Обсуждение:Космология

The Qur’an and Divination

Абстрактные

Несмотря на огромное развитие современной космологии, астрономии и астрофизики в разгадывании тайн физической вселенной, наша традиционная религиозная и мирянская концепция вселенной все ещё пропитана примитивным мировоззрением, впервые предложенным Аристотелем, а позднее развитым Птолемеем , Настолько, что даже некоторые из наших религиозных ученых, не подозревая о современных космологических открытиях, часто склонны интерпретировать коранические стихи, связанные со Вселенной, согласно устаревшему взгляду Птолемеев на вселенную. Для многих из них, например, метеоры — это звезды, которые ангелы бросают на злых духов! Объясняя смысл 15: 16-18, 37:10, 67: 5 и 72: 8-9, многие традиционалистические экзегеты расширили интерпретацию, в которой можно увидеть эхо мифа. Цель настоящего трактата — провести углубленное изучение этих стихов, чтобы исследовать их истинный смысл. Сначала мы дадим простой перевод стихов, за которым последует объяснение некоторых ключевых слов или фраз, используемых в них. Затем будет обсужден общий смысл стихов.

I. ПРОЛОГ

Научное исследование причины и характера метеоров или «стреляющих звезд» (неправильное название, на самом деле они вовсе не звезды) показывает, что они не имеют ничего общего с предсказаниями. Однако есть старые мифы, которые рассматривают метеоры как ракеты, которые ангелы бросают на злых духов или джиннов, когда последние пытаются взойти на небо, чтобы украсть знания о будущих событиях и судьбе людей. Причина таких суеверий в основном заключается в понятии космоса, который из-за отсутствия истинного знания о структуре и форме Вселенной был окружен мифологическими идеями.

Общий вид человека Вселенной

До изобретения и использования телескопа [вероятно, Галилея (1564—1642 гг.)] Единственным способом получения информации о внеземном мире был невооруженным глазом. Для обычного человека земля была, таким образом, обширной плоской землей, окруженной водой с боков и покрытой сверху огромным синим куполом, небом. Луна и солнце в их ежедневном ритуале восхождения и установления доказали свое существование. С течением времени ночные гейзеры, предшественники современных астрономов, пришли к более позитивным выводам, основанным на их более расширенных и систематических наблюдениях. Около 5 века до нашей эры, почти две с половиной тысячи лет назад, Пифагор (~ 580—500 гг. До н. Э.) Выдвинул мнение о том, что солнце неподвижно, и вокруг него вращается земля.

Аристотель (384—322 гг. До н. Э.), Однако, отклонил вышеуказанное мнение и предложил противоположное, т. Е. Земля была неподвижной и образовала центр вселенной, когда вокруг него вращались солнце, луна и звезды.

Аристотелевская концепция вселенной получила всеобщее признание и стала основой, на которой Птолемей позже развил свою теорию вселенной.

Птолемеевский взгляд на Вселенную

Во втором веке н. э. Клавдий Птолемей (85-165 гг. Н. Э.), Знаменитый математик и географ, представил свой трактат об астрономии. Согласно Птолемею, Земля была в центре Вселенной и окружена восемью различными сферами. Это были небеса или небеса, которые окружали землю слоями один над другим так же, как слои в луке. Луна, солнце, планеты и звезды считались прикрепленными к этим небесам через эпициклы. На первом небесах или сфера была установлена луна. Меркурий был на второй сцене, Венера — на третьем, солнце на четвёртом, затем Марс, Юпитер и Сатурн на 5-й, 6-й и 7-й сферах. И все звезды считались фиксированными в восьмой сфере.

У небесных тел не было собственного движения. Их видимое движение было фактически связано с перемещением сфер, в которых они находились. Этот взгляд на вселенную, смешанный с астрологическими суевериями, оказал глубокое влияние на человеческий разум и был центром общего мировоззрения в течение двух тысяч лет.

Мусульманские астрономы Средневековья ссылались на работу Птолемея как «Аль-Величество». Хотя некоторые мусульманские астрономы указали на свои слабости и предложили альтернативный взгляд, общая атмосфера оставалась во власти этого на протяжении веков.

Насколько эта точка зрения доминирует в нашем мышлении, можно в полной мере проиллюстрировать куплет Мирзы Галиб (1789—1896 гг. Н. Э.), Одного из самых влиятельных поэтов Урду: семь небес в движении, день и ночь, что-то обязательно произойдет — зачем беспокоиться!

Несчастный эффект этого подчинения взгляду Птолемеев заключался в том, что традиционный мусульманский ум постоянно проявлял склонность интерпретировать Коранский взгляд на вселенную в свете теории Птолемея.

Аристотелевский и птолемеевский взгляд на вселенную одинаково влияли на западный разум, который также продолжал доминировать над ним, пока Коперник (1437—1543 гг. Н. Э.) Окончательно не заменил его гелиоцентрической теорией. Стивен Хокинг замечает: «Это (модель Птолемея) была принята христианской церковью как картина вселенной, которая была в соответствии с Писанием, поскольку она имела большое преимущество в том, что она оставила много места вне сферы неподвижных звезд для неба и ад.»

Мусульманские астрономы и Вселенная Птолемеев

В средние века, когда на сцену вышли мусульмане наук, астрономия была их сильной стороной. Их кропотливые исследования и исследования привели к накоплению обширной информации о звездных системах. Задолго до того, как Коперник положил свою солнечную теорию вселенной, мусульманские астрономы начали оспаривать концепцию Птолемея, основанную на земле. Например, аль-Бируни (973—1050 гг. Н. Э.) В своих работах упоминал стипендию своего времени, которая подписалась на мнение о том, что земля вращалась и не была неподвижной. Абу Саид Ахмад Мохаммад Абдул Джалил аль-Сиджзи, современник Аль-Бируни, верил в прядильную землю и разработал астролябию, основанную на принципе движения Земли и гелиоцентрическом взгляде. Аль-Бируни, ссылаясь на это в своей книге аль-Истиаб, пишет: «Я видел астролябу под названием» Зураки", изобретенную Абу Саидом Сидзи. Мне это очень понравилось, и он очень похвалил его, поскольку он основан на той идее, которую некоторые считают, что движение, которое мы видим, связано с движением Земли, а не с небом".

Коран и Вселенная Птолемеев

Священный Коран был раскрыт много после Аристотеля (4 век до н. э.) и Птолемея (2-го века н. э.) и имеет много заявлений о явлениях Вселенной, но он абсолютно свободен от всех ошибочных теорий, существующих в то время , Например, согласно взгляду Птолемеев, планеты и звезды не имеют собственного движения; они неподвижны и привязаны к небесам, которые вращаются вокруг Земли, беря с собой небесные тела. Вопреки этому, в Священном Коране прямо говорится, что солнце, луна, звезды и вся планетная система находятся в постоянном движении собственного движения. Например",И именно Он создал ночь и день, луну и солнце; все они плавают в пространстве". 4 (Q 21:33)

II. КОРАН, МЕТЕОРЫ И РАЗВИТИЕ

В древней Аравии, как и в большинстве других стран мира, существовали оракулы и гадалки, которые занимались астрологией и другими оккультными науками. Они утверждали, что у них были джины или злые духи, под их контролем которых они отправили бы на небеса, чтобы подслушивать разговор ангелов о судьбе людей или о будущих событиях. Когда эти злые духи подойдут вверх для этой цели или вернутся после кражи новостей, углы будут бросать из них ракеты огня от звезд. В результате злые духи будут убиты или ранены, чтобы они больше не оставались в их чувствах. Согласно истории, то же самое происходит и сегодня. Каждый раз, когда злые духи пытаются украсть секреты непознаваемого (ghayb), они поражены метеорами.

Басня также повлияла на наше понимание смысла некоторых из стихов Корана. Объясняя смысл 15: 16-18, 37:10, 67: 5 и 72: 8-9, многие традиционалистические экзегеты расширили интерпретацию, в которой можно увидеть эхо мифа. Цель настоящего трактата состоит в том, чтобы провести углубленное изучение этих стихов, чтобы изучить их истинный смысл. Сначала мы дадим простой перевод стихов, за которым последует объяснение некоторых ключевых слов или фраз, используемых в них. Затем будет обсужден общий смысл стихов.

Сура аль-Хидж (15: 16-18). Перевод: «И действительно, Мы создали борудж (звезды) на небесах и наделили их красотой для всех, чтобы видеть, и Мы обеспечили их защиту от всякой сатанинской силы, проклятой так что любой, кто хочет учиться (непознаваемому), скрывается, пламя ясно видно».

Значение Буруджа

Арабское слово buruj — это множественное число burj, которое изначально означает все, что очевидно, проявляется или бросается в глаза. Когда, например, женщина показывает или показывает свои украшения или красоту своего лица или лица и т. Д., Арабы говорят, что табарраджатил марату, женщина показала (ее лицо и т. Д.). Исходя из этого буквального смысла, это слово используется для обозначения крепости, дворца или главной дороги и т. Д. Из-за их заметности и способности видеть издалека. 6 В этих стихах бурух обозначает звезды (кавакиб), как это было указано такими ранними специалистами наук о Коране, как Муджахид и Катада (цитируется Табари). 7 Это также подтверждается 37: 6, где в аналогичном контексте используется слово kawakib, которое означает звезды (возможно, точнее планеты, которые выглядят яркими с земли). Кроме того, это сияющие звезды (и / или планеты), которые являются причиной красоты, упомянутой в стихах, для созерцателей с земли. Точно так же Бурудж здесь не может обозначать знаки Зодиака, потому что арабы во время откровения Корана не знали о них. Наконец, контекст стихов, а также современная астрономия не позволяют нам воспринимать это как крепости или дворцы и т. Д. Таким образом, не может быть правильным понять, что на небесах или небесах есть крепости, откуда ангелы бросают метеоры на сатанах. Стих на самом деле хочет научить, что Бог и Бог один, и никто другой, кто создал звезды, и что звезды — это созданные объекты, которые не имеют ничего общего с божественностью или состоянием людей.

Значение Shaitaan

Слово shaitaan имеет ряд коннотаций. Это прежде всего обозначает любую злую или сатанинскую силу, принадлежащую людям, невидимым существам или любому другому существу. 9 Коран тоже использовал этот термин для людей, преданных злым действиям в разных местах. 10 Здесь он представляет тех шайайтен аль-Ин, людей с сатанинским характером, которые считают звезды (в том числе и планеты) божествами, обладающими властью над человеческой судьбой. Они утверждают, что предсказывают состояние людей на основе так называемых эзотерических наук или астрологических расчетов и, таким образом, вводят их в заблуждение, лишают их силы воли, самоуверенности, самоуважения и человеческого достоинства и грабят их богатство.

Смысл Rajeem

Раджем — это корень раджма, что означает «бросать (что-то), как камень, т. Е. Наугад». Он часто используется метафорически в смысле «говорящего домыслом» или «создания (чего-то) объекта догадок». 11 Грамматически, rajeem может быть в смысле murjoom (тот, кто побит камнями или осужден) или raajim (тот, кто камни или осуждает. Согласно первому значению rajeem может здесь подразумевать осужденного или проклятого, то, кто брошен из Божьей благодати и милости из-за его / её злых практик. Хотя на основе второго использования, раджем может обозначать того, кто потворствует догадкам и использует оккультные науки, пытаясь предсказать состояние людей. Это основано на арабской пословице раджман bilghayb, сказать что-то просто угадать, без какого-либо истинного знания.

Значение Шихаба

Буквально шихаб означает пламя или огонь огня, пламя огня, сверкающее или излучающее. 13 Сам Коран использовал это в этом смысле (27: 7). Шихаб также используется для стреляющей звезды или метеора, следа света, который появляется ночью в земной атмосфере и немедленно исчезает. 14 В приведенных выше стихах термин шихаб квалифицируется с помощью прилагательного mubeen и в стихе 37:10 saqib. Mubeen означает яркий, ясный, чтобы видеть, что-то чистое в себе и делающее другие вещи ясными. 15 Хотя сакиб означает пирсинг — «такой яркий свет, что его лучи пробиваются сквозь любой предмет, идущий на их пути».

Метеоры — это физические явления, управляемые физическими законами, вызванные физическими факторами и являющиеся предметом физических наук, с ними нет ничего загадочного или сверхестественного. Они никоим образом не являются Кораническим Шихабским Мубином или Шихаабом Сакибом.

Сура Ас-Саффаат (37: 6-10) Перевод: «Вот, Мы украсили небеса, ближайшие к земле, с красотой звезд и обеспечили их защиту от каждой мятежной, сатанинской силы (так что) они (которые стремятся узнать непознаваемое) не должны подслушивать Воинство Высокого, но будут отталкиваться со всех сторон, изгоняться (из любой благодати), с прочными страданиями для них (в будущей жизни); но если кто-то пытается подслушать, он преследуется пронзительным огнем».

Здесь «небеса, ближайшие к земле», кажется, означают область космического пространства, содержащую нашу солнечную систему, поскольку тела, на которых основаны астрологические расчеты и к которым люди приписывают божественность, существуют или, по-видимому, существуют в этом регионе ,

Слова «Мы украсили небеса, ближайшие к красоте звезд», также содержат поощрение человечества наблюдать, изучать и размышлять о явлениях Вселенной, чтобы в конечном счете осознать и оценить Силу и Величества Творца. Слово маарид, используемое здесь, первоначально означает участок земли, расположенный на высоте, где ничто не может расти. Поэтому это означает «бесплодное», «непродуктивное» и «далекое от благодати и благословения Бога». Это относится к тому, кто горд, непомерен и мятежен. 18 Сатанинские силы непокорны Богу и, таким образом, лишены всех Его благословений.

Мала-и-а’ала буквально означает «собрание или хозяин на высоком», «люди высокого ранга» и т. Д. Здесь термин, очевидно, используется метафорически для Невидимого мира (Коран Аалам аль-гхайб). Послание состоит в том, что сатанинские или злые силы — будь то люди или любой другой — невозможно получить доступ к непознаваемым. Те, кто приписывают божественность небесным телам и предлагают ритуалы, чтобы угодить им, и утверждают, что знают состояние людей, изгоняются из Божьей благодати. После того, как свет Корана распространится, их трюки не сработают, и «горящие самоочевидные разочарования последуют за ними».

Поскольку невозможно, чтобы сатанинская сила имела доступ к Невидимому (Мала-иль-а’ла), не может быть правильным думать о некоторых сатанинских силах, чтобы преуспеть в получении истинного знания о будущем незаконными средствами. Сатанинские силы могут попытаться это сделать, но они не смогут добиться успеха в своих попытках. Более того, когда что-то считается охраняемым «ангелами», невозможно, чтобы какое-либо злое существо украсть его, поскольку по определению «ангельская защита» чего-то ясно означает, что в силу своей волевой природы он защищен от и недоступны для любой мятежной силы. В Священном Коране утверждается, что знание непознаваемого (Гайба) опирается только на Всемогущего Бога, который раскрывает столько, сколько Он пожелает Своим избранным Посланникам.

