Islamic Stories
There are a great many stories told in the Qu'ran.
Some are ordinary and to life, whilst a great many are wholly extraordinary, full of events far beyond the powers of man or the likelihood of heaven; such as Zulqarnain filling up the space between two mountains with iron and molten brass, or mount Sinai being lifted over the heads of the Israelites like a canopy and shaken as a leaf.
These stories in the Qu'ran, both mundane and fabulous, were not new to human ears.
They were stories that already existed in Muhammad's time, amongst the Jews, Christians and the local story-tellers.
Some of the stories in the Qu'ran can be found in the Bible as it is currently found today (the Old and New Testament).
Those conform to a more factual basis in history, wherever the Bible is likely to be reliable, and are wholly unlikely to conform to literal history, wherever the Bible has no hope of historical accuracy.
Many of the stories in the Qu'ran can also be found in folk-tales, many written down before Muhammad's time, after being embellished over many centuries and millenia of oral retelling, and these have no hope of holding any basis in factual history: for it should be clear enough to any reflecting mind that stories invented 1500 years after an event, are highly unlikely to record what actually happened, especially when those stories are also physically unrealistic, such as flying around on magic carpets; and so when the Qu'ran quotes them, it is certain that the stories are not historical stories.
Why quote such stories?
The important thing, is that all stories, without exception, whether historically accurate or inaccurate, whether from the Bible or elsewhere, have meaning and symbolism relevent to human life and the aspirations of the soul.
This is because the nature of a story, is to convey meaning, rather than facts, to the listener - just think of the fairy-tale of Little Red Ridinghood; and if it doesn't, the story won't last a minute beyond the moment it is told, it will be immediately forgotten.
So any story that has lasted any length of time, conveys an important meaning and is worth retelling (in the right context).
Therefore, whatever their historical accuracy, the Qu'ran is quoting stories that, through being around a great length of time, clearly had great meaning to Its listeners.
The meaning the stories conveyed then in Muhammad's days, will today have mostly been forgotten, and replaced by other meanings.
Each generation of society will find, in a story, different meanings relevent to its own times.
A story will therefore seem excellent, until a generation that cannot discover a meaning in them, whether inner (spiritual) or outer (historical): as soon as this happens, that no meaning is found, such stories that were before regarded as excellent will suddenly seem preposterous.
So whether a story seems excellent or preposterous, tells you about the reader, rather than about the teller.
Let's take a look at the story-telling options for the Qu'ran, and their outcomes.
Suppose the Qu'ran were to ignore the imagined stories of mankind, and instead tell events as they actually historically happened.
This immediately poses a huge problem. Events as they happened historically, were not recorded anywhere, and so although true, everyone would reject the stories. Thus the Qu'ran, through endeavouring to achieve the spiritually-irrelevent matter of correcting history, would have sacrificed its primary purpose of guiding mankind to a better heart, mind and soul, and also would have failed in the secondary task of correcting history, because no one would believe it. It would have achieved no goals of any kind, whether primary or secondary. The whole mission would have utterly failed, and scarcely a soul would have been transformed.
On the other hand, by making its primary goal to be the transformation of people, the Qu'ran wisely speaks in the language of its listeners.
Firstly, the Qu'ran speaks to the Arabs in Arabic, because they are not going to respond to Chinese, some unknown celestial tongue, or any other language. But in speaking in Arabic, it will not be content with the mundane and material meanings of words, but being a spiritual message will ennoble them and transform the whole language.
Likewise, it also has to address its audience in their cultural language, which means using their own stories. If it had spoken to them using stories they did not believe in, the impact would be small, and only a few would take up the message and transform their lives. But in telling stories that were part of their culture, it will not only transmit its message to a great many, but like the transformation of Arabic, it will also transform the stories and recast them in more exalted forms, appropriate to the new message.
The Revelation of God, therefore, is a dialogue of the new spiritual values being revealed, and the culture and language of the listener. And this involves speaking to the listeners through the characters they are familiar with.
Now in telling stories to convey meaning, there is a certain art.
A good story can in a few words, cause the listener to vibrate and throb with new values, which a thousand-line essay might never achieve.
Here are examples of some of the methods used in the Qu'ran.
(1) Don't tell the critical line.
If you tell the critical line to a story that challenges the audience, it will be an overt imposition, and the people will react to the challenge by confronting and opposing it. But if you don't tell it, people will think of it themselves and it will have a lot more power, with some going away knowingly agreeing and others lost for words.
