of such material would be the impetus for a guaranteed fatwa of assassination against me, or anyone else who dare edit this rambling book.
But, as it stands, the Quran is simultaneously insightful and opaque to non-believers. The relentless repetitions highlight that the reverence Muslims have for this text, viewing it as a marvel of literature, can be nothing more than cultish enthusiasm.
However, in its present form, it gives the inquisitive non-believer little reward for trying to discover the beliefs of Islam. Only after wading through a torrent of verbose insecurities does one find a unique Islam-defining belief.
Reading the Quran has all the tedium of panning for gold, but without any of the rewards.
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Nevertheless, to the contents of the chapter itself.
Those of you who admired George Lucas’ original ‘Star Wars’ trilogy of films will have a good idea of what it is like to be disappointed by a prequel.
This chapter of the Quran aims to be the prequel to the story of Mary, Joseph and Jesus. The man Imran, the Quran claims, was the father of Mary.
Despite the chapter carrying this title, only a sliver of its content is to do with that story. Of the 200 verses in this chapter, only 25 of them (verses 35-59) are to do with Imran’s family. And even within these 25 verses, there are extraneous threats, promises, and repeated praise to Allah.
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Within the Imran story is the familiar claim about the conception of Jesus:
She said: My Lord! How can I have a child when no mortal hath touched me? He said: So (it will be). Allah createth what He will. If He decreeth a thing, He saith unto it only: Be! and it is. (003.047)
Yet, differing with the Gospels, the Quran takes some pains to make it clear that Jesus was no god, nor son of a god. He was created no differently to how Adam was created, and was a prophet in a long list which lead to the ultimate revelation of Muhammad:
Lo! the likeness of Jesus with Allah is as the likeness of Adam. He created him of dust, then He said unto him: Be! and he is. (003.059)
Say (O Muhammad): We believe in Allah and that which is revealed unto us and that which was revealed unto Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac and Jacob and the tribes, and that which was vouchsafed unto Moses and Jesus and the prophets from their Lord. We make no distinction between any of them, and unto Him we have surrendered. (003:084)
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But that isn’t the most confusing verse of this chapter. That title is reserved for this bewildering passage:
He it is Who hath revealed unto thee (Muhammad) the Scripture wherein are clear revelations – they are the substance of the Book – and others (which are) allegorical. (…) None knoweth its explanation save Allah. And those who are of sound instruction say: We believe therein; the whole is from our Lord; but only men of understanding really heed. (003:007)
Thee ‘men of understanding’ were most likely, at the time of writing, Muhammad and his inner circle.
For Shi’a Muslims today, only Muhammad and his family had certain knowledge, by means of revelation, of Quran’s meaning. For Sunni Muslims today, the Ulema – the Muslim scholars of jurisprudence - who are responsible for interpreting the law of the Quran.
On first hearing this, you might think that Sunni’s have a system of law based on meritocracy. Yet, it is very difficult to imagine what selection process one might adopt to choose these scholars. Is the rule of the Ulema within a Muslim community any more than oligarchy of the persuasive and the powerful? A quick glance at global politics would suggest the answer is clearly ‘no’.
Learning that the Quran is, in part, allegorical might seem hopeful news, were it not for the barbaric nature of the text. If some verses are allegorical, it is difficult to comprehend what they could possibly be an allegory for.
To compare, try to think up the concepts behind the ‘allegory’ of Noah. Or try to think of a didactic message that can be extracted from it, one which teaches us something about human interaction. If, like me, you fail in these challenges, you can begin to imagine the feat that awaits you when trying to shine a kind light upon the Quran.
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Having been made aware of the afterlife in the previous chapter, the Quran now starts to list some specifics.
We are told that it contains ‘pure companions’ – the first (and most modest) description of Muhammad’s sexual fantasies for the rewards available to one in the afterlife:
003.015: Say: Shall I inform you of something better than that? For those who keep from evil, with their Lord, are Gardens underneath which rivers flow wherein they will abide, and pure companions, and contentment from Allah. (…) (003.015)
These ‘pure beings’, or Houri, are not specified as male or female in the Quran. It is only in the Hadith (the claimed sayings of Muhammad) that the idea changes into a sexual idealization of women by misogynistic heterosexual men.
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A troubling verse found around halfway through the chapter articulates some of the arrogance that we still find in Muslim communities today:
“Ye are the best community that hath been raised up for mankind. Ye enjoin right conduct and forbid indecency; and ye believe in Allah. And if the People of the Scripture had believed it had been better for them. Some of them are believers; but most of them are evil-livers.” (003:110)
Believing you are part of the best civilization of all time cannot be good for your humility.
And, as Ayaan Hirsi Ali has commentated, when it becomes apparent that your civilization is beginning to crumble, an enduring belief that you are always corrects can lead a search for external blame.
When empires decline – and the Muslim empire declined – those who are defeated sometimes find themselves in a state of victimhood. That state of victimhood is exploited by the … self-appointed leaders of Islam. And what do you see [today]? You see a number of people – and I concede it’s a minority – who believe that Islam is under siege.
A mentality of victimhood tells those who were conquered, who were and vanquished, that the problem was caused by external powers and not by us. And that systematic denial within Islam after the 19th century to blame only outsides [and] exempt Islam from blame – from the explanation ‘what went wrong’.
Yes it was external. Yes, Muslims were humiliated. Yes, they were conquered. Yes, they were colonized. But how much was also because of the flaws of Islam?
… When the west went into its scientific revolution, why wasn’t it Muslims [also]? … Why were they left behind? Was it only because of external factors, or were there internal flaws?
That combination of a status of victimhood and that absolutism – the demand that you can never revise or reflect on the Quran – … enlarges the likelihood of conflict. [1]
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And not forgetting that Islam was forged out of conflict. One verse in this chapter relates to Muhammad’s first military campaign – one of the 65 he fought, and won, during the last ten years of his life.
Allah had already given you the victory at Badr, when ye were contemptible. So observe your duty to Allah in order that ye may be thankful. (003.12)
The battle, described in great detail by the Hadith, is thought to have taken place on the 13th of March 624AD and marked the beginning of Muhammad’s struggle to take over Mecca from the pagans that exiled him.
The verse makes it plain that the Quran was primarily speaking to a 7th century audience, and aimed at establishing Muhammad’s dominance as the supposed last prophet of Allah.
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And, just in case you aren’t persuaded by Muhammad’s claims, I will leave you with this final comical sound-bite – one that succinctly encapsulates the circular logic of anyone attesting to the truth of an ancient text:
“Allah (Himself) is Witness that there is no God save Him. (…)” (003:018)
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Tomorrow, I will push on with chapter 4: ‘The Women’.
References
[1] Ayyan Hirsi Ali (Jul 20, 2011) Debate for Intelligence Squared on the motion ‘Islam is a religion of peace‘. (@ around 18:00)
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