What Was Arabian Paganism Actually Like? | Dr. Ahmad Al-Jallad

Summary

In this discussion, the focus shifts to the book on the religion and rituals of pre-Islamic nomadic pagans in Arabia. The authors delve into the religious landscape before monotheism, highlighting how Islamic works often portray pre-Islamic beliefs as isolated and misunderstood. They argue that inscriptions offer a richer, interconnected view of these ancient beliefs, showing divine relationships and mythologies. The book reveals a complex religious system where gods influence life but not the afterlife, and death is an inevitable force. This insight challenges previous misconceptions and underscores the need to reinterpret pre-Islamic Arabian religion through archaeological records.

Takeaways

• 📚 Discussion shifts to the book on pre-Islamic nomadic pagan rituals in Arabia.
• 🔍 Importance of understanding pre-Islamic Arabian society and the context of 'Jahiliyyah' or the age of ignorance.
• 📜 Islamic sources often lack a mythological framework for pre-Islamic deities.
• ⚖️ The term 'Jahiliyyah' reflects our ignorance about the period rather than the ignorance of the people at the time.
• 🗿 Epigraphic evidence often contradicts Islamic folklore about pre-Islamic Arabian gods.
• 🌌 Deities in pre-Islamic Arabia had both celestial and terrestrial manifestations.
• ⛓️ Pre-Islamic Arabians had a system of divine relationships and mythological narratives connecting different gods.
• 🌧️ Rituals and sacrifices were performed to gain favor and intervention from gods.
• 💀 Death was a force that gods could not overcome, illustrating the limitations of divine power.
• ⏳ Fate (Manaya) and time (Dahr) were seen as inevitable forces leading to death, resonating with concepts in the Quran.

Q & A

What is the main focus of the discussed book?

The book focuses on the religion and rituals of the nomads of pre-Islamic Arabia, providing a global analysis of the inscriptions left by these nomadic groups.

How do the authors approach the study of pre-Islamic inscriptions?

The authors suggest letting inscriptions explain other inscriptions, similar to the Islamic tradition of letting the Quran explain the Quran. This approach helps to better understand the context and meaning behind the inscriptions.

What is the term 'Jahiliyyah' and how is it interpreted in the book?

Jahiliyyah refers to the 'age of ignorance' before Islam. The book suggests that this term reflects our ignorance about that period rather than the ignorance of the people themselves.

What discrepancies do the authors find between Islamic folklore and archaeological records?

The authors find that many stories in Islamic folklore about pre-Islamic deities do not match the archaeological and epigraphic evidence. For example, the god 'Wadd' mentioned in folklore is absent in the archaeological record of North Arabia.

How do the inscriptions challenge the portrayal of pre-Islamic Arabian religion in Islamic works?

The inscriptions reveal a more complex mythological framework with relationships among deities and detailed rituals, contrasting with Islamic works that often depict pre-Islamic gods as isolated idols without a coherent narrative.

What role do personal names play in preserving the memory of pre-Islamic deities?

Personal names containing theophoric elements (names of deities) were preserved into the Islamic period, helping scholars identify which deities were worshipped in pre-Islamic times.

What is the significance of the poem about the storm god and death?

The poem highlights the mythological battle between the storm god and the deified force of death, illustrating the pre-Islamic belief in divine forces controlling natural phenomena and life cycles.

How do the authors use inscriptions to understand pre-Islamic religious practices?

Inscriptions provide direct evidence of religious practices, such as sacrifices, pilgrimages, and appeals to gods for intervention in daily life. These practices reflect the belief in reciprocal relationships between humans and deities.

What do the inscriptions reveal about the pre-Islamic belief in an afterlife?

The inscriptions suggest that while there was a belief in some form of afterlife, the gods were not thought to influence it. Curses and appeals to deities in inscriptions mainly concern this life rather than the afterlife.

How do pre-Islamic beliefs about fate and death compare to Islamic teachings?

Pre-Islamic beliefs viewed fate as an inevitable force that eventually overcomes everyone, a concept echoed in the Quranic discussions about fate and the denial of resurrection by some opponents of the Prophet Muhammad.

Outlines

00:00

📖 Introduction to the Book Discussion

The speaker begins by transitioning from the current topic to discussing the book. They mention the importance of understanding the religious revolution that introduced monotheism to Arabia and propose a step back to explore the world of nomadic pagans before this shift. The book provides a global analysis of pre-Islamic Arabian nomads' religion and rituals, emphasizing the importance of interpreting inscriptions within their historical context.

