An anecdote that was briefly alluded to in 2:65 is provided in more detail in verses 163-166. The story about the Jews whom Allah turned into apes. The gist of the story is like this: some Jews inhabiting the town of Elath, on the coast of the Red Sea, were fishermen, and they fished six days of the week but not on the sabbath-day. The fish figured out that they were safe on the sabbath-day, and swam close to the surface (or close to the shore) then. The fishermen, seeing the fish at such close range, broke the sabbath and went fishing, despite warnings from some preachers. Then Allah punished them by turning them into apes.
This is one of the rare instances in which the Quran relates a story that is not related in an earlier extant composition (the closest Biblical parallel, I think, is the story of the humiliation of Nebuchadnezzar, in Daniel 4:28-37). Some Islamic commentators, both ancient and modern, have attempted to make the story more plausible by saying that verse 166 means that Allah would regard them as apes, not that they were transformed into apes.
Verse 167 seems to imperfectly echo the sentiment of Deut. 28:49-52. Then the texts focus briefly shifts from the Jews of Moses time to the Jews of Muhammads time. Notice that the text affirms that the Jews were studying the Torah. In v. 171 were back in Moses time: the text again relates, as in 2:63, the anecdote of the lifting of Mount Sinai (though, it might be worth noting, the mountain is not named).
Another little anecdote is related in verses 172-174: Allah took all the descendants of Adam out of his body (remember, in the Hadith, Muhammad says that Adam was 60 cubits tall). Then Allah asked them whether or not Allah is their Lord. Then they affirmed that Allah is their Lord. Thus the text implies that everyone has a natural knowledge of Allah, having affirmed the Lordship of Allah in this scene of pre-existence. This short story (only two verses) is commented upon in detail in the Tafsir Ibn Kathir at www.tafsir.com/default.as...&tid=19074 which provides some relevant hadith. Slightly paraphrased --
Commenting upon this verse (7:172), Tirmidhi recorded that Abu Hurairah said that Muhammad said,
When Allah created Adam, He wiped Adam's back, and every person that He will create from him until the Day of Resurrection fell out from his back. [Note: it is assumed that they were very small, about the size of ants.] Allah placed a glimmering light between the eyes of each one of them.
Allah showed them to Adam and Adam asked, O Lord! Who are they?
Allah said, These are your offspring.
Adam saw a man from among them whose light he liked. He asked, O Lord! Who is this man?
Allah said, This is a man from the latter generations of your offspring. His name is David.
Adam said, O Lord! How many years would he live?
Allah said, Sixty years.
Adam said, O Lord! I have forfeited forty years from my life for him.
When Adam's life came to an end, the angel of death came to him (to take his soul).
Adam said, I still have 40 years from my life term, don't I?
He said, Have you not given it to your son David?
So Adam denied that and his offspring followed suit (denying Allah's covenant). Adam forgot and his offspring forgot. Adam made a mistake and his offspring made mistakes.
(Incidentally, that bit about the angel of death coming to Adam is significant, because it seems to indicate that Muhammad had encountered the story about Abraham's encounter with the angel of death in The Testament of Abraham, but that's something for another time.)
At the Tafsir site, some other credentials for this hadith are provided. Presumably after the descendants of Adam were taken out of his body, they were all put back in. Theres a sharp fatalistic edge on this story: the Tafsir site states that These and similar Hadiths testify that Allah, the Exalted and Most Honored, brought forth Adam's offspring from his loins and separated between the inhabitants of Paradise and those of the Fire. The idea enunciated explicitly in verses 178-179 is that everyone has sworn loyalty to Allah in a pre-existent state, and Allah has chosen who to preserve and who to send astray, before they existed in their earthly lifetimes.
Verses 175-177 focus on him to whom we gave our Ayat. Most Islamic commentators agree that this not only denounces rejectors of Allahs revelation in general, but specifically refers to Balaam, son of Beor (featured in Numbers 22-24). The similarity between this and Second Peter 2:15-22, which mentions Balaam, a proverb, and a dog, is probably coincidental. Another interpretation (mentioned in Wherrys commentary) is that it refers to a Jewish rabbi named Ummaya Ibn Abu Salab (in the time of Muhammad), who was said to have determined that Scripture predicted the coming of a great prophet, and bitterly refused to follow Muhammad, having hoped to be the foretold prophet himself.
Verse 179 very strongly echoes Isaiah 6:10. However the sovereignty-centered language in Isaiah is extended in the Quran: Allah, according to the text, "created many of the jinn and mankind for hell," as if that was their purpose, rather than their own willful frustration of God's purpose for them. The sentiment of Proverbs 16:4 appears to resemble that: The LORD has made all for Himself, yes, even the wicked for the day of evil. But the "day of evil" is not the same as hellfire; its an open question whether Proverbs 16:4 means that God has made the wicked to be punished, or to serve as an agent to punish others. The comparison of unbelievers in Muhammad's day to cattle complements the story in which the disobedient, in an earlier era, were turned into apes.
