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Sinai (2023 notes the Qur’an uses ''khalāq'' (“share, portion”) in verses threatening that some will have “no share in the hereafter” (e.g., Q 2:102, 2:200, 3:77).<ref name=":1">''khalāq | share'' Sinai, Nicolai. Key Terms of the Qur'an: A Critical Dictionary (p. 281-282). Princeton University Press. Kindle Edition.</ref> Unlike the usual Arabic root ''kh-l-q'' (“to create”), ''khalāq'' seems to be a loanword, likely from Hebrew ''ḥēleq'' or Aramaic ''ḥulaqa'', both meaning “share” or “allotted fate.”<ref name=":1" /> This phrasing strongly resembles rabbinic expressions about having (or lacking) a “share in the world to come,” widely attested in the Mishnah, Tosefta, Talmud, and Midrash.<ref name=":1" /> The Qur’an’s diction thus reflects Rabbinical Jewish idiom, likely adopted in a Medinan context, making ''khalāq,'' like ''ummī'' (“scriptureless”) and ''baraʾa'' (“to create”) etc. an example of Jewish terminology integrated into Qur’anic usage.<ref name=":1" />
Sinai (2023 notes the Qur’an uses ''khalāq'' (“share, portion”) in verses threatening that some will have “no share in the hereafter” (e.g., Q 2:102, 2:200, 3:77).<ref name=":1">''khalāq | share'' Sinai, Nicolai. Key Terms of the Qur'an: A Critical Dictionary (p. 281-282). Princeton University Press. Kindle Edition.</ref> Unlike the usual Arabic root ''kh-l-q'' (“to create”), ''khalāq'' seems to be a loanword, likely from Hebrew ''ḥēleq'' or Aramaic ''ḥulaqa'', both meaning “share” or “allotted fate.”<ref name=":1" /> This phrasing strongly resembles rabbinic expressions about having (or lacking) a “share in the world to come,” widely attested in the Mishnah, Tosefta, Talmud, and Midrash.<ref name=":1" /> The Qur’an’s diction thus reflects Rabbinical Jewish idiom, likely adopted in a Medinan context, making ''khalāq,'' like ''ummī'' (“scriptureless”) and ''baraʾa'' (“to create”) etc. an example of Jewish terminology integrated into Qur’anic usage.<ref name=":1" />