05:01

🗿 Examining Pre-Islamic Pagan Society

The speaker discusses how pre-Islamic pagan society, often labeled as the 'Age of Ignorance,' is misunderstood. Scholars rely on Islamic texts that describe pre-Islamic rituals and beliefs, but these accounts lack a mythological framework. The gods are depicted as isolated idols without interconnected narratives, focusing more on rituals than their meanings. This portrayal serves to contrast the pre-Islamic period with Islam.

10:02

🔍 Analysis of Historical Records and Discrepancies

The speaker explains how later Islamic writers created folklore to fill gaps in historical knowledge. They discuss the inconsistencies found when comparing these Islamic texts with archaeological and epigraphic evidence. For example, the god Wadd, mentioned in both Islamic texts and the Quran, lacks archaeological evidence of worship in certain regions, highlighting the constructed nature of these historical accounts.

15:07

🏛️ Understanding the Epigraphic Evidence

The speaker delves into the role of personal names and how they preserved the names of pre-Islamic deities. These names survived into the Islamic period, helping to reconstruct historical religious practices. The speaker gives examples of deities like Rudaw and explains how folklore around these gods developed, often conflicting with epigraphic evidence.

20:08

📜 The Divine Relationships in Pre-Islamic Mythology

The speaker discusses the relationships between different deities in pre-Islamic mythology, as depicted in Safaitic inscriptions. They explain the dual manifestations of gods, such as Al-Lat, who was both a heavenly and earthly deity. The inscriptions reveal a divine family with gods like Allah, Al-Lat, and Al-Uzza, showing interconnected divine relationships absent in later Islamic texts.

🌧️ Divine Forces and Their Roles

The speaker describes the role of gods like Baalshamin, the storm god, in pre-Islamic religion. A poem illustrates the battle between the storm god and Death, symbolizing the seasonal cycle of rain and drought. These mythological elements, which are missing in Islamic texts, provide a richer understanding of pre-Islamic religious beliefs and practices.

👥 Human Emotions in Inscriptions

The speaker highlights how inscriptions reveal personal emotions and daily concerns of ancient people. Examples include inscriptions expressing longing for family members and prayers for divine intervention. These records show the gods' perceived ability to influence everyday life, offering a glimpse into the intimate relationship between people and their deities.

⚖️ The Limits of Divine Power

The speaker presents an inscription illustrating the limitations of divine power. While gods could protect and prolong life, they could not prevent death, which was seen as inevitable. The absence of afterlife curses in inscriptions suggests that pre-Islamic Arabs believed in some form of afterlife, but it was not influenced by the gods.

⌛ The Role of Fate and Time

The speaker explains the concept of fate in pre-Islamic religion, which was seen as an unstoppable force. Inscriptions show that people believed fate, or 'Manaya,' stalked the living and ultimately led to death. This belief is reflected in the Quranic discourse where opponents of the Prophet deny resurrection, emphasizing the temporal nature of life.

Keywords

💡Pre-Islamic Arabia

This term refers to the Arabian Peninsula before the advent of Islam in the 7th century. The video discusses the religious and cultural practices of nomadic pagan societies in this period, highlighting their rituals, deities, and the way scholars interpret their history through inscriptions and folklore.

💡Jahiliyyah

Jahiliyyah, often translated as the 'Age of Ignorance', refers to the period in Arabian history before the rise of Islam. The term is used in the script to discuss the misconceptions and lack of detailed knowledge about the religious practices of pre-Islamic nomads, as often depicted in later Islamic literature.

💡Nomadic Pagans

This term describes the nomadic tribes in pre-Islamic Arabia who practiced polytheism. The video explores their religious beliefs, rituals, and the inscriptions they left behind, which are crucial for understanding their culture and mythology.

💡Inscriptions

Inscriptions refer to the writings found on various surfaces, such as stones, left by ancient peoples. The video emphasizes the importance of these inscriptions in reconstructing the religious and social practices of pre-Islamic nomadic pagans, as they provide direct evidence from the period.

💡Epigraphic Record

The epigraphic record consists of all the known inscriptions from a particular period or region. In the video, this record is crucial for comparing the folklore and myths described in later Islamic texts with the actual historical and religious practices of the pre-Islamic nomads.

💡Folklore

Folklore encompasses the traditional beliefs, myths, tales, and practices of a people. The video discusses how later Islamic scholars compiled folklore about pre-Islamic deities, often lacking the original mythological context and instead creating a fragmented view of these ancient beliefs.

