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Cosmology of the Quran: Difference between revisions
→The places of ascent: Just checked out the Corpus Coranicum Entry on this verse after uploading the previous update.. and thought worth adding the extra point and it's use elsewhere in the Qur'an as a tangible stairway. Linked to academic website.
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(→The Sky-ways (asbāb) of the Heavens: Added a small section on the one-off mention of 'lord of the ladders/stairs/ways of ascent') |
(→The places of ascent: Just checked out the Corpus Coranicum Entry on this verse after uploading the previous update.. and thought worth adding the extra point and it's use elsewhere in the Qur'an as a tangible stairway. Linked to academic website.) |
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https://www.jstor.org/stable/40379198</ref> This suggests that these cords (asbāb) also stretch across the sky. This interpretation is supported in some early Islamic scholars such as al-Ṭabarī (d. 923 AD) in his Qur'anic commentary, and Ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥakam (d. 871 AD) in his Kitāb Futuḥ Misr, who have Dhul-Qarnayn being brought up them (took him up 'araja bihi) by an angel.<ref>Ibid. pp. 227-228</ref> | https://www.jstor.org/stable/40379198</ref> This suggests that these cords (asbāb) also stretch across the sky. This interpretation is supported in some early Islamic scholars such as al-Ṭabarī (d. 923 AD) in his Qur'anic commentary, and Ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥakam (d. 871 AD) in his Kitāb Futuḥ Misr, who have Dhul-Qarnayn being brought up them (took him up 'araja bihi) by an angel.<ref>Ibid. pp. 227-228</ref> | ||
==== The places of ascent ==== | ==== The places of ascent (l-maʿāriji) ==== | ||
Also mentioned are the (l-maʿāriji ٱلْمَعَارِجِ) meaning '''A ladder, or series of steps or stairs, a thing resembling a ladder or stairway, or places of ascent''<nowiki/>'<ref>Lane's Lexicon Root: [https://lexicon.quranic-research.net/data/18_E/062_Erj.html عرج] | Also mentioned are the (l-maʿāriji ٱلْمَعَارِجِ) meaning '''A ladder, or series of steps or stairs, a thing resembling a ladder or stairway, or places of ascent''<nowiki/>'<ref>Lane's Lexicon Root: [https://lexicon.quranic-research.net/data/18_E/062_Erj.html عرج] | ||
مِعْرَاجٌ l-maʿāriji - [https://lexicon.quranic-research.net/pdf/Page_1997.pdf Lane's Lexicon p1997] </ref> where angels can ascend, as taken by many traditional commentators.<ref>See: e.g. [https://quranx.com/tafsirs/70.3 ''commentaries on verse 70:3''] | مِعْرَاجٌ l-maʿāriji - [https://lexicon.quranic-research.net/pdf/Page_1997.pdf Lane's Lexicon p1997] </ref> where angels can ascend, as taken by many traditional and modern commentators.<ref>See: e.g. [https://quranx.com/tafsirs/70.3 ''commentaries on verse 70:3''] | ||
</ref> | </ref> | ||
{{Quote|{{Quran|70|3}}|From Allah, Owner (of) the ways of ascent.}} | {{Quote|{{Quran|70|3}}|From Allah, Owner (of) the ways of ascent.}} | ||
Angelika Neuwirth notes on this cosmological function "''.. imposed by God, the “Lord of the ladders.” If one understands this predication, which occurs only once in the Qur’an, in agreement with the threatening context (verses 5–7), then one would have to think of maʿārij as the ladders knotted from fraying ropes in the Christian image tradition, across which those awakened from death go over the abyss into heaven, so that only the good are safe from falling into the abyss—a conception which is also reflected in the traditional Islamic ṣirāṭ image of a rope ladder stretched across an abyss, which occurs in later literature.''"<ref>Neuwirth, Angelika. ''The Qur'an and Late Antiquity: A Shared Heritage (Oxford Studies in Late Antiquity) (Kindle Edition: pp. 186).'' Oxford University Press.</ref> | Angelika Neuwirth notes on this cosmological function "''.. imposed by God, the “Lord of the ladders.” If one understands this predication, which occurs only once in the Qur’an, in agreement with the threatening context (verses 5–7), then one would have to think of maʿārij as the ladders knotted from fraying ropes in the Christian image tradition, across which those awakened from death go over the abyss into heaven, so that only the good are safe from falling into the abyss—a conception which is also reflected in the traditional Islamic ṣirāṭ image of a rope ladder stretched across an abyss, which occurs in later literature.''"<ref>Neuwirth, Angelika. ''The Qur'an and Late Antiquity: A Shared Heritage (Oxford Studies in Late Antiquity) (Kindle Edition: pp. 186).'' Oxford University Press.</ref> | ||
Sinai et al. (2024) note that the word ''maʿārij,'' which corresponds to Ethiopian ''maʿāreg'' (cf. Ethiopian ʿarga , yeʿrag , “to climb up”), which in the Ethiopian Bible translation refers to the ladder to heaven that Jacob sees in Genesis 28:10, is otherwise only used once elsewhere in {{Quran|43|33}} as a profane (non-religious/normal) staircase in a house, implying this is meant to be a tangible object.<ref>[https://corpuscoranicum.de/en Corpus Coranicum] | |||
[https://corpuscoranicum.de/en/verse-navigator/sura/70/verse/1/commentary ''Sura 70 — al-Maʿāriǧ — “The Ladder to Heaven”''] Translated and analyzed by Nicolai Sinai. | |||
Chronological-literary commentary on the Koran, edited by the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences by Nicolai Sinai with the collaboration of Nora K. Schmid, using preliminary work by Angelika Neuwirth. Beta version: as of October 17, 2024</ref> | |||
===The stars, the sun, and the moon=== | ===The stars, the sun, and the moon=== | ||