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The Satanic Verses (Surahs 52-54)

Episode 40: The Satanic Verses (Surahs 52-54)

Surah 52: The Mount (At-Tur)

Thrust with a disdainful thrust into the fires of hell

7-8 Your Lord's doom will surely come. No one can ward it off. 9 Heaven will heave with awful heaving. 10 And the mountains will move with awful movement. 11 Woe to the deniers on that day.

13 On that day they'll be thrust with a disdainful thrust into the fire of hell. 14-16 And someone will say to them, “This is the fire whose existence you denied. Is it magic, or what? Endure the heat. Be patient or impatient, it doesn't matter.”

Wed to fair ones with wide, lovely eyes

18 Those in the garden will be happy because they're not tormented with hellfire. 20-21 They will recline on couches, and we [Allah] will wed them to maidens with wide, lovely eyes. Their seed will join them there. 24 They'll be waited on by menservants, who are like hidden pearls. 27 They'll say to each other, “Allah has been gracious to us by not tormenting us in the fire.”

Tell them, Muhammad, that you're not a madman

29 So tell them, Muhammad. You are neither a soothsayer nor a madman.

30-34 They'll say, “Is he a poet? Did he invent it?” (No, but they won't believe.) Let them try to produce a speech like it.

38 Do they have a stairway to heaven? 39 Or does he [Allah] have daughters whereas you have sons? 40 Have you [Muhammad] plunged them into debt by asking for a fee?

42 The disbelievers are trapped! 44 If they saw the sky fall, they'd say it was clouds.

Surah 53: The Star (An-Najm)

By the lote-tree near the Garden of Abode

1-2 By the star when it sets, your comrade [Muhammad] never makes a mistake and is never deceived. 3 He doesn't speak because he wants to speak. 4-7 He's inspired by an inspiration from a vigorous, mighty power that appeared on the horizon. 9 He came to within two bow's lengths. 10 And he revealed to his slave what he revealed. 11-12 He's not lying about what he saw. Are you going to argue with him? 13-15 He saw him again once by the lote-tree which grows in the Garden of Abode. 18 That's where he [Muhammad] saw one of the greater revelations of his Lord.

The Lote Tree in the Garden of Abode

The Satanic Verses (There are no female gods or angels)

19-20 Have you thought about Al-Lat, Al-'Uzza, and Manat lately? 21 Are yours males and his females?

27 Those who disbelieve in the hereafter give female names to their angels and gods. 28-29 But that's just a guess on their part. And a guess can never take the place of the truth. Stay away from those who don't remember us [Allah].

The Lord of Sirius

49 He [Allah?] is the Lord of Sirius.

The threatened hour is nigh

50-51 He destroyed the tribes of A'ad and Thamud. 52 And Noah's folk. 53-54 He destroyed Al-Mu'tafikah by covering them with that that covered. 56-57 This is a warner of the old-time warners. The threatened hour is coming soon.

Surah 54: The Moon (Al-Qamr)

The moon was split in two

1-2 The time had come, and the moon was split into two pieces, but they turned away and said, “This is just a prolonged illusion.”

The moon was split in two (Top that one, Jesus!)

6 So withdraw from them (Muhammad) on the day when the summoner summons a painful thing.

7-8 They'll be like locusts, with downcast eyes, as they come out of their graves, and approach the summoner, the disbelievers will say, "This is a hard day."

Noah's ark: A thing of planks and nails

9 Noah's folk denied our [Allah's] slave and said, “He's a madman.” 10 So Noah cried out to this Lord, saying, "Help!" 11 Then we opened the gates of heaven with pouring water. 13 And we carried him on a thing of planks and nails.

15 We left it as a token, but does anyone remember it? 16 See how dreadful my punishment was! 17 We've made the Quran easy to remember, but does anyone remember it?

The tribe A'ad: Killed by a raging wind

18 The tribe of A'ad rejected my warnings. See how dreadful my punishment was! 19-20 We blew them all away like they were uprooted palm tree trunks. 21 See how dreadful my punishment was! 22 We've made the Quran easy to remember, but does anyone remember it?

The tribe of Thamud and Allah's she-camel

23-25 The tribe of Thamud rejected warnings. They said, “He's just a man. Should we follow him into madness? Is he the only one that can remember? No, he's a rash liar.”

26-28 Then someone said to the warner: “Tomorrow they'll know who the rash liar is. We're sending the she-camel as a test for them. Tell them they must share their water with her.” 29 But they hamstrung her.

303See how dreadful my punishment after my warnings was! 31 We sent one shout, and they became like dry twigs.

32 We've made the Quran easy to remember, but does anyone remember it?

Lot's folk: Allah sent a storm of stones on them

33 Lot's folk rejected warnings.

37-39 They even asked his guest for an ill purpose. So we blinded their eyes and said, “Taste my punishment after my warnings!”

40 We've made the Quran easy to remember, but does anyone remember it?

The Pharaoh: Grasped with a mighty grasp

41 Warning came to the Pharaoh's house. 42 But they denied our revelations. So we grasped them with a mighty and powerful grasp. 43 Are your disbelievers better than those?

Feel the touch of hell

46 Their hour of doom will be even more wretched and bitter than their failed earthly lives. 47 The guilty are in error and madness. 48 On the day they are dragged into the fire on their faces, “someone will say to them, Feel the touch of hell.”

51 We have destroyed your friends. But does anyone remember?

A few more words about this episode

By the lote-tree (53:14)
No one knows what a lote-tree is, although some say it is a tree in the seventh heaven, just to the right of the divine throne. That sounds right to me.
Have ye thought upon Al-Lat and Al-'Uzza And Manat? (53:19-20)
There is great controversy surrounding these verses, which are sometimes called "The Satanic Verses."

The story goes like this: Allah revealed surah 53 to Muhammad through verses 19 and 20, which refer to three Arab goddesses (Al-lat, Al-'Uzza, and Manat).

Then Satan tempted Muhammad to add the following verses to attract Muhammad's polytheistic neighbors:

These are the exalted cranes (intermediaries), whose intercession is to be hoped for.

These verses ("the Satanic verses") were later removed and replaced with the current verses 21-22, which make fun of the idea of having female gods. (There is only one God and he is male.)

Are yours the males and His the females? That indeed were an unfair division!

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