1. By the star when it goes down, (or vanishes).
This is how it starts. Allah SWEARS by a star. A deity to swears to humans? Perhaps he is known, like many Arabs, to be generous with the truth, so he is not easily believed? Why swear by a star? Is that not something he made? I just made some rendang daging (a stew common in Sumatra, and delicious with rice) Would you be more inclined to believe my words if I said “I swear by this beef stew that….”?
And do stars go down, set or vanish? “Shooting stars” are not stars though. True the Arabic word can also sometimes mean “planet”, but that is not helping either….
Then comes this:
2. Your companion (Muhammad, presumably) has neither gone astray nor has erred.
3. Nor does he speak of (his own?) desire.
4. It is only an Inspiration that is inspired.
Allah defends Mohammed…. Oddly the WHOLE of this surah is composed after the “satanic verses” debacle, so despite of his oath Allah is not entirely truthful… by Mohammed’s own admission did he “go atray and has erred”.
So Mohammed’s words are an “inspiration that is inspired”. What an odd thing to say… are there “inspirations” which are NOT inspired? Also, Mohammed manifestly DID "reveal" his own desires, many times, we should have a thread on that.
Let’s read some more:
5. He (Mohammed?) has been taught (what? Making rendang?) by one mighty in power.
So who is this power and why is the name missing?
The next part is a total blurr… (except for SAM of course, who “knows” everything but can’t explain anything…)
6. Dhu Mirrah (free from any defect (in body and mind?)), Fastawa [then he rose / became stable].
Grammatically this could relate to the “He” from the verse before, as well as the “Power”. Most translators relate it to the “power”. So this teacher of Mohammed’s wasn’t mad (but Mohammed thought he himself was…) and he “rose and became stable”… Maybe he was drunk and steadied himself?
7. While he (this “power”, I suppose, possibly Gabriel) was in the highest part of the horizon,
Where is that?
8. Then he (Gabriel?) approached and came closer,
Ok… How? Did he walk? Flutter? Just float perhaps?
9. And was at a distance of two bows' length or (even) nearer,
Right, so, assuming this means the length of two bows, and not double the range of a bow as this could also mean, we are taking 2 metres,,,,
10. So did he convey the Inspiration to His slave.
Who? Gabriel or Allah?
And also I would be grateful if someone pointed out what this “inspiration” actually was… I haven’t found it, anywhere in the Qur’an.
11. The heart lied not what he saw.
Which “heart”? Mohammed’s presumably. Here we have another example of how the Qur’an assumes the heart is connected to mental processes, in this case lying.
12. Will you then dispute with him what he saw.
Obviously, yes, as this garbled text is FROM MOHAMMED, so has very limited value as evidence. Would an all knowing deity write that bad Arabic, so bad, that translation in often ambiguous guesswork? And why would make this tall tale Mohammed's claims more credible? Would they not do the opposite?
How on earth does this ridiculous passage provide any evidence for Mohammed's claims?