Welcome Friends: Ahlan wa sahlan!
We encountered the story of Adam in our second Chapter, The Cow (put ‘Adam’ in ‘Search’ on https://iqralaan.wordpress.com/).
Looking back at what we discussed then -and at our posts now- we can see how this project has become so much more engrossing than we initially thought! We shall continue to explore the linguistic background, feeling very blessed -as a generation seeking knowledge- to be able to open the Arabi Qur’an, and check the lexicons even while we look at both the explanations of Yusuf Ali and Muhammad Asad!
Explanation of this Chapter/Sura –Yusuf Ali’s
Explanation of this Chapter/Sura- Muhammad Asad’s
COMMENTS:
1. Today’s Reading (Verse 23) starts out with the desperate cry of both Adam and his Mate after having realized that by disobeying God they’ve wronged their own Selves and have both exposed their fallibilities.[1]
“They both said: Our Lord-Sustainer! We have wronged our Selves. Unless You forgive us and have mercy upon us, we shall surely be among the Losers!”
We notice here, as we do throughout the Qur’an, that anyone who asks God, addresses Him as my/our RABB, which is usually translated as ‘Lord or Guardian Lord’ (definition Blog Post Day 2). Remember, it is He Who compiled UPON Himself all Mercy, and we are the recipients!
Newcomers to our project might not realize that Adam was given these beautiful words ‘kalimaat’ of supplication (to say), for he was indeed already forgiven (see HQ 2:37; in a distinct departure from Biblical narrative and the concept of original sin).
In Verse 24 those in the Garden are told to ‘all drop down’[2] into a lower existence (having lost their higher station in the Garden), some of them being enemies to others, finding in earth a dwelling-place and livelihood for some time;[3] therein to live and therein to die, and from therein to be brought out.
2. Verse 26 shows us that God sent us ‘garments’ at three levels:
‘O children of Adam We have sent down upon you garments to cover your fallibilities سوءاتكم and as luxury ‘ريشا’ but the garment of Awareness (Taqwa تقوى) that is best, that is of the signs of God that they may remember.”
Garments therefore are of three ascending levels:
–Essential garments that protect us from hurt or harm (physical/ psychological) by covering weaknesses/ fallibilities. This would include everything we wear, all made from material we find or produce. This might begin with undergarments, but it also covers the entire spectrum of necessities such as hats and coats, armor and spacesuits, and even prosthesis.
-Non-essential garments; luxuries that adorn us, which would include everything we wear other than the essentials, or whatever we adorn the essentials with – see Blog Post Day 15 for the definition of rich/ ريش. which denotes ‘richness/prosperity’ in Arabic. [4] In our colloquial dialects we still say a rich person is ‘mreyyish.’ We also call feathers ‘reesh.’
– Awareness as the highest garment /‘Taqwa.’ For a mortal human, as Bashar, the first two levels are most crucial for we are mortal beings as far as our physical existence. For us as Cognizant Human however, as Insaan, Taqwa/Awareness would be the most crucial garment!
It was a dent in their Taqwa that led Adam and his spouse to realize their fallibilities and seek both protection and forgiveness. In life the same thing happens to us, but only if we still retain some Awareness/Taqwa. Were it to vanish completely out of sight, luxury becomes the highest aspiration we start vying for, and indeed fighting for, using the various aggressive means of ‘Udwaan’ now that there is no Awareness/Taqwa.
A sorry state indeed for any who have Cognizance and can rise in ‘darajah.’
Taqwa: ‘…that is best, that is of the signs of God….’.
Verse 27 warns us all -as Children of Adam- that we are not to be seduced by The Deviant/Al Sheytaan who got our parents out of the Garden, stripping them of their garment, and laying bare their fallibility.
We gather that -at that time- they had not yet comprehended what a valuable garment Awareness was, and had to be taken on a ‘test-drive’ to understand (and to help us to understand its importance):
Awareness: Our most valuable acquisition!
Awareness is what keeps us focused on our Accountability to God at and helps us avoid the intoxicating psychological seductions which prey upon our desires as we steer clear of the many potholes in our life journey! (See HQ 20: 116-123.)
3. Verse 27 also holds an important statement of FACT:
The Deviant and his group see humans from a dimension of existence in which humans DO NOT SEE THEM.
This is important for us to know.
