Quote:
Originally Posted by loquitur
dlish, I have tried reading the Qur'an (in English, of course) a few times and found it impossible. The first time I started with al-Baqra and began to read the suras serially. It was impossible to follow. Then a friend of mine (lapsed Muslim) suggested that I start at the back and read from the last suras forward. That was slightly better, but still it was very difficult to follow. Much of it needs context and explanation so that you can tell which revelation came when and in which context, which you can't get just from reading the revelations themselves. Also, there is no linearity to the text. It jumps all over the place, repeats, diverts, etc etc etc. It's not a narrative of any kind that Western readers are used to.
That being said, from my very limited knowledge of semitic languages I can see that the poetic structure is fabulous, that the linguistic usages are innovative and vivid, and that there is a certain "music" to the text. I don't speak or read Arabic (though I'm considering getting Rosetta Stone to learn) so I can't really appreciate it. I wonder how the early Muslims were able to persuade so many people about how fabulous their new religion was if those people couldn't really appreciate the Arabic.
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loq - you're right. for someone to pick up the quran and expect to be reading a novel or narrative doesnt really know what they're in for.
The quran can be described as a poetic set of instructions based around biblical narratives and muhammads' life.
To fullly appreciate the meaning of the Quran, you really do need to understand the reasons for the injunctions contained within it. It's also important to know why those revelations took place to begin with and understand Muhammads role in those revelations. There are thousands of volumes of books on this very topic, but i could probably source a concise book to help if you want me to.
as for the order in which it is read, there is no order. It wasnt revealed from the first sura first and the last sura last. Though it is loosely organised in a way that the shorter suras are at the end, and people comprehend these better because they are short and to the point.
as for the early arabs. well they thought that the Quran was a form of sorcery. Historically, the arabs were fond of poetry; and they still are to this day. The arabic language was always rich because of this. The arabs would hold poetry competitions to see how was the best poet of his tribe, area etc. so when the quran came they were able to grasp it quite easily. They were so surprised by its richness that they couldnt believe that anyone would come up with something like this. so the opponents of Muhammad would accuse him of sorcery because of the strong poetic nature of the Quran.
craven - do you mean what percentage of muslims speak arabic? or what percentage are arabs?
the estimates have that arabs are about 10-15% of the muslim population. of those arabs there are many christian arabs, like the orthodox and maronite christians in Lebanon, and the coptic christians in Egypt.
there are also non arabs that speak arabic, like turks that live close to the border with syria, assyrians who are chritians that live Iraq etc.
Then you have the africans who are techinically 'african' but speak arabic as their first language - like egyptians, moroccans, algerians, libyans, somalis etc.
obviously the further you are away from arabia, the less arabic that is spoken in the muslim world.
so the % could be a lot higher if you take the africans into consideration.
just to add to this. dont forget that iranians are not considered arabs and dont speak arabic. just thought i'd throw that in