Thread by @iandavidmorris

Yesterday @IslamicOrigins told me about a possible relationship between Isaiah 64 and Surah 96 (al-‘Alaq). Let’s have a look.

A fairly conventional translation of Surah 96:1–2 might go: “Read in the name of your Lord who created, created man from a blood-clot.”

Traditionally, these were the first words of the Qur’an to be revealed. There’s a famous story about this first revelation:

The angel Gabriel commanded Muhammad, “Read!”, and Muhammad responded, “I cannot read”. Then he felt a crushing sensation so terrible, he thought he was going to die.

But Gabriel again commanded “Read!”, and continued with the revelation: “Read in the name of your Lord”, etc. Muhammad recited the words back and Gabriel left him.

It is often said that Muhammad’s plea, “I cannot read”, is a reference to his illiteracy, which is again a matter of tradition.

There is, however, another way to interpret the exchange, which is probably truer to the Arabic. The root QR’ signifies not only reading, but also reciting.

In this case, Gabriel is commanding Muhammad, “Recite!”; and when Muhammad responds, “mā aqra’”, he probably does not mean “I cannot read/recite”, but rather “*What should* I recite?”.

This is a legitimate and established way to read the Surah and the accompanying traditional story:
“Recite!” “What should I recite?” “Recite in the name of your Lord…”

But what if we don’t trust the traditional story? What if it was made up to explain the Surah long after the fact? Is there another way to read “Read!”?

As other scholars have pointed out, the conversation between Gabriel and Muhammad bears a striking similarity with Isaiah 40:6.

“A voice said ‘Cry out!’, and he said ‘What shall I cry?’ ‘All flesh is grass…’”

The Hebrew term here for crying out is cognate with the Arabic term for reading/reciting, which makes the comparison all the more striking:

Isaiah: ‘Cry out! [qərā]’ ‘What shall I cry? [māh eqrā]?’ ‘All flesh is grass…’
Qur’an: ‘Recite! [iqra’]’ ‘What should I recite [mā aqra’]?’ ‘Recite in the name of your Lord…’

So it is possible that the traditional story of Muhammad’s first encounter with Gabriel is influenced by the rhetoric of Isaiah. What about the Surah itself?

If we turn to Isaiah 64, we find a lamentation: the people are corrupted, the Temple is burnt down, and the holy cities are desolated.

So Isaiah laments, “No-one calls on your name, striving to take hold of you, for you have hidden your face from us and let us perish by our iniquities.”

The next verse continues: “But you, Lord, are our father. We are the clay and your are the potter. We are all the work of your hand.”

So Isaiah worries that God has abandoned the people, so they are no longer calling on him for help; and he begs God for mercy.

Again the word for crying out is cognate with the Arabic:
“No-one calls on your name (qōwrê bəšim-kā)”
“Read/recite in the name of (iqra’ bism) your Lord”

Is the Surah responding to Isaiah? Perhaps. And the next verse seems to confirm it:

“No-one calls on your name … We are the clay and you are the potter.”
“Read/recite in the name of your Lord who created, created man from a blood-clot.”

In both Isaiah and the Qur’an, the theme of invoking God’s name is immediately followed by the theme of God’s creation of humankind.

At first glance the texts disagree over the substance from which humankind was made: clay in Isaiah, a blood-clot in the Surah.

But as Muslim exegetes know, the word for blood-clot (‘alaq) may also refer to other clingy substances, such as clay.

There may in fact be a good reason for the confusion between clay and clotting blood: both can be thought of as red substances.

The word for clay in Isaiah is ḥōmer, a specifically red clay, which is related to other words for redness and reddish things in Hebrew and Arabic.

Meanwhile the first human, Adam, has a name that seems to hint at both soil (adamah) and blood (dam).

The conceptual shift from clay to clot is therefore more rational and less of a leap than we might assume: the human body is red earth come to life.

We may then subtly re-read Surah 96 in light of Isaiah 64:
“Call the name of your Lord who created, created man from red clay.”

And simultaneously, in light of Isaiah 40, we may re-read the traditional story behind these verses:
“Call out!” “What shall I call?” “Call the name of your Lord who created …”

POSCRIPT
Some readers are not familiar with “mā aqra’”, insisting that the quote is “mā ana bi-qāri’”; in fact both are attested, and one could easily have morphed into the other.