💡Deities

Deities refer to the gods and goddesses worshiped by the pre-Islamic nomads. The video explores various deities mentioned in both inscriptions and later Islamic texts, such as Wadd and Allat, and how their worship and mythological narratives were integral to the nomads' religious life.

💡Archaeological Evidence

Archaeological evidence includes the physical artifacts and structures left by past societies. The video highlights the discrepancies between the archaeological evidence and the folklore collected by later Islamic scholars, showing how the former provides a more accurate picture of pre-Islamic religious practices.

💡Religious Rituals

Religious rituals are the ceremonial acts performed as part of worship. The video details various rituals practiced by pre-Islamic nomads, such as sacrifices and pilgrimages, and how these rituals were believed to influence the gods and bring favor to the practitioners.

💡Mythology

Mythology refers to the collection of myths, especially those belonging to a particular religious or cultural tradition. The video discusses the lack of a coherent mythological framework in the descriptions of pre-Islamic deities found in later Islamic texts, compared to the richer, more connected narratives suggested by the inscriptions.

💡Islamic Tradition

Islamic tradition includes the beliefs, practices, and texts that form the religious heritage of Islam. The video contrasts the portrayal of pre-Islamic paganism in Islamic tradition with the evidence from inscriptions, highlighting how the former often aimed to depict these practices as antithetical to Islam.

Highlights

Discussion about the religious revolution that brought monotheism to Arabia and its importance.

Introduction to the study of the religion and rituals of nomadic pagans in pre-Islamic Arabia.

Explanation of how scholars use Islamic works to describe pre-Islamic pagan Arabian society and its limitations.

The absence of a mythological framework in Islamic descriptions of pre-Islamic pagan practices.

The term 'Jahiliyyah' reflects modern ignorance about the pre-Islamic period.

Islamic folklore about pre-Islamic gods often conflicts with archaeological and epigraphic records.

Example of the god Wadd, mentioned in the Quran and Islamic literature, but not found in the archaeological record of North Arabia.

The role of personal names in preserving the names of pre-Islamic deities.

Explanation of the two primary divine forces in pre-Islamic nomadic belief: the gods in the heavens and earthly centers.

Discussion of divine relationships among pre-Islamic gods and their roles.

The interaction between storm gods and death in pre-Islamic mythology, symbolizing the dry and rainy seasons.

The limitations of divine power, where gods cannot deliver individuals from death.

Pre-Islamic belief in gods' intervention in daily life and rituals performed to gain favor.

Inscriptions reflecting personal emotions, such as longing and appeals for help.

Curses in pre-Islamic inscriptions concern this life rather than the afterlife.