We already spoke of ‘jinn’ on Day 44, and the Arabic language sheds light on this issue in that the ‘majnoon’ is someone who is influenced by ‘jinn/the unseen,’ which often corresponds to what we refer to today as ‘dementia.’ Most history books do not tell us about Muslim trailblazers; such as the fact that early in the 8th century Fez, Morocco, had an asylum for the mentally ill, as did Baghdad in 705 CE., Cairo in 800 CE., and Damascus and Aleppo in 1270 CE. The mentally ill at that time were receiving free, benevolent treatment, where baths, medicines, highly developed occupational and musical therapy were all employed to help their condition. The information and the pictures here tell it all:
“In early medieval Europe, the dominant philosophical belief held that the origin of illness was supernatural and thus uncontrollable by human intervention: As a result, hospitals were little more than hospices where patients were tended by monks who strove to assure the salvation of the soul without much effort to cure the body.
Muslim physicians took a completely different approach. Guided by sayings of the Prophet Muhammad (hadith) like “God never inflicts a disease unless He makes a cure for it,” collected by Bukhari, and “God has sent down the disease and the cure, and He has appointed a cure for every disease, so treat yourselves medically,” collected by Abu al-Darda, they took as their goal the restoration of health by rational, empirical means.”
To help us understand how mental illness might sometimes be equated with seeing (what to others) is unseen, check out the movie ‘A Beautiful Mind,’ which tells the true-life story of Nobel Prize winner, John Nash.
4. BothVerse 29 and verse 31 mention the word ‘masjid.’ Ali takes this literally, as in a place of prostration -‘sujood,’ while Asad relates it to acts of worship in general (see his note).
5. Verse 32 is well-explained by both. Verse 33 is VERY important in that it lists the FIVE MAJOR inviolable acts محرّمات /muHarramaat, or deeds made forbidden by God (similarly mentioned in HQ 6:151; 17:32). We notice that ‘ithm’ hindrance is among them, which also relates to the matter of intoxicants, as seen in Blog Post Day 17 and Blog Post Day 18.
6. Verse 35 informs the children of Adam that God would be sending them His Signs, and that if they were to attain Awareness and perform ameliorating deeds of goodness ‘iSlaah’[5] they would neither fear, nor shall they grieve. Verse 36 tells us that those who fail to do the above -having both belied and arrogantly shied away from God’s Signs- shall be the companions of the Fire, therein to abide.
7. Verse 37 highlights the gravity of attributing to God whatever He has not authorized, considering it together with belying/denying His Signs as the utmost ‘thulm/wrongdoing’ there can ever be. Such persons are then shown in the throes of death, when God’s Messengers come unto them to take them ‘in sum/full deliverance/ wafaat.’ These Messengers are understood to be the Custodian-Angels of Death, as in HQ 32:11, with whom they hold a ‘live’ conversation, ending with them bearing witness against their own selves that they were indeed ‘Deniers/Kafireen’ (see Blog Post Day 64 for the meaning of ‘wafaat’).
Enough said!
Our next Reading is from HQ 7: 38-51.
Peace unto all!
[1] Saw’aatuhuma/ سوءاتهما in Verse 22 is plural for each of them, so it’s not about the private part of each, although that could be included in the ‘fallibilities.’
To explain further: the word saw’ah/سَوءة is singular; saw’ataan/سوءتان is dual; saw’aat/سوءات is plural. Saw’aatuhuma/ سوءاتهما is plural but it’s about the plural for each of two persons: ‘Both persons’ fallibilities.’
[2] هَبَطَ: كَلِمَةٌ تَدُلُّ عَلَى انْحِدَارٍ. وَالْهَبُوطُ: الْحُدُورُ. وَهَبَطْتُ أَنَا وَهَبَطْتُ غَيْرِي، وَهَبَطَ الْمَرَضُ لَحْمَ الْعَلِيلِ. وَالْهَبِيطُ: الضَّامِرُ مِنَ الْإِبِلِ.
[3] Since the addressees are plural, not dual, the command is believed to have been to Iblees as well, or that such verses address all Cognizant Humans, represented by the first. Livelihood/متاع explained on Day 73.
[4] We discussed this earlier, as the most plausible origin of the English word ‘rich,’ defined in dictionaries as:
“having wealth or great possessions; abundantly supplied with resources, means, or funds.”
Etymology:
bef. 900; ME; OE rīce (adj.) ≪ Celtic; c. Greich wealthy; akin to L rēx, Skt rājan king
As we proceed in our Qur’anic Readings we will come across many such words which are so much alike in pronunciation and meaning that they have to be of Arabic origin. Arabic once was, after all, as English is today: the Lingua Franca -the vehicular language that traversed the boundaries of its original community, to transfer information to others.
[5] ‘ISlaaH’ is actually ‘rectifying/ameliorating’ in that you are making ‘SaaliH’ something that hasn’t yet reached ‘SalaaH.’