Ali-Imran II

I'm ready to level an accusation of false advertising against this book.  The title promises new stories about the family of Mary, but so far only verses 35-50 have had anything to do with that.  As much as I am enjoying exploring the theme of "submission", it is not what I was hoping for, and I'm ready to look for my stories in the Talmud instead.

103: The sin of sectarianism is the same as the sin of polytheism.  Division into Jew and Christian and Muslim is no more a commision of this sin than division in Sunni and Shia.  It is from the edge of this pit that true understanding of the Divine saves us.

104-105: A command that is easier said than done, as it requires direct rebellion against powerful human tendencies.  Indeed, the formation and maintenance of such a community is itself the challenge, rather than the enforcement of "good" and "bad".

106-107: Indeed, the darkest of visages is that which has seen the Divine reality, and chosen the easier path in spite.

108-109: It is against the nature of the Divine reality to ackowledge either harm or division.

110: Its would be easy to observe that the same accusation levelled against Jews and Christians here could be applied to Muslims today.

111-112: The metaphor of a rope in the original بِحَبلٍ is killed by translation to "covenant" or "asylum" in some translations.  Hulusi wisely leaves it literal, here and in v103.

113-115: Hulusi's metaphysical approach leaves the idea of "the last day", here and elsewhere, so far unaccounted for.  The liberties he takes in translating it are rather without merit.  The idea of a final reckoning is very clear and pronounced throught this book, and his refusal to acknolwedge it is glaring.

116-117: This metaphor is a bit arbritrary, and does not seem to illustrate what it is meant to illustrate.  The frosty wind is not a result of people's own action, and its destruction of their crops does not seem to be a suitable symbol for a harm one brings upon oneself.  And it belies the statement "Allah has not wronged them" which it is meant to reinforce.

118: Certainly incompatible with the frequent reminders that there is no East or West nor any other such thing as division in the Divine reality (most recently in v109).

119: But the above seeming contradiction can be understood in terms of not drawing to oneself the idea of division.  For here it is observed that the natural inclination of the who understand the Divine to act ecumenically is not a reciprocal one.

120: A pessimistic and xenophobic view of humanity that Schopenhauer would have endorsed.  Which does not make it wrong; only depressing.  One interesting note is the use of مُحيطٌ to invoke knowledge of something.  The way in which Allah knows something is different than the way in which we know it: reality is not something external to Him, and is known as one knows one's own body.

121: The battle referred to here is that on the slopes of Uhud (or so it is believed), and it is no doubt relevant to the verse that the prophet was injured here as a result of his soldiers' lack of fortitude.

122: It's curious that this battle is not framed as a loss, and that Allah is still called the وَلِيُّهُما of the guilty soldiers.  One would almost be tempted to call this disingenuous.

123: The battle mentioned here was more clearly decided in the prophet's favor.  Perhaps the intent is to contrast the result when one follows the divine path (as at Badr) with that when one gives in to temptation (as at Uhud).  At any rate, Hulusi's rendering of تَشكُرونَ as "be of the evaluators" is opaque and inscrutable.  I much prefer the translations "be grateful" or "give thanks" in other versions.

124-125: The addition of المَلائِكَةِ here is a fascinating one, and open to rather a lot of linguistic parsing.  In what way are these angels marked?  The meaning is left so unclear that, one might as well consider Hulusi's position that they are such in the sense that they have names, and are in fact aspects of the Divine name.

126-127: . . . which leads him to take the more extreme liberty of identifying them as parts of the individual essence, to the extent that it reflects the divine--a point decidedly not in the text.

128: Perhaps there were those who wondered why Allah did not destroy the enemy entirely.  The simple explanation, that this was merely a military victory and not a miracle, is far too pedestrian for the prophet and his believers.

129: An uncommonly clear and relevant transition from the explanation above, and the warning below--

130: To Allah belong all your assets, as surely as do the lives of  your enemies.  To lust after wealth is to question Allah.

131-132: Standard issue religiosity.

133: Hulusi's approach to the identity of this رَبِّكُم is as fruitful as ever, perhaps the most fruitful line of thinking in his commentary so far.  It's decidedly a modern concept to be concerned with forgiveness of oneself, from one's own divine nature, rather than frogiveness granted externally and arbitrarily from a divinity that we can only partially comprehend.

134: One of the best verses so far.  The first of these three virtues has been emphasized throughout, but the addition of the latter two is natural, and enriches the understanding of exactly what "submission" looks like in praactice.

135-139: More verses that could just as easily have come from another religious text, and accordingly less interesting than those like 134 that seem unique to this book.

140: To the extent that Ecclesiastes 1:9 could be slipped in here without anyone noticing.

141-142: Sounds like the hunger games.  I guess there's not room in heaven for everyone.

143: Be careful what you wish for?

144: This seems somewhat out of sync with the way the prophet is viewed among belivers today.  Rather unexpected of him to be so self-effacing however.

