"Say, 'I seek refuge in the Lord of the daybreak from the evil of what He has created, from the evil of darkness when it enshrouds, from the evil of those who blow up knots, and from the evil of the envier when he envies."
Quran, surah 113
As I mentioned yesterday, whenever I reread the Quran in full I start at the back and work my way forward (as compared during the year where it's much more random). As you know, the Quran has a unique structure where, with the exception of the first surah, the surahs mainly run from longest to shortest. As I tell my students, if you jumped right into the second surah, which is my far the longest (taking up about 12% of the entire length of the Quran) you'd drown pretty quickly. It's better to start at the end and get into the flow of the internal logic before tackling the longer surahs. Since the Quran is not structured chronologically you're not missing out an earlier part of the story. I know I've said this before, but definitely pick up Seyyed Nasr's Study Quran; the commentary is extraordinary and whether you're a Muslim or a non-Muslim there are worlds within worlds that would be missed without the supporting contextual information.
Surahs 113 and 114 are unique, and in fact so unique that even during the Prophet's time there were people who thought that maybe they weren't supposed to be an actual part of the Quran. Muhammad made it clear that they were revelations from God and thus should be included. According to Nasr:
". . . they were revealed in relation to an incident in which the Prophet was stricken with an illness put upon him by a sorceress, a practitioner of black magic. The Archangel Gabriel is said to have told him the location of a knotted string upon which the sorceress had whispered her spell and then revealed these two surahs as a means of undoing the spell. The Prophet sent Ali ibn Abi Talib to obtain the string and whisper over it these fourteen verses, which would undo the fourteen-knot spell. Together, the two surahs are known as al-Mu'awwidhatan, 'The Two Protectors,' and are used by Muslims to this day for protection from many evils, including the evil eye and the casting of spells."
Naturally, my most excellent friend Steve, being a folklorist, loves this particular surah. Certainly we could tackle it just in regards to the role that more traditional belief systems play in the formulation of any religion. As I often opine to my students, religions are like sponges and they tend to absorb whatever is around them (we'll talk about the jinn later, almost certainly). Having said all that, what jumped out at me again while rereading this yesterday was the last line: ". . . and from the evil of the envier when he envies." Once again, as Nasr reminds us, "From one perspective, envy is the root of all evils, as the first sin to be committed in the celestial realm was Satan's envy of Adam and the first sinc to be committed on earth was Cain's envy of Abel." Truthfully, I don't think I've been a person who has ever been eaten up by envy, mainly because I think I've been pretty happy with my own life and what I've been able to accomplish; although I think I'm often envious of a impressive version of myself, which is not quite the same thing. That said, one of the things I always try and work on as I've been on this journey is to be ever mindful that the role that envy plays, and to do my best to celebrate the accomplishments of others and go out of my way to congratulate them (even if I don't think they've completely earned that recognition; see, I'm very much still a work in progress).
Quran, surah 113
As I mentioned yesterday, whenever I reread the Quran in full I start at the back and work my way forward (as compared during the year where it's much more random). As you know, the Quran has a unique structure where, with the exception of the first surah, the surahs mainly run from longest to shortest. As I tell my students, if you jumped right into the second surah, which is my far the longest (taking up about 12% of the entire length of the Quran) you'd drown pretty quickly. It's better to start at the end and get into the flow of the internal logic before tackling the longer surahs. Since the Quran is not structured chronologically you're not missing out an earlier part of the story. I know I've said this before, but definitely pick up Seyyed Nasr's Study Quran; the commentary is extraordinary and whether you're a Muslim or a non-Muslim there are worlds within worlds that would be missed without the supporting contextual information.
Surahs 113 and 114 are unique, and in fact so unique that even during the Prophet's time there were people who thought that maybe they weren't supposed to be an actual part of the Quran. Muhammad made it clear that they were revelations from God and thus should be included. According to Nasr:
". . . they were revealed in relation to an incident in which the Prophet was stricken with an illness put upon him by a sorceress, a practitioner of black magic. The Archangel Gabriel is said to have told him the location of a knotted string upon which the sorceress had whispered her spell and then revealed these two surahs as a means of undoing the spell. The Prophet sent Ali ibn Abi Talib to obtain the string and whisper over it these fourteen verses, which would undo the fourteen-knot spell. Together, the two surahs are known as al-Mu'awwidhatan, 'The Two Protectors,' and are used by Muslims to this day for protection from many evils, including the evil eye and the casting of spells."
Naturally, my most excellent friend Steve, being a folklorist, loves this particular surah. Certainly we could tackle it just in regards to the role that more traditional belief systems play in the formulation of any religion. As I often opine to my students, religions are like sponges and they tend to absorb whatever is around them (we'll talk about the jinn later, almost certainly). Having said all that, what jumped out at me again while rereading this yesterday was the last line: ". . . and from the evil of the envier when he envies." Once again, as Nasr reminds us, "From one perspective, envy is the root of all evils, as the first sin to be committed in the celestial realm was Satan's envy of Adam and the first sinc to be committed on earth was Cain's envy of Abel." Truthfully, I don't think I've been a person who has ever been eaten up by envy, mainly because I think I've been pretty happy with my own life and what I've been able to accomplish; although I think I'm often envious of a impressive version of myself, which is not quite the same thing. That said, one of the things I always try and work on as I've been on this journey is to be ever mindful that the role that envy plays, and to do my best to celebrate the accomplishments of others and go out of my way to congratulate them (even if I don't think they've completely earned that recognition; see, I'm very much still a work in progress).
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