Thursday, July 30, 2009
Suffering through the Koran – Sura 27 named 'The Ants '.
Majestic Islam crushing the Ants of dissent underfoot....just like Allah's messenger Solomon.....
by Ferdinand III
The 'Ants' make one episodic appearance in this Sura, rushing to get out of the way of King Solomon, he the descendant of the Great King David, and of course re-casted in Muslim fantasy-land as a follower of Islam: “At length, when they came to a (lowly) valley of ants, one of the ants said: 'O you ants, get into your habitations, lest Solomon and his hosts crush you (under foot) without knowing it.'” [27:18] Well that is Koranic rationality for you. Ants talking to other Ants about avoiding the sandaled feet of Solomon's hosts. Not even the Ants can avoid the messengers and the power, of the Meccan male moon deity, Ali-ilah. Nothing deranged about any of it of course.
David was the unifier of the Jewish kingdom, creating a powerful and successful state circa 1000 B.C. He ranks with Joshua, his precursor by some 350 years, as the greatest of Hebrew military leaders. His son Solomon is immortalised as wise when in fact he was a famous profligate – rather unwise in many ways – and a spend-happy heir to the fortune created by his father. Public works, temples, state building of all varieties drained the Jewish treasury. His reign demonstrably weakened the Jewish state. Solomon was not the wise man of Biblical lore, but a powerful ruler who used state money and coercion to further his grip on power. A democrat and believer in individuality he was not. Neither was he pious. He was a decidely inferior man and ruler in comparison with his father.
So it is rather strange that the Koranic scribblers would focus a 4 page chapter on Solomon. If I had been writing the Arab imperialist-supremacist tract, I would have gone for the true King and blood line of Israel – David himself. If the intent is to re-cast all Jewish leaders and prophets as followers of the Arab moon cult, than David is your man. No personality outside of Joshua can overpower the deeds, the spirit, resolve and genius of David. Solomon would warrant at best a mention or two. But the Arabs inverted the true order by focusing on the wrong man, “We gave (in the past) knowledge to David and Solomon: and they both said: 'Praise be to Allah, Who has favored us above many of His servants who believe!'” [27:15] This is the only reference to David in the Sura.
The purpose of the Sura is as clear as its bad writing, fantastical imagery and its powers of reality distortion: Solomon and his part-time escort Sheba were followers of the Arab moon cult. The Jews were therefore a tribe which had strayed from the true path of worshipping the Solomnic ideal of Allah; and who by the 7th century AD had succumbed to 'false idols', not associated with the Meccan male moon deity: “Say: Praise be to Allah, and Peace on His servants whom He has chosen (for His Message). (Who) is better ? - Allah or the false gods they associate (with Him)?” [27:59]
It is very odd that the Arabs need to rewrite Jewish history to justify their moon cult. Solomon did not bow down and prostrate himself to the Meccan moon deity. Nor is the anthropomorphic Jewish God in any sense or form, to be associated with the rituals associated for 5.000 years in Mecca around moon worship. These are Arab and Muslim inventions designed to conflate and refute Jewish monotheism. Saying Allah is the same as Solomon's Jewish God – a concept which predates Islam by 2.700 years - is about as intelligent as claiming, 1900 years after Christ, that Hitler's paganist fascism was the true path of Christian duty [a claim he makes many times by the way, in Mein Kampf]. It is insane.
This Sura makes little sense. The title of 'Ants', like the entire Koran, is ponderous and irrelevant. Talking ants don't exist. Neither did Solomon's support of the Arab moon cult. Most likely if Solomon had been aware of the male Meccan moon deity he would have scorned it as an uncivilised expression of Arab poverty and ignorance.
And he would have been right.
[Note: This sura is taken from 'The Holy Quran', translated by Abdullah Yusuf Ali, reprinted in 1995, Goodword Books. Regarded as one of the best translations from Arabic to English of the Koran.]