A. Kudriavtceva. “And God Created You and What You Make” (Q 37:96): the Axiology of Labour in the Qur’an

Anna Kudriavtceva 

Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (the Kunstkamera) RAS, St. Petersburg, Russia
E-mail: kudriavtsevaa@mail.ru

“And God Created You and What You Make” (Q 37:96): the Axiology of Labour in the Qur’an

Abstract. Labour, one of the main ambivalent phenomena of human existence, reveals its conceptual diversity in the historical dynamics of self‑development. In the most literal sense, labour, as work that requires effort and causes fatigue, is not conceptualised in the Qur’an, and references to the involvement of human beings in any production process are extremely rare in the text compared to the domain of trade in its metaphorical and material expression. The aim of the article is to identify in the text of the Qur’an, hidden behind a multitude of intertwined semantic layers, the value nature of energy‑consuming human actions — physical and intellectual — which the author considers to be outside the Qur’anic religious and legal concept of sin and virtue, but within the concept of labour as the basis of socio‑economic relations. An important task of the article lies in the attempt to refocus the discourse on the issue of the specificity of socio‑economic relations, especially in Mecca during the time of the Prophet. It seems that the existence of a large settlement, with its activities based mainly on the long‑distance caravan trade and the provision of services to pilgrims, was naturally related to the lifestyle of the commercial and intermediary centres that existed in the ancient and the early medieval world, including the Mediterranean region. The work presents a limited selection of Qur’anic material on the topic from this particular perspective.

Keywords: labour, work, agriculture, Mecca, socio‑economic structure, long‑distance and regional trade, trade and intermediary centers of the Mediterranean

Acknowledgments. The work was produced as part of the three‑year scientific programme, entitled “Russia — the West — the Islamic World: Conflicts and Interactions in Competitive Paradigms of Spatial Development (Historical, Cultural, Museum and Archival Sources)”. It forms part of the research direction “Ethnic History and Diversity of the Cultural Heritage of the Islamic World in Historical Dynamics” which has been pursued by the “International Centre for Islamic Studies” of the MAE RAS since its establishment.

