Dhul-Qarnayn and the Sun Setting in a Muddy Spring - Part One: Difference between revisions

Dhul-Qarnayn and the Sun Setting in a Muddy Spring - Part One (view source)

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 {{Quote|{{Muslim||52i|reference}}|The belief is that of the Yemenites, the sagacity is that of the Yemenites and the summit of unbelief is towards the East.}}
-This version of the hadith ends with “qibala almashriqi”, translated, “towards the East”. As mentioned above, al mashriq usually appears as an idiom to mean the east. It seems easy at first to argue that just as almashriq means the east in one version of this hadith, matliAAi a'''l'''shshamsi just means the east rather than the rising-place of the sun in the other version. However, even if almashriq means the east in Sahih Muslim Book 1, Number 92 (rather than literally, “the rising point”, as in Qur’an 37:5 and 70:40), both the east and the imagined setting-place of the sun would be in the same direction. These hadith only show that the directions (“qibala”) of these two things (“matliAAi a'''l'''shshamsi” and “almashriq”) are interchangeable.
+This version of the hadith ends with “qibala almashriqi”, translated, “towards the East”. As mentioned above, al mashriq usually appears as an idiom to mean the east. It seems easy at first to argue that just as almashriq means the east in one version of this hadith, matliAAi a'''l'''shshamsi just means the east rather than the rising-place of the sun in the other version. However, even if almashriq means the east in Sahih Muslim 52i (rather than literally, “the rising point”, as in Qur’an 37:5 and 70:40), both the east and the imagined setting-place of the sun would be in the same direction. These hadith only show that the directions (“qibala”) of these two things (“matliAAi a'''l'''shshamsi” and “almashriq”) are interchangeable.
-Conclusive evidence that matliAAi a'''l'''shshamsi in the above quoted hadith means literally the rising-place of the sun and not merely the east comes a little earlier in the first version of it in Book 1, Number 83, which has “where emerge the two horns of Satan”, which many other hadith tell us is where the sun rises.<ref>See {{Muslim||828b|reference}} and {{Muslim||832|reference}}, for example.</ref>
+Conclusive evidence that matliAAi a'''l'''shshamsi in the above quoted hadith means literally the rising-place of the sun and not merely the east comes a little earlier in the first version of it in Sahih Muslim 51, which has “where emerge the two horns of Satan”, which many other hadith tell us is where the sun rises.<ref>See {{Muslim||828b|reference}} and {{Muslim||832|reference}}, for example.</ref>
 {{Quote|{{Muslim||51|reference}}|It is narrated on the authority of Ibn Mas’ud that the Apostle of Allah (may peace and blessings be upon him) pointed towards Yemen with his hand and said: Verily Iman is towards this side, and harshness and callousness of the hearts is found amongst the rude owners of the camels who drive them behind their tails (to the direction) where emerge the two horns of Satan, they are the tribes of Rabi’a and Mudar.}}
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 There is some inconsistency about the way the English translators of Sahih Muslim and Sahih Bukhari translate maghribiha in other versions of the same hadith. See the footnotes for a discussion of this.<ref>It should be noted that while A. Siddiqui translates maghribiha in Sahih Muslim as “the place of its setting”, M. Khan translates maghribiha as “the west” in exactly the same Arabic phrases for the versions in Sahih Bukhari of the above quoted hadith. MatliAAiha does not appear in Sahih Bukhari so Khan did not have to translate that word. However, when M. Khan (this time with M. al-Hilali) later translated the Qur’an, maghriba a'''l'''shshamsi in 18:86 and matliAAa a'''l'''shshamsi in 18:90 are translated as “the setting place of the sun” and “the rising place of the sun”.<BR><BR>A. Siddiqui, whose translation of Sahih Muslim is used in the main text, also translates maghribiha as “the west” in the exact same Arabic phrases about the sun at the end of the world for seven other hadith in Sahih Muslim. These do not mention the rising place. He could not attempt to translate this as “the west” in the above quoted hadith because of the “your setting place” phrase and references nearby to the rising place using matliAAa, which as we saw earlier, never means east. The motivation for translating maghribiha as the west in the other hadith is probably to make it fit with Qur’an 2:258:<BR><BR>…‘But it is Allah that causeth the sun to rise from the east: Do thou then cause him to rise from the west.’