Таким образом, смысл стихов суры аль-Хиджра и ас-Саффаата яростно отвергает любую вероятность «схватывания» или «кражи» известий о гхаебе, как это было в отношении кахинов (оракулов).

Сура аль-Мулк (67: 5) Перевод: «И действительно, мы украсили небеса, ближайшие к земле, с лампами и сделали их объектом бесполезных догадок для злых (из числа людей): и для их Мы проголодали страдание сквозь пылающий огонь». 21 Слово «rajoom» — это раджм, смысл которого уже объяснен. Здесь это явно означает догадки. Слово shayaateen означает злые астрологи, предсказатели и предсказатели, которые приписывают божественность планетам и звездам, и делают догадки на основе астрологических расчетов и, таким образом, вводят людей в заблуждение.

Альтернативный смысл может быть таким: звезды, которые в противном случае украшают небеса, становятся причиной осуждения Бога за злых людей из людей, которые рассматривают их как божеств и вводят в заблуждение людей через их ложное требование узнать их (то есть народные) состояние на основе астрологии. Здесь снова поощряются астрономические исследования, и астрология осуждается и обескуражена. Более того, эти стихи, как мы видели, не имеют ничего общего с ложным понятием, согласно которому ангелы тают или качают сатаны или джинны со звездами или огнем, взятым у них.

Сура Джинн (72: 8-9) Перевод: «И мы вняли в секреты небес, но мы обнаружили, что он наполнен кормовыми стражами и пылающими огнями. Несмотря на то, что мы были созданы на позициях (которые, как мы думали, хорошо подходят), чтобы слушать (в каких бы секретах они ни находились): и каждый, кто сейчас пытается слушать, (похоже, найдет пламя в ожидании его!»

Сообщается, что группа «джиннов» в ходе своих путешествий по земле имела возможность услышать, как Святой Пророк читает стихи Корана. Они были полностью преодолены благодаря тому, что они услышали, и подчинились посланию Корана, а затем повторили свой опыт своим ближним. 24 Священный Коран, в начале суры, ссылается на это событие, и вышеупомянутые стихи являются частью их разговора. Однако, как показывает литературная элегантность суры, Коран не просто воспроизводит дословный отчет речи «джиннов», но и затрагивает некоторые аспекты их дискурса, которые он сочтет необходимыми, чтобы передать свое фундаментальное послание, в своем собственном характерном неповторимом стиле. Любой, кто пытается интерпретировать эти стихи, должен иметь в виду, что это Слово Божье, а не людей или существ, которые называются «джиннами».

Значение «Джинн»

Буквально арабское слово «джинн» означает нечто скрытое или скрытое от чувств. 25 Слова, сформированные из этого корня, имеют смысл скрываться, покрываться, скрываться или скрываться и т. Д. Например, эмбрион называется «janeen», поскольку он скрыт в утробе матери. В данном контексте «джинны» могут иметь любое из двух возможных значений: слово «джинны» здесь может представлять собой существо, отличное от человека, невидимое для человеческих чувств. Вполне возможно, что такое существо действительно существует. Очевидно, мы не можем отрицать существование существа только на том основании, что мы не можем его наблюдать. Вторая возможность заключается в том, что здесь джинны представляют собой группу людей, принадлежащих к людям. Мохаммад Асад пишет: «… это выражение может означать» доселе невидимые существа «, а именно незнакомцев, которые никогда прежде не были замечены людьми и Коран был раскрыт».

Абдулла Юсуф Али пишет: «Мы можем считать их духами, которые обычно невидимы, или люди, которые были незнакомцами в Аравии, но по-своему изучали и верили в Евангелие ислама».

Следовательно, «Джинн» здесь может означать невидимое существо или людей, которые были там чужими и не были известны народу. Считается, что в Коране слово «джинн» всегда использовалось только в одном значении, а это «невидимое существо, отличное от человека». Тем не менее, тщательное и углубленное исследование показывает, что, во что бы то ни стало, в разных местах оно использовалось более чем в одной коннотации.

Значение «Ламасна»

Первоначально арабский мир «ламы» означает «чувствовать или воспринимать объект, прикасаясь к нему»; но он также используется для обозначения «поиска», «квеста» и т. д. Например, Рагиб Исфахани процитировал поэта, который говорит: «almisuhu falaa ajiduhu», я его ищу, но не нахожу его. 29 Итак, ламы нас самаа будут означать, «мы искали, чтобы узнать секреты небес» (Невидимый мир). Мы знаем, что «духовные тайны» или тайны «непознаваемого» не принадлежат к физической вселенной; они не являются частью далеких галактик, ни земной атмосферы, где видны метеоры, и они не связаны с массой облаков. Поэтому самаа (небеса) здесь означает «аалам аль-гхайб» (Невидимый мир), а не сферы Птолемея, которых просто не существует. Поэтому смысл будет таким: «мы стремились узнать новости или секреты Непознаваемого, но не нашли для нас возможности». «Корменные охранники» — это благочестивые ученые ученые истинного знания — «бдительные опекуны правых» 30, в то время как шихаб представляет учения Корана, которые отвергают и осуждают любые претензии на знание событий будущего посредством астрологических расчетов.

Позиции для прослушивания

Смысл первой части стиха 72: 9 будет: «Мы сидели в местах, предназначенных для прослушивания новостей о небесах 31 (Невидимый мир)». «Позиции для прослушивания» — это «обсерватории для прослушивания» 32 астрологов. Теперь, если под «джиннами» здесь подразумеваются человеческие незнакомцы, которые, скорее всего, они были, то «места, предназначенные для прослушивания», будут означать места астрологов и предсказателей. Но если это означает эфирные существа, как это традиционно понимается, то можно предположить, что у этих существ также может быть какая-то система предсказаний и астрология, через которые они будут пытаться узнать состояние людей и будущий ход событий.

В любом случае тема стихов заключается в том, что после того, как свет откровения Корана и истинного знания распространится, все утверждения о гадании или гадании будут опровергнуты учениями Корана. Иными словами, Коран здесь, метафорически, отвергает все утверждения о гадании. Кроме того, также было заявлено, что такие утверждения никогда не смогут выдержать в условиях предписаний Корана. Абдулла Юсуф Али пишет: «Это означает, что любое оправдание, возможно, было раньше, чтобы люди пытались найти скрытые истины Невидимого Мира через джиннов, теперь их не было, поскольку явный Коран восстановил Послание Единство и очищенная религия всей паутины, таинств и ложностей, которыми наложили священство и благочестивое мошенничество. В результате такие искатели после ложных скрытых знаний теперь столкнутся с пылающим огнем, который, подобно шахтам метеорного света, будет ждать и подрезать такое священство и чёрную магию в зародыше».

Как видно из приведенного выше объяснения, стихи не позволяют нам читать в них древние мифологии. Трудность возникает, когда люди игнорируют символику и образы Корана и пытаются буквально объяснить каждый стих Священной Книги. Иногда они также не могут различать события, связанные с физическим миром, и те, которые принадлежат к метафизическому миру, Коран 'Аалам аль-Гайб. Например, «разговор ангелов» не является событием физического мира. Физические небеса, задуманные Птолемеем и другими, не имеют реальности. Сама Земля находится в космическом пространстве, являющемся частью солнечной системы, которая, в свою очередь, вращается вокруг центра Млечного Пути, огромной плеяды около двухсот миллиардов звезд. В физической вселенной есть миллиарды таких галактик. Поэтому, не обращая внимания на высшую лингвистическую красоту Корана и смешивая метафизическую с физическим, комментатор может прийти к выводам, несовместимым не только с научными реалиями, но и с мировоззрением Корана.

В отличие от традиционалистских гипотез, эрудированные исследователи Корана видели в стихах изумительный, впечатляющий символизм, столь уникальный для неподражаемого языка Священной Книги. В качестве альтернативы, они поняли стихи как имеющие отношение к событиям, которые происходят в «Аалам аль-Гайб», «Метафизический мир» или «Мир невидимый / непознаваемый».

Абу аль-Калам Азад, выдающийся ученый-коранист Субконтинента, комментируя 15:18, пишет: «Шихаб означает пламя. Так как он также применяется к метеору, комментаторы думали, что здесь он используется в этом смысле. Но в Коране нет таких деталей, на основании которых это можно установить. Здесь есть только слово шихаб, которое означает пламя. Что касается действительности этого вопроса, то это один из вопросов Мира Непознаваемого („аалам аль-гхайб“), которого мы не можем знать с помощью наших средств познания и восприятия».

Ещё один известный ученый Субконтинента Абдул Маджид Дарьябади, комментируя 15:18, распространил аналогичную точку зрения: «Люди обычно понимали (куранский) шихабский куб или шихаб сакиб, чтобы означать стреляющие звезды … в то время как факт — это мир (аалам), о котором здесь говорится в Священном Коране, просто недоступно нашим чувствам. Мы также не можем видеть сатаны (злые духи), поднимающиеся на небеса, и мы не можем видеть, как их преследуют и швыряют ангелы. Все это происходит из-за нас, и они являются частью непознаваемого (гайбы) … Просто невежество относится к стреляющим звездам как к кораническому шихабу. Коранический шихаб связан с ангелами и сатанами и, таким образом, принадлежит миру непознаваемым».

Мухаммад Хусейн Табатабаи, выдающийся иранский комментатор Корана, интерпретируя 37:10, дает более убедительное объяснение стихов.

«В наше время доказано, что такие понятия (приравнивания коранских шихабов со стрельчатыми звездами) необоснованны. Также нет таких небес (как это было ранее задумано), и нет таких небесных ворот и т. Д. То, что мы можем здесь сказать, состоит в том, что в Коране такие описания похожи на сравнения или притчи, в которых сверхчувственные реалии описаны в чувственные термины».

Тантави Джаури дал почти такой же взгляд. По его словам, возможно, что описание в этих стихах — это киная (метафора), в которой отрицание познания реальности через чувства фактически означает отрицание познания его через интеллект; и, киная — один из самых красивых видов красноречия.

Во время откровения Корана человеческое общество глубоко погружалось в бездну невежества и суеверий, а небесные тела, звезды, солнце, луну и планеты широко рассматривались как божества, которые контролируют состояние людей. Они будут не только поклоняться им, но и совершать разные ритуалы, чтобы искать свое удовольствие. Каханат (практика гадания) был необуздан, и оракулы и гадалки вели великое почтение и престиж в обществе. Люди обычно консультировались с ними для руководства повседневными делами о своей жизни. Кахины, или гадалки, также утверждали, что у них были джины или духи под их контролем, которые приносили новости с небес и, таким образом, сообщали им о судьбе людей и будущих событиях. Практика гадания или каханат была отличным средством приобретения богатства.

Многие противники Святого Пророка (sal lallahu alaihi wa sallam) также приравнивали его утверждение о получении Божьего откровения каханатом и, по незнанию или просто путем оппозиции, обвиняли его в том, что он контролировал некоторых джиннов, которые принесли Коран его. В таких обстоятельствах было абсолютно необходимо исключить путаницу, создаваемую между каханатом и рисалатом (пророчеством), чтобы люди могли четко различать между ними и, следовательно, не должны испытывать каких-либо затруднений в принятии послания Бога.

Поэтому Коран категорически отвергал и осуждал все утверждения гаданий, предсказаний и колдовства на образном и символическом языке — стиль, столь уникальный для Корана. Согласно Корану, никакая сатанинская сила не имеет доступа к секретам Непознаваемого (Мир Гайба) и будущих событий посредством астрологических расчетов или других оккультных наук.

Бог сохранил будущий ход событий, защищенный от любых попыток познать их сотворенными существами. Так называемые гадалки не имеют реального знания; они только потакают простой игре догадок и, таким образом, пытаются ввести в заблуждение и одурачить людей своими хитроумными трюками. Фраза «слышать хитростью» метафорически означает пытаться научиться непознаваемым незаконными средствами 39, такими как колдовство, чёрная магия, астрология или другие оккультные науки.

Вывод

В Священном Коране нет упоминания о тех небесах, которые мы находим в взгляде Птолемеев на вселенную. Земля не расположена в центре Вселенной и не является неподвижной, и нет никакой правдивости утверждения о том, что небеса, как это предусмотрено в взгляде Птолемеев на вселенную, действительно существуют. Идея о небесах, которую предполагали Аристотель и Птолемей и которые позже проникли в наш традиционный мир, не имеет поддержки в Священном Коране. Шихаб сакиб и шихаб мюбен обозначают метафорически яркий пронзительный свет знания, осознания и просветления, которые Коран хочет размножить, и которые в конечном итоге сжигают и уничтожают все утверждения гадания и гадания через незаконные средства. Это, таким образом, «пламя» божественного откровения, которое должно рассеять и проколоть (сакиб) тьму невежества и распространить свет знания и мудрости (мубень).

Конечная цель была и остается в том, чтобы избавить человечество от всех видов эксплуатации, суеверий и мифологий. Звезды и другие небесные тела — это творение Бога; они не имеют ничего общего с божественностью или предсказанием. Священный Коран — шедевр литературы и неповторимого слова Бога. При выражении его смысла нужно иметь в виду его чудесный стиль, полный литературного великолепия.

Abstract

Notwithstanding the tremendous advancement that the modern cosmology, astronomy and astrophysics have made in unraveling the mysteries of the physical universe, our traditional religious and layperson conception of the universe is still impregnated with the primitive world-view first proposed by Aristotle and later developed by Ptolemy. So much so that even some of our religious scholars, being unaware of modern cosmological discoveries often tend to interpret the Qur’anic verses related to the universe according to the out-dated Ptolemaic view of the universe. For many of them, for example, the meteors are the stars, which the angels throw on the evil spirits! While explaining the meaning of 15:16-18, 37:10, 67:5 and 72:8-9, many traditionalistic exegetes extended an interpretation in which one can see an echo of the myth. The purpose of the present treatise is to carry out an in-depth study of these verses to explore their true meaning. We will first give a simple translation of the verses, which will be followed by explanation of some of the key words or phrases used in them. Then, the overall meaning of the verses will be discussed.

I. PROLOGUE

A scientific study of the cause and the nature of meteors or «shooting stars» (a misnomer, actually they are not stars at all), shows that they have nothing to do with divination. However, there are old myths that regard the meteors as missiles that the angels throw on the evil spirits, or jinn, when the latter try to pry into the heaven to steal away the knowledge about the future events and the fortune of the people. The cause of such superstitions basically lies in the concept of the cosmos which due to lack of true knowledge of the structure and shape of the universe has been surrounded by mythological ideas.

