"And when Moses said unto his servant, 'I shall continue on till I reach the junction of the two seas, even if I journey for a long time.' Then when they reached the junction of the two, they forgot their fish, and it made its way to the sea, burrowing away. Then when they had passed beyond, he said to his servant, 'Bring us our meal. We have certainly met with weariness on this journey of ours.' He said, 'Didst thou see? When we took refuge at the rock, indeed I forgot the fish - and naught made me neglect to mention it, save Satan - and it made its way to the way in a wondrous manner!' He said, 'That is what we were seeking!' So they turned back, retracing their steps. There they found a servant from among Our servants whom We had granted a mercy from Us and whom We had taught knowledge from Our Presence."
Quran 18:60-66
OK, after a couple days break (caused by an insanely busy week tied to my life falling apart) we're back to our discussion of the 18th surah, al-Kahf, "The Cave." The other day I discussed my love of this surah, and its role is helping me understand the more complex, metaphoric and esoteric aspects of the Quran and Islam. Here we're entering into a lengthy section focused on Moses. As we've discussed, no character is mentioned more frequently in the Quran than Moses, and all of these references would be familiar to anyone who had read the Old Testament. However, this story is specific only to the Quran. There are two miracles associated with Jesus in the Quran which exist only in the Islamic tradition and not in Christian lore. This is the only non-Old Testament story told in the Quran. I routinely sing the praises of Nasr's Study Quran (and of Nasr himself, of whom I have a massive scholarly man crush - more soon on a very supportive email he sent me yesterday) and this is definitely one of those instances where the Study Quran earns its keep. Not only would you miss the profound esoteric aspects of the story, but also, truthfully, I don't even know how you would follow the story without Nasr's commentary. First off, "And when Moses said unto his servant . . .", who is the servant? Nasr tells us that scholars consider him to be Joshua, who appears and disappears very quickly in the story. He is then replaced by another servant, "whom We had granted a mercy from Us and whom We had taught knowledge from Our Presence." This second servant is Khidr or al-Khadir, "the Green One," and much more on him tomorrow. At this point the key is the journey to "the junction of the two seas," which sets up the metaphor of the entire story and is emblematic of the entire surah. As Nasr tells us, "this story shares the theme of intermediate realms: between life and death, between exoteric and esoteric knowledge, between the two seas, between the two mountain barriers . . ." And thus we launch an exploration of liminal spaces.
Quran 18:60-66
OK, after a couple days break (caused by an insanely busy week tied to my life falling apart) we're back to our discussion of the 18th surah, al-Kahf, "The Cave." The other day I discussed my love of this surah, and its role is helping me understand the more complex, metaphoric and esoteric aspects of the Quran and Islam. Here we're entering into a lengthy section focused on Moses. As we've discussed, no character is mentioned more frequently in the Quran than Moses, and all of these references would be familiar to anyone who had read the Old Testament. However, this story is specific only to the Quran. There are two miracles associated with Jesus in the Quran which exist only in the Islamic tradition and not in Christian lore. This is the only non-Old Testament story told in the Quran. I routinely sing the praises of Nasr's Study Quran (and of Nasr himself, of whom I have a massive scholarly man crush - more soon on a very supportive email he sent me yesterday) and this is definitely one of those instances where the Study Quran earns its keep. Not only would you miss the profound esoteric aspects of the story, but also, truthfully, I don't even know how you would follow the story without Nasr's commentary. First off, "And when Moses said unto his servant . . .", who is the servant? Nasr tells us that scholars consider him to be Joshua, who appears and disappears very quickly in the story. He is then replaced by another servant, "whom We had granted a mercy from Us and whom We had taught knowledge from Our Presence." This second servant is Khidr or al-Khadir, "the Green One," and much more on him tomorrow. At this point the key is the journey to "the junction of the two seas," which sets up the metaphor of the entire story and is emblematic of the entire surah. As Nasr tells us, "this story shares the theme of intermediate realms: between life and death, between exoteric and esoteric knowledge, between the two seas, between the two mountain barriers . . ." And thus we launch an exploration of liminal spaces.
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