In The Great Khan's Tent Presents: Ramadan/Ramzan Special Episode Part 1

Welcome to In The Great Khan’s Tent Presents: Ramadan or Ramzan, if you prefer, Special Episode Part 1!

In this special episode we will examine the oral and written narratives pertaining to Islam, in particular focusing on some of the lesser known Prophets mentioned in the Qur’an including the related topics to them.

The purpose of these episodes is to tell the tales and stories told about these unique Prophets that are mentioned in the Qur’an and that do not relate to either the Jewish or Christian tradition and hence are purely Arabic ones. This unique group includes of course the final seal of the Prophets, Muhammad (PBUH), but also includes the three we will be focusing on, Hud (A.S.), Salih (A.S.) and Shuaib (A.S.).

The structure of this episode is uniquely different because we are dealing with religious narratives. The first section of the episode recounts the Qur’anic verses dealing with the topic that we will be discussing before moving on to the narratives themselves.

Listeners will encounter a list of names ranging from one to many before a narrative has begun. This is called a isnad or the “chain of transmission”. The function of an isnad is to be a reliable guide to note which oral narratives have good standings and can be understood or agreed upon. The people in these isnad are often vetted through certain processes, such as not being prone to carelessness, and are understood as truthful people in good standing. Since these are religious oral tales, essentially, they use the isnad method.

In this specific episode, we deal with the narratives of Hud (A.S.) and the people he was sent to. His tale is a purely Yemeni one, as the people he was sent to were the ‘Ad, located within the present day regions of Oman and Yemen. His story is primarily known only through the Qur’an and there is an entire chapter that is named after him. The rest of his tale and the people he was sent to is transmitted through a select few oral tales.

Since we have no records of his life, the oral tales revolve around his warning to the people of ‘Ad, their ignorance or outright violence in their attempt to drive him away, and their eventual destruction by Allah for ignoring the call to return to righteousness.

After encountering the narrative of Hud (A.S.) we then move to tell the tale of the lost city called Iram of the Pillars, a city build by the king of ‘Ad, Shaddad ibn ‘Ad, and his attempt at recreating Heaven on the Earth.

The last narrative that is told, is the journey undertaken to Shaddad’s tomb and their adventures within it.

These two last narratives, certainly fitting within the folk tale genre, resemble the tales we will encounter further on in the One Thousand and One Nights.

In the next special episode of this holy month of Ramazan, we will be looking at the Prophets Salih (A.S.) and Shuaib (A.S.).