"Woe that Day to the deniers!"
Quran 77:15
This brief verse is drawn from the 77th surah, al-Mursalat, often rendered as "Those Sent Forth." I chose it for a couple reasons, one of them being that it is the first of ten times that it is repeated in this surah. It's repeated for emphasis, certainly, but it also gives us a sense of the poetic flow of the Quran, which, as we've discussed, can be lost in a translation. The day referenced is, not surprisingly, the day of judgment. In the early days Muhammad talked about the end of the world and the day of judgment so consistently that his enemies shrugged him off as the Prophet of Doom. To be fair it is a consistent theme throughout the Quran. For this reason people often view Islam as an especially angry, judgmental faith, sort of like Southern Baptists on steroids. For some Muslims I think that's doubtless true. However, on a broader metaphoric scale, it also relates to the constant refrain that our actions have meaning, both in this world and the next, and that we shouldn't lead a careless, unexamined life.
Quran 77:15
This brief verse is drawn from the 77th surah, al-Mursalat, often rendered as "Those Sent Forth." I chose it for a couple reasons, one of them being that it is the first of ten times that it is repeated in this surah. It's repeated for emphasis, certainly, but it also gives us a sense of the poetic flow of the Quran, which, as we've discussed, can be lost in a translation. The day referenced is, not surprisingly, the day of judgment. In the early days Muhammad talked about the end of the world and the day of judgment so consistently that his enemies shrugged him off as the Prophet of Doom. To be fair it is a consistent theme throughout the Quran. For this reason people often view Islam as an especially angry, judgmental faith, sort of like Southern Baptists on steroids. For some Muslims I think that's doubtless true. However, on a broader metaphoric scale, it also relates to the constant refrain that our actions have meaning, both in this world and the next, and that we shouldn't lead a careless, unexamined life.
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