08-07-2016, 06:28 AM
(This post was last modified: 08-07-2016, 06:39 AM by APeacefulWarrior.)
Actually, "Allah" is even simpler than that. It is literally just "The God." Al-Lah. Although it's certainly taken on more name-like connotations over the centuries.
As for reading the Quran, I've read large chunks at various points, such as when I took a history class on Islamic culture, although never cover to cover. (It is 800ish pages long...) And like most ancient\classical holy books, I find it to be an interesting mixture of good spiritual advice, questionable self-aggrandizement, more mundane human stuff, and antiquated practices that really don't have too much applicability in the modern world. Like, the prohibition on pork was really more a reflection of how little was understood about the science and toxicology of cooking. They didn't know why pork so often caused people to get sick, so they banned it to be safe. Pretty much the same as the Hebrew Kosher code.
A big problem with reading the Quran, though, is that it's only properly read in Arabic, a language which doesn't have direct ties to any of the other modern tongues like English or German. Plus, it's written as poetry. So translations of it are incredibly problematic, and become even moreso considering that certain groups - like the Saudis\Wahhabists - will produce translations which deliberately skew the text to fit their personal extremist interpretations. And very often, "hit lists" of horrible quotes from the Quran turn out to be from very poor translations.
The only universal agreement in Quranic translations is that MUCH is lost in translation, no matter what. Here are a couple good articles I've found about the problems.
Like as one example they discuss, the Arabic word "taqwa," which is commonly translated as "fear." The problem is, the concept it embodies covers a wide range of meanings, such as fear, awareness, protectiveness, consciousness, and carefulness. As I gather it, "taqwa" isn't fear in the wholly-negative sense one fears a bully or tyrant, but more like the fear a child has of punishment or just disappointment from their father. Love is still present. So when English translations constantly say to "fear Allah," it creates a much more dark\negative vibe than was originally intended.
If anyone is curious, from my own research, the Saheeh International Version (PDF) seems to be most-commonly cited as the best, or at least less-bad, English translation in terms of sticking to the source text without much ideological skew, and being clearly footnoted to explain translation choices.
As for reading the Quran, I've read large chunks at various points, such as when I took a history class on Islamic culture, although never cover to cover. (It is 800ish pages long...) And like most ancient\classical holy books, I find it to be an interesting mixture of good spiritual advice, questionable self-aggrandizement, more mundane human stuff, and antiquated practices that really don't have too much applicability in the modern world. Like, the prohibition on pork was really more a reflection of how little was understood about the science and toxicology of cooking. They didn't know why pork so often caused people to get sick, so they banned it to be safe. Pretty much the same as the Hebrew Kosher code.
A big problem with reading the Quran, though, is that it's only properly read in Arabic, a language which doesn't have direct ties to any of the other modern tongues like English or German. Plus, it's written as poetry. So translations of it are incredibly problematic, and become even moreso considering that certain groups - like the Saudis\Wahhabists - will produce translations which deliberately skew the text to fit their personal extremist interpretations. And very often, "hit lists" of horrible quotes from the Quran turn out to be from very poor translations.
The only universal agreement in Quranic translations is that MUCH is lost in translation, no matter what. Here are a couple good articles I've found about the problems.
Like as one example they discuss, the Arabic word "taqwa," which is commonly translated as "fear." The problem is, the concept it embodies covers a wide range of meanings, such as fear, awareness, protectiveness, consciousness, and carefulness. As I gather it, "taqwa" isn't fear in the wholly-negative sense one fears a bully or tyrant, but more like the fear a child has of punishment or just disappointment from their father. Love is still present. So when English translations constantly say to "fear Allah," it creates a much more dark\negative vibe than was originally intended.
If anyone is curious, from my own research, the Saheeh International Version (PDF) seems to be most-commonly cited as the best, or at least less-bad, English translation in terms of sticking to the source text without much ideological skew, and being clearly footnoted to explain translation choices.
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