If it were easier, would you read the Qur'an?

Question

It's not letting me post it with the url but just typing "quran" followed by ".com" into your address bar might do something. Who knows? Anyway, I'd go with the Pickthall translation, but you might want to look at the Sahih International, Muhsin Khan, Yusuf Ali, and Shakir translations for a look at how the House of Saud would like you to read it. It's printed longest chapter to shortest so unless you already knoa straight reading will be confusing unless you already know what's going on.

The actual order of revelation is: Al-Alaq, Al-Qalam, Al-Muzzammil, Al-Muddathir, Al-Fatihah, Al-Masadd, At-Takwir, Al-Ala, Al-Lail, Al-Fajr, Ad-Dhuha, Al-Inshirah, Al-Asr, Al-Adiyat, Al-Kauther, At-Takathur, Al-Maun, Al-Kafiroon, Al-Fil, Al-Falaq, An-Nas, Al-Ikhlas, An-Najm, Abasa, Al-Qadr, Ash-Shams, Al-Burooj, At-Tin, Quraish, Al-Qaria, Al-Qiyama, Al-Humaza, Al-Mursalat, Qaf, Al-Balad, At-Tariq, Al-Qamar, Sad, Al-Araf, Al-Jinn, Ya-Sin, Al-Furqan, Fatir, Maryam, Taha, Al-Waqia, Ash-Shuara, An-Naml, Al-Qasas, Al-Isra, Yunus, Hud, Yusuf, Al-Hijr, Al-Anaam, Al-Saaffat, Luqman, Saba, Az-Zumar, Al-Ghafir, Fussilat, Ash-Shura, Az-Zukhruf, Ad-Dukhan, Al-Jathiya, Al-Ahqaf, Adh-Dhariyat, Al-Ghashiya, Al-Kahf, An-Nahl, Nooh, Ibrahim, Al-Ambiya, Al-Mumenoon, As-Sajda, At-Tur, Al-Mulk, Al-Haaqqa, Al-Maarij, An-Naba, An-Naziat, Al-Infitar, Al-Inshiqaq, Ar-Room, Al-Ankaboot, Al-Mutaffifin, Al-Baqara, Al-Anfal, Al-i-Imran, Al-Ahzab, Al-Mumtahina, An-Nisa, Al-Zalzala, Al-Hadid, Muhammad, Ar-Rad, Al-Rahman, Al-Insan, At-Talaq, Al-Bayyina, Al-Hashr, An-Nur, Al-Hajj, Al-Munafiqoon, Al-Mujadila, Al-Hujraat, At-Tahrim, At-Taghabun, As-Saff, Al-Jumua, Al-Fath, Al-Maeda, Al-Taubah, and An-Nasr. That's important because of the principle of naskh (abrogation). Basically, since Allah can't contradict himself, any time a later revelation seems to contradict a previous one, that renders the previous revelation null.

You might want to read it along with a good sirah (biography of Muhammad) and the sihah ahadith (Bukhari and Muslim having the most reliable chains of narration). You don't really need to. It just gives a lot of context not given in the Qur'an itself. :)

Answer 1

It is difficult to imagine anything more tedious or more of a waste of time than reading the Quran.

Answer 2

It's a mess. I totally agree with you but if you take it slowly and use hadith and sira for context, one can successfully get through it.



I'd suggest reading the scriptures in this order:



1. Sira - because it is the easiest to read and nearly all of the events etc are obviously described in chronological order (unlike the quran) ..... despite all the characters and chains/tranmissions

2. Quran with hadith for context (sira will have already provided context in some cases). Have bukhari, Muslim and Tabari (sahin and hasan only and in english) at the ready for contexts, esp in respect to time and place, just in case.



Ibn Kathir and jalalyin (sic) are also good sources to get your head around verses.



The quran actually sounds like there have been several 'fingers in the pie', so to speak, thus making it difficult, excessively repetitive and inconsistent.



One thing to remember is that not even arabic speakers undersand the whole quran and sira and if you do get through both and study some of the hadith, you will probably know more about islam than most self-professed muslims I'd imagine.



Also, a lot of muslims will try and avoid mentioning the principle of abrogation because the meccan verses (conciliatory verses) are mostly abrogated by the more unconciliatory verses allegedly revealed durimng mohammed's time in medina. I agree that some Muslims will like to quote such verses as 'there is no compulsion in religion' without knowing or informing people that, because of the principle of abrogation (later verses overule this verse), that such verses no longer apply.



Honestly, I have never ever regretted doing all the reading. It's a real eye-opener.



Note: For those interested, one can get all 9 volumes of bukhari hadith onto a kindle for as little as 30 sterling (amazon).



