Q. There is a verse in
the Qur'an that puzzles me: (Q29:14 – Al Ankabut) "And We sent Noah to
his people, and he dwelt among them a thousand years bar fifty…
According to the above verse, one is led to
believe that Noah lived for 950 years. All historical and anthropological
evidence indicates that the average lifespan of generations prior to the
current one was shorter. All of the Qur'an's translators I researched seem to
be in agreement regarding the above interpretation. What is your perspective on
this verse? Could it be translated any other way or is that the correct
interpretation?
Regarding
the history of the ancients, i.e., before Prophet Muhammad, the Qur'an refers us to 21:7, 16:43: the people of Zakhor, the scholars of the Jews. And so we use their
stories, since there is nothing with which to challenge those
reports. As Jewish sages have said, "the Torah
speaks the language of man," so too the Qur'an talks in terms of that which made
sense to the people of the time. The problem for modern exegetes has been to
take the Qur'an as an historic and scientific
document in the technical meanings of "history" and
"science," and this is partly because it says of itself that it is tibyaanan li kulli shay
– it is an explanation for everything. But context tells us that it is
obviously only referring to the spiritual and ethical.
I would
advise that the Christian term "kerygma" is one that is applicable to
dealing with the Qur'an. The idea of kerygma in Christianity is the proclamation
of religious truths, especially as taught in the Gospels. The notion of
adjudging any scripture in terms of historicity and accuracy according to the
modern scientific connotations in such terms as "reliability," etc.
is a gross error. The stories are told for a reason, and we have to understand
why they are being told. Now all of this obviously raises the question: so is
the Qur'an a book of truth or not? To which
one may answer: the same way one illustrates a story by parables, etc., so too
the Qur'an uses the information from the past.
Myths, which may or may not be true, or the measure of time, which may or may
not concord with ours, should not be the focus as the Qur'an's job is not the
specific detail in question, but to show that the person is the same spoken
about elsewhere, and the aim is to create morality and spirituality.
I don't
see the Qur'anic
concept of 'truth' as always meaning scientific accuracy – that would deny the
human comprehension factor. For example, when the Qur'an talks about he who does an "atom's" weight of
good – the word used in not atom, but the smallest living thing perceptible to
the human eye – a mite – but modernists insert atom to give the concept of
exactness. I would not be surprised if some have argued that the Qur'an explains chemistry, or someone did not translate it as
"ion". This is why scriptural messages are to be understood as based
on moral lessons that may be age old, and one takes into consideration the
issue that would be solved/caused if one were to talk
about "accuracy."
Was the
earth created in six days? Six stages? Or maybe seven? As Muslims, we believe so far in six stages,
but why is this important? There are two things: the story that came down long
ago, based on the things known/assumed to the communities before, was based on six. As rationalists, we make it six stages.
But why is that important except for reconciliation with science, when in fact
the scripture lets science function on its own, and relates rather to ethics
and spirituality. It only uses science to illustrate that nothing happens
without God's will, or that God is not irrational. Neither seeks to cross over
into the other's territory, but that fact is lost on many researchers.
This brings us back to the question of Noah and his 950 years. Did he live to
that actual age? The scholars are divided on the issue: some say that it
actually happened, using OUR measurement as the
standard (I assume that since we are speaking of Muslim scholars here, they are
referring to lunar years, thereby meaning an approximate total of 924 solar
calendar years). Others say that the yardstick of measurement was different for
the time of Noah. Others say that the long life span was longer before the
FLOOD and drastically dropped off after the event. All of these answers are
plausible, but I personally find them unappealing. Since the Qur'anic reference is
to Genesis 9:29 -- and this is because it tells us in 16:43, 21:7 to ask about
the past from the people of the zakhor -- the
followers of the Hebrew Bible -- you will find the same
question of authenticity among Jews and Christians. The
Qur'an was NEVER, as was NO scripture of the Abrahamic religions, meant to be a
reference for history in the academic sense of the word.
Posted November 23, 2005