Yours in Christ,
Waterrock
This is one of the rare instances in which the Quran relates a story that is not related in an earlier extant composition (the closest Biblical parallel, I think, is the story of the humiliation of Nebuchadnezzar, in Daniel 4:28-37). Some Islamic commentators, both ancient and modern, have attempted to make the story more plausible by saying that verse 166 means that Allah would regard them as apes, not that they were transformed into apes.
Verse 167 seems to imperfectly echo the sentiment of Deut. 28:49-52. Then the texts focus briefly shifts from the Jews of Moses time to the Jews of Muhammads time. Notice that the text affirms that the Jews were studying the Torah. In v. 171 were back in Moses time: the text again relates, as in 2:63, the anecdote of the lifting of Mount Sinai (though, it might be worth noting, the mountain is not named).
Another little anecdote is related in verses 172-174: Allah took all the descendants of Adam out of his body (remember, in the Hadith, Muhammad says that Adam was 60 cubits tall). Then Allah asked them whether or not Allah is their Lord. Then they affirmed that Allah is their Lord. Thus the text implies that everyone has a natural knowledge of Allah, having affirmed the Lordship of Allah in this scene of pre-existence. This short story (only two verses) is commented upon in detail in the Tafsir Ibn Kathir at www.tafsir.com/default.as...&tid=19074 which provides some relevant hadith. Slightly paraphrased --
Commenting upon this verse (7:172), Tirmidhi recorded that Abu Hurairah said that Muhammad said,
When Allah created Adam, He wiped Adam's back, and every person that He will create from him until the Day of Resurrection fell out from his back. [Note: it is assumed that they were very small, about the size of ants.] Allah placed a glimmering light between the eyes of each one of them.
Allah showed them to Adam and Adam asked, O Lord! Who are they?
Allah said, These are your offspring.
Adam saw a man from among them whose light he liked. He asked, O Lord! Who is this man?
Allah said, This is a man from the latter generations of your offspring. His name is David.
Adam said, O Lord! How many years would he live?
Allah said, Sixty years.
Adam said, O Lord! I have forfeited forty years from my life for him.
When Adam's life came to an end, the angel of death came to him (to take his soul).
Adam said, I still have 40 years from my life term, don't I?
He said, Have you not given it to your son David?
So Adam denied that and his offspring followed suit (denying Allah's covenant). Adam forgot and his offspring forgot. Adam made a mistake and his offspring made mistakes.
(Incidentally, that bit about the angel of death coming to Adam is significant, because it seems to indicate that Muhammad had encountered the story about Abraham's encounter with the angel of death in The Testament of Abraham, but that's something for another time.)
At the Tafsir site, some other credentials for this hadith are provided. Presumably after the descendants of Adam were taken out of his body, they were all put back in. Theres a sharp fatalistic edge on this story: the Tafsir site states that These and similar Hadiths testify that Allah, the Exalted and Most Honored, brought forth Adam's offspring from his loins and separated between the inhabitants of Paradise and those of the Fire. The idea enunciated explicitly in verses 178-179 is that everyone has sworn loyalty to Allah in a pre-existent state, and Allah has chosen who to preserve and who to send astray, before they existed in their earthly lifetimes.
Verses 175-177 focus on him to whom we gave our Ayat. Most Islamic commentators agree that this not only denounces rejectors of Allahs revelation in general, but specifically refers to Balaam, son of Beor (featured in Numbers 22-24). The similarity between this and Second Peter 2:15-22, which mentions Balaam, a proverb, and a dog, is probably coincidental. Another interpretation (mentioned in Wherrys commentary) is that it refers to a Jewish rabbi named Ummaya Ibn Abu Salab (in the time of Muhammad), who was said to have determined that Scripture predicted the coming of a great prophet, and bitterly refused to follow Muhammad, having hoped to be the foretold prophet himself.
Verse 179 very strongly echoes Isaiah 6:10. However the sovereignty-centered language in Isaiah is extended in the Quran: Allah, according to the text, "created many of the jinn and mankind for hell," as if that was their purpose, rather than their own willful frustration of God's purpose for them. The sentiment of Proverbs 16:4 appears to resemble that: The LORD has made all for Himself, yes, even the wicked for the day of evil. But the "day of evil" is not the same as hellfire; its an open question whether Proverbs 16:4 means that God has made the wicked to be punished, or to serve as an agent to punish others. The comparison of unbelievers in Muhammad's day to cattle complements the story in which the disobedient, in an earlier era, were turned into apes.
Yours in Christ,
Waterrock
