Francis king cracks open the Koran

F

Francis king

Well-Known Member
Messages
1,318
Reaction score
1
Points
0
Location
oopmehownerse
hello there... I said I buy a Koran, which I did, and also read it, which I hadn't, yet today I cracked it open...

firstly... it's very like the Bible... I'm recognising passages and sentences which I recognise as being part of the New Testament, and secondly, I am suprised to find I am nodding in agreement, as a lot of it's ideas about God seem the same as mine... yet- before I go out and bag myself an Imam and a jilbab (joking, joking) I have to say that I am only on the first chapter...

will come bk here later on in the week, with my questions...

cheerio for now
 
Francis king said:
hello there... I said I buy a Koran, which I did, and also read it, which I hadn't, yet today I cracked it open...

firstly... it's very like the Bible... I'm recognising passages and sentences which I recognise as being part of the New Testament, and secondly, I am suprised to find I am nodding in agreement, as a lot of it's ideas about God seem the same as mine... yet- before I go out and bag myself an Imam and a jilbab (joking, joking) I have to say that I am only on the first chapter...

will come bk here later on in the week, with my questions...

cheerio for now
Click to expand...
Careful there girl...remember you are exactly there where MW started back as Sally....you may get a new found respect for oldtime religion...
 
Hi!
I appreciate your open mindedness.
Some tips: analyze the verses one by one with the context of the surrounding verses/or the whole chapter. Also, some translations of the meaning of the Holy Qur'an vary, and it good to understand the closest meaning of the verses to the Arabic vocabulary.
 
I found it a very tedious read, full of repetitive "To the good people, good things will happen, to the bad people, bad things will happen" over and over again. Of course, much of this repetition is poetic in the original: "Poetry is what is lost in translation", the saying goes, and the Qur'an is notorious for losing its heart when rendered into another language. I am an eager student of languages, and have a fair degree of competence in Hebrew and Greek, but Arabic just totally defeated me: I cannot hear some of the consonantal distinctions, and my eyesight is too poor to make out the cramped squiggly script. So, when I am told that it is very beautiful in the Arabic, I have to take their word for it.

The Biblical stories are all retold in a disjointed fashion, ripped out of their contexts, sometimes told so vaguely that if you did not already know the stories you would not be able to figure out what was happening just from the Qur'anic version. And they are all stripped of any point except "To the good people, good things will happen, to the bad people, bad things will happen".

The moral teachings are all given in completely arbitrary style, no ethical logic except "Whatever I say, goes". The reason for obedience is solely that you will be tortured extremely otherwise. The lingering on the very bad things that will happen to bad people indicates a morbid obsession with torture on the part of the author, who sounds much less like the Creator of the Universe than like an ill-tempered medieval Mideasterner.
 
Islam will never be the same again ?!

I recommend also comparing multiple translations online unless of course you speak arabic.
 
of course, the Qur'an makes a great deal more sense if you consider it, like the Torah, as "lecture notes" where the much of the actual applicable content is in the hadith, sunnah and aayat. of course, that is interpretation and, to coin a phrase, "interpretation is that which results from humans encountering G!D - whether in a text or in each other". not that the salafi/micro$oft version of islam will admit that, of course, their interpretations are "the word of G!D" and everyone else's are "man-made", as if that isn't as self-serving as it gets. but do enjoy and, if possible, try and listen to some of the original at least as it is chanted. it really is beautiful - one can well believe that this is how the Divine Voice might sound intermediated through a human medium.

b'shalom

bananabrain
 
Namaste all,

i, too, found the text very tedious and fairly unoriginal in it's fundamental teachings, i.e. it seemed more of a rehash of various Judaic and Christian teachings.

i suppose that i don't find Arabic a beautiful language but that may just be a reaction to compulsory learning of the language during my youth, in any case, i don't find the singing all that lovely to listen to but some of the chanters do have nice voices and that can make it tolerable.

enjoy the text, Francis King, and let us know what you think when you've completed it.

metta,

~v
 
Maybe I should give some context.... I was raised Mormon, ended up questioning everything and searching for truth in every religion. The Qur'an helped me a lot.
 
... this is an old post...

anyway... I read around 50 pages of my version, and have to say, I got bored. Usually when I read religious texts, I get "flashes" of energy from certain parts, almost, I feel, like my God is nudging me, saying- this is a bit to take notice of, yet I did not get this from the Koran at all, and hence abandoned it not long after picking it up...
 
Francis king said:
... this is an old post...
Click to expand...

Ugh, yeah it is, but you said this.......

Francis king said:
will come bk here later on in the week, with my questions...

cheerio for now
Click to expand...

But ya didn't.

Francis king said:
anyway... I read around 50 pages of my version, and have to say, I got bored. Usually when I read religious texts, I get "flashes" of energy from certain parts, almost, I feel, like my God is nudging me, saying- this is a bit to take notice of, yet I did not get this from the Koran at all, and hence abandoned it not long after picking it up...
Click to expand...

Fair enough, was curious to see what findings you found, obviously nothing lol... Thanks for the reply :)
 
My understanding is that translations of Buddhist scriptures are generally considered to range from poor to atrocious. I wonder to what extent the translations of the Koran do the original justice.

It seems there are now several translations of the Koran to English. Some were done by Arabs, other by people whose first language was English. At Amazon the feedback on the Dawood translation includes a note from someone with an Arab friend who didn't like any English translations. As I am not a Muslim nor do I know Arabic, it's not possible for me to evaluate matters of interpretation.

I notice the Koran is rather like the Bible, particularly with respect to the reinforcement paradigm about good conduct being rewarded with admission to the Garden of Bliss. Interestingly, there are many more references to love than to justice.

I personally like this passage, which approximates the Buddhist view as far as a rationale for altruism: Save one person and you save the whole of humanity. Kill one person, you kill the whole of humanity.

The logic is that one is hurting oneself when causing harm to others.

To me the notion of "selfless" giving is somewhat limited insofar that it has the potential to turn everyone into a martyr, which is not a selling point for any practice. Effective altruism achieves a harmony between self-interest and collective/cosmic interest.
 
Francis king said:
... this is an old post...

anyway... I read around 50 pages of my version, and have to say, I got bored. Usually when I read religious texts, I get "flashes" of energy from certain parts, almost, I feel, like my God is nudging me, saying- this is a bit to take notice of, yet I did not get this from the Koran at all, and hence abandoned it not long after picking it up...
Click to expand...
Try Surah 13--The Thunder. (It's only 43 verses long.)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top