Global Journal of Human-Social Science, A: Arts and Humanities, Volume 23 Issue 5

© 2023 Global Journals Volume XXIII Issue V Version I 10 Global Journal of Human Social Science - Year 2023 ( ) A A Quranic Concept with Universal Appeal: The Innate Monotheistic Disposition ( Fitra ) followed their natural monotheistic inclination, their fitra- hanîfiyya according to the Qur’an. According to the latter, the deviation of humanity would have begun much earlier, in the antediluvian period, which logically corresponds to the fact that Noah's people would have been destroyed, according to verses 22 and 23 of Sura 71 after expressing their attachment to polytheism: "They plotted an immense ruse and said: do not forsake ( lâ tadharunna ) your deities ( alihatakum ) and do not forsake ( wa lâ tadharunna ) neither Wadd, nor Suwâ', nor Yaghûth nor Ya‘ûq nor Nasr. They have led many astray. O God, do not increase the unjust except in misguidance (...). The inaugural monotheistic period would thus be restricted to the first generation of the sons of Adam's sons, in other words that of his grandsons, as attested by the formula of the testimony of the descendants of Adam's sons. Indeed, it should be emphasized that the first generation corresponding to the appellation "descendants of the Sons of Adam" is represented by an emblematic figure: Enoch son of Seth, who should not be confused with Enoch son of Jared, the seventh patriarch after Adam, to whom Enochian literature is attributed. This third generation of men to have lived on earth would logically seem to have been the ones who had to testify before God, since they were already no longer living in his intimacy and meeting him directly, like the representatives of the two previous generations. Indeed, according to the Bible and the Apocrypha, Adam had been created by His hand, and his sons had still been in regular contact with Him. The Enochian generation is, from this point of view, emblematic in the sense that, according to certain rabbinic traditions, it was the last to practice pure monotheistic worship. In the Targum of the Pentateuch (Genesis, 4, 26), it is said: "To Seth (the second human generation) a son was born, and he called his name Enoch. Then the children of men began to make idols for themselves and to call them by the name of the word of Yahweh". While in Lactantius' terminology there is a synonymy between the terms maiores and patres , which designate the two classes of ancestors indifferently, the Qur’an draws an exact distinction between the abâ' (parents and close ancestors) and the abâ' al-awwalûn , the "first ancestors", which illustrates the a bsence of synonymy of the "made clear" Arabic language ( lisân 'arabî mubîn ) that characterizes it. The first ancestors are those who recognized the absolute divine suzerainty, the kingship of a single God: (C 37, 125-126): "(Elijah said): Will you invoke the Baals? Will you forsake the best of creators? God, your earthly objects is to bow down to the ground. Multiple gods are powerless. The attitude received from God (the upright posture), which is in the image of God, makes it possible to know and confers salvation". Lord and the Lord of your first ancestors?"; (Q 44, 8): "There is no God but him. He gives life and causes death. He is your Lord and the Lord of your first ancestors. 36 Another expression is used to designate these great ancestors as opposed to the most recent. It is found in (Q 26, 70-76), a passage whose context is Abrahamic. (70) He said to his father and his people, "What do you worship? (71) They said, "We worship our idols. We remain attached to them (72) He said: "Do they hear you when you invoke them? (73) Are they useful or harmful to you? (74) They said: No! But we found our fathers (close ancestors) devoted to their worship (75). He said: Have you considered what you worshipped (76) in the time of your most distant ancestors?" He thus asks them to pay attention to what they (i.e. their people) worshipped "in the time" of their most ancient ancestors ( antum wa-abâ'ukum al- aqdamûna ), the particle " wa " here having the value of a temporal positioning. To do this, it virtually places the interlocutors in chronological conjunction with their earliest ancestors: lit: "You (your people as a whole) in the time of your earliest ancestors", i.e. the time when all were monotheists. The expressions al-abâ' al-aqdamûna (the most ancient Fathers) and al-abâ' al-awwalûn (the first Fathers), therefore, both have the function of designating the "great ancients" with, however, two distinct connotations. The first expression distinguishes them from the "fathers" ( abâ' ) in the sense of progenitors and close ancestors; the second refers directly to the first antediluvians. This theorization of the existence of a primordial monotheism, common to the Qur’an and the Divine Institutes , seems initially to have been intended as a response to the positions of late antique theologians who, like Firmicus Maternus in his De Errore (A History of Human Progress towards Truth) 37 , defended the idea that polytheism had been the first form of religion adopted by humankind. Only then did humankind progressively move towards monotheism. Tertullian takes a similar approach to Lactanti us , defending the 36 The use of this expression twice in (Q 23:24) and (Q 23:68) should be noted here. Its first occurrence may cast doubt on the monotheism of al - abâ' al-awwalîn since Noah's people say they never heard their ancestors talk about the cult the wanted to teach them. But the second restores the balance by highlighting their bad faith: "Did something come to them that their first ancestors did not know about?" The implication is that this is in no way the case, and that their first ancestors had indeed taken part in monotheism, to which Noah merely urged them to return. 37 De Errore profanarum religionum , XVII, 4, new translation with text and commentary by G. Heuten, Brussels, 1938, p. 115. On this subject, see the article by Béatrice Caseau, "Firmicus Maternus, un astrologue converti au christianisme ou la rhétorique du rejet sans appel", La religion que j'ai quittée , dir. Daniel Tollet, Presses de l’Université Paris Sorbonne, Paris, 2007, pp. 39-63, p. 54.