The Believers 24

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This locus brings together 4 instances of the use of this verse in Muhammad Shahrur’s books, linking it to the concepts and arguments that appear around it.

The Verse Text as Cited

{And had God willed, He would have sent down angels. We have not heard of this among our forefathers of old.}

Reader’s Response

Question

How does Shahrur read Noah’s people’s statement, “Had God willed, He would have sent down angels,” in The Believers 24?

Shahrur employs the verse to explain Noah’s people’s objection to the bearer of revelation being a human being from among them. According to his reading, they had become accustomed to God’s communication with humans occurring through angels, and therefore found Noah’s claim strange. Here, the verse records the objectors’ statement in the narrative; extending this conception to the history of human instruction before Noah is part of Shahrur’s interpretive construction, not an independent assertion confirmed by the verse alone.

Reader’s question: What is the significance, for Shahrur, of Noah’s people’s objection in demanding the descent of angels? Answer: Shahrur sees it as an objection to Noah’s humanity and to his coming with revelation and a call, because his people—in his reading—expected divine communication to come through angels rather than through humans like themselves. How Shahrur employs the verse: he makes the phrase “Had God willed, He would have sent down angels” evidence in his thesis of “instruction through the concretely manifested” after Adam; he says that angels were sent as messengers who could be seen and heard, then explains Noah’s people’s astonishment at his messengerhood on this basis. The citation and its location: in The Book and the Qur’an, p. 267, Shahrur cites the verse in full and then states explicitly that the point of astonishment was that “a human being had received revelation from God.” He explains their statement, “Had God willed, He would have sent down angels,” by saying that they had become accustomed—according to his reading—to God’s communication with humans occurring only through angels.

Citation and Location

The Book and the Qur’an — p. 267.

Limits of the Reading

  • The citation does not support describing the verse as a direct critique of “unexamined traditional reception”; this formulation is not apparent in the excerpt presented.
  • Shahrur’s interpretation of the people’s objection should not be turned into a fixed historical assertion about how God communicated with humans before Noah, because this goes beyond the wording of the verse itself.
  • The repetition of the same excerpt in two places in the source does not constitute additional independent evidence.

Continue From Here

Brief Reading

In Shahrur, the verse occurs in a historical context that shows Noah’s people’s conception of sending down and of angels, together with a critique of unexamined traditional reception.

Axes

  • Narrative and historical
  • Faith-related
  • Ancient heritage: 2
  • Angels: 2
  • Critique of tradition: 2
  • Sending down: 2

Its Place in the Network of Concepts

It is connected to the narratives of the earliest prophethoods and to a reconsideration of religious inheritance.

The Verse’s Role in the Argument

  • Support: 2
  • Context: 1
  • Critique of tradition: 1

Instances of Use

  • State and Society, p. 45: He places it within a historical narrative showing the continuity of the call to monotheism from Noah and before him.
    • Concept: ancient heritage
    • Function of the verse here: context
    • Textual citation: “In Noah’s time, the Exalted said: {And had God willed, He would have sent down angels. We have not heard of this among our forefathers of old.} (The Believers 24).”
  • Qur’anic Stories, vol. 2, p. 10: He cites it to show that warners before Noah were conceived as concretely manifested angels, not human beings.
    • Concept: angels
    • Function of the verse here: support
    • Textual citation: “{And had God willed, He would have sent down angels. We have not heard of this among our forefathers of old.} (The Believers 24)”
  • The Book and the Qur’an, p. 25: He adduces it to condemn blind submission to tradition and to argue that one’s stance toward it should be respect rather than sanctification.
    • Concept: critique of tradition
    • Function of the verse here: critique of tradition
    • Textual citation: “The Wise Revelation has forbidden us to adopt toward tradition a stance of blind submission and sanctification {.. We have not heard of this among our forefathers of old} (The Believers 24).”
  • The Book and the Qur’an, p. 267: He adduces it to argue that Noah’s people expected God’s communication with humans to occur through tangible angels perceived by the senses.
    • Concept: sending down
    • Function of the verse here: support
    • Textual citation: “Thus, when He sent Noah, his people said to him: {Then the elite … And had God willed, He would have sent down angels …}”
    • Counterpart traditional reading: communication with God occurs only through visible angels

This page is presented within the general atlas construction methodology.

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Muhammad Shahrur Atlas