The Common Man View of the Universe

Before the invention and use of the telescope [probably by Galileo (1564 −1642 CE)], the only means of obtaining information about the extra-terrestrial world was the naked eye. To a common person, the earth was, thus, a vast flat landmass, surrounded by water from the sides and covered from above by a huge blue dome, the sky. The moon and sun in their daily ritual of rising and setting provided proof of their existence. With the passage of time, the night-gazers, the forerunners of the modern astronomers, came up with more positive conclusions based on their more extended and systematic observations. Around the 5 th century BCE, nearly two and half thousand years ago, Pythagoras (~580-500 BCE) advanced the view that sun was stationary and the earth revolved round it.

Aristotle (384—322 BCE), however, rejected the above view and proposed the opposite, i.e., the earth was stationary and formed the centre of the universe while the sun, moon and stars were revolving around it.

The Aristotelian concept of the universe then got general acceptance, and became the foundation on which Ptolemy later developed his theory of the universe.

The Ptolemaic View of the Universe

In the second century CE, Claudius Ptolemy (85-165 CE), the celebrated mathematician and geographer, presented his treatise on astronomy. According to Ptolemy, the earth was at the centre of the universe and surrounded by eight distinct spheres. They were the skies or heavens, which enveloped the earth in layers one above the other in a manner similar to the layers in an onion. The moon, the sun, the planets and the stars were considered to be attached with these heavens, through epicycles. The first heaven or sphere had the moon positioned on it. Mercury was on the second sphere, Venus on the third, the sun on the fourth, followed by Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn on the 5th, 6th and 7th spheres. And, all the stars were thought to be fixed in the eighth sphere.

The heavenly bodies did not have their own motion. Their apparent movement was actually due to the movement of the spheres in which they were stationed. This view of the universe, mixed with astrological superstitions, profoundly influenced the human mind and has been the centre of common world-view for about two thousand years.

The Muslim astronomers of the Middle Ages referred to the Ptolemaic work as «Al Majesty». Although a number of Muslim astronomers indicated its weaknesses and proposed alternative view, the overall atmosphere remained dominated by it for centuries to come.

How far this view has dominated our thinking can be amply illustrated with a couplet of Mirza Ghalib (1789—1896 CE), one of the most influential Urdu poets: The seven heavens are in motion, day and night, Something will surely take place- why worry!

The unfortunate effect of this subjugation to the Ptolemaic view was that the traditional Muslim mind has continually shown a propensity to interpret the Qur’anic view of the universe in the light of the Ptolemaic theory.

The Aristotelian and Ptolemaic view of the universe has equally affected the western mind which also continued to be dominated by it until Copernicus (1437—1543 CE) finally replaced it with the heliocentric theory. Stephen Hawking observes: «It (Ptolemy’s model) was adopted by the Christian church as the picture of the universe that was in accordance with Scripture, for it had the great advantage that it left lots of room outside the sphere of fixed stars for heaven and hell.»

The Muslim Astronomers and the Ptolemaic Universe

During the Middle Ages when the Muslim men of sciences came on the scene, astronomy was their forte. Their painstaking research and investigation resulted in accumulation of vast information about the stellar systems. Long before Copernicus put his sun-centred theory of the universe, the Muslim astronomers had started challenging the Ptolemy’s earth-centred concept. For example, al- Biruni (973—1050 CE), in his writings, mentioned scholarship of his time who had subscribed to the view that the earth revolved and was not stationary. Abu Sa’id Ahmad Mohammad Abdul Jalil al-Sijzi, a contemporary of Al- Biruni, believed in the spinning earth, and developed an astrolabe based on the principle of earth’s motion and the heliocentric view. Al-Biruni, referring to this in his book al-Isti‘ab, writes: «I have seen the astrolabe called 'Zuraqi' invented by Abu Sa’id Sijzi. I liked it very much and praised him a great deal, as it is based on the idea entertained by some to the effect that the motion we see is due to the Earth’s movement and not to that of the sky.»

The Qur’an and the Ptolemaic Universe

The Holy Qur’an was revealed much after the time of Aristotle (4th century BCE) and Ptolemy (2nd Century CE), and has many statements about the phenomena of the universe, but it is absolutely free from all erroneous theories existing at that time. For example, according to the Ptolemaic view, the planets and stars have no motion of their own; they are stationary and are attached to the heavens that revolved around the earth taking with them the celestial bodies. Contrary to this the Holy Qur’an explicitly states that the sun, moon, stars and the entire planetary system are in a constant state of motion of their own. For example, «And it is He who has created the night and the day, the moon and the sun; all of them floating through space.» 4 (Q 21:33)

II. THE QUR’AN, METEORS AND DIVINATION

In the ancient Arabia, just like the most of the world at that time, there were oracles and fortune-tellers who practiced astrology and other occult sciences. They claimed that they had jinn, or evil spirits, in their control whom they would send to the heaven to eavesdrop on the angels’ conversation about people’s fortune or the future happenings. When these evil spirits would go upward for the purpose, or come back after stealing the news, the angles would hurl missiles of fire from stars at them. As a result, the evil spirits would be killed or injured badly so that they would no longer remain in their senses. According to the story, the same is happening today as well. Every time the evil spirits attempt to steal the secrets of the unknowable (ghayb), they are struck down with meteors.

The fable has also influenced our understanding of the meaning of some of the verses of the Qur’an. While explaining the meaning of 15:16-18, 37:10, 67:5 and 72:8-9, many traditionalistic exegetes extended an interpretation in which one can see an echo of the myth. The purpose of the present treatise is to carry out an in- depth study of these verses to explore their true meaning. We will first give a simple translation of the verses, which will be followed by explanation of some of the key words or phrases used in them. Then, the overall meaning of the verses will be discussed.

Surah al-Hijr (15:16-18) Translation: «And indeed, We have set up buruj (stars) in the heavens, and endowed them with beauty for all to behold, and We have made them secure against every satanic force accursed so that anyone who seeks to learn (the unknowable) by stealth is pursued by a flame clear to see.»

The Meaning of Buruj

The Arabic word buruj is plural of burj that originally means anything that is apparent, manifest or conspicuous. When, for example, a woman shows or displays her ornaments or beauty of her person or countenance etc., the Arabs say tabarrajatil maratu, the woman has displayed (her person etc). On the basis of this literal sense, the word is used to denote a fortress, palace, or main highway etc. because of their conspicuousness and ability to be seen from afar. 6 In these verses, buruj denotes the stars (kawakib) as it has been indicated by such early experts of the Qur’anic sciences like Mujahid and Qatadah (quoted by Tabari). 7 This is also supported by 37:6, where in a similar context the word kawakib is used which signifies the stars (perhaps, more precisely the planets which look bright from the earth). Furthermore, it is the shining stars (and/or planets), which are the cause of beauty, referred to in the verses, for beholders from the earth. Similarly, Buruj here cannot denote Zodiac signs as well because Arabs at the time of the Qur’anic revelation did not have any knowledge about them. 8 Finally, the context of the verses as well as the modern astronomy do not allow us to take it to mean fortresses or palaces etc. Thus, it cannot be correct to understand that there are fortresses in the heavens or skies from where angels throw meteors at satans. The verse actually wants to teach that it is God and God alone and none else who has created the stars, and that the stars are the created objects, which have nothing to do with divinity or fortune of people.

The Meaning of Shaitaan

The word shaitaan has a number of connotations. It primarily denotes any evil or satanic force, belonging to humans, invisible beings or any other creature. 9 The Qur’an too has used this term for humans indulged in evil activities at various places. 10 Here it represents those shaiyateen al-Ins, the humans with satanic character, who regard the stars (including planets) as deities having power over human fate. They claim to predict the fortune of people on the basis of so-called esoteric sciences or astrological calculations and thus, misguide them, deprive them of their will power, self confidence, self respect and human dignity, and plunder their wealth.

The Meaning of Rajeem

Rajeem is from the root rajm, which means, «throwing (something) like a stone, i.e., at random». It is often used metaphorically in the sense of «speaking conjecturally» or «making (something) the object of guesswork». 11 Grammatically, rajeem may be in the sense of murjoom (the one who is stoned or condemned) or raajim (the one who stones or condemns. According to the first meaning rajeem may here imply the condemned one or accursed one, that who is cast out from God’s grace and mercy due to his/her evil practices. While on the basis of the second usage, rajeem may denote the one who indulges in guesswork and practices occult sciences attempting to foretell people’s fortune. This is based on the Arabic proverb rajman bilghayb, to say something by mere guess, without any true knowledge.

The Meaning of Shihaab

Literally, shihaab means a flame or a brand of fire, a flame of fire gleaming or radiating. 13 The Qur’an itself has used it in this sense (27:7). Shihaab is also used for a shooting star or meteor, the trail of light that appears at night in the earth’s atmosphere and immediately vanishes away. 14 In the above quoted verses, the term shihaab is qualified by an adjective mubeen and in verse 37:10 by saqib. Mubeen means bright, clear to see, something clear in itself and making other things clear. 15 While, saqib means piercing — «such a bright light that its rays pierce through any object coming in their way».

The meteors are the physical phenomena governed by the physical laws, and caused by physical factors, and are a subject of physical sciences, there is nothing mysterious or super-natural with them. They are in no way the Qur’anic Shihaab Mubeen or Shihaab Saqib.

Surah As-Saaffaat (37:6-10) Translation: «Behold, We have adorned the skies nearest (to the earth) with the beauty of stars, and have made them secure against every rebellious, satanic force, (so that) they (who seek to learn the unknowable) should not be able to overhear the Host on High, but shall be repelled from all sides, cast out (from all grace), with lasting suffering in store for them (in the life to come); but if anyone tries to eavesdrop, he is pursued by a piercing flame».

Here, ‘the heaven nearest (to the earth)’ seems to signify the region of the cosmic space containing our solar system since the bodies on which astrological calculations are based and to whom people ascribed divinity exist, or appear to exist, in this region.

The words ‘We have adorned the skies nearest with the beauty of stars’ also contain an encouragement for mankind to observe, study and reflect on the phenomena of the universe in order to ultimately come to realize and appreciate the Power and Majesty of the Creator. The word maarid used here originally means a piece of land situated at a height where nothing can grow. Therefore, it means ‘barren’, ‘unproductive’ and ‘far removed from God’s grace and blessing’. It applies to the one who is proud, inordinate and rebellious. 18 The satanic forces are rebellious to God and, thus, are devoid of all His blessings.

Mala-il-a‘ala literally means ‘the assembly or host at high’, ‘the people of high rank’ etc. Here the term is evidently used metaphorically for the Unseen World (the Qur’anic ‘Aalam al-ghayb). The message is that it is impossible for satanic or evil forces- whether they are human or of any other kind- to gain access to the unknowable. Those who ascribe divinity to the celestial bodies and offer rituals to please them, and claim to know people’s fortune are cast out from God’s grace. After the Qur’anic light has spread, their tricks will not work, and ‘burning self- evident frustration will follow them’.

Since it is impossible for a satanic force to have access to the Unseen (Mala-il- a‘ala), it cannot be correct to think of some satanic forces to succeed in getting any true knowledge of future by illicit means. The satanic forces may try to do that but they cannot succeed in their attempts. More significantly, when something is thought to be guarded by the «angels», it is not possible for any evil being to steal it since by definition « angelical protection» of something clearly means that by virtue of its God-willed nature it is protected from and inaccessible for any rebellious force. The Holy Qur’an maintains that the knowledge of the unknowable (Ghayb) rests only with God Almighty who reveals as much of it as He wills to His chosen Messengers.

The purport of the verses of surah al-Hijr and as-Saaffaat is, thus, to vehemently dismiss any likelihood of «snatching» or «stealing» of the news of ghayb as was the claim of the kahins (oracles).

Surah al-Mulk (67:5) Translation: «And, indeed, We have adorned the skies nearest (to the earth) with lamps and have made them the object of futile guesses for the evil ones(from among men): and for them We have readied suffering through a blazing flame». 21 The word «rajoom» is from rajm the meaning of which has already been explained. Here it clearly stands for guesswork. The word shayaateen here denotes the evil astrologers, soothsayers and fortune-tellers who ascribe divinity to the planets and stars, and make guesses on the basis of astrological calculations, and thus misguide the people.

An alternative meaning may be this: the stars which otherwise beautify the skies become a cause of God’s condemnation for the evil ones from among human beings who regard them as deities and misguide the people through their false claim of knowing their(i.e., the people’s) fortune on the basis of astrology. Here again astronomical studies are encouraged and astrology is condemned and discouraged. Furthermore, these verses, as we have seen, have nothing to do with the false notion according to which angels pelt or stone the satans or jinns with the stars, or with the fire taken from them.

Surah Jinn (72:8-9) Translation: «And we pried into the secrets of heavens, but we found it filled with stern guards and flaming fires. Notwithstanding that we were established in positions (which we had thought well suited) to listening to (whatever secrets might be in) it: and anyone who now tries to listen will (likewise) find a flame laying in wait for him!»

It is narrated that a group of «jinns» in course of their travels over the land had chance to hear the Holy Prophet recite the verses of the Qur’an. They were completely overcome by what they heard and submitted themselves to the message of the Qur’an, and later recapitulated their experience to their fellow beings. 24 The Holy Qur’an, at the start of the surah, alludes to the event, and the above-cited verses are a part of their conversation. However, as the literary elegance of the surah shows, the Qur’an does not merely reproduce the verbatim report of the speech of the «jinns», but relates some of the aspects of their discourse, which it deems necessary to convey its fundamental message, in its own characteristic inimitable style. Anybody trying to interpret these verses must keep in mind it is the Word of God and not of the persons or beings described as «jinns».

The Meaning of «Jinn»

Literally, the Arabic word «jinn» means something that is hidden or concealed from the senses. 25 The words formed from this root have a connotation of being hidden, covered, veiled or concealed, etc. For example, the embryo is called «janeen» since it is hidden in the mother’s womb. In the present context, ‘jinn’ can have any of the two possible meanings: The word jinn here may represent a creature, distinct from human beings, invisible to human senses. It is indeed possible that such a creature does actually exist. Obviously, we cannot deny the existence of a creature only on the ground that we cannot observe it. Second possibility is that here jinn stands for a group of people belonging to humans. Mohammad Asad writes: «…this expression may possibly signify „hitherto unseen beings“, namely strangers who had never before been seen by the people among and to whom the Qur’an was then being revealed».

Abdullah Yusuf Ali writes: «We may take these to be spirits ordinarily unseen, or people who were strangers in Arabia, but had in their own private way learned and believed in the Gospel of Islam».

Hence, «Jinn» here may signify the invisible creature, or the human beings who were strangers there and not known by the people. It is popularly believed that in the Qur’an, the word «jinn» has always been used only in one meaning and that is «the invisible creature distinct from humans». However, a careful and in-depth study reveals that it is by all means possible that at various places it has been used in more than one connotation.

