Surah 87: The Most High

Were it not for verses 6 and 7, this would be a relatively minor surah. The first five verses are simply a prayer of praise to Allah. There are certain differences in the translations, and Asad, not unsurprisingly, tends to see the descriptions of God in more philosophical terms than the others. Yet the variants aren't truly that different.

And skipping ahead to verse 9, there is a major conflict. All the others say, in Pickthal's wording 'Therefor remind (men), for of use is the reminder.' Asad (quoting Baghawi and Razi, which is meaningless to me) reads it as follows:

"Remind, then, [others of the truth] whether this reminding [would seem to] be of use [or not]..." (I have to ask, since this seems to say the reverse of the other translations, if Arabic is truly so ambiguous that the same phrase can mean the exact opposite, or why -- since he makes no comment except to mention the other translators -- Asad chose this version.)

The next verses are again the standard 'believers will be rewarded, unbelievers will suffer.' Only verse 14 adds anything new. In all the translations except Pickthal's it is the one who 'purifies himself' as well as 'remembers the Sustainer's name and prays to him' who attains happiness. (Pickthal renders it 'who groweth.') The concentration on 'purity' is something we shall see quite a bit of.

In the final verses Asad wriggles out of a problem, since all the other translations talk about the earlier BOOKS (or scrolls, or scriptures) of Abraham and Moses. There is no 'book of Abraham,' his story is told in the Torah, the 'books of Moses.' (There were apocryphal Jewsih and Rabbinic books, one of which, I believe, is called the "Book of Abraham' but they were not part of the Testament. Some writers explain the differences between the Qur'an and the Old Testament by assuming that it was works such as these that were known to Mohammed.) Asad gets out of this by translating the word 'suhuf' as 'revelations' and state this was an example of the continuity of the religious revelations to the various prophets.

But the key problem in this Surah is verses 6 and 7. These are the ones that introduce the topic of 'abrogation.' I was going to try and discuss this here, but realized it needs a post of its own -- and not the one where I burbled earlier.

And even while I am generally 'taking the Qur'an on its face, I made an exception and did some research before I talked. (Questia.com is a wonderful site, almost a whole college library available -- and you never have to worry that someone else has borrowed them. Expensive, yes, but worth it.)