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Prophecies in the Quran: Difference between revisions
→Judgement day would be close to Muhammad's time: Added another academics' comment to the Judgement Day being close debate and two more relevant Qur'an verses.
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==Judgement day would be close to Muhammad's time== | ==Judgement day would be close to Muhammad's time== | ||
The idea of judgment day being imminent was a common belief in late antiquity, with many prominent Christian, Jewish and Zoroastrian writings preaching the eschaton (the purposeful end of the world as part of God's divine plan for judgement day) was about to happen, which continued in early Islam.<ref>For examples of sudden end times being promised due to political movements in Christian, Jewish and Zoroastrianism literature in the centuries preceding Islam, see Shoemaker, Stephen J. [http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv16t6jmh. ''The Apocalypse of Empire: Imperial Eschatology in Late Antiquity and Early Islam.''] University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018. Chapters 1 - 4 And for early Islam, see chapters 5 and 6.</ref> Although not a consensus belief, many academic scholars have argued Muhammad preached this belief in the Qur'an.<ref>Ibid. pp. 124-132</ref>{{Quote|{{Quran|54|1}}|<b>The Hour has drawn near</b> and the moon is split.}}( | The idea of judgment day being imminent was a common belief in late antiquity, with many prominent Christian, Jewish and Zoroastrian writings preaching the eschaton (the purposeful end of the world as part of God's divine plan for judgement day) was about to happen, which continued in early Islam.<ref>For examples of sudden end times being promised due to political movements in Christian, Jewish and Zoroastrianism literature in the centuries preceding Islam, see Shoemaker, Stephen J. [http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv16t6jmh. ''The Apocalypse of Empire: Imperial Eschatology in Late Antiquity and Early Islam.''] University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018. Chapters 1 - 4 And for early Islam, see chapters 5 and 6.</ref> Although not a consensus belief, many academic scholars have argued Muhammad preached this belief in the Qur'an.<ref>Ibid. pp. 124-132</ref>{{Quote|{{Quran|54|1}}|<b>The Hour has drawn near</b> and the moon is split.}}(Cf: {{Quran|21|1}} and {{Quran|70|6-7}}. And see also e.g. {{Quran|40|18}} and {{Quran|53|57}} where its imminence/closeness is implied in the words ''azifati / āzifat.''<ref>Lane's Lexicon Quranic Research [https://lexicon.quranic-research.net/data/01_A/067_Azf.html for root ازف] Lane's Lexicon Classical Arabic Dictionary [https://lexicon.quranic-research.net/pdf/Page_0053.pdf أَزِفَتِ / (ءَازِفَة Book 1. pp 53.]</ref>) | ||
Some take {{Quran|54|1}} as a future prediction of a sign of judgment day, however Neuwirth (2024) notes the issue with interpreting this as a future event is not based on the Qur'an's words but later traditions.<ref>Neuwirth, Angelika. ''The Qur'an: Text and Commentary, Volume 2.1: Early Middle Meccan Suras: The New Elect (pp. 57-58).'' Yale University Press. Kindle Edition.</ref> Alongside the [[Scientific Errors in the Quran#Moon%20split%20in%20two|moon splitting in this verse]], which given the dubious scientific issues and lack of sightings from anywhere else in the world, modern academics have noted was most likely referring to a celestial phenomenon like a lunar eclipse,<ref>Ibid. pp. 56 - 57 (Citing Uri Rubin who suggests a partial lunar eclipse, who also notes Rudi Paret came to the same conclusion in ''“Muhammad’s message in Mecca: warnings, signs, and miracles" [The case of the splitting of the moon (Q 54:1-2)].'' in Jonathan E. Brockopp, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Muhammad (Cambridge, 2010), 39-60. Uri Rubin. Rudi Paret's opinion is noted in footnote 9 pp. 44.</ref> given as a sign of the hour close to happening, which the Meccans rejected due to it seemingly being unrelated to Muhammad.<ref>Ibid. pp. 57</ref> | Some take {{Quran|54|1}} as a future prediction of a sign of judgment day, however Neuwirth (2024) notes the issue with interpreting this as a future event is not based on the Qur'an's words but later traditions.<ref>Neuwirth, Angelika. ''The Qur'an: Text and Commentary, Volume 2.1: Early Middle Meccan Suras: The New Elect (pp. 57-58).'' Yale University Press. Kindle Edition.