== 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 Gods 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> 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.}}
(See also e.g. {{Quran|40|18}} and {{Quran|53|57}} where it's 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 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 sighting's 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> The hours non-arrival seemed to be a repeated source of contention with his audience, with opponents regularly questioning when it would arrive, and questioning why the punishment that was promised to them has not yet come.<ref>Shoemaker, Stephen J.. ''The Death of a Prophet (Divinations: Rereading Late Ancient Religion) (p. 161-163).'' University of Pennsylvania Press, Inc.. Kindle Edition.
(For example Q79:42, and he is told to hasten it in Q29:53, cf: Q11:8, and questioned as why the punishment promised to them hasn't come in Q7:70, 77; Q10:48; Q13:6; Q21:38; Q22:47; Q46:22).</ref> Though one might point out there may appear to be tension with the creation of a law-giving prophet and community building in the Medinan Qur'an, Shoemaker and Cook point out those preaching the end of the world often also preached living righteously until the hour arrived.<ref>Ibid. pp. 159</ref>
Alongside the plain meaning of the text, there is ample evidence this belief was held by many early Muslims too, including very early canonical and sahih rated hadith (''see: [[Scientific Errors in the Hadith#Failed%20eschatological%20predictions|failed eschatological predictions in the hadith]]'') with more cited by Shoemaker.<ref>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. pp. 131-132 & pp. 142-144</ref> There are also many other non-canonical but early (within the first century of Islam) traditions stating the end of the eschaton would occur within Muhammad's lifetime or shortly after,<ref>Shoemaker, Stephen J.. ''The Death of a Prophet (p. 174-178).'' Kindle Edition.</ref> in other sources such biographical 'seerah' material<ref>Ibid. & Shoemaker, Stephen J. 2018. ''The Apocalypse of Empire: Imperial Eschatology in Late Antiquity and Early Islam. pp. 142-144.''</ref> Later Islamic scholars like al-Tabari would often use metaphorical interpretations of these to reconcile the continued passage of time by pushing the predicted end date into the future.<ref>Shoemaker, Stephen J. 2018. ''The Death of a Prophet (p. 173-174).'' Kindle Edition.
[Note the following numerical symbolism interpretation of the eschatological hadith are also false predictions as this would move judgment day to no later than ~1,132AD (As 500 years after Muhammad's death being traditionally recorded in 632AD)]
"Perhaps the most famous effort to reconcile the two fingers tradition with the Hour’s delay occurs at the beginning of al-Ṭabarī’s History, where he rather cleverly deploys this tradition in order to place his work within an extended version of Islam’s eschatological calendar.<sup>231</sup> This he achieves by transforming these eschatological warnings of imminent doom into an orderly model of historical periodization that frames his historical narrative. ''Al-Ṭabarī here concludes that since the index finger is one-fourteenth shorter than the middle finger, and the total length of the world’s existence is known to be seven thousand years, Muhammad clearly meant to signal that the Hour would arrive five hundred years after him, thus leaving another two hundred years or so beyond al-Ṭabarī before the world would come to an end.'' In the same context, al-Ṭabarī also identifies a second eschatological tradition that he employs to similar effect. According to this report, Muhammad once addressed his followers at a time “when the sun had almost set and only a small sliver of it remained visible,” and he explained to them that “as compared to what remains of our world, that which has passed is like what remains of this day as compared to what has passed of it, and you will see only a little (more) of the sun.”<sup>232</sup> The eschatological immediacy of this ḥadīth is rather clear, and once again it seems quite unlikely that such a prediction would have been ascribed to Muhammad very long after his death. ''Yet here al-Ṭabarī deploys a similar hermeneutic strategy that enables him again to push the Hour into the future. When Muhammad spoke these words, according to al-Ṭabarī, the day was half past, and since a day with God is as a thousand years, the Hour’s advent could be expected five hundred years after the time when Muhammad spoke. In this way, what was presumably a very early expression of Islamic belief in the Hour’s immediacy could be reconciled with the centuries that had elapsed between Muhammad’s warnings and al-Ṭabarī himself.'' By reinterpreting the tradition’s “small sliver” of the sun as somehow the equivalent of midday, al-Ṭabarī postpones the Hour into a distant future."</ref>
'''Given we are still here more than a millennium after it was stated, we can say like other contemporary preachers who thought they were at the end of history, this prediction was not historically accurate.'''
'''Others have disputed the idea such as Dr Zishan Ghaffar, <ref>See discussion here: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7XWxCc64dI The Qur'an and the End of the World] - Dr Zishan Ghaffar - Youtube Video on Gabriel Said Reynolds' Academic Channel [https://www.youtube.com/c/ExploringtheQuranandtheBible Exploring the Quran and the Bible]</ref> however the motifs would be explained by common late antiquity writings/motifs around?'''
== Similarities with late antique Judeo-Christian texts ==
Some are not exact matches but very similar, showing potential influence if not direct copies of these texts.
Some are not exact matches but very similar, showing potential influence if not direct copies of these texts.


'''Summaries text boxes - put Quran verses in them'''
== Souls are taken away at night ==
 
=== Souls fall 'asleep' at death ===
{{Quote|{{Quran|2|259}}|Or him who came upon a township as it lay fallen on its trellises. He said, “How will God revive this after its death?!” So God made him die for a hundred years, then He resurrected him. He said, “How long did you remain?” Said he, “I have remained a day or part of a day.” He said, “No, you have remained a hundred years. Now look at your food and drink which have not rotted! Then look at your donkey! [This was done] that We may make you a sign for mankind. And now look at the bones, how We raise them up and then clothe them with flesh!” When it became evident to him, he said, “I know that God has power over all things.”}}
 
Reynolds (2020) notes in regards to the interchangeability of sleep and death in the Qur'an:
 
