RationalWiki:Annotated Qur'an/The Tidings

Annotated Qur'an
Sura 78: The Tidings
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Qur'an 78:1 What are they asking one another about?	Qur'an 78:1 Notes This is supposed to be the first verse in this chapter. Where is the context? Who are they?

Qur'an 78:2 About the Great Event.	Qur'an 78:2 Notes Which great event?

Qur'an 78:3 About which they disagree.	Qur'an 78:3 Notes People disagree about everything.

Qur'an 78:4 Surely, they will find out.	Qur'an 78:4 Notes Who are they and what will they find out?

Qur'an 78:5 Most certainly, they will find out.	Qur'an 78:5 Notes Why does this verse repeat a previous verse instead of making anything in this chapter clear?

Qur'an 78:6 Did We not make the earth a cradle?	Qur'an 78:6 Notes What kind of cradle is mostly inhospitable to the creatures living in it? What does this have to do with the previous verses? Why is this chapter so unclear?

Qur'an 78:7 And the mountains pegs?	Qur'an 78:7 Notes Geologists have to wonder how mountains can be mistaken for pegs.

Qur'an 78:8 And created you in pairs?	Qur'an 78:8 Notes Is this referring to male and female? I can understand people from that time adhering to a gender binary, but the male and female populations in this world are not exactly identical. Is this referring to marriage between one man and one woman, because men are allowed to marry multiple women at a time, including Muhammad.

Qur'an 78:9 And made your sleep for rest?	Qur'an 78:9 Notes Humans need to spend approximately a third of each day resting. Could the human mind and body not be designed to operate efficiently without requiring nearly as much sleep?

Qur'an 78:10 And made the night a cover?	Qur'an 78:10 Notes The night is not a distinct entity. The night is simply the time when the sun does not shine overhead.

Qur'an 78:11 And made the day for livelihood?	Qur'an 78:11 Notes And thus anyone working the graveyard shift is a sinner, despite the day often being too brutally hot for anyone living in that part of Saudi Arabia to step outside... Oh, and Allah encourages people to forgo sleep to instead pray the entire night despite this same Allah making them require sleep.

Qur'an 78:12 And built above you seven strong ones?	Qur'an 78:12 Notes Is this chapter not allowed to be clear in anything it says?

Qur'an 78:13 And placed a blazing lamp?	Qur'an 78:13 Notes So if you rub the sun, you'll get 3 wishes? be careful not to experience sunburn or skin cancer from this lamp made for the purpose of lighting the world.

Qur'an 78:14 And brought down from the clouds pouring water?	Qur'an 78:14 Notes The clouds are themselves made of water, and this water itself is what falls. Can this mysterious Allah prove that he had a hand in any of them?

Qur'an 78:15 To produce with it grains and vegetation?	Qur'an 78:15 Notes And sometimes cause floods which destroy these grains and vegetations? These floods can also destroy homes and even kill people.

Qur'an 78:16 And luxuriant gardens?	Qur'an 78:16 Notes Which are notoriously difficult to maintain with or without rain.

Qur'an 78:17 The Day of Sorting has been appointed.	Qur'an 78:17 Notes What is this "Day of Sorting" and what details can we know about it?

Qur'an 78:18 The Day when the Trumpet is blown, and you will come in droves.	Qur'an 78:18 Notes Which trumpet? Why does this chapter require reading other chapters and/or external sources to make sense?

Qur'an 78:19 And the sky is opened up, and becomes gateways.	Qur'an 78:19 Notes The sky is not a physical object with a door that can open... is it? Does this book talk about a firmament?

Qur'an 78:20 And the mountains are set in motion, and become a mirage.	Qur'an 78:20 Notes The peg mountains?

Qur'an 78:21 Hell is lying in ambush.	Qur'an 78:21 Notes Why does this god want to create a Hell anyways?

Qur'an 78:22 For the oppressors, a destination.	Qur'an 78:22 Notes Allah and Muhammad are both shown to be oppressive. Will they stay there too?

Qur'an 78:23 Where they will remain for eons.	Qur'an 78:23 Notes What a loving god...

Qur'an 78:24 They will taste therein neither coolness, nor drink.	Qur'an 78:24 Notes God could have used these verses to make this chapter make sense but decided that threats are more important.

Qur'an 78:25 Except boiling water, and freezing hail.	Qur'an 78:25 Notes The only thing these readers need to know is that evildoers will be tortured forever for daring to step out of line.

Qur'an 78:26 A fitting requital.	Qur'an 78:26 Notes It does not fit the most evil person to ever live.

Qur'an 78:27 For they were not anticipating any reckoning.	Qur'an 78:27 Notes They committed the horrid offense of... not knowing that this tall tale had any truth to it? This is the crime that makes them deserve to be tortured forever? Sincerely not believing that the all-powerful ruler of the universe existed and likes torturing people?

Qur'an 78:28 And they denied Our signs utterly.	Qur'an 78:28 Notes These sings were awful and often pointed to Allah being far too evil to ever exist among other impossible and contradictory claims.

Qur'an 78:29 But We have enumerated everything in writing.	Qur'an 78:29 Notes Is there not a more efficient way to keep track of literally everything?

Qur'an 78:30 So taste! We will increase you only in suffering.	Qur'an 78:30 Notes This is not Satan talking. This is instead God talking to those who find this story to be simply unbelievable.

Qur'an 78:31 But for the righteous there is triumph.	Qur'an 78:31 Notes So not Muhammad or anyone who thinks that any human will ever deserve infinite torture?

Qur'an 78:32 Gardens and vineyards.	Qur'an 78:32 Notes Those exist already.

Qur'an 78:33 And splendid spouses, well matched.	Qur'an 78:33 Notes This verse just sounds like a way to win those lonely, horny men over to a side that has no real evidence behind it.

Qur'an 78:34 And delicious drinks.	Qur'an 78:34 Notes Those also exist in this world.

Qur'an 78:35 They will hear therein neither gossip, nor lies.	Qur'an 78:35 Notes They, will, however, hear the loud cacophony of screams from the people burning in hell forever.

Qur'an 78:36 A reward from your Lord, a fitting gift.	Qur'an 78:36 Notes People just need to obey and get rewarded for it. Don't ask for evidence! Just obey and get rewarded later!

Qur'an 78:37 Lord of the heavens and the earth, and everything between them—The Most Merciful—none can argue with Him.	Qur'an 78:37 Notes I can argue with a being who dares call himself "The Most Merciful" and simultaneously claims to throw sinners in Hell for any reason whatsoever, let alone because he set them up to go to hell in the first place.

Qur'an 78:38 On the Day when the Spirit and the angels stand in row. They will not speak, unless it be one permitted by the Most Merciful, and he will say what is right.	Qur'an 78:38 Notes Do these spirits and angels even exist in the first place?

Qur'an 78:39 That is the Day of Reality. So whoever wills, let him take a way back to his Lord.	Qur'an 78:39 Notes A day which seems impossible and lacks supporting evidence should not be called the Day of Reality.

Qur'an 78:40 We have warned you of a near punishment—the Day when a person will observe what his hands have produced, and the faithless will say, “O, I wish I were dust.”	Qur'an 78:40 Notes Your warnings have to be remotely convincing to count for anything.