What It Means - Day 195

"Those who disbelieve among the People of the Book and the idolaters will not desist until the clear proof comes upon them."

Quran 98:1

Here is the opening verse from al-Bayyinah, the 98th surah, here rendered as "The Clear Proof." I decide on what I'm going to blog about on any given day for any number of reasons, and this one is rather peculiar. In this case I chose this one because, well, it's not clear. While I often quote Nasr's commentary from the Study Quran I don't normally quote a huge amount of Nasr, but this time I'm going to do so simply because it speaks to the complexity of the Quran and the need for study. Nasr tells us:

"Some commentators consider this verse to be among the most difficult verses of the Quran. According to most commentators, those who disbelieve among the People of the Book refers to disbelievers among both Jews and Christians, though some say it refers only to the Jews of Madinah. Most read this verse to mean that disbelievers will leave their disbelief until the clear proof of revelation has come to them. Others say that it could mean that they will not be punished or destroyed until the proof of revelation has been brought to them, in which case the idolaters will not desist could be translated 'the idolaters will not be abandoned,' meaning that God will send them the clear proof and they will then be rewarded or punished based upon their acceptance or rejection of it. This interpretation accords with many passages confirming that God will not punish any for wrong belief until they have been presented with the truth and then rejected it, as in 17:15 And never do We punish till We have sent a messenger. In this vein, the verse can be seen as a specific reference to disbelief in the prophethood of Muhammad, not necessarily to disbelief in God. Most interpret the clear proof as a reference to the Quran, as in 6:57 Truly I stand upon a clear proof from my Lord, and you have denied Him. Others take clear proof as a reference to the Prophet Muhammad. But it can also be seen as a reference to the phenomena of revelation and thus to the books and prophets sent to all communities, since the dozens of references to clear proof(s) throughout the Quran are used in relation to many different prophets and the books with which they were sent (see the introduction to this surah). In this interpretation, disbelievers among the People of the Book refers to those who are said to have altered the scriptures that had been sent to them through previous prophets." (p. 1542)

So, I guess rabbit holes didn't actually begin with YouTube after all. Going back to my original point, I don't know how one can begin to make sense of the Quran without something like the Study Quran at their side. From a Muslim perspective the complexity is proof of the miracle. Just as we will say how could an unlettered merchant have produced such poetic verses, how could Muhammad have produced such a spiritually and intellectually complex book? In the end, however, I'm still coming back to one of my main recurring points: even if God is as close as our jugular vein, I sometimes think that we need to read the Quran from a distance. I think we need to think of the entire message in a larger context, trying to get at the essential core messages, and not get so distracted at little corners of the work (no matter how fascinating they are) because then we can be very guilty of cherry picking out the passages that back up our own interests.