The Meaning of «Lamasna»

The Arabic world ‘lamas’ originally means «to feel or perceive an object by touching it»; but, it is also used to mean, «to search», «to quest» etc. For example, Raghib Isfahani has quoted a poet who says: «almisuhu falaa ajiduhu», I search him but do not find him. 29 So here lamas nas samaa will mean, «we searched to find out the secrets of the heaven» (the Unseen World). We know that the «spiritual mysteries», or the secrets of the «unknowable» do not belong to the physical universe; neither are they a part of the distant galaxies, nor the earth’s atmosphere where meteors are seen, and nor are they related to the mass of clouds. Therefore, samaa (heaven) here signifies ‘aalam al-ghayb (Unseen World) and not the Ptolemaic spheres, which simply do not exist. Therefore, the meaning will be this: «we have striven to learn the news or secrets of the Unknowable but have not found it possible for us to do that». The «stern guards» are the pious learned scholars of the true knowledge -«vigilant guardians of the Right» 30 , while shihaab represents the Qur’anic teachings which reject and condemn any claim to know events of the future through astrological calculations.

Positions to Listening

The meaning of the first part of the verse 72:9 will be: «We used to sit in the places meant for listening the news of the heaven 31 (the Unseen World)». The «positions to listening» are the «observatories to listen» 32 of astrologers. Now, if by «jinn» here are meant the human strangers, which most probably they were, then ‘places meant for listening’ will mean the seats of astrologers and soothsayers. But, if it signifies the ethereal beings as is traditionally understood, then it may be presumed that these beings may also have some system of soothsaying and astrology through which they would attempt to know the fortune of the people and the future course of events.

In either case, the theme of the verses is that after the light of the Qur’anic revelation and true knowledge has spread, all claims of divination or fortune- telling will be refuted by the Qur’anic teachings. In other words, the Qur’an here, in a metaphorical manner, rejects all claims of divination whatsoever. Furthermore, it has also been declared that such assertions will never be able to sustain in the face of the Qur’anic injunctions. Abdullah Yusuf Ali writes: «It means that whatever excuse there may have been before, for people to try to seek out the hidden truths of the Unseen World through jinns, there was none now, as the perspicuous Qur’an had restored the Message of Unity and cleared religion of all the cobwebs, mysteries, and falsehoods with which priestcraft and pious fraud had overlaid it. The result is that such seekers after false hidden knowledge will find themselves confronted now by the flaming fire, which, like the shafts of meteoric light, will lie in wait for and nip such priestcraft and black magic in the bud.»

As it is clear from the explanation given above, the verses do not allow us to read into them the ancient mythologies. The difficulty arises when people ignore the Qur’anic symbolism and imagery and try to explain every verse of the Holy Book too much literally. Sometimes, they also fail to differentiate between the events related to the physical world and those belonging to the metaphysical world, the Qur’anic ‘Aalam al-Ghayb. For instance, «the angels’ conversation» is not an event of the physical world. The physical heavens as conceived by Ptolemy and others have no reality. The earth itself is in the cosmic space being part of the solar system, which in turn revolves around the centre of the Milky Way, a huge galaxy of about two hundred billion stars. There are billions of such galaxies in the physical universe. Therefore, by overlooking the Qur’anic sublime linguistic beauty and confusing the metaphysical with the physical, a commentator may arrive at conclusions inconsistent with not only the scientific realities but also the Qur’anic worldview.

In contrast to the traditionalistic conjectures, the erudite Qur’anic scholars have seen in the verses a marvelous, awe-inspiring symbolism so unique to the inimitable language of the Holy Book. Alternatively, they have understood the verses as having a reference to the events that occur in the ‘Aalam al-Ghayb, the Metaphysical World, or the World Unseen/Unknowable.

Abu al-Kalam Azad, an eminent Qur’anic scholar of the Subcontinent when commenting on 15:18, writes: «Shihaab means flame. Since it is also applied to a meteor, the commentators thought that here it is used in that sense. But there is no such detail in the Qur’an on the basis of which this can be ascertained. There is only the word shihaab here that means flame. As for the reality of this matter is concerned, this is one of the matters of the World of Unknowable (‘aalam al-ghayb) which we cannot know with our means of knowledge and perception».

Abdul Majid Daryabadi, another noted scholar of the Subcontinent, when commenting on 15:18, extended a similar view: «People generally understood (the Qur’anic) shihaab mubeen or shihaab saqib to mean the shooting stars…while the fact is the World (aalam) which the Holy Qur’an is talking about here is simply out of the reach of our senses. Neither can we see satans (evil spirits) ascending the heavens nor can we see them being chased and hurled by angels. All these things are out of the ken of our eyes and are part of the unknowable (ghayb)…It is mere ignorance to regard the shooting stars as the Qur’anic shihaab. The Qur’anic shihaab are related to angels and satans, and thus belong to the world unknowable».

Muhammad Hussain Tabatabai, a distinguished Iranian commentator of the Qur’an, while interpreting 37:10, gives a more convincing explanation of the verses.

«It has been proved in the modern times that such notions (of equating the Qur’anic shihaabs with shooting stars) are baseless. Neither are there such heavens (as were previously conceived), nor are there such heavenly gates etc. What we possibly can say here is that in the Qur’an such descriptions are like similes or parables in which extra-sensory realities have been described in sensual terms».

Tantawi Jauhri has given almost similar view. According to him, it is possible that description in these verses is a kinayah (metaphor) in which the negation of knowing a reality through senses actually signifies the negation of knowing it through intellect; and, kinayah is one of the most beautiful kinds of eloquence.

At the time of the Qur’anic revelation, the human society was sinking deep in the abyss of ignorance and superstitions, and the heavenly bodies, stars, sun, moon and planets were widely regarded as deities that have control on the fortune of people. They would not only worship them but also perform different rituals to seek their pleasure. Kahanat (practice of divination) was rampant, and oracles and fortune-tellers commanded great reverence and prestige in the society. People used to consult them for guidance in day-to-day matters of their lives. The kahins, or fortune-tellers, also claimed that they had jinn or spirits in their control that brought news from heavens and, thus, informed them on people’s fate and future events. The practice of divination or kahanat was a great means of wealth acquisition.

Many opponents of the Holy Prophet (sal lallahu alaihi wa sallam) also equated his claim of receiving God’s revelation with kahanat and, out of ignorance or simply by way of opposition, accused him of having control over some jinn who brought the Qur’an to him. Under such circumstances, it was absolutely necessary to expel the confusion being created between kahanat and risalat (prophethood), so that the people could distinguish clearly between the two and, therefore, must not feel any difficulty in accepting the message of God.

Therefore, the Qur’an categorically rejected and condemned all claims of fortune telling, soothsaying and sorcery in a figurative and symbolic language- the style so unique to the Qur’an. According to the Qur’an no satanic force can have access to the secrets of the Unknowable (World of Ghayb) and the future events through astrological calculations or other occult sciences.

God has kept the future course of events secured from any attempt to knowing them by created beings. The so-called fortune-tellers have no real knowledge; they only indulge in mere guess-game and, thus, try to mislead and befool the people by their cunning tricks. The phrase, «to hear by stealth» metaphorically means to try to learn the unknowable by illicit means 39 such as witchcraft, black magic, astrology or other occult sciences.

Conclusion

The Holy Qur’an does not mention the kind of heavens that we find in the Ptolemaic view of the universe. The earth is not situated in the centre of the universe nor is it stationary, and nor is there any veracity to the claim that the heavens as envisaged in Ptolemaic view of the universe do actually exist. The idea of the heavens that Aristotle and Ptolemy presupposed and which later made inroads into our traditional world-view has no support in the Holy Qur’an. The shihaab saqib and shihaab mubeen denote metaphorically the bright piercing light of the knowledge, awareness and enlightenment that the Qur’an wants to propagate, and that will eventually burn and destroy all claims of divination and fortune telling through illicit means. This is, thus, the «flame» of divine revelation that is meant to diffuse and pierce (saqib) the darkness of ignorance, and spread the light of knowledge and wisdom (mubeen).

The ultimate purpose was, and still is, to get the humankind free from all types of exploitation, superstitions, and mythologies. The stars and other heavenly bodies are God’s creation; they have nothing to do with divinity or divination. The Holy Qur’an is a masterpiece of literature and an inimitable word of God. When rendering its meaning, one must keep in mind its miraculous style full of literary splendor.

Notes and References

Asadullah Khan Ghalib, Dewan-e-Ghalib, translation is mine; the actual Urdu

verse reads: Rat din gardish mein hain sat asman, Ho rahe ga kuchh na kuchh ghabrain kia.

Stephen W. Hawking, A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black

Holes. (New York: Bantam Books, 1988), p. 4.

Al-Biruni, al-Ist‘ab, translated by S.H. Barani in «Al-Biruni’s Scientific

Acheivements», Indo-Iranica, Vol. V, No. 4 (1952).

The Qur’an, translation by Muhammad Asad, The Message of The Qur’an,

(Dar al-Andalus: Gibraltar: 1980), p. 492.

This is how Abul Kalam Azad and Muhammad Asad, among others,

understood the meaning of these verses. See the former’s Tarjuman-ul- Qur’an, Vol. II, (Shaikh Ghulam Ali & Sons Ltd., Lahore: nd), pp.333-4, and the latter’s The Message of the Qur’an, p. 384.

See, for example, Lane, Edward William, An Arabic-English lexicon, (Beirut,

Lebanon: Librairie du Liban: 1980), p.180.

Abi Ja’far Muhammad Bin Jarir Al-Tabari, Jami’-ul-Bayan, Part XIV, (Dar

Ibn Hazm: Beirut: 2002), p.20.

See Abul Kalam Azad who wrote a comprehensive note on the meaning of

buruj. See Op Cit. Pir Muhammad Karam Shah Al-Azhari also derived a similar conclusion; see his Zia-ul-Qur’an, Vol. II, (Zia-ul-Qur’an Publications: Lahore: 1402 AH), pp. 533-4. Consultation to Lane, p. 180, will also be useful.

Raghib Isfahani, Mufridat-e-Qur’an, Urdu Translation by Muhammad

Abduhu Ferozpuri, (Shaikh Shams-ul-Haq: Lahore: 1987), p.539.

See, for example, 2:14.
Muhammad Asad (on the authority of Jawhari, Raghib, Lisan al-Arab, Qamus,

Taj al-Urus etc.), note on 67:6, p. 880.

See Al-Fakhr al-Razi, Al-Tafsir al-Kabir, Part XIX, (Dar al-Ihya al-Tirath al-

‘Arabi: Beirut: 1995), p.129, Raghib, p385.

See, for example, Lane, p. 1608
Ibid.
Muhammad Asad, p. 336.
Raghib, p. 154, Lane, p. 342.
Based on Muhammad Asad, pp.682-3.
Lane, p. 2706, Raghib, p.993.
Muhammad Asad, note on 15:18, p.384.
Q 72:26,27.
Based on Muhammad Asad, p. 879.
See Al-Fakhr al-Razi, Part XXX, p. 583, and Nasir al-Din Al-Baydhawi,

Anwar al-Tanzil wa Asrar al-Tawil, (Dar al-Faras Lin-Nashr wa al-Tawzi’: nd), p.749. м. See Abdullah Yusuf Ali, The Holy Qur’an, (Da’wah Academy, International Islamic University: Islamabad: 2004), p.1744, and Muhammad Asad, p. 900.

See, for example, Ibn Kathir, Tafsir Ibn-e-Kathir, Urdu Translation by

Maulana Muhammad Junagarhi, Vol.V, (Maktaba-e-Quddusia: Lahore: nd), pp. 437-8.

Raghib, p.193, Lane, pp. 462-3.
Muhammad Asad, note on 72:1, p.899.
Abdullah Yusuf Ali, note 5728, p.1743.
See Muhammad Asad, Appendix III., p. 994, and Mohammad Marmaduke

Pickthall, The Glorious Qur’an, Introduction to Surah al-Jinn, (Islamic Book Trust: Kuala Lumpur: 2001), p. 853.

Raghib, p. 968.
Abdullah Yusuf Ali, note 5733, p.1744.
See, for example, Maulana Ashraf Ali Thanwi, Bayan-ul-Qur’an, (Taj

Company: Lahore: nd), p.1101.

Ahmed Ali, Al-Qur’an- A Contemporary Translation, (Akrash Publishing:

Karachi: 1995), p. 506

Abdullah Yusuf Ali, note 5734, p.1744.
Abul Kalam Azad, note on 15:18, p.334. Translation is mine.
Abdul Majid Daryabadi, Tafsir-e-Majidi, Vol.II, (Majlis Nashriat-e-Qur’an:

Karachi: 1999), p. 733. Translation is mine.

Cf. Nasir Makarim Shirazi, Tafsir-e-Namoona, Vol. XI, (Misba-ul-Qur’an

Trust: Lahore: 1413 AH), p. 59. Translation is mine.

Al-Shaikh Tantawi Jauhri, Al-Jawahir Fi Tafsir al-Quran al-Karim, (Dar al-

Fikr, Beirut: nd) p. 10.

Pir Muhammad Karam Shah Al-Azhari, Vol. IV, p. 198.
Muhammad Asad, p. 384.

Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān / Cosmology

Article Table of Contents: Introduction; The six-day work: Creation of the material world; Time in cosmological context; Space in cosmological context; The inhabitants of the created world: humans and jinn; Descent of humans from paradise to earth; The human habitat in space and time; God and humans; Developments; Sūra 15:26-48; Sūra 38:71-85; Sūra 17:61-5; Sūra 20:115-23; Sūra 7:10-34; Sūra 2:28-39; Summary: Some theological implications; Bibliography

Introduction

A divinely governed order of the universe and the place of humans within it. This qurʾānic understanding of cosmology is dramatized in diverse reports: the divine six-day-work of creation (q.v.; khalq) of the cosmos (al- samāwāt wa-l-arḍ), of humankind (insān) and its habitat in nature (nabāt al-arḍ; see agriculture and vegetation), of demons or spirits (jinn, q.v.) ¶1/441/1¶ and the animal world (al- ḍābba, al- anʿām, see animal life) as well as the resolution of created space on the day of doom (see judgment) — all occupy prominent roles in the Qurʾān. Additionally, the existence of humans on earth (q.v.), the ambiguity of their moral condition, the liability they bear to fall prey to the seduction exercised by a negative figure, Iblīs (Diabolos, see iblis; devil) or al-Shayṭān (Satan) and the evil (fasād; see evil deeds; good and evil; corruption) they commit are all elaborated from an etiological orientation. All these issues may, however, be due to the peculiar genesis of the Qurʾān as viewed from two principally different perspectives. The Qurʾān first manifested itself as the immediate expression of the psychic-prophetic experience of Muḥammad himself, meant to be read out to his audience (qurʾān); only later, once being canonized (see collection of the qurʾān), did it become the binding document (muṣḥaf, q.v.) of a religion with social demands of its adherents, «the corporate confession of it in the inward possession of Islam and of Muslims» (Cragg, Event). In the latter context the cosmological recollections have served, as did the analogous accounts in the scriptures of the neighboring religions (see scripture and the qurʾān), to explain a given world order and to justify particular rulings therein. To read them exclusively in a post-canonical context as etiological texts is, however, by no means the only way to look at them. One has to be aware that the status of a canon presupposes a fixed, indeed «frozen» corpus of equally ranked textual entities with no distinction regarding the function they held in the text as a «qurʾān» in statu nascendi, i.e. in that historically unique sequence of communications between a speaker and his audience, accompanying and at the same time documenting the historical process of the emergence of the early Muslim community (see community and society in the qurʾan). ¶ The value of references to cosmology and of cosmogonic accounts in that process can be made clear only by observing their structural function within their particular context of discourse, i.e. their particular sūra.

