Pre-Islamic Arab Religion in Islam: Difference between revisions

wal-ʿaṣri}}Stewart (2012)<ref>Stewart, Devin J. "''The Mysterious Letters and Other Formal Features of the Qur’ān in Light of Greek and Babylonian Oracular Texts.''" Found in: Reynolds, Gabriel. ''New Perspectives on the Qur'an: The Qur'an in its Historical Context 2 (Routledge Studies in the Qur'an)'' Taylor & Francis. 2012. pp. 323-48.</ref> notes that the oaths at the beginning of many Qur'anic surahs (along with other Qur'anic features) belong to a pre-Islamic oracular tradition tied to soothsaying. These oaths often invoke celestial bodies like the sun, moon, and stars, as well as natural phenomena such as night, day, and specific times. Historically, some of these celestial entities were worshiped as deities, including by the Quraysh tribe. In the Qur'an, however, their predictable regularity is emphasized as a sign of God's control over the universe. The use of oaths referencing specific times of day reflects a continuation of pre-Islamic poetic and oracular conventions. Examples include swearing by the dawn, twilight, morning, and other specific times, as seen in various verses (e.g., {{Quran|92|1-2}}, {{Quran|74|32-34}}, {{Quran|81|18}}, {{Quran|89|1}}, {{Quran|84|15}}). ''[[:en:Huruf_Muqatta'at_(Disjointed_Letters_in_the_Qur'an)|Mysterious letters]] and references to scripture are sometimes combined with an oath, as in Qāf * wa-l-Qurʾāni l-majīd *, “Q. By the Glorious  Qurʾān” (Q 50:1); Nūn wa-l-qalami wa-mā yasṭurūn, “N. By the pen and what they record” (Q 68:1); Ḥā mīm wa-l-kitābi l-mubīn, “Ḥ. M. By the clear Book” (43:1–2; 44:1–2).'' He notes on the origin of these kind of oaths in pre-Islamic Arabia.   

{{Quote|Stewart, Devin J. "The Mysterious Letters and Other Formal Features of the Qur’ān in Light of Greek and Babylonian Oracular Texts." New Perspectives on the Qur'an (2012). pp 337.|The oaths to the sun, moon, and stars which appear so frequently in the oaths of pre-Islamic and Qurʾānic oracles, as well as the oaths to animals in pre-Islamic oracles, may have developed out of the signs used for divination. For example, the Yemeni soothsayer Saṭīḥ (Rabīʿ b. Rabīʿa b. Masʿūd)  supposedly made the following prediction explaining a dream of the Yemeni king  Rabīʿa b. Naṣr:  aḥlifu bi-mā bayna l-ḥarratayni min ḥanash  la-tahbiṭanna arḍakum ul-ḥabash  fa-la-yamlikunna mā bayna Abyana ilā Jurash  I swear by the snakes in between the two lava fields,  that the Ethiopians will descend on your land,  and conquer all the territory between Abyan and Jurash³⁹... ...Pre-Islamic oracles frequently swore by or referred  to animals, as Saṭīḥ’s oracle for Rabīʿa b. Naṣr mentioned above refers to snakes. Similarly, the pronouncements attributed to Musaylimah refer to the wolf, frog,  and elephant. ⁴² This feature of pre-Islamic oracles that resembles Greek usage was  for the most part abandoned in the Qurʾān. The opening oaths in al-ʿĀdiyāt (Q 100) appear to be an exception, referring most likely to horses. The opening oath passages in several Sūras which each feature a series of feminine plural participles  (Q 37:1–3; 51:1–4; 77:1–4; 79:1–5; 100:1–5) lead one to think that this was a conventional type of oath in pre-Islamic oracular pronouncements. 43 This particular convention remains poorly understood, but such oaths may have originally referred to animals or spirits.  }}