</ref> Alongside the [[Scientific Errors in the Quran#Moon%20split%20in%20two|moon splitting in this verse]], which given the dubious scientific issues and lack of sightings from anywhere else in the world, modern academics have noted was most likely referring to a celestial phenomenon like a lunar eclipse,<ref>Ibid. pp. 56 - 57 (Citing Uri Rubin who suggests a partial lunar eclipse, who also notes Rudi Paret came to the same conclusion in ''“Muhammad’s message in Mecca: warnings, signs, and miracles" [The case of the splitting of the moon (Q 54:1-2)].'' in Jonathan E. Brockopp, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Muhammad (Cambridge, 2010), 39-60. Uri Rubin. Rudi Paret's opinion is noted in footnote 9 pp. 44.</ref> given as a sign of the hour close to happening, which the Meccans rejected due to it seemingly being unrelated to Muhammad.<ref>Ibid. pp. 57</ref> | ||
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"Say, 'I hold not for myself (the power of) benefit or harm, except what Allah has willed. And if I knew the unseen, I would have acquired much wealth, and no harm would have touched me. I am not except a Warner and a bringer of good tidings to a people who believe.'"}} | "Say, 'I hold not for myself (the power of) benefit or harm, except what Allah has willed. And if I knew the unseen, I would have acquired much wealth, and no harm would have touched me. I am not except a Warner and a bringer of good tidings to a people who believe.'"}} | ||
Cf: {{Quran|31|34}} | Cf: {{Quran|31|34}} | ||
Sinai (2017) notes that stating the end is said to be 'nigh' while not specifying exactly when (or trying to foretell specific pre-judgment day historical signs to mark it is close) is not contradictory, and has been seen in other late antique Christian writings.<ref>– “The Eschatological Kerygma of the Early Qur’an”, in ''Apocalypticism and Eschatology in Late Antiquity: Encounters in the Abrahamic Religions, 6th–8th Centuries'', edited by Hagit Amirav, Emmanouela Grypeou, and Guy Stroumsa, Leuven: Peeters, 2017, 219–266. ''pp.24-25'' | |||
What the early Qur’an is primarily interested in, then, is not in foretelling when and under which historical circumstances the world will come to an end. Rather, it is concerned to confront its hearers, through the artful deployment of a whole range of literary techniques, with the Judgement they will ultimately have to face and to convince them that this basic fact necessitates a fundamental makeover of the way they live and act. I take it that it is primarily to inculcate such an eschatologically tinged outlook on the world that several Qur’anic verses make the dramatic announcement that the Day of Judgement is, or has drawn, “nigh” (see Q 70:6–7 as well as 54:1, and, even later, 21:1).<sup>74</sup> At the same time, already the early Qur’an insists that only God, not Muhammad, knows when the end will arrive (Q 79:42–46). As indicated by the opening verse of this latter passage (Q 79:42: “They ask you about the Hour: When is the time of its anchoring?”; cf. also 75:6 and 51:12), the Qur’an’s insistence that it is not part of Muhammad’s mandate to predict the time of the end responds to pressing queries by some of his hearers to be told when exactly the Hour would occur.<sup>75</sup> That such agnosticism about the exact time of the end was not necessarily seen as incompatible with announcements of eschatological imminence is confirmed by a sermon of Jacob of Serugh, which advances a very similar combination of claims.<sup>76</sup></ref> | |||
==The day of resurrection== | ==The day of resurrection== | ||
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{{Quote|{{Quran-range|69|15|17}}|Then on that Day, the Resurrection will occur, And the heaven will split [open], for that Day it is infirm. And the angels are at its edges. And there will bear the Throne of your Lord above them, that Day, eight [of them].}} | {{Quote|{{Quran-range|69|15|17}}|Then on that Day, the Resurrection will occur, And the heaven will split [open], for that Day it is infirm. And the angels are at its edges. And there will bear the Throne of your Lord above them, that Day, eight [of them].}} | ||
=== | ===Contradictory prophecies regarding the last day and punishment of disbelievers=== | ||
{{Main|Contradictions in the Quran}} | {{Main|Contradictions in the Quran}} | ||