Indeed, considered in the context of the emergence of a community, i.e. reflecting the process of a «canonization from below» of the successively publicized liturgical texts, the recollections of cosmogonic accounts assume a different value. They present themselves as new readings of a familiar narrative with the perspicuous tendency to demythologize it in certain substantial traits, though not without introducing new mythic elements meant to elevate contemporary developments onto a salvation-historical level (see mythic and legendary narratives). The qurʾānic cosmological recollections are presented to their listeners less as narrative accounts than as exhortations serving immediate theological rather than etiological aims: The creation of nature — flora and fauna — appears as a starting point of the divine interaction with humans, a «sign» (āya) of divine omnipotence and an instigation for human gratefulness (shukr). The creation of human beings, moreover, framed in a divine deal with Iblīs, is presented as a challenge for the option of accepting divine guidance (hudā) and as an affirmation that the socio-religious antagonisms existing in the world of the addressees during the first transmission of the Qurʾān are nothing else than part of a divine plan of salvation (q.v.).

In order to give due attention to both perspectives, canonical and pre-canonical, evidence will be presented in this article, wherever possible, from two different angles: (1) a macro-structural perspective on the basis of the Qurʾān as canon, i.e. ¶ presented in the form of a cumulative synopsis of qurʾānic references to cosmology; (2) a micro-structural perspective, by situating references into their communicational framework with a particular view to their various typological features such as situation of speech, context and referentiality.

The six-day work: Creation of the material world

Collecting the dispersed qurʾānic statements about the creation of the world into one comprehensive picture, an image in accord with more ancient Near Eastern lore emerges (for individual parallels see Speyer, Erzählungen, 4f.): God created the heavens (see heaven) and the earth in six days (khalaqa l-samāwāti wa-l-arḍa fī sittati ayyāmin, q 7:54, cf. 10:3; 11:7; 25:59; 32:3), not in jest (wa-mā khalaqnā l-samāwāti wa-l-arḍa wa-mā baynahumā lāʿibīn, q 44:38-9, cf. 21:16), nor in vain (a-fa-ḥasibtum annanā khalaqnākum ʿabathan, q 23:115; wa-mā khalaqnā l-samāʾa wa-l-arḍa wa-mā baynahumā bāṭilan, q 38:27) but in truth and with a stated term (illā bi-l- ḥaqqi wa-ajalin musamman, q 30:8; cf. 44:38). The heavens and earth were completed in two days (khalaqa l-arḍa fī yawmayn, q 41:9), formed from an integrated disk-shaped mass which had to be split (a-wa-lam yara lladhīna kafarū anna l-samāwāti wa-l-arḍa kānatā ratqan fa-fataqnāhumā, q 21:30). From smoke (thumma stawā ilā l-samāʾi wahiya dukhānun, q 41:11f.) the seven heavens were created (fa- qaḍāhunna sabʿa samāwātin fī yawmayn, q 41:12; cf. 23:17; 78:12) forming layers, one above the other (ṭibāqan, q 67:3; cf. 71:14). In the seventh heaven or above it, where the angels praise God (yusabiḥḥūna bi-ḥamdi rabbihim, q 40:7; cf. 39:75; 42:3; see angel; praise) and seek forgiveness (q.v.) for the believers (yastaghfirūna li-lladhīna āmanū, q 40:7), the divine throne (ʿarsh) is located (see throne of god), carried by angels (q.v.) (alladhīna yaḥmilūna l- ʿarsha, q 40:7), who move in row after row (q 89:22; cf. 37:1). ¶ The lowest heaven is adorned with lights (wa- zayyannā l-samāʾa l-dunyā bi-maṣābīḥa, q 41:12): the sun and the moon (q 71:16; 78:13), the stars (bi- zīnati l-kawākib, q 37:6; cf. 67:5) and the constellations of the zodiac (wa-laqad jaʿalnā fī l-samāʾi burūjan, q 15:16; cf. 25:61; 85:1). The sun (q.v.) which follows a regular path is considered to be subject to humans (wa- sakhkhara lakumu l-shamsa wa-l-qamara dāʾibayni, q 14:33). Its course serves man to reckon the periods of time (wa-jaʿalnā āyata l-nahāri mubṣiratan… li-taʿlamū ʿadada l-sinīna wa-l-ḥiṣāba, q 17:12; cf. 6:96-7; see day and night; day, times of). As to the moon (q.v.), particular stations are decreed for it, again as a means at man’s disposal for his chronological orientation (wa-qaddarahu manāzila li-taʿlamū ʿadada l-sinīna wa-l-ḥiṣāba, q 10:5). Accordingly, the number of the months have been fixed at creation (inna ʿiddata l-shuhūri ʿinda llāhi thnā ʿashara shahran fī kitābi llāhi yawma khalaqa l-samāwāti wa-l-arḍa, q 9:36). The stars serve to guide people in the darkness of the land and the sea (wa-huwa lladhī jaʿala lakumu l-nujūma li-tahtadū bihā fī ẓulumāti l-barri wa-baḥri, q 6:97). The lowest heaven is also the assembling place of demons (jinn, wa-laqad jaʿalnā fī l-samāʾi burūjan…/wa-ḥafiẓnāhā min kulli shayṭānin rajīm, q 15:16-7; cf. 21:33; 25:62; 67:5; 85:1), who attempt to listen to the heavenly councils in order to convey supernatural knowledge to privileged humans (hal unabbiʾukum ʿalā man tanazzalu l-shayāṭīn, q 26:221). They are, however, chased away by shooting flames (illā mani staraqa l-samʿa fa-atbaʿahu shihābun mubīn, q 15:18; cf. 37:6-10). God raised the vault of the heaven high (rafaʿa samkahā fa-sawwāhā, q 79:28; wa-l-samāʾa banaynāhā bi-aydin wa-innā la-mūsiʿūn, q 51:47) without support (rafaʿa l-samāwāti bi-ghayri ʿamadin, q 13:2), keeping it from collapsing and falling down on the earth (wa-yumsiku l-samāʾa an taqaʿa ʿalā l-arḍ, q 22:65).¶ In accordance with ancient Near Eastern models the earth is viewed as being surrounded by waters separated by the creator through a barrier (maraja l-baḥrayni… wa-jaʿala baynahumā barzakhan wa-ḥijran maḥjūran, q 25:53; cf. 27:61; 35:12; 55:19), which are themselves divided into two «oceans», the waters of one being fresh and sweet, those of the other being bitter (hādhā ʿadhbun furātun wa-hādha milḥun ujājun, q 25:53; cf. 35:13).

God extinguishes the light (q.v.) of the day and introduces the night (see darkness), as two of his signs (q.v.; wa-jaʿalnā l-layla wa-l-nahāra āyatayni fa-maḥawnā āyata l-layli wa-jaʿalnā āyata l-nahāri mubṣiratan, q 17:12), alternating continuously (innā fī khalqi l-samāwāti wa-l-arḍi wa-khtilāfi l-layli wa-l-nahāri… bi-mā yanfaʿu l-nāsa, q 2:164; cf. 3:26; 31:28; 35:14; 36:37; 39:7). In four days God furnished the creation of the earth with mountains, rivers and fruit-gardens (wa- jaʿala fīhā rawāsiya min fawqihā wa-bāraka fīhā wa- qaddara fīhā aqwātaha fī arbaʿati ayyāmin sawāʾan lil-sāʾilīn, q 41:10; cf. 13:3-4; 15:19; 16:15-6; 27:61). From water (q.v.) he created the animals, some that creep on their bellies and others that walk on two or four feet (wa-llāhu khalaqa kulla dābbatin min māʾin fa-minhum man yamshī ʿalā baṭnihi wa-minhum man yamshī ʿalā rijlayni wa-minhum man yamshī ʿalā arbaʿin, q 24:45). They have been created for the benefit and adornment of man (wa-l-anʿāma khalaqahā lakum fīhā difʾun wa-manāfiʿu wa-minhā taʾkulūn, q 16:5). Man was elected to rule over the animals (a-wa-lam yaraw annā khalaqnā lahum mimmā ʿamilat aydīnā anʿāman fa-hum lahā mālikun, q 36:71). No less was the sea created for the benefit of man, supplying him with food and ornaments to wear (wa-huwa lladhī sakhkhara l-baḥra li-taʾkulū minhu laḥman ṭariyyan wa-tastakhrijū minhu ḥilyatan talbasūnahā, q 16:14; see clothing).¶

Time in cosmological context

After the six-day work of creation (q 7:54; 10:3; 11:7; 25:59; 32:4; 50:38; 57:4), that had neither tired nor wearied him (wa-mā massanā min lughūb, q 50:38; wa-lam yaʿya, q 46:33), God seated himself upon his divine throne (thumma stawā ʿalā l-ʿarshi, q 7:54; 10:3; 13:2; 20:5; 25:59; 57:4) which extends over heavens and earth (wasiʿa kursiyyuhu l-samāwāti wa-l-arḍa, q 2:255), to govern everything through his divine command (yudabbiru l-amra, q 10:3). He is continuously occupied with maintaining his creation (kulla yawmin huwa fī shaʾn, q 55:29) and does not rest (lā taʾkhudhuhu sinnatun wa-lā nawm, q 2:255). This explicitly stated effortlessness and untiring activity (Böwering, Time) is in clear contrast to the human condition where sleep (q.v.) is part of the divinely ordained rhythm (wa-jaʿalnā nawmakum subātan, q 78:9). God, moreover, plays an active role in man’s sleep for «God takes the souls unto himself at the time of their death, and that which has not died in its sleep. He keeps those on whom he has decreed death, but looses the others till a stated term» (Allāhu ya tawaffā l-anfusa ḥīna mawtihā wa-llatī lam tamut fī manāmihā fa-yumsiku llatī qaḍā ʿalayhā l-mawta wa-yursilu l-ukhrā ilā ajalin musamman, q 39:42; see death and the dead).

Still, God’s undisrupted concern for the world is reflected in the rhythm of human interaction (see social relations). Although the heptad as a measure for counting days must be assumed to have been known in ancient Arabia (see calendar), the qurʾānic accounts of creation lack a cosmic etiology or a divine prototype for the concept of a six-day cycle of profane working days culminating in a sacred seventh day of rest, a concept so characteristic for the rhythm of life with Jews and Christians (see jews and judaism; christians and christianity). ¶ A particular day of the week to be reserved for official services has been decreed in the Qurʾān (q 62:9) but Friday was chosen for purely pragmatic and mundane reasons which lack any reference to cosmic contexts. Accordingly, not the whole day but only a particular period — the time until midday prayer — is reserved for religious purposes (see friday prayer), the rest being profane, a ruling that has given Islamic culture a distinct imprint of its own.

Even though no entire day of the week is held sacred, there are nonetheless particular times during the day which are considered to have a sacred character and are thus apt to be dedicated to communication with the divine, namely dawn (fajr, q 89:1), afternoon (ʿaṣr, q 106:1), sunset (maghrib, qabla l- ghurūb, q 50:39), later evening (ʿishāʾ, q 24:58; cf. q 30:18 where ʿashīyan is used) and midday (ẓuhr, ḥīna tuẓhirūn, q 30:18). Three of these prayer times (see prayer) coincide with Jewish practice and in the case of maghrib, the Hebrew ʿerebh, the analogy is even etymologically obvious. The two others are known as well in Christian monastic contexts (see monasticism and monks), for example, ʿishāʿ, reflecting the Greek apodeipnon. The Qurʾān knows about additional sacred times like the time when the day has reached its full light (al- ḍuḥā), a time marked by prayers in pre-Islamic times (al-jāhiliyya) and apparently also in the early years of the Muslim community (q 91:1; 93:1). To be sure, the Qurʾān does not explicitly state that all these time periods bear a sacred character, but such can clearly be inferred from some particularly expressive verses which refer to these alone and to no other periods as significant in themselves. This relates to the early sūras where single oaths or oath clusters (see oaths) refer to these periods (wa-l-fajr/wa- layālin ʿashr, q 89:1-2; wa-l-ʿaṣr, q 103:1; wa-l-ḍuḥā, q 93:1). It is worth noting (Neuwirth, Images) that all the sūras in which these oaths or oath clusters appear focus on the idea of the believer’s intimate closeness to the divine speaker. ¶ The sūra texts thus unfold the inherent liturgical relevance implied in the sacred time evoked in their introductory oaths.

There are also longer cosmically determined periods of time which are deemed sacred (ḥaram). It is true that the holy months (al- ashhuru l-ḥurum, q 9:5; see months) which were cherished in the jāhiliyya and during which no blood was to be shed (see bloodshed) — though reaffirmed in the Qurʾān — were already superseded in significance during qurʾānic development by two important cosmologically determined feast periods (see festivals and commemorative days), one inherited from pre-Islamic practice, the other newly institutionalized, namely the pilgrimage (q.v.) and the month of Ramaḍān (q.v.; shahru ramaḍāna lladhī unzila fīhi l-qurʾān, q 2:185). Whereas the period of pilgrimage was to occupy only a number of days, the notion of a full holy month survived most vividly in Ramaḍān. This Muslim month of fasting (q.v.) was introduced as a cosmically defined sacred time early in the Medinan period (fa-man shahida minkumu l- shahra fa-l-yaṣumhu… wa-li-tukmilū l-ʿiddata, q 2:185; see chronology and the qurʾān), its beginning and end discernible and definable only by the sighting (ruʾyā) of a cosmic sign, the appearance of the new moon (hilāl), as was the case for determining the beginning of the month of pilgrimage (yasʾalūnaka ʿani l-ahillati qul hiya mawāqītu lil-nāsi wa-l-ḥajj, q 2:189). Similarly the exact period of daily fasting was defined by cosmic observations, the rising and the setting sun respectively. The qurʾānic ruling, however, refers to these cosmic aspects only obliquely, relying rather on a cultural criterion for the distinction between daylight and darkness, i.e., the possibility of distinguishing a white from a black thread.¶ The reference is to a custom already in use in monotheistic contexts which presupposes a black-white garment used for prayer (wa-kulū wa-shrabū ḥattā yatabayyana lakumu l-khayṭu l-abyaḍu mina l-khayṭi l-aswadi mina l-fajri thumma atimmū l-ṣiyāma ilā l-layli, q 2:187). Ramaḍān was marked from the outset by a particular affinity to liturgical practice, the divine response to human supplications uttered in that period being assured already in the Qurʾān itself (wa-idhā saʾalaka ʿibādī ʿannī fa-innī qarībun ujību daʾwata ʾd-dāʿi idhā daʿāni fal-yastajībū lī, q 2:186; cf. Isa 55:6).

