Qur’an Cover-to-Cover: Day 21 (“Rock City”)

So, I’ve made a decision… Once I reach the halfway point in the Qur’an (which should happen in a few days), I’m going to take a break from this series for a couple of weeks.

I’ve finally managed to make contact with a local Imam, so I’m hoping to meet him soon and start working through the large backlog of questions I’ve recorded about the chapters read thus far.

I’m sure that more than a few of you are getting a bit tired of the relentless posts about Isalm.  To be honest, I’m also finding that my daily reading and writing is becoming a bit of a grind. It’s time-consuming and there are some other long-overdue posts I’d much prefer to complete!

However, as I am not quite at the halfway point, today I read the chapter of the Qur’an which is rather excitingly titled “Rock City”…

Surah 15 – “Rock City” (Al-Hijr)
We open with the affirmation that this is a “clear Qur’an [i.e. recitation]”. I will no longer point out when the Qur’an’s chapters begin like this. Hitherto, I wanted to make sure that I emphasized in these notes how often the Qur’an affirms its perspicuity.

We are told that no city was ever destroyed which had not previously received a warning of imminent destruction from one of Allah’s Messengers. This will be important for the examples which we will cover later in this surah.

We hear the common objections given by the disbelievers:

• Accusations of madness against the Messenger
• Expectations of angels accompanying the Messenger

We are told that, concerning the message sent down by Allah, that He “will be its guardian”. This is an affirmation of the preservation of His Scriptures. My translation assumes that the scriptures mentioned refers to the Qur’an, but it’s not clear to me why this statement shouldn’t refer more generally to all the scriptures sent down by Allah, which would include the Torah and the Injil.

We are told that every Messenger of God was greeted with ridicule. It wouldn’t matter if the greatest sign was shown to the people, they would still make excuses not to believe.

Allah’s creation, the heavens and the earth in particular, are described and praised.

Fall of Iblees
We have a retelling of the Fall of Satan, who refused to obey Allah’s command to prostrate before man, being as he was made of “clay from an altered black mud”. No new information is revealed in this version of the story, except that we are told that Iblees has “no authority…over [Allah’s servants], except those who follow you of the deviators”. We are also told that Hell has seven gates.

Abraham
The meeting between the angels and Abraham is described, where the angels “give you good tidings of a learned boy”, which I’m assuming is reference to the conception of Isaac. They also tell Abraham that they are here to punish the people of Lot “…except the family of Lot…except his wife. We [Allah] decreed that she is of those who remain behind”. Once again, it is asserted that Lot’s wife remained in Sodom, rather than the Biblical account where she nearly escapes, but looks back at the last second.

Lot
The story of Lot’s escape from Sodom is told in the usual manner. Interestingly, despite the fact that we’re told that Lot’s wife will “remain behind”, Lot is still told to follow at the rear of his family to make sure that nobody looks back. The rest of the story is the same as narrated elsewhere in the Qur’an, although Sodom’s destruction is described in similar terms to the destruction of Thamud, with a “shriek” and the city being “rained upon…[with] stones of hard clay”.

Shu’ayb
The punishment of the people of Midian is very briefly mentioned.

Thamud
We now come to the place which gives its name to the title of this chapter, “the companions of al-Hirj”, which can be translated as “the companions of the valley of stone”. The people of Thamud had this name because “they used to carve from the mountains houses, feeling secure”. However, when they rejected the Prophet Salih, “the shriek seized them at early morning” and they were destroyed.

Muhammad
The chapter concludes by talking about Muhammad and the Qur’an. Although the text is somewhat ambiguous, it says that some people opposed Muhammad, accepting part of his revelation, but rejecting other elements of it. Muhammad is told to declare what Allah commands, and by the acceptance or rejection of this message, believers will be distinguished from disbelievers.

Q1. There is the promise of preservation of Allah’s message in ayah 9. Is this for all Scripture, or just the Qur’an? If it’s just the Qur’an, why not all Scripture?

Q2. Ayah 18 talks of “one who steals a hearing and is pursued by a clear burning flame”. Is this a reference to the Jinn who used to eavesdrop on Heaven and then tell what they heard to soothsayers? Is the reference to “flame” a description of the Jinn (being made from smokeless fire), or is it describing the means by which they are chased away from Heaven?

Q3. If prostration to humans is something that one cannot now do with the advent of Muhammad, will the angels and Jinn no longer bow down to man in the Hereafter?

Q4. If Iblees knows that he can’t cross the will of Allah by tempting away the elect (ayah 40), why did he do it in the first place when he refused to prostrate to man (ayah 31)?

Q5. What is the significance of Hell having seven gates?

Q6. Are the “give you good tidings of a learned boy” a reference to the conception of Isaac?

Q7. What does it mean for Lot’s family to be a “people unknown”?

Q8. By saying that “they are [situated] on an established road”, is the Qur’an saying that travellers can still see the ruins of the cities destroyed by Allah?

Q9. What is the significance of Allah reminding Muhammad in ayah 87 about Surah #1?

Q10. What does it mean when it says that Allah “revealed [scriptures] to the separators” in ayah 90? This seems a strange thing to do. The next ayah’s footnote makes more sense of this by saying that these people pick and choose what to believe. However, my footnotes also say that ayah 90 can be retranslated as Allah sending down punishment. What is your opinion?

I plan to keep writing up these Qur’anic posts until Monday and then there’ll be a break for a little while until I’ve met with the Imam and caught up with my questions. After that, I’ll pick things back up and finish the final 50% of the Qur’an. Until tomorrow…

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