An example of this, is the story of the Ant. Solomon boasts of his great power and influence, commanding armies of jinn, men and birds, and the ants in his path all flee; and then, immediately Solomon offers his praise to God.
The critical bit, is why the fleeing of ants should cause Solomon to praise God; the Qu'ran doesn't say. If you know the original fairy-tale, it is because the ant, feeble though he is, stands up to Solomon, mighty though he be, and challenges Solomon's arrogance and trust in his material wealth and power. Those listening to the story would in their minds have inserted this detail and realised that the ant was Muhammad with his poor band of followers, whilst Solomon was those such as the Jews and Meccans, who in their wealth and power laughed and lorded it over Muhammad; and that the story was declaring, "This ant, Muhammad and his companions, weak though they may seem, will challenge the great Solomons of wealth who tramp around arrogantly doing as they please, and cause them to be humbled and entreating of God."
(2) Recast the story.
Another way of telling a story to make a point, is to tell a story as the audience knows it, but change a few details and tones here and there, so that they stand out and are highlighted brightly. (Any later reader who doesn't know the story, won't realise this, because they won't know the changes.)
For example, suppose I tell you the story of Cinderella, but then at the critical moment, I have Cinderella rebuff the fairy-godmother who is about to transform her, with: "Turning me into a beautiful princess to catch a prince is pure sorcery, and I reject it; we must turn to God alone: I had rather be loved for who I am in my rags than be admired for the vanities and riches of the world that will be of no use to me when I die..."
This would be a startling change to the story, and anyone who knows the story will spot it immediately and its meaning will go in deeply.
So, too, many of the stories of the Qu'ran are about recasting existing stories to convey a meaning to the listener.
(3) Tell a story as it is.
If a story is already suitable as it is for encouraging a beneficial view or undermining an unbeneficial view, then you can tell it just as it already is, and by doing so, you will enlist many people, who will already know the story, to put it into action, or to speak up to help change those who hold the unbeneficial view. For Muhammad wasn't there to spoon-feed people, otherwise His influence would die with His passing; he was there to transform people and get them collectively to act for their own good from their own initiative and resolve, and this means highlighting and endorsing the best of their culture and practices, and the best of their stories, so that they are motivated to work for the better.
(4) Spiritual Interpretation
Another method is to tell a story, but then give a verbal interpretation afterward that spiritualises it. Sometimes after telling the story, you find the Qu'ran gives a short gloss, but there's no knowing what Muhammad would have said to his close companions afterward in interpretation of such stories.
So for example, in retelling the legend of Solomon being able to converse with men, jinn and birds, Muhammad could then have explained to those to whom it was appropriate, that by birds are meant heavenly beings, and by jinn, the personification of supernatural powers, and that by being able to travel on the wind a month's journey in an evening, what was meant was that Solomon's spirit could travel and see far distant places whilst his body remained in one place.
This method of symbolisation of stories was a common practice in the past.
(5) Symbolic Equivalence
One other thing about stories, is that if it is a legend and you know what actually happened, you can adapt the legend to be symbolically equivalent to the original history.
Most legends about people, whilst not literally true, are often true to the spirit, and often symbolically equivalent.
For example, a legend about a great hero may have him fight this or that spiritual battle, which may not be true, but he probably did something similar.
Or suppose Abraham was not commanded by God to sacrifice his son, but in fact his son was captured by ungodly people and God commanded Abraham to move to another land, thus leaving his son to a certain fate; trusting in God, Abraham moves to another land, and when he later overcomes the ungodly, he finds his son still alive. Such an event is perfectly captured by the story of God commanding Abraham to sacrifice his son, and at the last moment finding his son does not die. The message is just the same: obey and follow God's Will, even in the face of all temptations and tests, and all will ultimately be for the best.
It is certainly also very clear, that it is not Allah's way to go about commanding someone actually to sacrifice their child as per the story of Abraham; the Qu'ran roundly condemns such practice as the sacrifice of children to gods: to ask someone to sacrifice their son, would be to ask someone to do what is wholly contrary to morality and divine law, and would be terribly traumatic for the child. But as a story, it is without parallel, and many have performed great things at personal sacrifice because of the message of the story - its true purport - which is to be at all times obedient to the Divine Will.
When you realise the power of a story to transform people, then you would expect the Qu'ran to settle for nothing less than stories and symbols. Jesus and the Buddha both spread their message in just the same way, and if we had the real story of Moses, you'd undoubtedly find that he did too.
2007.01.19