145: A point that Islam gets better than most other religions, as far as I have experienced.  Certainly the sentiment of keeping your eyes on spiritual things is present in the Bible, but I have yet to find a denomination of Christianity that practices it.

146-148: The backdrop of the battle at Uhud linders over this verse.  No doubt the believers were in need of bolstering at that point.

149-150: Nothing remarkable here; nothing but vanilla religious invective.

151: This is, so far, the main offering of the Quran in my eyes: the emphasis on the unity of reality, and the proscription against thoughts of duality and separation.  Naturally, Hulusi's liberties take it even farther from Tawhid to pantheism.

152-153: Seems like those responsible for the defeat at Uhud are getting off rather lightly here, considering the cost.  Very politic of the prophet.

154:  A concept plenty apparent in other religious texts as well, but lgoically unsustainable: the bad things that befall you, including your own weakness, are sent from above as a test.  But what need has the divine for a test?  Surely all things have unfolded as they will unfold in the eyes of reality.

155: More absolution for those who selfishly escaped with their lives.

156: This is rather a surprising doubling down on the above absolution, at once very politic and very zen.  From one perspective, it's very sensible of the prophet to reassure his living followers that they will be remembered honorably.  From another, it's not calculated at all, but consistent with previous admonitions to mind one's own business, and submit to the divine--even if that divinity has put fear in your heart.

157-158: But one wonders why quite so much ink is spent on it.

159: This admonition, which seems to be directed at the writer, not at the reader, removessome suspicion of calculation.

160: And the reader is merely left with a bit of foreboding.  Those who Allah leaves have no hope.  But were we not just told that those who ran from battle did so because Allah allowed fear to enter them?  If this is the case, what is to prevent us from simply assuming that all our baser tendencies are His plan, and surrendering to them?

161-163: Difficult not to see some inconsistency here in the original text, and one can see why the Sufi approach is so attractive.  If one wishes to take the book as divinely inspired and flawless, then the Sufi reading is the only one that effectively deals with these inconsistencies.

164: There is an evident pattern of inserting generic verses like this one into the middle of a discourse, one which in a western dialectic would be seen as unfocused and illogical.  But once one surrenders to the pattern, it becomes clear that these are interjections, and the effect is rather one of giving the reader a break from didacticism.

165: After which interjections, the topic is returned to exactly where it was lain.

166-168: And this seems to be the moral: not that the dead were at the mercy of their natures, and chould be remembered honorably, but rather that their actions have nothing whatsoever to do with our own.  To sum up, mind your own business.

169-174: Though it never hurts to end with a little panegyric. 

175: The logical extenstion of this verse is that be careful, not who you worship, but who you fear.  Be afraid, be very afraid.

176-177: More admonition to "mind your own business".  I just wish it was more consistent with the overall theme of the book.  Difficult to reconcile "don't worry about the unbelievers" with "KILL THEM ALL".

178: Presumably rhetorical here, and not literal theology.

179: In contrast to this verse, which is making a very clear statement of theology: you can't hope to know the divine mysteries, unless Allah chooses you as a prophet/apostle/messenger/rasul (depending on which translation you prefer). So just do as we say.

180: In light of the previous verse, it is tempting to take the stinginess mentioned here as refusal to share divine truth. Although I suspect tht we are about to see a more material application.

181-184: Well, I was wrong.  This is pretty clearly a condemnation of the Jews' hoarding of spiritual resources, not material ones, though the two have some overlap here.

185: A lovely verse, partly in its clarity, but mostly in its universality: the dismissal of this life as "delusion" fits nicely into the sentiment of all religions, but also upon a deeper look into the the metaphysical branches of those religions: Sufi, Kabbalah, and the Dao.

186: A warning is added to the usual caution against dualism (a mistaken belief in separation).  The sin of "those who were given the book before you" is also, in its own way, one of separation, however; it is vertical face of dualism: pride, superiority, and dominance.

187-189: As made clear here: their mistake is in trying vainly to keep the divine truth for themselves.

190: . . . when the idea of separation into us and them is completely alien to the divine reality.  Such separation is no more possible than the ascription to the divine of duality.

191: It is a shame that the element of fear has to be introduced.  Surely it's a practical matter, and one common to all religions.  And it's just as common for the metaphysical sides of those religions to discard it.

192-195: It's an equally universal rhetorical tool to double down on the stick, and then proffer the carrot.  Almost textbook abusive behavior.  Surely there is a thesis to be written about the overlap between the behavior of abusers, and the behavior ascribed to the divine in world religions.

196-200: The explications added by Hulusi here are almost unnecesary.  The truth is there in these verses for all to see: mind your business, especially the business of your Rabb.  This applies without embellishment to material, religious, and metaphysical matters alike.

But I'm still bitter that we have had nothing of the advertised story of Imran since basically verse 59.