Sick of all the nasty stuff said about muslims on my facebook so i thought i would read the quran to get informed. Anyone want to join me and write comments here? Perhaps to keep things linear might keep it to one sura at a time starting at sura 2

22+ pages easy.

-PB

No trolling please i judt wanted to read it at the same time as other people to compare notes. So no comments for now apart from on sura 2

If you're serious, I'll get into it with you.

Humbert: defender of mangina, qur'an whisperer.

Not meaning any offence, but I dont see how reading this will help you understand modern Muslims. Sure you will understand thier belief systems and how they talk to their version of an imaginary friend but that is all. The Islamic hate you see is more directly related to the extremist movements in various sections of the world. Before 9-11 I imagine alot of people had no real perception of Muslims.

You should study the extremists vs peaceful muslims to better understand modern muslims.

Anyway just my 2cents - carry on.

Reading the Quran will give you as much of an understanding of Muslims as reading the Bible will teach about Christians. In other words, not too much, because it's all open to interpretation, and it's the differences in interpretation that cause the issues... Or to be more accurate in terms of both the Christian and Islamic faiths, it's the differences in opinion about who can interpret the Holy books that cause the problem. Whether it's the Sunni and Shi'ite arguing about who is the rightful leader of the religion, or the Catholics and Protestants initially questioning who should be allowed to read/teach the Bible, and now arguing about whether the church actually needs a human leader, etc.

In simple terms... If you read the Quran, or the Bible, with an open mind - as a collection of guidelines for living a 'good' life, it will read very sensibly. If you read it as the word of a spiritually selected person with a hotline to an almighty creator, you're going to struggle to make sense of it... Unless you start to twist science, and therefore 'real' knowledge and truth, to fit into what it says.

depends on which edition .....the one that has been edited and distributed by the radicals or the original test

There is strictly speaking only one Quranic text. Uthman in his eternal wisdom, had all dissenting versions destroyed when he canonized the text.

What differs is the exegesis or commentary that is published alongside the text.

Islamic tradition expressly states that the Quranic translation is the 'direct, unadulterated, and perfect' word of God as revealed to Mohammed.

i.e. None of this a la carte nonsense that Christians indulge in. The Quran is said to be the direct word of God.

Self fulfilling prophecy

Edited by glenn - a-league mad: 10/10/2014 03:23:33 PM

True. Though little of this comes from the Quran itself which is never contested. The problem has to do with the sunnah, religious tradition, and the rulings of clerics.

"So the bible is really a trilogy and the Book of Mormon is return of the Jedi ? I'm interested!"

BoM is more like the 8th Harry Potter book

@humbert yeah im serious read surah 2 today
@benjamin actually if you read the bible cover to cover you would get what i belive minus a few translation errors which are easily accessible to anyone with a concordance the bible is said to be the inspired word of God. Obviously you have to read it in context (i dont follow the practice of using historical context unless the text indicates to do this). If you have any questions let me know

I actually have a fair amount of respect for the Quran . More than I do for most religious texts. But even when reading a modern English translation with footnotes, you will need to put it into context. The same goes for the bible of course. When Paul criticises the idea of women not having their head coverd and having the audacity to talk in church you might want to consider his own background and his audience. Most modern Christians seemed to be reasonably ok with the idea of women being allowed to talk in church these days. Considering how badly women were treated in Arabia at the time of writing, the concern that Mohammad has for women is actually rather impressive. Probably because his wife was older than him and his employer. But when reading a book like the Quran you still need to consider when and where it was written. In my opinion it has probably aged better than the bible , although that doesn't make it any more accessible to us.

Great post. The most likely reason that Paul allowed women no authority in a church is because they had no authority in courts at the time. Their witness and testimony was worth nothing. So when Christians were called to recount what they had see and heard, Paul wanted them to present their evidence in a way that bore legal authority in that time.

grazorblade, i think what you are doing is quite admirable. You have an open mind to the issues and rather than accepting what you see on the media, you are choosing to go further and understand it better for yourself. For that I commend you.

I never did the same with the other religions, despite attending a Catholic school, and found myself very one eyed and closed off to most of what it taught purely due to arrogance. Only after reading further and learning more about it did I gain a better understanding of it.

If you want to read the Quran, then i suggest you get the right translation. There are some very dodgy ones out there. Get the English translation and commentary by Yusuf Ali.

If you also have questions and would like to speak to someone, I am always here. You can PM me or just pop a post in this thread, Ill be happy to answer any questions to the best of my ability.

If it gets past 5 pages without getting locked then it will get to a thousand pages.

Easy.

Dis gun be reel gud.

good advice. I originally read the Dawood translation, which is ok but Ali's does flow better.

I skip straight pass comments on 442 if the are more than a couple of paragraphs, so I might pass on reading a book.

Maybe religions should switch to memes and billboards

Has worked for atheism.

*tips fedora*

cheers I have read sura 2 but it was on the first translation on google. I'll post questions after tonights games :)

I'll switch to the better translation (p.s. are there easy reading translations like the bible has the nlt?)

Much of the quran is poetry sobest to take it as it is.

Some of the translations on the net you need to be really careful of. Some people do their own interpretations and they not very educated on the topic.

What do you mean by easy reading translations?

http://www.wright-house.com/religions/islam/Quran/2-cow.php

Im using this one is it ok?

What do i mean by easy reading translation: the bible has easy reading translations where scholars focus on making the lanuage modern and easy to understand. I was wondering if the quran had something similar

first question. What does verse 3 mean "spending out of what we have provided for him"
a plain reading seems to imply that the word mischeif is being used as a synonym for violence.
also it seems the way the word faith seems to be used it means something like "believing and agreeing with a message"
Repentence seems to be used to mean regretting a wrong and then pledging to do right
its not clear what mercy means
are these in the ballpark?

Sorry, don't buy into it. For me, to believe in any part of the Bible - that is, to really believe and place faith in any of the words being the actual word of God, inspired or not, one has to believe and accept ALL of the Bible. As countless other Atheists have pointed out, you can take just a few small passages out of the Bible and destroy them with un-controvertible science. House of cards, one bit falls, so does the rest.

The reason is simple - it was written by men in a time of extremely low knowledge, and as a result is based on a very small and narrow minded world-view. Ditto the Quran.

I'm happy to acknowledge that there are many many good things to be learned from both books if they are taken in the spirit in which they were originally written - as control documents in a dangerous time.

Edited by Benjamin: 11/10/2014 03:50:41 PM

Apparently there's a part where Mohammed fucks a 9 year old kid. He also has many wives.