Transcripts

is it okay if we move on to your book um

yes yes of course uh so I mean we could

spend the whole episode speaking about

this and uh I think it's of tremendous

importance but I want to make sure that

that we speak also about um this

question of okay so uh even if there was

this religious Revolution Let's go back

one step and speak about the world of

the pagans and in particular the nomadic

pagans um uh before this religious

Revolution that brought monotheism to

Arabia uh and in this book the religion

and rituals of the nomads of pre-islamic

Arabia you both have a sort of global

analysis um of how we should approach

the study of these uh these inscriptions

by the nads you speak of uh letting the

inscriptions uh explain other

inscriptions which is sort of a play on

a word for letting the Quran explain the

Quran in Islamic tradition um so uh and

so I want to start with a quotation that

from the book where you introduce how uh

very often Scholars look at this period

of time before Islam in the Arabian

Peninsula which is generally referred to

as

Al meaning the period or realm of

ignorance um and uh I imagine that the

uh pre-islamic Nomads themselves

wouldn't refer to uh their society as

Jah but um that's part of the point of

the book actually I think because uh

very often Scholars um may be feeling

like they have nowhere else to turn they

go to the few Islamic Works which give

descriptions of the rituals and

practices and beliefs of these

pre-islamic Arabs or J Arabs most

famously the

book

of and then you you write that uh the

following about works like Asam so these

Islamic Works which try to look back at

pre-islamic Pagan Arabian society so you

write quote what is noticeably absent

from such works is any sense of a

mythological framework the gods are

isolated Idols Stones statues and

carvings each one revered by a different

social group with no narrative

connection between them or their role in

the cosmos the narratives are filled

with description of rituals but their

purpose and meaning seem lost of course

none of these details were important for

the goals of the genre of folklore

namely to present a Jah antithetical to

Islam so yeah could you sort of take it

from there how would you explain that

further yes well I think uh the way I

view the term Jah is that it reflects

our ignorance about that period right so

it's the age of ignorance but it's our

ignorance right and uh the I think that

by the time you get to the 9th century

there's sort of a an economy of antiqu

aquarians people are interested in the

distant past and that interest itself

generates folklore generates

storytelling which then individuals go

and collect and they end up uh you know

for example gives you a nice what

appears to be global view of Arabian

religion based on the Poore that was

available to him but when we

take uh what he says and and and look at

it against the archaeological record the

epigraphic record

uh we find a lot of discrepancies and we

can see that he's simply working with

folklore in fact so for example one of

the gods that

uh describes is W right uh W is

mentioned in the Quran as one of the

idols that was worshiped by the people

of Noah so the Quran already sets that

Idol distant pass right it's not an idol

that continues to be worshiped by

contemporaries because the entire world

of Noah was destroyed by the blood

now later writers later Islamic period

writers resolve this by saying that even

though these Idols were destroyed by the

flood they were then dug up again and

their worship resumed right so they they

noticed as well the problem of these

Idols existing before the flood and yet

having them attributed to different

tribes uh at the time of in in um tribes

contemporary with the mission of

Muhammad now even Al tells us that W was

worshiped in North

Arabia uh and that uh uh you know that

people and he gives some kind of stories

around him but when we look at the uh

let's say epigraphic record of religion

in North Arabia what is not to be at all

and it's not because there are gaps in

fact you have continuous attestations of

uh of of the worship of what of the

worship of different deities from places

like tabuk andum to jenda you have a

continuous station from the middle of

the first millennium BCE until the

monotheistic period And W is absence you

have uh the closest you get is the

worship of w at dadan ancient dadan

which is in the northern hij byan Colony

there because what was in fact the

national deity of the manans which were

a South Arabian people so the name so

what this suggests to me is that the

name of what survived they they they

they had the name of this Idol uh and

then they generated sworns in

to try to fill in the backgr and those

and we can see that those stories were

generated in this later period because

they disagree with the archaeological

and epigraphic evidence okay and at the

same time they show us that in fact it

seems that only the names of God

survived until their period but not much

else about when you say that period you

mean the period of

IB that's right yeah so you had the

