Forbidden Green Eggs And Ham; Poetry From 7th Century Arabia

An explanation of verse 4.159 by a translator of Muhammad's poetry (a.k.a. Quran).
Sources cited: Basilidans, Docetae, Marcionite, Gospel of Barnabas.

The distant past isn't always so distant when researching patterns and ideas for facts.

Simply because an idea is ancient doesn't make it right or wrong, nor an automatic fact from fiction.

Although each individual sees truths in a relative manner, the Truth is explicitly understood in one's heart...and this without knowledge or learning.

This Truth is usually inexplicable, yet men still try to explain their interpretation of it...conjuring up various manners and ways besides the Way.

Archeology and history is replete with the lives and lifestyles of peoples past and present, while the Life that has been authored from Above is hidden here / there yet revealed there / here.

The adversary of the Truth is lie...and lie dresses and acts like truth.

Some lies (or put politically softer: “non-fact-based ideas”) have stood the test of time, and are still believed as 'truth'.

The Truth doesn't need human advocates to argue its case, for Truth's understanding is gifted, not achieved by any means of effort.

Truth doesn't need human acknowledgement to be real.

As if reality needed its participants to call it such in order for it to be.

Mythology and legends still persist today, while for some of us, mythologies and legends still (and have) serve(d) their purpose: tales and stories teaching real lessons about the human character / condition / constant.

Some societies and cultures are still embedded in fairytale, with facts eventually surfacing after enough eyes within and without that culture sift through the ideas touted as fact.

This is the beautiful phenomenon of the internet; the world's libraries are open and being read.

The past accounts of individual societies and their history is being compared and contrasted with others, and although opinions still reign according to centric perspectives, the unifying vision continues to build.

Greek mythology was eventually seen as the learning tool is was conceptualized to be.

The idea / belief that the myths were real or based on actual personalities and events was eventually abandoned for their moral and ethical lessons.

The lessons and characterizations of 'divine' personalities continue to be relevant and 'real' because they are understood in their proper context.

Many fictional stories have portrayed non-fictional realities quite clearly.

This is what poetry is based on, or at least understood to be.

Poetry is a tool explaining something allegorically.

Poetry is not usually explicit, as historical narratives are understood.

But where writing was unknown or scarce, oral traditions were the norm...adapting according to generational perceptions and current events.

But where writing was available, a historical record was possible...and is retrieved Today in the search for facts from the past.

And where such written things are found, they can be compared and contrasted with other writings from previous or concurrent times...and a semblance of fact can be rendered.

This blog article explores how and why the Quran is one man's poetic attempt at legitimizing his claim to prophethood.

His effort of weaving of a variety of past narratives, half fiction (legends and myth) and half non-fiction (derived from written history), into his magnum opus.

His effort to make sense of his many dreams.

His effort to capitalize on the religious opinions of his contemporaries and answer his deterrents.

His and his follower's continuous efforts at syncretism.

This effort continues, at times irrational.

The narrative in the Quran is only rational to those who have been taught to accept it.

If one has never seen the ocean, and has never been told there is such a thing as an 'ocean', would that person ever perceive an ocean?

Likely not.

A person believes a particular 'reality' that has been taught them if that is the only 'reality' of the past they've heard / been taught.

This is why isolated cultures developed unique world views in times past, and isolated views persist still today.

When other / outside information is unknown (ignorance / lack of knowledge), or when one narrative is rejected for another narrative reinforcing a particular identity, you have what is called 'legend'.

Whether that legend is later defined as true, partly true and partly fictitious, or wholly false...varies.

Muhammad's poetry was (and still is) believed-to-be inspired wholly from the God of Israel.

The same God who predicted He would one day appear in the flesh, and when He did appear, predicted His eventual death and resurrection.

Quite explicit the message and the historical significance of God's physical appearance coming to pass.

However, the Arabian poet had other ideas that were formulated from several regional sources professing conflicting opinions regarding God, and how God brought about Himself in the flesh (the Messiah).

Let us learn now looking at how a culture developed ideas based on poetic legends.

Let us learn how those poetic legends formulated a history continuously building upon poetic traditions.

What struck her most about them, though, was not that variety, but how much they repurposed old poems from hundreds of years ago. 

...She discovered that over half were plagiarised from the classical tradition. Nearly 10% turned out, ironically, to be from the pre-Islamic era. 

Even the new poems were written so they looked as if they had been dreamt up during the time of the Prophet Muhammad, rather than by a bored jihadist driving through a desert a few weeks before. It was as if al-Qaeda wanted anyone hearing them to think they could have been written by a distant ancestor, someone just like them. 

“... it's not designed to be good literature - it's designed to plug into a tribal tradition that's authentic and speaks to people's hearts, and it does that.”