…<BR><BR>…fainna Allaha yatee bi'''al'''shshamsi mina almashriqi fati biha mina almaghribi… - Qur’an 2:258<BR><BR>Here, almaghribi does not have the -ha suffix, so indeed it can just mean the west. The -i suffix is there because a noun following a preposition (mina means “from”) takes the genitive case.<BR><BR>There is another obvious motivation for translating maghribiha as “the west” rather than “its setting place”. This way the phrase can be interpreted as a figure of speech (with a literal meaning that the Earth’s rotation will reverse), thus saving those important hadith (except when they clearly say “your setting place”) from conflict with scientific knowledge unknown to Muhammad. We saw how some commentators (and some translators) reinterpreted verse 18:86 for the same reason.<BR><BR>These are the four hadith where Khan translates maghribiha (“its setting place”) as “the west”. It is clear from the use of the 3rd person (and in other versions, 2nd person) possessive endings that a more specific translation, “its setting place” would have been justified.<BR><BR>{{Bukhari|||3199|darussalam}}, {{Bukhari|||4635|darussalam}}, {{Bukhari|||4636|darussalam}}, {{Bukhari|||7424|darussalam}}</ref>
-Finally, we have examples of matliAAa a'''l'''shshamsi meaning the rising-place of the sun in Sahih Muslim Book 1, Number 91 (discussed above) and in Sunan Al-Nasa-I, which has the phrase:
+Finally, we have examples of matliAAa a'''l'''shshamsi meaning the rising-place of the sun in Sahih Muslim 52h discussed above) and in Sunan Al-Nasa-I, which has the phrase:
 {{Quote|{{Al Nasai||1|6|625}}|…qala bilalun ana fastaqbala matliAAa a'''l'''shshamsi…<BR><BR>…Bilal said, “I will”. He turned to face the direction where the sun woke them up…}}
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 Unless otherwise stated, the original 1934 translation of Abdullah Yusuf Ali<ref>Ali, Abdullah Yusuf, The Holy Qur’an: Translation and Commentary, Lahore: 1934</ref> is used for quotations from the Qur’an due to its widespread distribution. Word for word translations are those used on [http://corpus.Quran.com/ The Quranic Arabic Corpus]. However, these are used only to explain in English the arguments in this article, which are founded on analysis of the Arabic words of the Qur’an.
-For hadith (oral traditions of the words and deeds of Muhammad, collected and written down mainly in the 8<sup>th</sup> and 9<sup>th</sup> centuries CE), the translation of Muhammad Muhsin Khan<ref>M. Muhsin Khan - [{{Compendium-of-muslim-texts-base-url}}/hadith/bukhari/ Translation of Sahih Bukhari] - CRCC, University of Southern Carolina</ref> is used for Sahih Bukhari. That of Abdul Hamid Siddiqui<ref>Abdul Hamid Siddiqui - [{{Compendium-of-muslim-texts-base-url}}/hadith/muslim/ Translation of Sahih Muslim] - CRCC, University of Southern Carolina</ref> is used for Sahih Muslim. Their numbering systems are used (vol., book, no. and book, no., respectively).
+For hadith (oral traditions of the words and deeds of Muhammad, collected and written down mainly in the 8<sup>th</sup> and 9<sup>th</sup> centuries CE), the translation of Muhammad Muhsin Khan<ref>M. Muhsin Khan - [{{Compendium-of-muslim-texts-base-url}}/hadith/bukhari/ Translation of Sahih Bukhari] - CRCC, University of Southern Carolina</ref> is used for Sahih Bukhari. That of Abdul Hamid Siddiqui<ref>Abdul Hamid Siddiqui - [{{Compendium-of-muslim-texts-base-url}}/hadith/muslim/ Translation of Sahih Muslim] - CRCC, University of Southern Carolina</ref> is used for Sahih Muslim.
 All transliterations of the Arabic Qur’an into Latin characters are from the free, widely used Muslimnet transliteration used by many popular websites such as [http://www.muslimaccess.com MuslimAccess], which has a transliteration table,<ref>[http://www.muslimaccess.com/quraan/transliterations/index.htm Transliteration of the Qur'an] - MuslimAccess.Com</ref><ref>[http://www.muslimaccess.com/quraan/transliterations/table.html Transliteration Table] - MuslimAccess.Com</ref> and [http://www.islamicity.com IslamiCity]. There do not seem to be any available sources for transliterations of the commentaries and hadith, so here this has been done from the Arabic using the same transliteration rules. Hadith and tafsir (commentaries) are not used here as authoritative sources on the meaning of the Qur’an, but rather for near contemporary examples of language usage and beliefs.