'''The Qur’an portrays death as a kind of “sleep” in which the soul is unaware of the passage of time. In Sura 2:259, a man who dies for a hundred years perceives it as only “a day or part of a day.” When resurrected, he sees that time has truly passed, but his experience was timeless. This story illustrates that after death, souls enter a state like sleep and will be “awakened” on the Day of Judgment, regardless of how long the interval lasts.'''{{Quote|Reynolds, Gabriel Said. Allah: God in the Qur'an (pp. 72-73). Yale University Press. Kindle Edition.|The Sleep of Souls This notion that souls will fall “asleep” at death is vividly depicted in two qur’anic stories. The first of these is contained in one verse of Sura 2 and has to do with a man and his donkey... ...The man in this story (which is connected to a Jewish tale about Jerusalem)<sup>6</sup> has no sense that a hundred years has passed: he feels as though it has been only “a day or part of a day” since he died, or “fell asleep,” so he is surprised to learn that he has slept for one hundred years. According to the Qur’an this is what the experience of death will be like: we will fall “asleep” and will be “woken up” on the Day of Judgment. Yet even if a hundred (or a million) years have passed, we will experience this time as though it were “a day or part of a day.”}}
Which he explains has a similar parallel in a late antique Judeo-Christian writing in footnote 6 of the above text:
{{Quote|Reynolds, Gabriel Said. Allah: God in the Qur'an (p. 254). Yale University Press. Kindle Edition.|6. This verse is related to an anecdote found in the Paraleipomena of Jeremiah (a Jewish text, also known as 4 Baruch, from the second century AD) by which Abimelech (see Jer 38:7–13) is made to fall asleep just before the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians and is awoken sixty-six years later, when Jerusalem lies in ruins.}}


=== Souls are taken away at night ===
The Qur'an (and traditional Islamic exegetes)<ref>See classical commentaries on these verses such as Al-Jalalayn on [https://quranx.com/Tafsir/Jalal/39.42 Q39:42], [https://quranx.com/Tafsir/Jalal/6.60 Q6:60] and Ibn Kathir on [https://quranx.com/Tafsir/Kathir/39.41 Q39:41-2] and [https://quranx.com/Tafsir/Kathir/6.60 Q6:60]</ref> state that the soul is taken away by Allah during the night.{{Quote|{{Quran|39|42}}|<b>Allah takes the souls at the time of their death, and those who have not died, in their sleep.</b> Then He retains those for whom He has ordained death and releases the others until a specified time. There are indeed signs in that for a people who reflect.}}{{Quote|{{Quran|6|60}}|<b>It is He who takes your souls by night,</b> and He knows what you do by day, then He reanimates you therein so that a specified term may be completed. Then to Him will be your return, whereat He will inform you concerning what you used to do.}}Tesei (2016) notes this idea may mimic a late antique Syriac Christian parallel in the poetical language used by Ephrem, who in the Nisibene hymns (7:15) mentions sleep resembles death, and other Christian writers (such as Babai) wrote about sleep metaphorically Jesus's death and waking up like the resurrection;<ref>Tesei, Tommaso. (2016). "[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/344524709_2_The_barzakh_and_the_Intermediate_State_of_the_Dead_in_the_Quran 2 The barzakh and the Intermediate State of the Dead in the Quran]". pp. 40-42 In Locating Hell in Islamic Traditions. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill. <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004301368_003</nowiki> (Open access)
The Qur'an (and traditional Islamic exegetes)<ref>See classical commentaries on these verses such as Al-Jalalayn on [https://quranx.com/Tafsir/Jalal/39.42 Q39:42], [https://quranx.com/Tafsir/Jalal/6.60 Q6:60] and Ibn Kathir on [https://quranx.com/Tafsir/Kathir/39.41 Q39:41-2] and [https://quranx.com/Tafsir/Kathir/6.60 Q6:60]</ref> state that the soul is taken away by Allah during the night.{{Quote|{{Quran|39|42}}|<b>Allah takes the souls at the time of their death, and those who have not died, in their sleep.</b> Then He retains those for whom He has ordained death and releases the others until a specified time. There are indeed signs in that for a people who reflect.}}{{Quote|{{Quran|6|60}}|<b>It is He who takes your souls by night,</b> and He knows what you do by day, then He reanimates you therein so that a specified term may be completed. Then to Him will be your return, whereat He will inform you concerning what you used to do.}}Tesei (2016) notes this idea may mimic a late antique Syriac Christian parallel in the poetical language used by Ephrem, who in the Nisibene hymns (7:15) mentions sleep resembles death, and other Christian writers (such as Babai) wrote about sleep metaphorically Jesus's death and waking up like the resurrection;<ref>Tesei, Tommaso. (2016). "[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/344524709_2_The_barzakh_and_the_Intermediate_State_of_the_Dead_in_the_Quran 2 The barzakh and the Intermediate State of the Dead in the Quran]". pp. 40-42 In Locating Hell in Islamic Traditions. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill. <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004301368_003</nowiki> (Open access)