In accordance with a pre-Islamic custom, the first ten nights of the month of pilgrimage are also counted as exceptional as reflected in a qurʾānic oath (wa- layālin ʿashr, q 89:2; see oaths). This month, Dhū l-Ḥijja, had been — before the calendar became confused due to lax intercalations shortly before the event of the Qurʾān — the first month of the new year, a time in which ritual practices in support of the emergence of a new season (see seasons) had been essential. Though traces of ancient new year’s practices are still recognizable in some qurʾānic pilgrimage rites (Wellhausen, Reste), the reform of the calendar, ordained through the Qurʾān, severed all relations of the pilgrimage with a seasonal festival. The necessity of adducing cosmic evidence for determining qurʾānically endorsed feasts, though interpreted explicitly as an act of obedience (q.v.) toward the divine legislator, still leaves a strong cosmic imprint on the character of Islamic feasts. This manifests itself not only in quantitative terms — cosmic observations alone are deemed valid as the criteria for the exact times of beginnings and ends — but in more general, aesthetic terms as well.¶ The cosmic references engender a peculiar imagery which connects the idea of festiveness with that of the creation and the order of the cosmos, not as a merely sensual backdrop, adding emotional potential to the feasts, but in a more sober manner, as a communicated «sign» (āya), an invitation to humans to respond to the divine gift of creation by conveying gratefulness (shukr) and thus belief (see belief and unbelief; blessing; gratitude and ingratitude). So although an insistent iconoclasm cannot be denied, yet the impact of the Qurʾān — to use Kenneth Cragg’s words — eloquently conserved that sense of the wonder of the natural order which inspires all religiosity, including so-called paganism, and told it in «the signs of God» as the grateful benediction of the divine unity suffused through the plural world (Cragg, Event, 24).

Space in cosmological context

The Qurʾān seems to reflect the Aristotelian-Ptolemaic model with the world (al- dunyā) as the lowest level in the center covered by seven homocentric spheres (falak, pl. aflāk, q 21:33; 26:40). A closer look, however, provides traces of an older, ancient Near Eastern model of the world which is also reflected in Genesis 1:6 (Allāhu lladhī khalaqa sabʿa samāwātin wa-min al-arḍi mithlahunna, q 65:12). Here, the world is viewed as not only covered by seven heavenly spheres but also as relying on as many layers of «earths.» The whole structure is surrounded by waters", oceans", separated by the creator through a barrier (maraja l-baḥrayni yaltaqiyān/baynahumā barzakhun lā yabghiyān, q 55:19-20; cf. 25:53; see barrier; barzakh). The cryptic qurʾānic statement about the two oceans has engendered diverse interpretations, mostly attempts to vindicate the geocentric Aristotelean-Ptolemaic world view. Only al-Ṭabarī (d. 310/923) presents an interpretation in accordance with the qurʾānic evidence, the image of a world swimming in an ocean and being covered by another ocean above the highest heaven. ¶ Al-Ṭabarī (Tafsīr, xxvii, 75, ad q 55:19) states that the two oceans are located above the earth and around it respectively, the upper waters being fresh and sweet (ʿadhbun furātun), the lower salty and bitter (milḥun ujājun).

The metaphorical qurʾānic allusions to the all-encompassing dimensions of God’s throne (wasiʿa kursiyyuhu l-samāwāti wa-l-arḍ, q 2:255; wa-huwa rabbu l- ʿarshi l-ʿaẓīm, q 9:129) were already taken literally by early exegetes who attempted to fit the two different designations for the throne image into a comprehensive scheme, ʿarsh thus figuring as the throne, kursī becoming the footstool underneath. Throne and footstool were imagined to be of a physical nature in the sense of celestial bodies located above the heavens and earths. The earthly observer, facing the footstool from below, thus finds himself in a dome-like hemisphere. Equally, the «overflowing ocean» (wa-l- baḥri l-masjūr, q 52:6), introduced as an image of the overwhelming mono-mentality of creation under the sky, was claimed as a celestial phenomenon and explained as «the upper water under the throne.» The assembled fragments of early cosmological theories agree that the space between the footstool or the whole throne and the earth is filled with water.

The inhabitants of the created world: humans and jinn

God created humans from dust (wa-min āyātihi an khalaqakum min turābin, q 3:52; 30:20; 40:67; 45:11) or clay (q.v.; wa-laqad khalaqnā l-insāna min sulālatin min ṭīn, q 23:12; cf. 6:2; 32:7; 37:11), potter’s clay (khalaqa l-insāna min ṣalṣālin ka-l-fakhkhār, q 55:14), fermented clay (laqad khalaqnā l-insāna min ṣalṣālin min ḥamāʾin masnūn, q 15:26) in contradistinction to the demons which were created from smokeless fire (wa-khalaqa l-jānna min mārijin min nār, q 55:15).¶ He created, then proportioned and stabilized man (alladhī khalaqaka fa-sawwāka fa-ʿadalaka, q 82:7), leading him through the various phases of his life (q.v.; huwa lladhī khalaqakum min turābin thumma min nuṭfatin thumma min ʿalaqatin thumma yukhrijukum ṭiflan thumma li-tablughū ashuddakum thumma li-takūnū shuyūkhan, q 40:67), giving him the beautiful shape he intended (wa- ṣawwarakum fa-aḥsana ṣuwarakum, q 64:3; cf. 7:10), supplying him with the sense of hearing and seeing (wa- jaʿala lakumu l-samʿa wa-abṣāra wa-l-afʾida, q 32:9; see seeing and hearing; eyes; ears; hearing and deafness) and blowing his spirit (q.v.) into him (wa- nafakha fīhi min rūḥihi, q 32.9, cf. 3:59; 40:68) or uttering the creational imperative «be» over him (khalaqahu min turābin thumma qāla lahu «kun» fa-yakūn, q 3:59) while at once he fixed his death term (thumma qaḍā ajalan wa-ajalun musamman ʿindahu, q 6:2). These stages of creation do not necessarily refer only to the mythical context of the creation of Adam (see adam and eve) but may perhaps apply as well to the empirically known process of human reproduction in which God takes an active part, forming the human being in the womb of the mother (huwa lladhī yuṣaw-wirukum fī l-arḥāmi kayfa yashāʾu, q 3:6; see biology as the creation and stages of life).

Contrarily, jinn (pl. jānn) in general have been created from fire (wa- khalaqa l-jānna min mārijin min nār, q 55:15; cf. 15:27). Jinn figure in the pre-qurʾānic world as familiar beings. They are known from desert life as mostly harmless demons manifesting themselves unexpectedly — often in the guise of an animal — in front of humans as a help (although sometimes as a trick). Alongside this ambivalent role, they also play a significant part as bearers of a faculty of communication crucial for the social life of al-jāhiliyya, acting as inspirers of supernatural knowledge to humans who thus become seers or poets (see poetry and poets). ¶ A poet is supposed to be «possessed» by an inspiring spirit (i.e. to be majnūn, passive participle derived from jinn). This faculty of the jinn which contradicts monotheistic notions of inspiration is vehemently contested in the Qurʾān: Even the Prophet himself has to cleanse himself of the accusation of being inspired by jinn (wa-mā ṣāḥibukum bi-majnūn, q 81:22; cf. 68:2, 51; 52:29; 37:36; 26:27; 15:6; see revelation and inspiration).

Among jinn,Iblīs (q 2:34; 7:11; 15:31f.; 17:61; 18:50; 20:116; 26:95; 34:20; 38:74f.), whose name is derived from Greek «diabolos» (Jeffery, For. vocab., 47f.), plays a prominent role in the Qurʾān. The noble substance from which he is created (fire, q.v.) induces him to claim superiority over man who is created from clay(ṭīn). His double affiliation — on the one hand with jinn, as implied in q 15:27f. and as one might infer from his occasional designation as al- shayṭān (q 20:120; 36:60), and on the other hand with the angels, as evident from q 15:30f. — suggests that the Qurʾān shares the notion developed in earlier Gnostic thought that both groups, demons and angels, are closely related. They become, however, clearly distinguishable in the Qurʾān when the function of inspiration is involved. The Prophet’s own angelic intermediator (qul man kāna ʿaduwwan li-Jibrīla fa-innahu nazzalahu ʿalā qalbika bi-idhni llāhi…, q 2:97; innahu la-qawlu rasūlin karīm, q 69:40) is vehemently defended against the suspicion of belonging to the jinn as inspirers of poets (wa-mā huwa bi-qawli shāʿir, q 69:41) or to be a shayṭān (wa-mā huwa bi-qawli shayṭānin rajīm, q 81:25).

Descent of humans from paradise to earth

As known from the apocryphal «Life of Adam and Eve» and other pre-qurʾānic sources (for details, see Awn, Tragedy), though also found in the Qurʾān, God had announced his plan of creation to the angels (q 2:28-31; 15:28-38). ¶ Man was to be the vicegerent of God on earth. When the angels contest the divine decree, God empowers Adam with the knowledge of the names of all things whereupon the angels accept to prostate themselves before him. Only Iblīs — figuring in the account as one of the angels — refuses, claiming to be created from nobler material than humans. Though condemning Iblīs for his disobedience (q.v.), God grants him his request to play an active role in humankind’s destiny as the seducer who performs the task of testing humans until judgment day (q 7:15-6).

After the creator has formed from Adam a wife for him, «from one soul» (khalaqakum min nafsin wāḥidatin wa-khalaqa minhā zawjahā, q 4:1; cf. 7:189; 30:21; 39:6; 42:11), he lodges them in paradise (q.v.: yā-Ādamu skun anta wa-zawjuka l- jannata, q 2:35; cf. 7:19; see garden). He forbids them to taste from one particular tree (wa-lā taqrabā hādhihi l- shajarata, q 2:35; cf. 7:19; see trees), the tree of immortality (shajarati l-khuldi wa-mulkin lā yablā, q 20:120), warning them about al- shayṭān (yā-Ādamu inna hādhā ʿaduwwun laka wa-li-zawjika fa-lā yukhrijannakumā mina l-jannati fa-tashqayā, q 20:117), a figure identical to Iblīs but bearing in his function of the seducer the generic designation of al-shayṭān, i.e. a spirit closely related to the jinn. Al-shayṭān succeeds in seducing them with vain promises (q 7:20-2) and induces them to eat from the forbidden tree. As a result they realize their nakedness and thus their sexuality (fa- akalā minhā fa-badat lahumā sawʿatuhumā, q 20:121; cf. 7:22; also Bounfour, Sexe; see sex and sexuality). Immediately they cover themselves with leaves. Overtaken by God, they have to descend from paradise to earth (fa-qulnā hbiṭū, q 2:36) where they continue to live as mortals (fīhā taḥyawna wa-fīhā tamūtūna wa-minhā tukhrajūn, q 7:25), but they do receive, after expressing repentance (rabbanā alamnā anfusanā, q 7:23; see repentance and penance), divine forgiveness (fa- talaqqā Ādamu min rabbihi kalimātin fa-tāba ʿalayhi, q 2:37). ¶

The episode is interpreted as an early covenant between God and Adam, a covenant which Adam and his offspring later forgot (wa-laqad ʿahidnā ilā Ādama min qablu fa-nasiya wa-lam najid lahu ʿazman/… fa-qulnā yā-Ādamu inna hādhā ʿaduwwun laka…, q 20:115-7). The covenant in pre-existence is extended to humankind as a whole (a-lam aʿhad ilaykum yā-banī Ādama an lā taʿbudū l-shayṭāna innahu lakum ʿaduwwun mubīn, q 36:60). In spite of man’s liability to neglect it, Adam still figures as the first among the prophets with whom God entered into covenant and is the prototype of the vicegerent of God on earth, destined to reign in truth. The notion of a fatal sin committed by Adam and passed on to humankind does not exist in the Qurʾān (see fall of man).

The human habitat in space and time

Qurʾānic sections entailing narrative reports of the creation of the world (q.v.; q 41:8-12) and of humans (q 2:28-39; 7:10-34; 15:26-48; 17:61-5; 20:115-23; 38:71-85) are chronologically preceded by reminiscences of creation embedded in exhortations to give thanks to God, i.e. «signs of creation» (āyāt). These mostly hymn-like appraisals of divine deeds, very frequent in the early sūras (Graham, Signs; Neuwirth, Studien, 192-6), that create the image of the world as a lodging for humans, as a tent granting them repose (a-lam najʿali l-arḍa mihādan/wa-l-jibāla awtādan/wa-khalāqnākum azwājan/wa-jaʿalnā nawmakum subātan/wa-jaʿalnā l-layla libāsan/wa- jaʿalnā l-nahāra maʿāshan, q 78:6-11), are often clad in images familiar to the Psalms (compare, for instance, q 55 with Ps 136). ¶ There is, however, the marked difference that while the psalmist praises God as the creator of a monumental cosmos and a paradisiacal dwelling for humans, in the qurʾānic case it is God who reminds them that his abundantly furnished habitat is both a gift demanding thanksgiving in return and a token for which account must be made.

It is obvious that the images used in the Qurʾān to depict the human habitat as divinely created and as divinely sustained are in striking opposition to the image of the heroic homelessness of human beings in the midst of threatening and invincible nature, as reflected in ancient Arabic poetry. Heroic man as depicted in the poetry of the pre-Islamic Arabia is not only charged with hardships to ensure the survival of his clan but also with existential achievements to ensure the honor of his tribe (see tribes and clans). The human condition was understood to be governed by the anticipation of a person’s ajal, his fated time, life being understood as governed by the inscrutable will of a dark, blind, semi-personal being, Fate (q.v.; al- dahr) from whose strong grip there was no escape (Izutsu, God). Humans thus find themselves in constant confrontation with al-dahr, a superior power which wastes his strength and eventually overwhelms him, if he himself does not forestall its blow by exposing himself to the worst dangers, thus inviting death itself to hit him before the appointed time. Contrary to that scenario, in the Qurʾān humans are not only provided for materially (q 78:6-11), being accommodated in surroundings that sometimes reflects material abundance (wa-l-arḍa waḍaʿahā li-l-anām/fīhā fākihatun wa-l-nakhlu dhātu l-akmām/wa-l-ḥabbu dhū l-ʿaṣfi wa-l- rayḥān/ fa-bi-ayyi ālāʾi rabbikumā tukadh-dhibān, q 55:10-13), but also spiritually since God takes the responsibility for their dignity by inviting them to accept his guidance. Nothing is left to an unpredictable fate, everything is measured in advance (inna kulla shayʾin khalaqānhu bi-qadar, q 54:49).¶

The human being’s approach to time, conceiving it as devastating, al- ayyām and even al-layālī — with the multiple meanings of darkness and fate — as wasting one’s life away has thus been changed in value. Day has become the portion of time given to humans to strive for their livelihood (wa-jaʿalnā l-nahāra maʿāshan, q 78:11) while nights are merely periods of repose to be spent in the familiar space of home and, moreover, conjugal company (wa-khalaqnākum azwājan/wa-jaʿalnā nawmakum subātan/wa- jaʿalnā l- layla libāsan, q 78:8-10).