@fwer: Just tell your friends that that is just a cop out. 80% of muslims don't understand arabic but are professed muslims. It's just muslims clutching at straws.

Answer 3

I've got a copy of the Quran(and the Bukhari) but I haven't read much of it yet. I'm just lazy I guess. Interestingly, some of my Muslim friends tell me that the English translation isn't faithful to the original text.

Answer 4

I stopped reading it cover to cover when I got to the part where it said the equivalent of "if you don't unquestionably accept everything in this, then you're a fool who deserves to be tortured forever".

Answer 5

Since when was it difficult to read?

Answer 6

I've read Finnegan's Wake. I can read anything.

Answer 7

"Bukhari and Muslim having the most reliable chains of narration"!!!



Bukhari book is for near 200 year after Hijra of prophet written by a biased Persian writer.

Jamal Albanna an Egyptian Scholar argues that 653 of the hadiths as written in al-Bukhari and Muslim are incorrect and should not be accepted. The Arabic book is titled The Cleansing of Bukhari and Muslim from useless Hadiths (2008).



Bukhari was an Iranian living in Bukhara city of Old Iran. Bukhari wrote his book based on the book of his teacher Ali Ibn Madini, the Al-ilal book. He paid some money to child of his teacher and the child took the book of teacher without permission and Bukhari copied the book and then went to Khurasan and wrote the book Bukhari. His teacher when informed became sad very much and died.

Bukhari added many weak hadith in his book that many sunni scholars have rejected them.

Near 60 commentary has written about this book and Near 20 sunni scholar have written books on rejecting this book. But still this book is very important for sunni Muslims.

Bukhari has a high stone on his grave.



please read here about Bukhari:

http://pastebin.com/6MwgwLiA





Shia Hadith books:

a software with full text of 69 Shia tafsir in 498 volumes from this wonderful foundation:

http://noorsoft.info/ (please read the information of "Noor Jami` al-Tafasir" )



also a software of 426 Shia Hadith book in 1142 volumes.



but online and also English there is very limited:

3 Shia tafsir:



1- tafsir Almizan

http://www.shiasource.com/al-mizan/

http://www.al-islam.org/al-mizan/v1/



by great scholar, philosopher, poet, Arif Allameh Tabatabaei:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_Husayn_Tabatabaei



2- Pooya/M.A. Ali Engl. Commentary:

quran.al-islam.org/



3- Tafsir Noor

english.makarem.ir/quran/

by great Ayatollah Makarim

english.makarem.ir/biography/



the problem of sunni tafsirs is they are biased about Imam Ali (sa) and usually censor the facts of Quran about him.



do you know how 13 of the fourteen infallibles were died and why?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fourteen_Infallibles



how much do you know about Battle of Karbala?

http://www.al-islam.org/short/karbala.htm

any human should know it.

Imam Husain (sa) wanted to send his message by his blood to all humans in all the history. have you received his message?

the Battle of Karbala is not fiction. its real history. Imam Husain (ra) wanted to declare us with his blood that "tehre is two diffrent Islam, one is Islam of Yazid and Umayyids and other is pure Islam"



old Shia Hadith reference books:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Shi%27a_books

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Four_Books

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitab_al-Kafi

the Kafi book alone has more hadith than all 6 main sunni hadith books.



http://www.al-islam.org/nahj/ (a collection of sayings of Imam Ali (sa) the 3th infallible and first of 12 Imam of Shia). this book is called brother of Quran.

prophet said: there is no verse in Quran starting with: O believers! unless Ali is their top and their commanders.



www.al-islam.org/sahifa ( a collection of sayings of Imam sajjad (sa) the 5th infallible)



www.al-islam.org/ has near 3000 of best Shia Books.





Shia books do not accept hadith from sahabah who raped, murdered, drank alcohol, vandalized the qur'an, insulted the qur'an and rebelled against the rashidun state.



Shia ahadith are from the Prophet, Ali, Hassan, Hussein, and the sons of Hussein who they consider divinely appointed imams. Sunnis do not consider them poitical leaders but pious, religious figures in history.



Shias are sometimes also called Jaffaris because Imam Muhammad Baqir and Imam Jaffer As-Saddiq had the opportunity to set up a religious school and teach thousands of students during the shift in power in the government so they were not oppressed. So a lot of the ahadith come from them, mainly Imam Jaffer As-Saddiq. Hadiths from Fatima Az-Zahra are also recorded, all sources originate from Ahlul Beyt.



However, no books are 100% "Sahih" and each Hadith is graded from very weak, weak, strong, and very strong so you would need to check the chain of narrators or its grading to see if it is reliable.

Answer 8

I got better things to do today, thank you.

Answer 9

No. All religions are as bad as each other.