''At the same time, the Quran also compares death to the “common sleep” that people experience on a daily basis. This seems to be the case in the cryptic statement found in Q 39:42 (cf. Q 6:60), “God takes the souls at the time of their death (ḥīna mawtihā), and [He takes] that which has not died, in its sleep ( fī manāmihā); He withholds that against which He has decreed death, but sets loose the other until a stated term”. This obscure passage appears to indicate that sleep is a death-like state; sleepers resemble the dead since their souls enter into a state similar to that which they will experience at the moment of death. However, unlike the souls of the dead, which will be raised only on the Day of Resurrection, the ordinary sleeper’s soul is sent back when he awakens―that is, of course, until the time of his death. This parallel between death and “common sleep” finds a fairly close correspondence in the poetical language used by Ephrem, who in the Nisibene hymns (7:15) affirms that: “The one who lies down to sleep resembles the departed and death resembles a dream, and the resurrection the morning”. In these passages the Quran’s eschatological discourse is particularly close to that formulated by Babai, in whose ideas the belief in the soul’s sleep is intimately connected to the strong affirmation of the physical resurrection of the body on the Day of Judgment.'' </ref> with this idea taken literally by Muhammad.
''At the same time, the Quran also compares death to the “common sleep” that people experience on a daily basis. This seems to be the case in the cryptic statement found in Q 39:42 (cf. Q 6:60), “God takes the souls at the time of their death (ḥīna mawtihā), and [He takes] that which has not died, in its sleep ( fī manāmihā); He withholds that against which He has decreed death, but sets loose the other until a stated term”. This obscure passage appears to indicate that sleep is a death-like state; sleepers resemble the dead since their souls enter into a state similar to that which they will experience at the moment of death. However, unlike the souls of the dead, which will be raised only on the Day of Resurrection, the ordinary sleeper’s soul is sent back when he awakens―that is, of course, until the time of his death. This parallel between death and “common sleep” finds a fairly close correspondence in the poetical language used by Ephrem, who in the Nisibene hymns (7:15) affirms that: “The one who lies down to sleep resembles the departed and death resembles a dream, and the resurrection the morning”. In these passages the Quran’s eschatological discourse is particularly close to that formulated by Babai, in whose ideas the belief in the soul’s sleep is intimately connected to the strong affirmation of the physical resurrection of the body on the Day of Judgment.'' </ref> with this idea taken literally by Muhammad.


=== Arguments for resurrection ===
== Arguments for resurrection ==
Reynolds (2020) notes the repeated argument that God can resurrect the dead using the analogy that he can bring life back to barren (or dead) land.{{Quote|Reynolds, Gabriel Said. Allah: God in the Qur'an (pp. 76-77). Yale University Press. Kindle Edition.|Few arguments are more common in the Qur’an than the analogy that it makes between God’s ability to bring a dead body to life and the way in which rain brings a barren land back to life:
Reynolds (2020) notes the repeated argument that God can resurrect the dead using the analogy that he can bring life back to barren (or dead) land may be connected to  a Jewish tradition that God will resurrect the dead with dew, for example, in b. Shabbat 88b.<ref>Reynolds, Gabriel Said. ''Allah: God in the Qur'an (p. 254).'' Yale University Press. Kindle Edition.</ref>{{Quote|Reynolds, Gabriel Said. Allah: God in the Qur'an (pp. 76-77). Yale University Press. Kindle Edition.|Few arguments are more common in the Qur’an than the analogy that it makes between God’s ability to bring a dead body to life and the way in which rain brings a barren land back to life:
<i>17 So glorify God when you enter evening and when you rise at dawn. 18 To Him belongs all praise in the heavens and the earth, at nightfall and when you enter noontime. 19 He brings forth the living from the dead and brings forth the dead from the living, and revives the earth after its death. Likewise you [too] shall be raised [from the dead].</i> (Q 30:17–19; cf. Q 16:65, 43:11, 50:6–11, 57:17)  
<i>17 So glorify God when you enter evening and when you rise at dawn. 18 To Him belongs all praise in the heavens and the earth, at nightfall and when you enter noontime. 19 He brings forth the living from the dead and brings forth the dead from the living, and revives the earth after its death. Likewise you [too] shall be raised [from the dead].</i> (Q 30:17–19; cf. Q 16:65, 43:11, 50:6–11, 57:17)  


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