2019-08-02T13:48:00-07:00
In my opinion, the word (myth) has caused a very big problem in the Muslim and Arab mind while understanding the Qur’an or reading history, because of intentionally making the meaning of the word synonymous with the Greek word mythology, specifically from the dictionaries that were attributed to it in ancient times, so the Muslim believed that it was a word in the tongue. The Arabs in ancient times……. Most dictionaries define the word as: hadiths that resemble falsehood, hadiths that have no system.
This incorrect definition of the word myth in the Arab consciousness increased its consolidation and consolidation… the context in which the word myth appeared in the Holy Qur’an, thus giving the word a negative meaning and connotation in the Muslim consciousness.
The negative meaning came to the Muslim from the context of the noble verse {These are nothing but legends of the ancients} which came on the lips of those who deny what the Holy Qur’an brought, and it is a negative context. It is not possible for us to describe the Qur’an as myths, because if we do this we will describe the Qur’an as a lie and become We are liars for the Qur’an, and this is what Muslims reject.
This word has become an entry point for some orientalists… who say… because the Qur’an itself transmits the scientific term on the tongue of liars who had knowledge, it is nothing but evidence of the validity of this description, and this thing made some thinkers confront this statement, and They are trying to explain the term and remove confusion from it… and among them are Muhammad Arkoun and Ahmed Dawoud.
● For example, Muhammad Arkoun spoke about this point after he was subjected to criticism, after a phrase of his was translated in a book of his in French describing the speech in the Qur’an as having a mythical structure. So Arkoun responded to those criticisms and clarified that he did not say “mythical,” but that the error was due to the translation, because Translators into Arabic translate the concept (le mythe) in French into a myth in Arabic.
Muhammad Arkoun called for the necessity of translating the phrase “the myth” in English and “le mythe” in French into the word “stories” in Arabic, because the Qur’an says, “We relate to you the best of stories.” For this reason, Arkoun describes the speech of the Qur’an as a narrative discourse based on stories.
Muhammad Arkoun got the point right, which is that the myth does not mean myth, but he made a mistake, and not any mistake…. So the Arab proverb that says: He came to apply kohl to her and blinded her became applicable to him.
Because Arkoun tried to adapt the Qur’an according to the conditions of Orientalist approaches, and he was unable to depart from this approach in studying a reality that belongs to another culture. This problem created difficulty for Arkoun in searching for an Arabic word similar to the meaning of the Greek word “maith,” and Arkoun found only the word “stories.” Because it came in a positive context.
Arkoun deliberately chose a word that carries a positive context from one culture in order to beautify a word that carries a negative context in a different culture……. That is, he made the Orientalist approach and the word Maith… the first reference in thinking and meaning.
● As for the historian Ahmed Dawoud, he says about the legend:
“Myth is a true record of specific historical events that has often been subject to improvements in language, style, and poetic imagination, with a certain preservation of the historical material to be recorded. It is subject to research and scrutiny before it is adopted and preserved in temples as an essential part of the heritage that plays educational, pedagogical, and religious roles. Ancient myths reflect historical events. It is true, and the researcher and historian alone must know how to extract historical material from it.”
Here, Ahmed Dawoud made a big mistake. He wants to reconcile his belief in the Qur’an and history, and he wants to adapt the term myth to his reading of history, and he does not realize that this is a distortion of the meanings of the Qur’an.
———————————-
If we examine the Arab awareness of the word mythology or legend, we will find that awareness is viewed as follows:
A story that has been engraved in the consciousness of societies since ancient times, and is repeated according to a system, either repeated in a real way in reality, or repeated in the form of an unreal projection of events out of the sanctity of legend.
That is, the society has a myth engraved in its mind… let us say a myth, a story, or the secret of Musa… so when it decides to write about a person one day, it will attribute to him that story that it inherited from the past… in three cases:
1- The first case
Consciousness believes that one day, after several centuries, a boy will be born near a river, sea, valley, land, etc., and he will be placed inside a box, inside a bed, inside a car, etc., and thrown into water, in a valley, or in a desert, and A king, ruler, or head of state will take him…and when he grows up, he will become his enemy.
This process is repeated throughout time.
Here we find historian Ahmed Dawoud in this case
2- The second case
Consciousness believes that society throughout history has projected that myth onto the characters around it, and it did not happen, but out of the sanctity of the story…. That is, the scenario of the story of the myth will be attributed, either literally or in a developed form, to someone, even though the story did not happen in this way. But society turns it this way because there is an ancient, inherited sanctity to this scenario.