DOI: 10.31250/1238-5018-2024-30-2-38-49

References

• Abel, L. (ed., trans.) (1891), Die Sieben Mu‘allakat: Text, vollständiges Wörterverzeichniss, Berlin: W. Spemann.
• Ahlwardt, W. (ed.) (1870), The Divans of the Six Ancient Arabic Poets Ennābiga, ‘Antara, Tarafa, Zuhair, ‘Alqama and Imruulqais; Chiefly According to Mss. of Paris, Gotha and Leyden; and the Collection of Their Fragments, with a List of the Various Readings of the Text, London: Trübner and Co.
• Amaldi, D. (1993), “Women in pre‑Islamic poetry”, in F. de Jong (ed.), Verse and the Fair Sex. Studies in Arabic Poetry and in the Representation of Women in Arabic Poetry. A Collection of Papers Presented at the 15th Congress of the Union Européenne des Arabisants et Islamisant (Utrecht / Driebergen, Septembre 13—19, 1990), Utrecht: Publications of the M. Th. Houtsma Stichting, pp. 77—84.
• Bolshakov, O. G. (1982), “Ocherk tretii. Srednevekovyi arabskii gorod” [“The third essay. Medieval Arab city”], in O. G. Bolshakov (ed.), Ocherki istorii arabskoi kul'tury (V—XV vv.) [Essays on the History of Arab Culture (5th — 15th centuries)], Moscow: Nauka, Glavnaia redaktsiia vostochnoi literatury, pp. 156—214.
• Bolshakov, O. G. (1989), Istoriia khalifata. T. 1. Islam v Aravii, 570—633 [History of the Caliphate. Vol. 1. Islam in Arabia, 570—633], Moscow: Nauka, Glavnaia redaktsiia vostochnoi literatury.
• Bolshakov, O. G. (1993), Istoriia khalifata. Т. II. Epokha velikikh zavoevanii, 633—656 [History of the Caliphate. Vol. 2. Epoch of the Great Conquests, 633—656], Moscow: Nauka, Glavnaia redaktsiia vostochnoi literatury.
• Bravmann, M. (1963), “‘The surplus of property’: an early Arab social concept”, Der Islam, vol. 38, pp. 28—50.
• Burenkov, S. V. (2017), “Antropolofia i aksiologiia truda: Ellada” [“Anthropology and axiology of labor: Hellas”], Vestnik Tverskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. Seriia “Filosofiia”, No. 1, pp. 39—45.
• Bukharin, M. D. (2009), Araviia, Vostochnaia Afrika i Sredizemnomor'e: torgovye i istoriko‑kul'turnye sviazi [Arabia, East Africa and the Mediterranean: Trade and Historical‑Cultural Links], Moscow: Vostochnaia literatura.
• Crone, P. (1987), Meccan Trade and the Rise of Islam, Princeton: Princeton University Press, and Oxford: Blackwell.
• Doughty, Ch. M. (1921), Travels in Arabia Deserta, vol. 1, London; Boston: Philip Lee Warner / Jonathan Cape.
• Griaznevich, P. A. (1984a), “Islam i gosudarstvo (k istorii gosudarstvenno‑politicheskoi ideologii rannego islama)” [“Islam and the state (on the history of the state‑political ideology of Early Islam)”], in P. A. Griaznevich & S. M. Prozorov (eds.), Islam: Religiia, obshchestvo, gosudarstvo [Islam: Religion, Society, State], Moscow: Nauka, Glavnaia redaktsiia vostochnoi literatury, pp. 189—203.
• Griaznevich, P. A. (1984b), “K voprosu o prave na verkhovnuiu vlast' v musul'manskoi obshchine v rannem islame” [“On the issue of the right to supreme power in the Muslim community in early Islam”], in P. A. Griaznevich & S. M. Prozorov (eds.), Islam: Religiia, obshchestvo, gosudarstvo [Islam: Religion, Society, State], Moscow: Nauka, Glavnaia redaktsiia vostochnoi literatury, pp. 161—174.
• Griaznevich, P. A. (1984c), “Problemy izucheniia istorii vozniknoveniia islama” [“The problems of studying the history of Islam”], in P. A. Griaznevich & S. M. Prozorov (eds.), Islam: Religiia, obshchestvo, gosudarstvo [Islam: Religion, Society, State], Moscow: Nauka, Glavnaia redaktsiia vostochnoi literatury, pp. 5—18.
• Ibn Hisham (1990), Al‑sira al‑nabawiyya [The Life of the Prophet], in 4 vols., Bayrut: Dar al‑kitab al‑‘arabi.
• Ibragim, Т. & Efremova, N. (1996) Musul'manskaia sviashchennaia istoriia. Ot Adama do Iisusa. Rasskazy Korana o poslannikakh bozhiikh [Muslim Sacred History from Adam to Jesus. Qur’ānic Accounts of the Messengers of God], Moscow: Ladomir.
• Jeffery, A. (1938), The Foreign Vocabulary of the Qur’an, Baroda: Oriental Institute.
• Khan, M. M. (ed., trans.) (1997), The Translations of the Meanings of Sahih al‑Bukhari: Arabic‑English, in 6 vols., Riyadh: Darussalam.
• Kudriavtceva, A. (2019), “And it is God who has appointed a place of rest for you of your houses, and He has appointed for you of the skins of the cattle houses you find light on the day that you journey, and on the day you abide”, Manuscripta Orientalia, vol. 25, No. 2, pp. 9—18.