names of various deities the Quran uh

the Quran of course played a role in

preservation of these names because it

it names uh let's say five and five

idols and three more in Nim but also one

of the things that preserved uh uh

deities names but let's say divorced

from their mythological context of their

worship are personal names personal

names are traditional right you get

named after an ancestor yes those

ancestors may have had Pagan names and

in fact you know most monotheistic

tradition really didn't have a problem

with continuing the use of pagan names

yes uh you can find a Christian today

named Dennis uh doesn't mean he's a

follower of dianis and um uh and in in

fact it was it seems to have been

uh the the religious movement of

Muhammad that had a real problem with

personal names that took issue with the

etmy of personal names and started

changing personal names so it's a sort

of puritanical movement in that sense

you want to erase any remnant of

polytheism but it's clear that personal

theophoric names containing uh foreign

or uh Idols containing the names of

Idols or pre-islamic deities survived

into the Islamic period and that was one

of the ways that people

like knew what was worshiped in the

distant past okay so one one another

example on that point is he has the

name right and he puzzled over that name

a bit he says I don't know exactly what

is I suspect it's a deity because it's

in the name AB but I don't know if it's

a temple or whatever then he shares like

a a Fantastical story about little doll

being a temple in in in southern Arabia

that was destroyed by a uh a a a 300y

old Zealot called the M right so it's a

legend now the fact is is BU is a deity

or was a deity that was worshiped across

Arabia in the n and in the stic

inscriptions as well but didn't know

anything about this deity except for its

name and just having those names you can

you can imagine a situation where you go

and ask older people or people that you

think have some kind of antiquarian

knowledge tell me about rudol and at

that point that I think it's that kind

of interaction that ends up generating

this folklore around these deities so

what we have inab is a book of in my

opinion folklore uh trying to piece

together whatever what what they seem to

what they think are memories of these

ancient deities trying to piece them

together and reconstruct what

pre-islamic Arabian religion looked like

but we can't use that as a source of toe

Islamic Arabian religion we always have

to read it in light of the inscriptions

right right

yeah as you put it I

think the explanation of the

inscriptions by other inscriptions yeah

yeah so but in that in that quotation I

don't know if it's a good good one and

really representative of the principal

argument you want to advance in the book

but you you do allude to the portrait of

pre-islamic Arabia given by works like

Islamic works like as um uh lacking a

framework that would connect the various

societies and cultures and beliefs of

pre-islamic Arabia so do the

inscriptions fill that in do they show

us how uh things in the north south

central are connected or how different

devotions or different uh are

connected so we have some uh when we

look at the satic inscriptions and read

them alongside naan inscriptions we can

sort of we can build a very low

resolution image of right and so what

what's uh what's clear is uh the satic

writers these Nomads believed in two

primary Divine

forces on the one hand you had the god

and the gods from their inscription

resided in the heavens but they also had

Earthly uh uh uh let's say centers as

well so for example Alat is called the

one from a place called Oman now it's

not Oman at theend the other side of the

peninsula it seems to be a lost top and

somewhere probably in Jordan in this

area but she's a lot of Oman right okay

uh and uh but she's also of course a lot

who resids in heaven so they have kind

of two manifestations and the gods are

uh have Rel have relationships among

each other as well so for example in

stic who we who when we read the Quran

all it's claimed that the pagans

consider all to be a daughter of

Allah um but in the saic inscriptions in

their let's say religious view Al was

the daughter of and R was the let's say

his name literally means satisfaction H

it seems to be the yeah Divine

manifestation of pleasure or

satisfaction and his daughter was anat

naan inscription in the naan inscription

Alat is called the mother of the Lord of

of our King of the god of our King right

and so the king is uh this is the king

of natia the

natian national deity withar so it seems

we have three generations of a Divine

family here right little ho whose

daughter's Al whose son

is right okay so they had relationships

with each other on the other side of

things we have for

example and B is the god of storm

responsible for weather make sacrifices

to him to try to you know influence uh

weather conditions make sure the rains

come on time and there's a beautiful

poem about ban and sometimes shorten

just B it's uh it reads like

[Music]

