The Qur'an - Translated with a New Introduction - A.J. Droge
6. Livestock
The Qur'an - Translated with a New Introduction - A.J. Droge
A.J. Droge [+]
A. J. Droge is the translator of The Qur’an: A New Annotated Translation (Equinox, 2013), and the author of Homer or Moses? Early Christian Interpretations of the History of Culture and A Noble Death: Suicide and Martyrdom among Christians and Jews in Antiquity (with J.D. Tabor).
Description
This sūra emphasizes the creative power of the one God, especially as manifested in the ‘signs’ of an ordered natural world. On that basis it attacks the folly of idolatry, charging that other so-called gods are really ‘jinn.’ The story of Abraham’s rejection of idols is repeated, and a parallel is drawn between the ‘religion’ of Abraham and the Prophet, as well as between the ‘Books’ given to Moses and the Prophet. Its title is a reference to the practice of dedicating ‘livestock’ to other gods besides God (Q6.136–139).