RationalWiki:Annotated Qur'an/The Star

Annotated Qur'an
Sura 53: The Star
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Qur'an 53:1 By the star as it goes down.	Qur'an 53:1 Notes The stars descend down to the horizon (as opposed to staying where they are thousands of light years away)

Qur'an 53:2 Your friend has not gone astray, nor has he erred.	Qur'an 53:2 Notes This refers to Mohammed. Clearly a lot of people were reasonably skeptical of the outlandish things they were saying. This verse is meant to convince you that his outlandish sayings weren't outlandish.

Qur'an 53:3 Nor does he speak out of desire.	Qur'an 53:3 Notes A guy who invented a religion didn't do so from personal biases and motives but because a divine being in the sky...ahem...told him to.

Qur'an 53:4 It is but a revelation revealed.	Qur'an 53:4 Notes Whatever Mohammed said came from the great divine being in the sky. Not from his head.

Qur'an 53:5 Taught to him by the Extremely Powerful.	Qur'an 53:5 Notes The extremely powerful being the divine God in the sky who is so insecure he needs humans to prostrate before him again and again and again.

Qur'an 53:6 The one of vigor. He settled.	Qur'an 53:6 Notes There is no end to the adjectives that are used to describe the immensity of the divine being in the sky.

Qur'an 53:7 While he was at the highest horizon.	Qur'an 53:7 Notes Poetry comparing God to a celestial object.

Qur'an 53:8 Then he came near, and hovered around.	Qur'an 53:8 Notes Sounds magical

Qur'an 53:9 He was within two bows’ length, or closer.	Qur'an 53:9 Notes God could get that close and yet not burn the prophet with his God-radiation

Qur'an 53:10 Then He revealed to His servant what He revealed.	Qur'an 53:10 Notes So no...it wasn't all in the head of a guy meditating in a cave.

Qur'an 53:11 The heart did not lie about what it saw.	Qur'an 53:11 Notes In case you still doubt this preposterous nonsense, it really really was true.

Qur'an 53:12 Will you dispute with him concerning what he saw?	Qur'an 53:12 Notes I think any rational person should.

Qur'an 53:13 He saw him on another descent.	Qur'an 53:13 Notes Multiple visits.

Qur'an 53:14 At the Lotus Tree of the Extremity.	Qur'an 53:14 Notes Evocative poetry.

Qur'an 53:15 Near which is the Garden of Repose.	Qur'an 53:15 Notes Remind you of somehting?

Qur'an 53:16 As there covered the Lotus Tree what covered it.	Qur'an 53:16 Notes The lotus tree has something to do with believing the unbelievable

Qur'an 53:17 The sight did not waver, nor did it exceed.	Qur'an 53:17 Notes How about that!

Qur'an 53:18 He saw some of the Great Signs of his Lord.	Qur'an 53:18 Notes We aren't given any examples here

Qur'an 53:19 Have you considered al-Lat and al-Uzza?	Qur'an 53:19 Notes These are pre-Islamic arabian Goddesses

Qur'an 53:20 And Manat, the third one, the other?	Qur'an 53:20 Notes Another goddess

Qur'an 53:21 Are you to have the males, and He the females?	Qur'an 53:21 Notes The first introduction to the progressive views of gender in the Koran

Qur'an 53:22 What a bizarre distribution.	Qur'an 53:22 Notes It's only bizarre if you are a mysogenist.

Qur'an 53:23 These are nothing but names, which you have devised, you and your ancestors, for which God sent down no authority. They follow nothing but assumptions, and what the ego desires, even though guidance has come to them from their Lord.	Qur'an 53:23 Notes It's ironic that a guy in a cave who made up a religion in his head, is criticizing for a culture who made up a religion through cultural emergence over generations.

Qur'an 53:24 Or is the human being to have whatever he desires?	Qur'an 53:24 Notes This is an either/or myth. In otherwords either you have brutal divine unquestionable authority or you have a free-for-all. There's nothing in between apparently.

Qur'an 53:25 To God belong the Last and the First.	Qur'an 53:25 Notes An alpha-omega reference.

Qur'an 53:26 How many an angel is there in the heavens whose intercession avails nothing, except after God gives permission to whomever He wills, and approves?	Qur'an 53:26 Notes I don't know. How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?

Qur'an 52:27 Those who do not believe in the Hereafter give the angels the names of females.	Qur'an 52:27 Notes You mean the paradise in the clouds where our magical soul somehow transports to if we choose to believe in this religion the messenger made up?

Qur'an 53:28 They have no knowledge of that. They only follow assumptions, and assumptions are no substitute for the truth.	Qur'an 53:28 Notes The truth being what some guy in a cave heard in his head and promised came from a divine being in the sky?

Qur'an 53:29 So avoid him who has turned away from Our remembrance, and desires nothing but the present life.	Qur'an 53:29 Notes A religion certainly spreads better if you cut yourself off from people who doubt your fantastical claims

Qur'an 53:30 That is the extent of their knowledge. Your Lord knows best who has strayed from His path, and He knows best who has accepted guidance.	Qur'an 53:30 Notes Yet again, a reminder that God is the ultimate spy-master.

