Peace to all,
There are several points I would like to make, some may not be original since many of you may have come to the same conclusions but no harm in trying
The distinct usage of plural or singular in the Quran when refering to actions .. examples "We breathed..." Verse (2191) with regards to the creation of Jesus in contrast with "I breathed..." (1529) with regards to the creation of Adam. -- "We" is always used when the action is done involving angels .. while "I" had no such thing.
The verse (3041) - The "traditional" translation goes as follows
3041 Mischief has appeared on land and sea because of (the meed) that the hands of men have earned, that ((Allah)) may give them a taste of some of their deeds in order that they may turn back (from Evil).
The word FASAD is translated mischief .. however when I read this verse it comes very strongly to me that the verse is a "prophecy" of sorts about POLLUTION and the worsening environement .... and the reason I think of that is the reference that it is in both LAND and WATER .. I am not sure if there were known cases of piracy at that time for people to know that mischief can be on land as well as water .. or perhaps sea battles .. but everytime I look at it it all adds up together to mean POLLUTION especially when the reason is given "BEMA KASABAT AYDEE AL-NAS" roughly meaning by what the people earn (as in profit and "labor") althpough it also can mean what they have done in general.
What do you think on that one, would it be a warning against bad environmental policies that cause pollution? I sure hope so it is not an irrelevant issue and I am sure God would mention something about such thing in the Quran .. as in FASAD meaning pollution!
Also the chapter Al-Rum (Romans) seems to have "prophecies of sort" in addition the first half of it tends to focus on the signs in nature earth water etc etc
Regarding the verse (665) which is addressed in the Reformist Quran Translation
http//www.yuksel.org/e/books/rtq.htm
I somehow see that the verse can be translated as follows
If he divorces you, his Lord will substitute other wives in your place who are better than you; submitters, believers, devoted, repentant, worshipful, active in their societies, virgins AND previously married. (665)
I read the argument for saying "thayebaat wa abkara" to mean connected, and progressive .. but let me say this
The verse is speaking to "several" women not one .. it spoke to the "wives" of the prophet .. so the replacements the verse warned will ALL have the first portion of being submitters, believers, devoted, repentant, worshipful, active in their societies (which in the arabic verse did not have the 'WAW' letter (AND) between all of them and ends with two adjectives thayebat wa abkara .. the verse can be seen to mean virgins and previously married WHO all share the previous adjectives .. since the wives of the prophet were plural the replacmenets would be plural and would be of both virgin AND previously married status ..
Moreover, if we look at the previous verse it said "tatooba" which is addressing "two" of the prophets wives (one I think was supposed to be Aisha but not sure whom was a virgin when the prophet married her and the other was a thayeb previously married) the verse was about one wife telling another a secret .. if it were speaking to more than two I think thje verb would be "tatubn" .. however I wonder if God meant he would replace both of them (one virgin and one previously married) with two others of the same on that but with better "faith" ?
Also, this does not require the "OR" mistake at all in fact the AND may in a subtle way be an assertion from God that a virgin is not better than a previously married woman in status (as found in some cultures)
Although we agree that both wrods abkaran and thayebaat do have several meanings I see that the verse would be valid if we take the traditional meanings .. it would for one assert that women are not to be treated differently as per virgin or not .. and for the argument that SUCH a use would validate the allowance to marry more than one virgin it would not apply since the verse is speaking about the prophet and his wives and such allowance would only be for the prophet (since he too married more than 4 wives and the limit of 4 was not applied to him too)
So the verse would be more like this
If he divorces you, his Lord will substitute other wives in your place who are better than you; submitters, believers, devoted, repentant, worshipful, active in their societies, BOTH previously married and virgins.
perhaps we need to look at the grammar of arabic with regards to stating several adjectives in succession without WAW (and) and then the last two would have a WAW (and) and see if it fits that the last the successive adjectives would apply equally to each of the last two .. I hope I am not confusing you all with this ..
it is like in math distributive property saying ====> A.B.C.(D+E)
especially that in arabic is unlike English in that the AND before the last enumeration is not used .. so it should not be translated to mean
A, B, C, D, and E .. instead A.B.C.(D and E)
I think I may have more observations while reading the Quran .. I will post more when I collect them
Peace.
