Обсуждение:Древние народы

Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān

Remnant

The remains of a destroyed abode of sinful people. The total destruction of former generations (q.v.) is a historical lesson for contemporary sinners (see sin, major and minor), as stated, for example, in q 19:98: “And how many a generation (qarn) have we destroyed before them! Do you see any one of them or hear a sound of them?” (see geography; history and the qurʾān). Among these extinct sinners there were the peoples of ʿĀd (q.v.) and Thamūd (q.v.) about whom it is declared in q 69:8 that one cannot see any remnant (bāqiya) of them. The Qurʾān emphasizes that God has cut off the last of them (quṭiʿa dābiru l- qawmi; see q 6:45; 7:72), as was the case with the people of Lot (q.v.; q 15:66).

Although the sinners of old were totally wiped out, God left remnants of their abodes to serve as a lesson for posterity. The lesson is called “a sign” (āya; see signs), as is the case in q 27:52, which deals with the sinners of Thamūd: “So those are their houses fallen down because they were unjust (see justice and injustice). Most surely there is a sign in this for people who know.” The desolate abodes (masākin) of Thamūd as well as of ʿĀd, which remained after their inhabitants had been destroyed, are mentioned also in q 29:38 and q 46:25 (cf. q 14:45; 28:58). Muḥammad's unbelieving contemporaries actually used to go about among these dwellings (q 20:128). In further passages, the unbelievers are requested to travel in the land and see what was the end (ʿāqiba) of the sinners of old, who, however, are not specifically identified (q 3:137; 6:11; 12:109; 16:36; 27:69; 30:9; 35:44; 40:21, 82; 47:10; see lie; gratitude and ingratitude). ¶4/425/2¶

Remnants of the town of Lot (Sodom) also survived and God declares that he has left a clear sign of this town for people who understand (q 29:35; also q 32:26; 51:37; see knowledge and learning). The Qurʾān stresses that the remnants of Lot's town can be seen by Muḥammad's unbelieving contemporaries who pass by when they go about their business in the land (q 25:40; 37:137). They can see these remnants because they overlook the main road (q 15:76). This applies also to the remains of the city of al-Ayka (q 15:79; see people of the thicket). Remnants of Noah's (q.v.) ark (q.v.) could also be seen, as is implied in q 54:15. This passage asserts that God left it as a sign.

A different type of remnant is called baqiyya (from b-q-y, “to remain”), which stands for a divine religious or moral relic that has an everlasting value. Hence in q 11:116, the phrase ūlū baqiyya signifies people possessing such a relic or possessing qualities of religious and moral excellence (see ethics and the qurʾān). In q 11:86 the baqiyya explicitly belongs to God and emanates from him to his obedient servants (see obedience; servant). In q 2:248 it is evidently material, as it stands for the relics left by the Children of Israel (q.v.) within the ark of the covenant (q.v.; tābūt). Muslim exegetes (see exegesis of the qurʾān: classical and medieval) maintain that these relics included the Tablets, the rod (q.v.) of Moses (q.v.) and the turban of Aaron (q.v.).

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Primary

Suyūṭī, Durr

Ṭabarī, Tafsīr

Secondary

R. Sellheim, Noch einmal. Baqīya im Koran, in J. Cobet et al. (eds.), Dialogos. Für Harald Patzer zum 65. Geburtstag von seinen Freunden und Schülern, Wiesbaden n.d., 301-5

Cite this page

Rubin, Uri, “Remnant”, in: Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān, General Editor: Jane Dammen McAuliffe, Georgetown University, Washington DC. Consulted online on 07 January 2017 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1875-3922_q3_EQSIM_00354>

Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān

Generations

Stages in the succession of natural descent. Generations ( qarn, pl. qurūn) is used some twenty times in the Qurʾān to refer to the ¶2/293/1¶ groups of people (i.e. nations; cf. Ṭabarī, Tafsīr, xi, 26, ad q 6:6) who had been destroyed by God for their disobedience (q.v.) and failure to heed his message (e.g. q 6:6; 10:13; 11:116; 17:17; 19:74, 78; 23:31; 38:3; 50:36); the same word, qarn, also refers to the people who replace those generations. These destroyed peoples are cited as examples of wrongdoing and as warnings not to follow their doomed ways. The destroyed peoples are usually identified with a prophet named in the Qurʾān, such as Noah (q.v.), Lot (q.v.), Hūd (q.v.) for the people of ʿĀd (q.v.), Shūʿayb (q.v.; sometimes identified with the biblical Jethro) for the people of Midian (q.v.) and Ṣāliḥ (q.v.) for the Thamūd (q.v.). The traces of their existence, either in memory or artifacts, serve as a caution to humankind about the consequences of disobedience to God (see geography ).

The use of the category of generations in the Qurʾān is part of the larger qurʾānic argument that all of history can serve as a lesson for humankind, part of the total number of signs (q.v.) and portents God has sent down. q 6:6, for example, states, “Do they not see how many generations before them we destroyed, which we had established on the earth, strengthening them as we have not strengthened you, for whom we sent down rain in abundance and made rivers flow beneath them. But we destroyed them because of their sins and brought forth another generation after them.” The destroyed generations are described as having had great power and wealth (q.v.) that availed them nothing in the face of God's judgment (q.v.). Not all sinners are necessarily condemned without the possibility of redemption. The Qurʾān tells the story of the people of Jonah (q.v.; Yūnus or Dhū l-Nūn), who repented and were saved from destruction ( q 10:98; 37:139-48).¶2/293/2¶

Post-qurʾānic commentators elaborate on details of the destroyed generations, making liberal use of materials derived from biblical commentaries and Arabian legends (see mythic and legendary narratives; scripture and the qurʾān). In the story of Noah, for example, the number of people saved from destruction rises to seventy, including the giant Og (ʿŪj b. ʿAnaq; cf. Kisāʾī, Tales, 99, 251-3). Such elaboration became the locus for the narration of much fabulous lore. Scholarly critics of this genre point to quotations of verbatim speeches and poetry from the destroyed peoples as examples of the excesses of this material. See also punishment stories .

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Primary

Kisāʾī, The tales of the prophets of al-Kisāʾī, trans. W. Thackston, Boston 1978

Ṭabarī, Annales, ed. de Goeje, Leiden 1881

id., Tafsīr, Cairo 1954

Zamakhsharī, Kashshāf

Secondary

M. Lidzbarski, De propheticis, quae dicuntur, legendis Arabicis, Leipzig 1893

E. Littman, Thamūd and Safā, Leipzig 1940

G.D. Newby, The making of the last prophet. A reconstruction of the earliest biography of Muhammad, Columbia, SC 1989

R. Mottahedeh, Some Islamic views of the pre-Islamic past, in Harvard Middle Eastern and Islamic review 1 (1994), 17-26

Cite this page

Newby, Gordon Darnell, “Generations”, in: Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān, General Editor: Jane Dammen McAuliffe, Georgetown University, Washington DC. Consulted online on 07 January 2017 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1875-3922_q3_EQSIM_00168>