These quotes are from this news article here, about a critic of jihadist poetry and her discoveries (besides her somewhat interesting life and how she became interested in Arabic).

From the National Endowment for the Humanities found this:

While Westerners may be surprised by the notion that poetry is an effective way to convey a political message, Bassam Frangieh says it is an integral part of Arab culture. 

“In every Arab country every day, poets appear on television, on the radio, or in the newspaper. Every single newspaper in the Arab world every day has poetry -- this is nothing new,” says Frangieh, who is professor of Arabic at Yale University. “Poetry is the essence of Arab culture.” 

The tradition extends back hundreds of years before the advent of Islam. Frangieh describes an ancient practice: “Once a year, all the tribes would meet in a place next to Mecca called Souk Ukaz, or the market of Ukaz. Poets from all over Arabia would come to compete and recite their poems in front of judges. These judges were either poets themselves or critics. Each year the festival’s winning poem would be transcribed in golden letters and hung on the door of Ka’bah in Mecca for the whole year. It was like the Nobel Prize of ancient Arabia.”

...An affinity for poetic language is deeply rooted in Arab culture, and historically, the poet has held a position of high esteem. “The Arab poet was the voice of his tribe, its defender and representative -- above all, its provocative force,” says Frangieh.

...Each qasidah lampoons the tribe’s enemies and praises its leaders. 

...Each master poet was surrounded by his 'rawis', or group of reciters. “When the poet composed a new poem, the rawis committed it to memory and the next day rode their camels or horses across Arabia to the other tribes to brag about their poet,” says Frangieh. “He was the political spokesperson of the tribe and predicted the future like a prophet.” 

These quotes are from a very insightful article here. worth reading in its entirety.

From this source one may better understand the mirrored definition of what the Quran invokes: poetry full of emotion, cadence, rhyme, etc..

Similar to the tradition of poetry in forming people's understanding of life past, present and future in Arabian culture.

I don't usually quote copiously from the work of others, but I found their content quite compelling in conveying the aim of this particular blog's message: Muhammad was an ambitious poet who attempted the impossible.

We keep seeing clearer and clearly how he both succeeded and failed at his attempt at honor and praise.

Why the word 'impossible' alongside both 'success' and 'failure'?

Because a prophet is someone called to that vocation not according to their own will or personal desire, but from the will and choice of He who is Above all.

In other words; whomever goes around saying they are some thing - especially a prophet - they are not.

How was Muhammad successful?

In unifying a historically fragmented society of loose tribal affiliation, among other objectively notable achievements.

What has been impossible by exterior force (foreign conquest / colonialism) was realized through internal force (Arabic tribal affiliation, poetic victory, bridging petty differences through religious hegemony, etc.).

How was Muhammad a failure?

He never qualified for the definition of 'how' a prophet was historically called, nor the qualifications under the New Covenant of the Messiah (according to the image's definitions in this blog post)...besides other details.

Regarding the details about prophethood and claimants such as Muhammad, read this three-part series.

At that link is explained why Muhammad died without a male heir and also unsure of his salvation.

Plenty of self-proclaimed 'prophets' have been proven false in due time.

This phenomenon of claimants to the vocation was warned of before Christ, and after Christ, and is still a consistent distraction from what is understood as the Way, Truth and Life in the believer's heart.

Trying to convince the multitudes who follow such false claimants can be an exercise in futility...but such exercise isn't always fruitless.

Psychologically, too much is at stake for the individual to deny legends interweaved with touches of truth and falsehood.

Almost every single culture and people have held onto a identity believed-to-be 'true' and they've come to accept such ideas as fact their entire lives.

This is true even today regardless of what you believe about (or not) about God, for we are all susceptible to cultural and societal opinions beyond the Truth of God.

This is why some say the search for the Truth is an internal process, not so much an external 'religious' process.

The process is mostly internal; the experience mostly internal.

When considering breaking away from what is externally taught is a psychological break to one's individual pride and tribal identity.

However, this is exactly what each individual person the world over has to face when considering the rest of humanity and what they personally hold as 'true' and what other people have come to understand of the Truth.

Isn't there a greater meaning and higher purpose to life?

What is your individual interpretation of that purposeful life?

Is it interpretative through poetry?

Is it according to what secular government (even those proclaiming to be religious) dictates?

Is there an allowance to cause harm to others for a greater good in your purposed life?

If so, perhaps you have a world-view still echoing legends and myths as truth, but empty of Truth's Love.

Is the Truth the embodiment of Love, and is the Way living with and dealing with others ONLY through Love...even loving those calling themselves your enemies?

If so, then perhaps you may know the God of Israel as revealed through Christ, His Messiah, His Self in the flesh; Immanuel.