this so it's a three line poem rhyming

rhyming in am and it translates to Mo

death has held a peace indeed the

scorner

eats established is the alternation of

is nights and days right and so that's a

phrase that you also get in the

Quran and L B

sleeps he sleeps but he is not

dead right and that right there you can

you can you can see you can connect that

kind of phrase

with which I would say right so sleep

has overtaken but he's not dead with but

God Allah on the other hand neither of

these fores so we

can yes we can see connection between

this kind of pre-islamic liturgy and

later on in the Quran now so we so this

is the kind of Mythology that we get

from these inscriptions right we get

this idea of uh uh we we we get a a

short poem giving you a a a

uh an outline a summary of the

mythological battle between the storm

God the god of rain and M death right

deified death and death of course is the

dry

season death is what is is when The

Rains of course the half the year there

are no rains and then the Earth dies

right and that's symbolized by this

force of death and so we see their

battle in this this is the kind of

material that's absent in works

like right what we get is people being

devoted to these individual deities

sacrificing to them of course they're

always portrayed as false gods they were

false gods to Their audience but we know

nothing about their mythology we know

nothing about the way uh these ancient

Arabians saw their role in the cosmos

what they were responsible for the

stories they told about them so friends

one of the remarkable features of this

book the religion and rituals of the

nomads of pre-islamic Arabia is uh at

least in my opinion one of its many uh

exceptional features is that it um you

present a sort of

um uh categorized uh description of the

sorts of inscriptions that are found in

safik I think um which basically is from

this region as you mentioned I think

it's called the Hara that stretch

stretches from Southern what is now

Southern Syria to Northern Saudi Arabia

um but uh it it brings to life a whole

people a whole culture um and some of

the inscriptions are explicitly

religious as you mentioned and we'll be

I'd like to mention one of them before

we're done um but then others are um

just I mean imagine uh encountering the

emotions of a person who's gone 2,000 or

more years ago um you know has has been

gone for this long and you ReDiscover it

through this inscription that has been

found somewhere in this region of the

desert for example there's a whole

section that you you report inscriptions

on longing uh and there's a phrase you

give there for it I forget what it is

but um longing for either the family

member when they're away from family or

even for the Habib I

think yeah uh so um I mean I don't know

if you want to comment on on those sorts

of inscriptions there's others on a

appeals like I think there's a number of

inscriptions you report where someone is

asking for a sheep yeah yeah yeah or

something for his sister I think there's

one give me something and something for

my sister I forget it was yes A Feast

for me and a sheep for my sister yeah

yes so that's so bringing it back to and

connecting that with the role of the

Gods we see that the stic authors saw

the gods as being able to intervene in

their life and it seemed that there was

this exchange this relationship where

you perform the rituals required of you

sacrifices pilgrimages things of this

sort and in return the gods will reunite

you with loved ones right they will

deliver you from Misfortune they will

deliver you from dirst and allow the

rains to come and the way that you try

to uh entice the gods and say to give

you favor is by correctly performing

rituals associated with them and there's

this one lovely inscription where a man

records his uh friend being

ill and he and he says and he calls and

he and and they take him to the holy

water of B Sam storm God to his holy

water and he said so heal him so that

his family will say that you are

just or S right but using the we don't

know how to vocalizing it vocalize it

using the S right so that you are just

so this idea that look we do the rituals

and so what you owe us is intervention

right to uh to Del to Deliver Us from

sickness from Misfortune and all of this

and then like I I began the uh uh the

discussion with saying there were two

forces in the in their world two Divine

forces we talked about the gods and the

way you can get the gods to interfere on

your behalf and uh and and and you know

make sure that your life is not as

miserable as it would be otherwise but

there's this beautiful inscription that

illustrates limitations of divine power

so it says by a man he goes to water and

then he says well I'll just read it in

Arabic because it's so close to

classical Arabic I don't think viewers

who know Arabic will have hard time

understanding

it so he stopped and remembered the de

the

dead and then he

says so he

agreed

right so oh give long life to Your

Righteous

worshipper and protect

him but from Death there is no

deliverance and so the idea is that the

gods can prolong your life can give you

can give you momentary escapes from Bad

circumstances can protect you but they

cannot deliver you from

death does does this mean there there's

no conception of reward and Punishment

after death so this is this is the yeah

this is where it leads to I I think

what's fascinating is the thousands and

thousands of soptic inscriptions we have

many of these authors protect their

inscriptions with curses and these

curses can range from May the person who

puts up or faces this inscription go

blind go mad have M scab mange break a

leg I mean what you could think of right

all kinds of curses but there are no

curses that concern the

afteron so there I mean it you know just

looking at it from an antropological

perspective they must have believed in

some kind of afterlife but it seems that

the gods did not influence what happened

there all of the curses all of when they

call upon the gods to curse individuals

it all concerns this life interesting

right okay and so you have these two

these two forces you have the gods of an

assembly on one side and then you have

this Force death right and we I

recounted that poem where body samine

faces off against death and death is

rarely called Mor sometimes called Mor

and and by the way I should say this

before anyone accuses me of pronouncing

Arabic incorrectly I'm pronouncing satic

in the way we can reconstruct it based

on Greek transcriptions that are

contemporary with saftic so it's not

when I yeah just to spell it out I mean

yeah I didn't mean to make that fun but

uh I mean Greek in Greek writing it

represents the vowels and represents

languages including saftic writing

vowels are not represented so those are

really precious when you have the

bilingual inscriptions because you can

use the Greek to vocalize the Arabic

writing precisely so we know their

vowels we know the way words were

vocalized so when I so when I read satic

it sounds sort of like a funky Arabic

but it's based on that reconstruction

it's not classical Arabic although it's

very close to it now you have let's say

on one side of their Divine world the

gods you can appeal to to deliver you

from several things from to to bring the

rains to cure illness and on the other

side you have death and ultimate and

death is something is very rarely called

it's almost always called man which is

cognant with Manaya the fates that you

get in pre-islamic Arabic poetry and

manai stalks the living there are

inscriptions that where where an

individual

writes and so fate lay in weight

or you'll call upon some

deity so deliver him right to be

delivered from fate stalking them uh but

ultimately the gods may give you escape

But ultimately fate always catches me no

matter what the end of the day fate

overcomes and you meet your

death some ways yeah in some ways this

just fits fits well

with the discourse in the Quran where

the opponents of the Prophet are uh

denying the

resurrection um but that of course

complicates brings us back to the

question of uh so was there still were

there still these pagans Pagan deniers

of the Resurrection by the time to the

seventh century so you have that line

what is there but this life but but this

worldly life

yes we we I would translate it as we

sleep and we wake up and nothing Dooms

us but fate right and that's a the Quran

calls it is not attested in but con

conceptually it seems to be equivalent

to this man Force time time which is

linked with fate that consumes you and

absolutely absolutely and so when people

die when they put up funerary

inscriptions in stic the dead are

called struck down by

fa