Hud

 As satisfying as ever to see the mysterious بِسمِ begin this surah.

1: And the equally cryptic الر ۚ.  These words work as a chant, rather than anything else in my mind.  The sounds themselves contain the power.

2: Studying Arabic concurrently with this project makes me very confused by Hulusi's insistence on leaving مِنهُ untranslated, as though it was another of the cryptic sounds.  It is just a straightforward pronoun in my estimation. 

3: Whereas leaving رَبَّكُمۡ untranslated seems to have a greater purpose.  Hulusi's interpretation of this concept is almost Reiki-adjacent, and one of my favorite aspects of his explication.

4-6: More curious treatment هُوَ of here.  If it were simply a King James style deference to the Divine, surely Hulusi would leave it untranslated throughout, rather than haphazardly as here.

7: Surely Hulusi goes too far here, interpolating more Eastern philosophy into the significance of the water.  I don't disagree with him, but there's certainly nothing in the text to support it.

8-11: Haters gonna hate, I guess. On the one hand, it is a relief to remove the text from dogmatic concerns.  On the other, it's rather too convenient.

12-14: A sentiment repeated in previous surahs.  I'm not sure whether it's #unbothered or #theladydothprotesttoomuch.

15-16: I am very on board with this.  Let those who value material success pursue it, and let their reward be according.

17-19: The greatest sin, by this interpretation, is then against one's own truth, rather than against an external Lord.

20-22: And materialism is its own punishment.

23-24: Which simplifies everything.  But it also undercuts its authority.

25-41: Not much to say about this passage, except that I really like the characterization of Noah here.  I realize that he's rather an enigma in the Hebrew version of the story, except for a certain incident with daughters and wine.  Wonder if that will make it into this telling.

 42-43: Wait, what?  Another son?  Whomst could it have been?

44-49: And I especially like the secret revelation flavor here.  Unfortunate that this son is unnamed.

50-57: Skipping a few generations, we come to the eponymous prophet of this book.  He certainly seems to take after his great-great-grandfather.

58-60: Rather sparse on details here, though the blanks seem to be filled in elsewhere, in other surahs and oral traditions. Kind of false advertising from the title of the surah, though.

61-68: Far more detail in the story of Salih, though the appearance of a she-camel would not have seemed miraculous to me either.  

69-73: Sarai comes across better in this account.  There is no mention of her being struck dumb for her disbelief.

74-76: I had never thought of Abraham as "tender and sensitive", but it actually makes a lot of sense.

77-83: There is no more explanation for Lot's horrible behavior here than in other versions of the account.  How is this not a bigger talking point?  Is there any more despicable act?

84-86: This is becoming a bit like the book of Judges, casually running down the list of leaders,  giving only enough information to pique interest.  One wonders if Shuayb gets more mention later, of if that is left to the Druze holy books.

87-90: Shuayb seems far more timid than the others in this list.

91-93: This is consistent with the tone of the book as a whole.  Shuayb is #unbothered, especially in v.93.

94-95: The "layered clay" that is said to have destroyed sodom could easily be a volcano.  What on earth is the ٱلصَّيۡحَةُ that leveled Madyan?  It is translated differently in all four of the versions I'm referencing, but my favorite is "The Shriek".

96-99: This is a rather offhanded telling of Moses' story, but it raises one interesting metaphysical point.  What exactly is the "Day of Resurrection", and why on Earth would Pharoah be leading anybody during it?

100-102: Which neatly sums up this book: listen to me--or don't, and face the same end as all these others.

103-108: One really wonders where this eternal hellfire doctrine originated.  It does not seem to have Zoroastrian roots, like many of the other elements.  Rather, it seems more Greek in origin.

109-111: The "prior decree" is of interest here.  The divine seems to have an interest in maintaining the confusion and schisms.

112-115: And very little is being asked: prayer, good deeds, and iconoclasm.

116-123: More curious endorsement of schisms.  #IYKYK i guess? At any rate, I'm partial to the simplicity of 121-122.  On a whole, this book was more coherent and tight than previous ones, or I'm just getting more familiar with the particular dialectic.