This process is repeated throughout time.
Here we find Muhammad Arkoun in this case
3- The third case
One story happened in the past and ended, and its holiness is because it is found in the Book of Allah.
Here we find the average Muslim in this situation
———————————-
What is the meaning of myth, story, and mythology, and what is the difference between them?!
I’ve talked about this topic before, but I’ll keep it short.
● The legend
In short… I call on the Arabic language academies to amend the meaning of this word, because continuing with this meaning is a major distortion of the Holy Qur’an, and I do not know what the difficulty is that prevented Arab linguists from abandoning this definition and relying on the Qur’an.
Because the word “myths” found in the Qur’an is derived from the word “line” which means books.
{By the pen and what they write}
Meaning and what they write.
The word “mustour” is always related to the word “book.”
And when we say: This thing is written on the paper…..that is, written on the paper.
{Waltour (1) and Kitab Mastoor (2)}
{And there is not a city but We will destroy it before the Day of Resurrection or chastise it with a severe punishment. That is written in the Book.}
Mustoru… O Maktoob.
Therefore, the true meaning of the word myths is the writings, not the stories or hadiths that appear in books of interpretation, nor mythology or history.
The word “Legends of the Ancients”, on the tongue of the deniers, means the writings of the “Firsts”. It does not mean the hadiths that have no system or contain a resemblance to falsehood or the mythology of the “firsts”.
Meaning that when the liars read the Qur’an they said:
These are none other than the writings of the first two.
This is similar to what we say when we ignore a conversation between two children because it is ridiculous, so we say: This is children’s talk. The word talk does not mean a word of absurdity. The word talk literally means a word of speech, but the other, indirect meaning of the sentence within the situation and context in which it appears means ignoring its absurdity. In our previous statement, we are honest in describing it as children’s talk, but we do not mean the literal meaning, but rather the other indirect meaning, which is absurdity.
So, the literal translation of the verse {This is nothing but the legends of the ancients} is {This is nothing but the writings of the ancients}, but the other indirect meaning of the verse which was stated by the deniers, within the situation and context is: This is a lie. Those who are angry are honest in their literal description of the Qur’an, but they mean the other, indirect meaning within the context in which the phrase appears. The Qur’an does not deny the description of liars. Rather, the Qur’an itself acknowledges that they are legends of the ancients, but the Qur’an only denounces their denial.
● Stories
The stories in the Qur’an……….. are real events that actually occurred in a brief form… right
{We relate to you their news with the truth. Indeed, they are young men who believed in their Allah, and We have increased them in guidance} {We recite to you from Musa Pharaon’s news with the truth for a people who believe.}
With the truth
● Mythology
The word mythology is a word that does not exist in our language or culture. How will we know the meaning of the word, or can we find a word synonymous with it in our language and culture?
Before the search process…a question must be asked:
Why did the word line appear in the Holy Qur’an not in the plural form lines, but in the form of legends on the tongue of deniers?!
Legends is the plural form of the word line, and it is a form of exaggeration, and an exaggeration form that indicates the antiquity of writing and the abundance. It makes us understand more why the formula (Legends of the Ancients) always appears in the verses of the Qur’an. It is on the lips of lying people who describe the Qur’an as the writings of the ancients that do not exist. They believe in it
You will find that the word legends is always linked to time, the legends of the ancients, that is, the writings of the ancient ancients. That is, the Qur’an acknowledges that it exists in a written book (written) of the legends of the ancients (the writings of the ancients), and that the texts of the Qur’an that are in our hands exist in the writings of the ancients, meaning that they are ancient.
This point is the crux of the problem…which made Muhammad Arkoun, who relies on Orientalist approaches, find it difficult to find a word in Arabic that matches the word mythology, and made Ahmed Daoud confuse the concept of sacred texts with unsacred texts of history. .
Because the logical question, which Arab researchers did not ask because of their absolute confidence in Western methods and reliance on them in thinking:
How can I be sure that a society was repeating and believing mythological stories?
In other words…the Muslim today believes in the legend of Musa and believes in it as real…that is, we have before us a society that believes in it.
But how can I be sure that 2,500 years ago…there was a society on Earth in a place called Greece…that believed in the goddess Venus as a woman and ascended to the sky and turned into a bright planet in the sky, Venus?! .
