Written by E

Drawing Wisdom from the Qur’an: Hud, Yusuf, & Ar Ra’d

Day 5

Here’s what stands out. Beyond wanting to hear more about the prophet Hud or Salih, beyond the retelling of the story of Joseph, beyond any of the other brief mentions of other prophets — what I notice most about these stories is the primacy of God. In the Hebrew scriptures, God is present. But in the Qur’an, God is intimately involved with every detail.

It’s not necessarily a different understanding of God, but a different presentation. It’s noticeable and impactful. It might be why I struggle with the verses about damnation — God is inescapably intertwined with those proclamations.

It highlights an important understanding of God. In Islam, God’s will is infused into everything. In Judaism and Christianity, this is also true — but the expression of that “will” is more open ended. There’s no mistaking that anything is God’s will in the Qur’an, but in other texts God often gives choices over answers. For me that’s really interesting to notice.

Circling back, I still want to know more about Hud and Salih. There’s not a whole lot out there about them. And maybe this is yet again another point in the Qur’an. If everything is woven into God’s will, perhaps it matters little who the prophets were. Instead, it matters that they followed the commands of God. It’s a humbling thing should it be true.

Emir Abdelkader Mosque, Algeria

Things I Noticed in the Text

  1. Surah 11:50-60, The life and story of a prophet unfamiliar to people in a Jewish or Christian context: Hud. His promise from God is plentiful rain and power in their region. It’s a brief account, so I didn’t get to know Hud much.
  2. Surah 11:61-68, Another brief prophetic story, that of Salih. It ends with the destruction of Thamud. What’s interesting is how many times earthquakes feature as punishments from God in the Qur’an. Here it’s phrased as a “deadly blast” – so I’m not exactly sure what it was.
  3. Surah 12, The entire surah is an interesting retelling of the Joseph story. No technicolor dreamcoat, I’m sad to say.
  4. Surah 13:14, The very thunder exalts the name of God, hence the name of this surah.
  5. Surah 13:37, The Qur’an was sent down in Arabic. I don’t recall seeing a language specificity in the Hebrew or Christian scriptures. So, it’s interesting, right?

This post is part of a larger series where I read the entire Qur’an in ~21 days. Take a look at the original post for more info, as well as links to other reflections on this journey.