Qur'an 53:31 To God belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on earth. He will repay those who do evil according to their deeds, and recompense those who do good with the best.	Qur'an 53:31 Notes Yet again the merciful forgiving God will punish people.

Qur'an 53:32 Those who avoid gross sins and indecencies—except for minor lapses—your Lord is of Vast Forgiveness. He knows you well, ever since He created you from the earth, and ever since you were embryos in your mothers’ wombs. So do not acclaim your own virtue; He is fully aware of the righteous.	Qur'an 53:32 Notes The spy-master has a cosmic spreadsheet that tabulates your deeds. You don't get to see that spreadsheet though.

Qur'an 53:33 Have you considered him who turned away?	Qur'an 53:33 Notes The rational people who saw through this nonsense?

Qur'an 53:34 And gave a little, and held back?	Qur'an 53:34 Notes They wavered...understandable

Qur'an 53:35 Does he possess knowledge of the unseen, and can therefore foresee?	Qur'an 53:35 Notes Nobody does, not even a fictional divine being.

Qur'an 53:36 Or was he not informed of what is in the Scrolls of Moses?	Qur'an 53:36 Notes This refers to the text that the Quran mostly sporked to create an offshoot religion.

Qur'an 53:37 And of Abraham, who fulfilled?	Qur'an 53:37 Notes This Abraham character for which we have no evidence ever existed.

Qur'an 53:38 That no soul bears the burdens of another soul.	Qur'an 53:38 Notes Is there even such thing as a soul?

Qur'an 53:39 And that the human being attains only what he strives for.	Qur'an 53:39 Notes Some humans have things handed to them on silver platters

Qur'an 53:40 And that his efforts will be witnessed.	Qur'an 53:40 Notes God...the spy-master

Qur'an 53:41 Then he will be rewarded for it the fullest reward.	Qur'an 53:41 Notes Oh look at that...a motive to believe this new religion. Believe and you'll be rewarded, but not now, after you die.

Qur'an 53:42 And that to your Lord is the finality.	Qur'an 53:42 Notes If he even exists, which he probably doesn't.

Qur'an 53:43 And that it is He who causes laughter and weeping.	Qur'an 53:43 Notes Oh and cancer and still-born birth

Qur'an 53:44 And that it is He who gives death and life.	Qur'an 53:44 Notes Except he almost certainly doesn't exist.

Qur'an 53:45 And that it is He who created the two kinds—the male and the female.	Qur'an 53:45 Notes No that's a consequence of evolution.

Qur'an 53:46 From a sperm drop, when emitted.	Qur'an 53:46 Notes No that's a pretty gross misunderstanding of how it works.

Qur'an 53:47 And that upon Him is the next existence.	Qur'an 53:47 Notes There almost certainly is no afterlife. We end with consciousness which ends with brain death.

Qur'an 53:48 And that it is He who enriches and impoverishes.	Qur'an 53:48 Notes No that's human society and nature.

Qur'an 53:49 And that it is He who is the Lord of Sirius.	Qur'an 53:49 Notes There is a star that looks bright from Earth (though isn't particularly bright compared with other stars which seem less bright (or even cannot be seen by the naked eye)

Qur'an 53:50 And that it is He who destroyed the first Aad.	Qur'an 53:50 Notes One of the merciful forgiving God's genocides.

Qur'an 53:51 And Thamood, sparing no one.	Qur'an 53:51 Notes Another of God's murderous genocides.

Qur'an 53:52 And the people of Noah before that; for they were most unjust and most oppressive.	Qur'an 53:52 Notes The merciful forgiving God's ultimate near-complete genocides.

Qur'an 53:53 And He toppled the ruined cities.	Qur'an 53:53 Notes God destroys

Qur'an 53:54 And covered them with whatever covered them.	Qur'an 53:54 Notes The historical picture seems incomplete

Qur'an 53:55 So which of your Lord's marvels can you deny?	Qur'an 53:55 Notes All of them

Qur'an 53:56 This is a warning, just like the first warnings.	Qur'an 53:56 Notes The religion spreads through threats and bribes.

Qur'an 53:57 The inevitable is imminent.	Qur'an 53:57 Notes That imminent hasn't seemed to come yet

Qur'an 53:58 None besides God can unveil it.	Qur'an 53:58 Notes Is there even a God?

Qur'an 53:59 Do you marvel at this discourse?	Qur'an 53:59 Notes No it sounds like typical manipulative text from the spawning of an abrahamic religion.

Qur'an 53:60 And laugh, and do not weep?	Qur'an 53:60 Notes Huh?

Qur'an 53:61 Lost in your frivolity?	Qur'an 53:61 Notes No.

Qur'an 53:62 So bow down to God, and worship!	Qur'an 53:62 Notes Why would I bow down to anyone let alone an imaginary divine being in the sky invented by a guy in a cave?