Noah 23–24

3 min read

This axis brings together 1 instance of the use of this verse in the books of Muhammad Shahrur, linking it to the concepts and arguments that appear around it.

Text of the verse as cited

And they said, “Do not abandon your gods; do not abandon Wadd, Suwaʿ, Yaghuth, Yaʿuq, or Nasr.”

Reader’s Answer

Question

How does Shahrur read the names Wadd, Suwaʿ, Yaghuth, Yaʿuq, and Nasr in the context of Noah 23–24? Does he regard them as worshipped gods or as persons associated with worship?

Shahrur reads the verse as distinguishing between “your gods”—that is, the deities whom the people do not wish to abandon—and the five names that follow. He holds that Wadd, Suwaʿ, Yaghuth, Yaʿuq, and Nasr are not themselves the worshipped deities, but rather custodians or priests who speak on behalf of those deities and influence people. This is Shahrur’s own interpretive reading, not an explicit conclusion from the wording of the verse alone.

Shahrur understands the phrase “Do not abandon your gods” as referring to the deities, then separates from them the names Wadd, Suwaʿ, Yaghuth, Yaʿuq, and Nasr. He uses this separation to argue that the five names are custodians and priests, calling them in the cited passage “the five Hamans,” rather than worshipped gods. Shahrur links this reading to the hypothesis that Noah’s society practiced the worship of natural phenomena, such as the sun, moon, and stars, rather than producing developed idols; he therefore makes the priests intermediaries or spokesmen for the deities.

Citation and location

The Qur’anic Narratives, Vol. 2 — p. 13.

Limits of the reading

  • The cited passage does not establish from the verse itself that the five names are priests or custodians; this description is part of Shahrur’s interpretive construction.
  • Linking the names to the worship of natural phenomena relies on historical and civilizational premises that Shahrur mentions in the same passage, and the citation provides no independent documentation for them.
  • The ordering of the words in the verse alone should not be turned into decisive linguistic proof of a distinction between two categories without accepting the premises of the reading Shahrur adopts.

Continue from here

Brief reading

Here, Shahrur distinguishes between worshipped gods and the names mentioned as custodians and priests rather than objects of worship.

Axes

  • Narrative and historical
  • Faith-related
  • Gods: 2

Its place in the concept network

It forms part of his distinction between the true object of worship and historical religious roles.

The verse’s role in the argument

  • Distinction: 1

Instances of use

  • The Qur’anic Narratives, Vol. 2, p. 13: He distinguishes between worshipped gods and the subsequently mentioned names, describing them as custodians and priests rather than objects of worship.
    • Concept: gods
    • Function of the verse here: distinction
    • Textual citation: “{And they said, ‘Do not abandon your gods; do not abandon Wadd …’} (Noah 23–24)”

This page is presented within the general atlas-building methodology.

Graph View

Muhammad Shahrur Atlas