• Kudriavtceva, A (2021), “Food ecology in the Qur’ān: reality and afterlife”, Manuscripta Orientalia, vol. 27, No. 2, pp. 38—44.
• Lammens, H. (1910), “La république Marchande de la Mecque vers l’an 600 de notre ère”, Bulletin de l’Institut Egytien, 5th Series, No. 4, pp. 23—54.
• Lammens, H. (1914), Le Berceau de l’Islam, l’Arabie occidentale à la veille de l’hégire. Vol. 1. Le climat — Les bédouins, Rome: Pontificii Instituti Biblici.
• Lammens, H. (1924), La Mecque à la veille de l’Hégire, Beyrouth: Imprimerie catholique.
• Lyall, Ch. J. (ed., trans.) (1913), The Diwans of ‘Abid Ibn al‑Abras, of Asad, and ‘Amir Ibn at‑Tufail, of ‘Amir Ibn Sa‘sa‘ah, Leiden: E. J. Brill; London: Luzac & Co.
• Lyall, Ch. J. (ed., trans.) (1918), The Mufaddaliyat. An Anthology of Ancient Arabian Odes, 3 vols., Oxford: The Clarendon Press.
• Mattson, I. (2003), “Manual labor”, Encyclopaedia of the Qur’an, vol. 3, Leiden; Boston: Brill, pp. 253—254.
• Mattson, I. (2006), “Work”, Encyclopaedia of the Qur’an, vol. 5, Leiden; Boston: Brill, pp. 548—551.
• Matveev, A. S. (2016), “Transaraviiskaia torgovlia i missiia Mukhammada: O prichinakh vozniknoveniia islama i gosudarstva v Aravii” [“Transarabian trade and the mission of Muhammad: On the reasons of the establishment of the Islamic religion and state in Arabia”], in M. I. Vasilenko & P. I. Pogorelsky (eds.), Arabskie marshruty v aziatskom kontekste [Arabian Routes in the Asian Context], St. Petersburg: MAE RAN, pp. 445—516.
• Montgomery, J. E. (1997), “Chapter five: An Arab at sea: a poem by Bishr b. Abi Khazim al‑Asadi”, in J. E. Montgomery, The Vagaries of the Qasidah: The Tradition and Practice of Early Arabic Poetry, Cambridge: E. J. W. Gibb Memorial Trust [E‑Book].
• Neuwirth, A. (2017), “Paradise as a Quranic Discourse: Late Antique Foundations and Early Quranic Developments”, in S. Gunther, T. Lawson & Ch. Mauder (eds.), Roads to Paradise: Eschatology and Concepts of the Hereafter in Islam, vol. 1, Foundations and Formation of a Tradition Reflections on the Hereafter in the Quran and Islamic Religious Thought, Leiden; Boston: Brill, pp. 67—92.
• Pigulevskaya, N. V. (1951), Vizantiia na putiakh v Indiiu. Iz istorii torgovli Vizantii s Vostokom [Byzantium on the Roads to India. From the History of Byzantine trade with the East], Moscow; Leningrad: Izdatel'stvo AN SSSR.
• Piotrovsky, M. B. (1981), “Muhammed, proroki, lzheproroki, kakhiny” [“Muhammad, the prophets, the false prophets, the kahins”], in I. M. Smilianskaia & S. Kh. Kiamilev, Islam v istorii narodov Vostoka [Islam in the History of the Peoples of the East], Moscow: Nauka, Glavnaia redaktsiia vostochnoi literatury, pp. 9—18.
• Piotrovsky, M. B. (1984), “O prirode vlasti Mukhammada” [“On the Nature of Muhammad's Power”], in I. M. Smilianskaia (ed.), Gosudarstvennaia vlast' i obshchestvenno‑politicheskie struktury v arabskikh stranakh (Istoriia i sovremennost') [State power and socio‑political structures in Arab countries (history and modernity)], Moscow: Nauka, pp. 6—11.
• Piotrovsky, M. B. (1991a), “Abu Lahab”, Islam. Entsiklopedicheskii slovar' [Islam. The Encyclopaedic Dictionary], Moscow: Nauka, Glavnaia redaktsiia vostochnoi literatury, p. 9.
• Piotrovsky, M. B. (1991b), Koranicheskie skazaniia [The Qur’ānic Legends], Moscow: Nauka, Glavnaia redaktsiia vostochnoi literatury.
• Reynolds, G S. (ed.) (2008), The Qur’an in its Historical Context, London; New York: Routledge.
• Reynolds, G. S. (ed.) (2011), New Perspectives on the Qur’an. The Qur’an in its Historical Context 2, London; New York: Routledge.
• Rezvan, E. A. (2001), Koran i ego mir [The Qur’an and Its World], St. Petersburg: Peterburgskoe Vostokovedenie.
• Serjeant, R. B. (1990), “Meccan trade and the rise of Islam: misconceptions and flawed polemics”, Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol. 110, No. 3, pp. 472—486.
• Simon, R. (1989), Meccan Trade and Islam: Problems of Origin and Structure, F. Sós (trans.), Budapest: Akadémia Kiadó.
• Van Dam, С. (1997), The Urim and Thummim. A Means of Revelation in Ancient Israel, Winona Lake, Indiana: Eisenbrauns.
• Watt, W. M. (1954), “Economic and Social Aspects of the Origin of Islam”, The Islamic Quarterly, vol. 1, No. 2, pp. 90—103.
• Welles, C. B. (1967), “Hesiod's attitude toward labor”, Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies, vol. 8, pp. 5—23.

Received by the Editorial Board: 07.08.2024