These presentations of an intact created space are not to be taken in isolation but are meant to hint at a concealed meaning. They are oriented toward an eschatological focus (see eschatology): God’s absolute power to create (khalq) warrants his power to recreate (khalq jadīd, see power and impotence). The image drawn by the āyāt is therefore complemented by its reverse projection, the image of the dissolution of creation at the end of the days. These counter-accounts to the āyāt, the «eschatological scenarios» (Neuwirth, Studien, 190-1), present created space in the situation of its destruction. The eschatological events do not, however, mark the definite extinction of the created cosmos, but space — after passing the temporal limit of judgment — reappears under two contrasting images: the absolute negative, tormenting fire, hell (jahannam, see hell; fire); and the absolute positive, the shady paradisiacal garden(janna), the representations of which occupy considerable space in the early sūras. The early verses about human accommodation on earth (al- dunyā, «the lower world») and in the hereafter (al-ākhira, «the last times»), though highly referential, only incidentally reflect the older scriptural narratives themselves. ¶ They are very often closely related to the liturgical recollections of ancient Near Eastern lore with their rich metaphoric resources such as the psalms (cf. Speyer, Erzählungen, 447-9; Neuwirth, Narrative; see metaphor; narratives) known from the practice of the monotheist groups adjacent to the early community — a fact scarcely astonishing in view of the liturgical character of the early sūras. It is only subsequently that later reminiscences of world creation, encountered in sūras that already serve primarily didactic ends, occur in the shape of sermon-like admonishments.

God and humans

The Qurʾān stresses again and again that humans, as such, are ambivalent creatures, being ungrateful (qutila l- insānu mā akfarahu, q 80:17; cf. 22:46; 42:48; 43:15; see gratitude and ingratitude) and stubborn (inna l-insāna li-rabbihi la-kanūd, q 100:6), fainthearted (inna l-insāna khuliqa halūʿan, q 70:19), heavy (laqad khalaqnā l-insāna fī kabad, q 90:4), unruly and willful (inna l-insāna la-yaṭghā, q 96:6). This deficiency — as the context of the sūras in question shows — is due both to their shortsightedness and to their obligations to their creator (a-yaḥsabu an lam yarahu aḥad, q 90:7; cf. 100:9f.). It is a defect anticipated by the angels who before the creation of Adam disapproved of God’s plan to install humans as his deputies on earth arguing that they might cause corruption and shed blood (qālū a-tajʿalu fīhā man yufsidu fīhā wa-yasfiku l-dimāʾ, q 2:30). Still", humanity", through Adam, is a khilāfa (see caliph) of God. The centrality of humanity and its representational relationship to God can be seen as grounded in an ontological «community» (al-Azmeh, Thought; see community and society in the qurʾān). Although according to the Qurʾān human beings are not explicitly created in the image of God, they still share crucial faculties with God, primarily that of mercy (q.v.; raḥma, cf. e.g. wa-huwa arḥamu l-rāḥimīn, q 12:92; and fa-ammā l-yatīma fa-lā taqhar/ wa-ammā l-sāʾila fa-lā tanhar, q 93:9-10), the readiness to revise their positions and repent (thumma yatūbūna min qarībin fa-ūlāʾika yatūbu llāhu ʿalayhim, q 4:17), to remain patient (wa-laʾin ṣabartum la-huwa khayrun lilṣābirīn, q 16:126).¶ If humans do not cope with the tasks imposed on them by God’s primordial design, it still remains their destiny to take them upon themselves. As a creature the human being is surely subject to contradictory conditions, grandeur and wretchedness (laqad khalaqnā l-insāna fī aḥsani taqwīm/thumma radadnāhu asfala sāfilīn, q 95:4-5). However, as the symbolic subtext of the sūra suggests, human time (q.v.) is not confined to the circular span of an individual’s lifetime but has become linear, extending over a much longer period. Although human physical time does describe a circle from insignificant beginnings to its climax in adulthood and back to decrepitude, the significant, spiritual time of the human condition spans from primordial creation and subsequent divine revelation to humankind on the one hand, to the resolution of creation and the final, eschatological rendering of account on the other.

These images, in spite of their eschatological framework (see eschatology), are closely reminiscent of the psalms, not only implying an active, personal role on the side of God but also his faculty to work as an artisan who shapes humans like a potter shapes his forms (khalaqa l-insāna min ṣalṣālin ka-l-fakhkhār, q 55:14), who used his own hands in creation (mā manaʿaka an tasjuda li-mā khalaqtu bi-yadayya, q 38:75) and who certainly keeps everything under his supervision (wa-ṣnaʿi l-fulka bi-aʿyuninā, q 11:37). These verses of the Qurʾān with their overtly anthropomorphic imagery, attributing to God not only power and will but also eyes (q.v.) and hands (q.v.) and most strikingly a stable location, a throne (thumma stawā ʿalā l-ʿarshi, q 7:54),¶ are apt to counterbalance the evidence of an absolute transcendence of God as suggested by the numerous verses about his extreme remoteness and exclusive power (see anthropomorphism). The notion of one particular God as the creator of the world, of course, had already been acknowledged in pre-Islamic Arabia but this association between creation and God had not always been necessarily firm and definite and thus could be taken to be of little relevance for created beings. It is exactly the awareness of human «creatureliness» (Isutzu, God), the acceptance of this particular descent of humankind, that forms the basis of an Islamic consciousness.

There is further evidence of a totally new scenario of mundane interaction: Social life appears not only to be based on God’s providence, as though God were simply a substitute for the blind fate which overshadowed the jāhilī life (see age of ignorance), but also to be substantially new in nature. Human interaction is no longer confined to the human agents involved but has been extended to accommodate a new «mythic participant», — hierarchically more elevated than the human co-actors — who plays the role of a «stage director.» He lends his hand to support his creatures in difficult ventures such as the exaction of blood revenge (see vengeance) — previously a domain of the heroic individual (faqad jaʿalnā li-waliyyihi sulṭānan falā yusrif fī l-qatli innahu kāna manṣūran, q 17:33) and relieves man of the burden of providing for his extended family in times of crisis; God’s provision even works to eliminate the barbaric forms of self-preservation inherited from the jāhiliyya, such as infanticide (q.v.; q 17:31, cf. 81:9). But God as the creator and preserver of his creatures is not only their co-actor, he is their preceptor as well: The mode of communicating the new knowledge about the personal divine-human relation itself claims to encompass the participation of the dominant new protagonist as it emerges as speech sent from on high. ¶ Insofar as this sender is at once an ever-present actor in the scenario of the new scripture-oriented interaction, communication as reflected in the Qurʾān decisively transcends all earlier analogies of superhuman transmission of knowledge, primarily the mode of soothsaying, waḥy al-kahāna (see soothsayers).

Developments

The problem of evil and suffering (q.v.), the need to explain their existence, which does not arise in tribally oriented traditional religions, had to be introduced for pagan listeners of the qurʾānic message. The myth of the first sin or more precisely of human initiation in the notion of good and evil, is conveyed in a biblical context in the account of the first couple’s tasting of the forbidden tree in the very beginning of the Judaeo-Christian scripture. As for the Qurʾān, the analogous account does not occupy a comparably prominent position. With regard to the early sūras, the divine creation of humans is often recollected, clad in hymn-like reminiscences of divine providence that appear in the context of short hymn-like verses (qraʾ bismi rabbika lladhī khalaqa/khalaqa l-insāna min ʿalaq, q 96:1-2; alladhī khalaqa fa-sawwā, q 87:2). These texts are not interested, however, in the dramatic circumstances of man’s transition from a mythic orbit into that of lived reality. With the evolution of the polythematic sūra, i.e. with the transition of the Qurʾān from an oral to a written and thus scripture-oriented text and the accompanying process of a canonization from below (Neuwirth, Rezitationstext; see book), a complex structure for the mythic drama emerges. The divine choice of the human being as God’s elect and the ensuing election (q.v.) of a community is presented in six sūras; in later cases, it is complemented by the account of the first transgression. ¶ All cases, however, work to elucidate particular needs of the community. The complete set of structural elements are (1) a short introductory recollection of the creation of human beings or of the pact concluded between God and humankind. This is followed by (2) the drama in heaven: (a) God’s announcement to the angels of Adam’s creation, (b) their disapproval but (c) final acceptance of Adam’s election, and (d) the deal concluded between God and Iblīs allowing for the testing of man by Iblīs/ al- shayṭān. After its treatment in the first three sūra accounts, the deal story is finally followed by (3) the test of the first couple. It is, however, noteworthy that the canonized final text of the Qurʾān (muṣḥaf, q.v.) has placed a most elaborate and theologically relevant version of the comprehensive account in the first main part of the first long sūra though not the beginning of the corpus.

Sūra 15:26-48

The earliest testimony of the story occupies the central part of q 15 (vv. 26-48). It is still confined to the drama of the deal in heaven (2 a, c, d). This simple type (i.e. without the test of the first couple) unfolds before the mythic backdrop of the creation of humans and jinn from diverse substances as stated in the programmatic verse q 15:26, quoted almost exactly from the earlier q 55:14-5 (innā khalaqnā l-insāna min ṣalṣālin ka-l-fakhkhār wa-khalaqa l-jānna min mārijin min nār, q 15:26-7). This diversity of the elements of creation which did not produce immediate antagonisms between the two groups in q 55, gains momentum in all the texts involving Iblīs. After creating the first human being from clay God invites the spirits — creatures generated from fire — to prostrate themselves before him (see bowing and prostration). ¶ Only Iblīs refuses — claiming to be of more noble origin than Adam. Accused of disobedience and cursed, he is nevertheless granted respite from punishment and authorized to set out to challenge his primordial rival, Adam, i.e. humankind, through seduction. God himself thus cedes part of his interaction with humankind to Iblīs, entitling him to test humans. He will, however, have no power over God’s elected servants (illā ʿibādaka minhumu l-mukhlaṣīn, q 15:40). Humans thus have the option of following guidance or giving way to seduction, which henceforth provides the criterion separating true believers and deluded disbelievers (see belief and unbelief). It is the work of Iblīs that underlies the crisis reflected in the sūra, namely the schism of the Meccans into believers and unbelievers. Inasmuch as the agreement between God and Satan, concluded in pre-existence (for the type of this mythical story cf. Job), foresees that most of those put to the test by Iblīs/ al- shayṭān will not resist seduction, it is only logical that the community of the first hearers of the Qurʾān (ʿibādu llāhi mukhlaṣūn), who have remained untouched by Iblīs, have to face a majority who insist on denying the message (see opposition to muḥammad). The Meccan community and their opponents alike thus appear to have been preconceived as such in pre-existence. The focus of the argument is on the election of the group of actual listeners, the adherents of the qurʾānic message, who, though suffering social hardships, are divinely elected. The mythic narrative comes as a consolation (q.v.), serving to reaffirm for them the justice of their cause and to legitimate them as a religious community. Their status as a religious community is affirmed by the fact that the ensuing pericope addresses them (nabbiʾ ʿibād, q 15:49) as the recipients of a divine message, including the exemplary story of previously beleaguered righteous believers. ¶ With such biblical predecessors of the Meccan community, who emerge from their struggle against calumny, prejudice, superstition and tradition, with manifest triumph, with their foes and hostile conspirators disowned and broken (Cragg, Event, 171), the sūra predicts success for those who endure.

Sūra 38:71-85

The second version of the simple type of the deal-story (q 38:67-85) serves different ends. The pericope which differs in rhythm and rhyme from the preceding text may have been linked to it in order to supply a heavenly prototype (q 38:69) for the ambivalent activity of arguing which appears as the leitmotiv of the whole sūra. Dispute is presented as the negative counterpart of the implementation of truth (al- ḥukm bi-l-ḥaqq, q 38:22, 26; cf. 38:84; see debate and disputation). The central figure of the sūra is David (q.v.; Dāwūd), evoked as a prominent scriptural personification of the primordial deputy of God on earth, as divinely decreed (yā-Dāwūdu inn jaʿalnāka khalīfatan fī l-arḍi fa-ḥkum bayna l-nāsi bi-l-ḥaqqi wa-lā tattabiʿi l-hawā fa-yuḍillaka ʿan sabīli llāhi, q 38:26). The episode relates that two numinous disputants (wa-hal atāka nabaʾu l-khaṣmi…/idh dakhalū alā Dāwūda fa-faziʿa minhum qālū lā takhaf, khaṣmāni…, q 38:21-2) appear before David to enact a symbolical lawsuit thereby arousing his troubled conscience (wa- ẓanna Dāwūdu annamā fattannāhu fa-staghfara rabbahu, q 38:24). The argument is about a case where truth was suppressed by rhetorical means (wa-ʿazzanī fī l-khiṭāb, q 38:23), an inappropriate use of dispute. Dispute to avoid facing a truth is also practiced by those condemned to hell (takhāṣumu ahli l-nār, q 38:64). But the primordial origin of arguing lies in the role played by Iblīs in the heavenly deal. ¶ It is true, the heavenly council (see court) itself is in dispute (mā kāna lī min ʿilmin bi-l-malaʾi l-aʿlā idh yakhtaṣimūn, q 38:69), most probably an allusion to the angels' disapproval of the election of Adam as deputy of God and thus entitled to the obedience of the heavenly hosts (wa-idh qāla rabbuka lil-malāʾikati innī jāʿilun fī l-arḍi khalīfatan fa-qālū a-tajʿalu fīhā man yufsidu fīhā, q 2:30). But all finally comply; only the pretentious Iblīs (istakbara, q 38:74; see arrogance) insists on the inferiority of humans to spirits, daring to dismiss God’s argument of creating Adam with his own hands (mā manaʿaka an tasjuda li-mā khalaqtu bi-yadayya, q 38:75) in view of his nobler substance. He is cursed (see curse) and driven from the heavens. Being granted, however, respite from punishment, he starts a new argument. He invokes God’s omnipotence itself (bi- ʿizzatika, q 38:82) in swearing to seduce all of Adam’s offspring — again excluding explicitly the elected servants (q 38:83; cf. 15:40). Against Iblīs' pathetic oath, God invokes the truth of his own word (qāla fa-l- ḥaqqu wa-l-ḥaqqa aqūl, q 38:84) to attest to the firmness of his will to punish Iblīs and his followers, consigning them to hell. The pericope embedded in a section about reaffirmation of the community is — however close in content to that in q 15 — distinguished from it by its far higher tension, being itself an enactment of a takhāṣum, a fierce argument. Arguing, in the sense disapproved by the ḥadīth (inna abghaḍa l-nāsi ilā llāhi l-aladdu l-khaṣmi) has its primordial origin in Iblīs' performance in the deal episode. The focus of the version presented in q 38 is on the pretentiousness of Iblīs (istakbara, q 38:74-5) who dares to argue with God, only to end up with the power to work seductive works (la-ughwiyannahum, q 38:82) that fail next to God’s true words (al-ḥaqq, q 38:84). His is a merely rhetorical message devoid of truth and meant to lead to an illusive confidence in human self-sufficiency on the side of his followers. ¶

Sūra 17:61-5

A further echo of the deal-story, again placed in the context of consolation in a crisis, is presented by a short pericope in q 17:61-5. The passage is part of a vehement polemic (see polemic and polemical language) against unbelievers which entails admonitions to the community to remain patient with those who are obviously affected by Iblīs/ al- shayṭān (wa-qul li- ʿibādī yaqūlū llatī hiya aḥsanu inna l-shayṭāna yanzaghu baynahum inna l-shayṭāna kāna lil-insāni ʿaduwwan mubīnan, q 17:53). The isolation the community suffers thus follows from Iblīs' power over the majority of humankind (la-aḥtanikanna dhurriyyatahu illā qalīlan, q 17:62), while it is at the same time proof of their being elected (inna ʿibādī laysa laka ʿalayhim sulṭānun wa-kafā bi-rabbika wakīlan, q 17:65). The short recollection of the deal-narrative pinpoints the means of seduction introduced by al-shayṭān, particularly wealth and numerous offspring, those privileges of which the community’s powerful opponents boast. The mythic story thus reveals them as most ambiguous commands, no more than divinely intended devices for testing. In the end, the essential remains the enactment of the human response to the offer of divine guidance.