How can I be sure that a society lived with that awareness and perception and believed that story in that way?!
In other words…if we had a time machine and traveled to the past to Greece and saw the people there and listened to them…would we find people believing in this story or would they mock us?!
What are the first texts? …This is the crux of the matter.
Why ?!
The stories of Greek mythology are texts that have no basis or real origin.
Mythology… is talk found in modern paper… and it has come to us from books printed in modern editions… and there is no real, ancient physical evidence to prove these texts, as there are no ancient writings on stones in which these texts are recorded.
Mythology……. currently unsacred texts, just history.
If a religious group still lives today and sanctifies these texts, perhaps the matter would be different and perhaps we would believe that they have an origin and support.
Mythology… is not one fixed text…that is, texts that do not have a meter that they are found on and are read only from this fixed meter, but rather variable texts that exist with several different words.
Mythology……..Texts that want to give themselves the status of antiquity, want to make their time ancient, and attribute a soul to the very ancients…but without a real origin or support…
And at this point…we will be well aware of the game of time calendars, and its main function…which was developed in order to get rid of the problem of time, antiquity, chain of transmission, and origin…this game that was able to create a time calendar and make… From mythology as the starting point of the calendar, and the beginning of time.
Now…we will make a comparison between stories and mythology
■ Stories are currently sacred… Mythology is currently not sacred
■ Stories have an origin (the Book of Allah)… Mythology has no origin
■ Stories have support (the Book of Allah)… Mythology has no support
{Indeed, it is the Noble Qur’an, in a hidden Book}
■ Stories were linked to the divine because they are found in the Book of Allah… As for mythology, one of its definitions is that it is stories told by the gods.
■ Stories are a fixed text with a precise meter… Mythology does not have a fixed text, but rather variable texts, and there is no precise meter for it.
{Allah is the One who sent down the Book with truth and balance}
■ Stories are a new, primary text that was not preceded by any text like it because it came out of the Book of Allah… Mythology is repetitive, secondary texts that have no fixed reference.
■ Stories are texts on tablets… Mythology is texts on paper
{Rather, it is a glorious Qur’an, in a preserved tablet}
■ Stories from the writings of the ancients… Mythology from the writings of Greece.
{And it is a revelation of Allah to the worlds. The Faithful Spirit has sent it down to your heart so that you may be of those who are warned. In a clear Arabic tongue. And indeed, it is in the mouth of the ancients.}
■ Stories are physical evidence that is as old as its time (stone tablets)… As for mythology, it is evidence that is as old as its time, hypothetical (chronological calendar).
finally
■ Stories are news (future)… Mythology is history (past)
Yes, this is the fundamental difference between the stories of the Qur’an and mythology… and the reason why the stories are fixed texts with a precise balance, and the report cannot be understood except with this balanced and precise text and in the language from which this report came out.
{We recite to you from the news of Musa Pharaon with the truth for a people who believe}
Because the fundamental question is: What are the first texts written by the ancients, or what is the awareness and perception of the world that the ancients had?!
The answer will be about the relationship between text and time.
Or in other words…the time of texts.
This is the essence of the issue in understanding the truth of religions and history.
Should we translate the Greek word (mythology) into Arabic with the word (stories) according to the words of Muhammad Arkoun?! …And do the stories in the Qur’an mean the word positive myth, according to the words of Ahmed Dawoud?!
permission
What is the meaning of mythology…..or can we find a word in the Arabic language that is the correct translation of the word (Greek myth)?
Yes, there is a word synonymous with mythology
Magic
Any texts… without a fixed origin and support, and attributed to an ancient time, and given an ancient sacred appearance that is not connected to today, and because they were among people’s beliefs or were in people’s awareness in ancient times… they are witchcraft.
Any text… that claims to have been on the tongue of people in ancient times, on the tongue of the ancients, and it was not on their tongue at all… is magic or temptation.
Any imaginary story…that claims to have happened in the past and people believe in it that it actually happened in the past…is magic.
Mythology means magic or temptation.
{And they followed what the devils recited to Sulaiman’s kingdom, and Sulaiman did not disbelieve, but the devils disbelieved, teaching people magic and what was revealed to the two angels in Babylon, Harout Marout, and they did not teach anyone until they said, “We are only a test, so do not disbelieve.”
——————-
finally
The article… redefining vocabulary and terms and removing errors and confusion between them, for the sake of a proper reading of the Qur’an and history.
.
.