Sūra 20:115-23

In the second type of the account, which focuses on the test (3) of the primordial couple, only allusion is made to the mythic deal (2) between God and Iblīs. This more complex narrative is presented in the final, consoling, section of q 20 (vv. 115-23). The story is introduced (1) as a divine covenant (q.v.) with Adam. ¶ Al-shayṭān, obviously identical with Iblīs but introduced with his generic designation to underline his role as a malign force, seduces the first couple to taste from the tree of immortality (shajaratu l-khuld, q 20:120). They comply — in spite of a divine warning (yā-Ādamu inna hādhā ʿaduwwun laka wa-li-zawjika, q 20:117) — obviously from mere curiosity since God has reminded them that they do not lack anything by which to satisfy their hunger (inna laka allā tajūʿa fīhā, q 20:118). What they actually gain from tasting the forbidden fruit is, however, not immortality but the awareness of their nakedness and their sexuality (Bounfour, Sexe). The hitherto unfelt desire to consume the fruit from the unknown tree is now followed by an equally novel desire to cover their bodies, a measure which God had declared to be superfluous (inna laka allā tajūʿa fīhā wa-la taʿrā, q 20:118). Once the fruit is tasted, the awareness of individuality and thus the need of delimiting oneself from the surrounding world, of bearing a secret (see secrets) not to be exposed to outsiders, has been aroused: They cover themselves with leaves. The implications of their changing relationship towards the outer world are, however, fully elaborated. The transgression is, contrarily, viewed solely as demanding repentance. Accepted once again by God they are granted guidance. Though they have to descend from paradise, obviously understood as a demotion in status, they do not part without the divine promise that guidance will be offered to them later on to save them from going astray (q.v.). It is the awareness of this binding covenant between God and humankind which can only be disrupted by human forgetfulness (qāla ka-dhālika atatka āyātunā fa-nasītahā wa-ka-dhālika l-yawma tunsā, q 20:126) that marks the dividing line between the community and the disbelievers. The community — and this is the message of the sūra — has become a people of a divine covenant (q.v.). ¶ It is noteworthy that this first version of the test-narrative displays a particular tendency to rid single narrative elements of their virtual mythic potency. Thus the act of tasting of the fruit deemed fatal in the biblical story as well as the desire to cover one’s body, an experience marking the transition to a new stage of socialization, are both reduced in advance to a mere satisfaction of physical needs, God admonishing the first couple that they do not suffer from hunger nor from lack of clothing. The mythic significance of the acts, the momentum of their essential "firstness, " has thus been lost and excluded.

Sūra 7:10-34

The third type of account, which is the most comprehensive account, entailing an introduction and both the deal- and the test-narratives (1, 2, 3), is presented in a pericope embedded in the polemical introductory section of q 7 (vv. 10-34). It starts with an appeal (1) to the listeners — who are viewed as embodying Adam — to remember their creation and their accommodation in their earthly dwelling, presented as an ideal habitat, and to be accordingly grateful. The scenario then switches to the heavens (2) where Iblīs figures in his well-known role as a rebel refusing to prostrate himself before Adam; he is cursed but at his request granted a stay of punishment. Rather, he sets out to seduce humans to the vice of ingratitude — that particular human deficiency already lamented as prevailing among them in the introduction. The test story (3) again sets forth an appeal, addressed to Adam and his wife to enjoy the fruit of the garden except for one tree which they are to avoid. ¶ Al-shayṭān, eager to make them aware of their nakedness, whispers that the restriction has only been made to deny them the status of angels and eternal life. Arousing their curiosity and greed for a good withheld, he induces them to eat from the tree, thus causing their discovery of their nakedness. Again they hasten to cover themselves with leaves. The mischief cannot, however, remain hidden; God calls them to account, reminding them that they have been warned about al- shayṭān — an allusion to the earlier text q 20:117(yā-Ādamu inna hādhā ʿaduwwun laka wa-li-zawjika fa-lā yukhrijannakuma mina l-jannati fa-tashqayā). They acknowledge their transgression and ask to be pardoned. Since the acceptance of the plea is already known from an earlier text (thumma ijtabāhu rabbuhu fa-tāba ʿalayhi wa-hadā, q 20:122), the divine answer is confined to the decree that they have to leave paradise altogether to find their living on earth, destined moreover to be each other’s enemies. Immortality is emphatically denied to them (fīhā taḥyawna wa-fīhā tamūtūna, q 7:25) but death is not final in view of the central qurʾānic revelation, the promise of resurrection (wa-minhā tukhrajūna, q 7:25). This account of both the election and the test of man, the fullest in the Qurʾān, functions as an etiological basis for an argument that is unfolded in the ensuing sermon. Humans are exhorted (see exhorations) to accept the custom of clothing as a divine grace calling for gratefulness, a social achievement to assure decency — which is only eclipsed in value by the allegorical cloth of humankind, the virtue of fear of God. They shall beware of al-shayṭān whose seduction brings about degradation in rank and humiliation through exposure. Further admonitions ensue regarding decent behavior in places of worship, while the upholders of coarse pagan customs are denounced as followers of al-shayṭān ¶. The account, which is obviously understood to culminate in the primordial couple’s shocking awareness of their nakedness, is thus put to the service of a reform concept, the plea for a less ostentatious pagan practice of ancient Arabian rites which were occasionally performed by naked worshipers.

Sūra 2:28-39

The fourth type (q 2:28-39) presents yet a different selection of elements: It is characterized by a particularly elaborate prologue (2a) to the — shortly summarized — heavenly deal (2b), leading to the test story (3). The prologue, focusing on the newly developed design, serves to solve the enigma of God’s demand of the angels to prostrate themselves before a figure other than himself. The pericope (q 2:28-39) is part of a sūra which appears as a loose collection of diverse text units, thus making it difficult to judge the structural function of its single elements; the pericope may, however, be fruitfully juxtaposed to previous versions. With a prelude which recalls (1) the creation of humankind and the cosmos (q 2:28-9) it continues with God’s announcement that he is to establish a deputy on earth (innī jāʿilun fī l-arḍi khalīfatan, q 2:30), a plan vehemently opposed by the angels who anticipate the moral ambivalence of human behavior in contrast to their own pure service of God (wa-naḥnu nusabbiḥu bi-ḥamdika wa-nuqaddisu laka, q 2:30). In order for him to be superior to the angels Adam is endowed with the knowledge of the names of things and thus accepted. The angels refrain from further argument complying with God’s knowledge of hidden truth (a-lam aqul lakum innī aʿlamu ghayba l-samāwāti wa-l-arḍi, q 2:33; see hidden and the hidden). They prostrate themselves before God’s elect with the now well-known exception of Iblīs whose ensuing «investiture» as seducer is now presupposed. ¶ In the second part of the narrative (3), Adam, whose future important role in the lower realm of the earth has already been disclosed to the listeners, has to go through the decisive change from a privileged but not self-responsible inhabitant of the garden to an active responsible agent on earth. The positive response to God’s invitation to establish himself with his wife in the garden but to confine themselves to the share entrusted to them (wa-kulā minhā raghadan ḥaythu shiʾtumā wa-lā taqrabā…, q 2:35) cannot therefore be lasting. Indeed, the ensuing transgression of the limits set in the divine offer is but the enactment of the transition demanded for the realization of the destined change. But the qurʾānic perspective is different: The blame is laid on al- shayṭān who is accused of having made them slip and thus of despoiling their enjoyment of the garden and the status they had held. They are ordered to descend to earth, inimical to each other (see enemy), where they will find a living place and provisional means of living. Their repentance and rehabilitation being known from the earlier texts, it is only fitting that Adam whose election as khalīfatu llāh on earth and whose endowment with knowledge constituted the beginning of the story, is honored in the end by a divine message (fa- talaqqā Ādamu min rabbihi kalimātin, q 2:37) and promised guidance for his offspring. The pericope is strongly referential and relies on the listeners' knowledge of important details from earlier publicized pericopes. But the plot has by now changed its focus: It is no longer a consolation for the community of the elect confronted with followers of the seducer as in the earliest versions (type one), nor a lesson in obedience the neglect of which will result in shameful self-exposure and humiliating degradation from a noble status to a more burdensome one (type two), nor an argument for the implementation of new social norms (type three).¶ Rather, it is obviously intended to be more universal by presenting the primordial exemplum for the endless coexistence of the positive option of divine guidance — to be implemented by the deputy of God on earth — and the negative option of following one’s desire. Inclination towards the wrong choice has been already experienced by the first human being and is reflected in human behavior since then. The human being now established as the deputy of God on earth, the qurʾānic admonitions and recollections of examples acquire the momentum of this deputy’s ethical project to be implemented on earth.

Summary: Some theological implications

The seemingly repetitive qurʾānic creation accounts clearly convey various messages. They share, however, the characteristic of a far-reaching emptiness of those mythical traits that in the biblical story serve to explain world order etiologically. Indeed, a kind of demystification has taken place. The first woman is neither compromised by a «secondary» origin from a rib of Adam, thus being degraded to comparatively inferior rank, nor does she play a fatal initiative role in the act of transgression that could win her the doubtful reputation of a seductress. Furthermore, the tasting of the food is not motivated by any alluring mystery that could arouse desire (the biblical concupiscentia oculorum); rather, the act is marginalized as essentially superfluous in view of the lack of hunger suffered by the inhabitants of the garden. Not even the sudden discovery of their nakedness as a shocking exposure is viewed as more than incidental mischief. The most significant role of Iblīs as a dialogical agent — bringing about the transformation of the human being from an obedient but not self-responsible creature to an active agent fit to take up his task on earth — remains unacknowledged in the Qurʾān. It is no surprise, then, that later exegetes in the Ṣūfī tradition have revised his image. ¶ Iblīs becomes a tragic figure raised to the rank of the purest believer in the unrivalled uniqueness of his lord, whose refusal to prostate himself before Adam though an act of disobedience to God’s command, becomes an act of faithfulness to God’s will (Ḥallāj; Awn, Tragedy). It is noteworthy that determinist exegesis leads to similar conclusions: If God has decreed the role of Iblīs, how can Iblīs be blamed? The Qurʾān and mainstream exegesis, however, do not allow for such a moral rehabilitation of the figure. Still in the narrative, however, he alone retains a mythic dimension, posing an unsolved enigma. In view of the otherwise strikingly a-mythic reading of the ancient accounts in the Qurʾān it becomes all the more relevant that a mythic elevation of the community of believers has taken place, their emergence being foreshadowed in the deal concluded in pre-existence between God and Iblīs. It is in that sense that the community is anticipated, raised to the rank of God’s elects, inaccessible to the machinations of Iblīs. The final growth of the account reached in q 2:28-39 culminates in a combination of two election narratives, the universal election of Adam who is called upon to implement divine truth on earth and the historical election of the community to live up to the truth transmitted to them from the same source, is hardly purely accidental. At this advanced stage of the canonical process where the concept of a khalīfatu llāh on earth as an agent of God who is to reign in truth (already touched upon, but not yet unfolded in q 38:26) constitutes the nucleus of a central qurʾānic design, could a more qualified personification of that divine design be imagined than that offered by the elect community?¶1/457/2¶

A later, isolated verse, q 33:72, presents a shorthand mythic image — familiar to other Near Eastern traditions as well (cf. Speyer, Erzählungen) — for the unique rank of man in the qurʾānic concept of cosmogony: «We offered the trust to the heavens and the earth and the mountains, but they refused to carry it and were afraid of it; and man carried it, verily man is sinful, very foolish» (innā ʿaraḍnā l-amānata ʿalā l-samāwāti wa-l-arḍi wa-l-jibāli fa-abayna an yaḥmilnahā wa-ashfaqna minhā wa-ḥamalahā l-insānu innahu kāna ẓalūman jahūlan). Humans thus took upon themselves the challenge and the risk of falling prey to injustice and error (q.v.). Human consent to this privileged, yet dangerous stance within the venture of creation appears like a «fiat» to the order of a world that involves humans as serious partners from the beginning (Talbi, L’homme). The risk is, of course, mutual: Cragg (Mind, 142) has stressed, «there is an evident risk divinely taken at creation. Man was seen as a dubious proposition in the divine counsels — too frail to be trusted, too arrogant to be thus empowered, too liable to shed blood and corrupt the earth. In this qurʾānic myth of man-the-liability, history is seen as the sphere of the Satanic determination to prove the accusation valid and the divine risk discredited. The very theme of history is thus the question mark of human worth, albeit understood as a vital question-mark of divine wisdom and power. The wisdom of God is staked on the credibility of man as its supreme test and venture. The question of God is the question of man. The human is in this way the sphere in which the divine is either acknowledged or belied.» See history and the qurʾān.

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Cite this page

Neuwirth, Angelika, «Cosmology», in: Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān, General Editor: Jane Dammen McAuliffe, Georgetown University, Washington DC. Consulted online on 07 January 2017 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1875-3922_q3_EQCOM_00043>

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