sometimes perhaps too rarely a really good book comes along introducing the general public
to islam by an author who really knows what he's talking about , an expert and one such
book is a thinking person's guide to islam the essence of islam in 12 verses from the quran .
the author is rather distinguished . he is his royal highness prince ghazi bin mohammed . educated at
harrow school here in the uk . he has two phd's one from cambridge university in the uk and
the other from al-azhar university in cairo in egypt . he is a professor of islamic philosophy
and his book love in the holy quran which you can read for free online has been widely
acclaimed going through ten editions and he serves as the chief advisor for religious
and cultural affairs to his majesty king abdullah al-hussein of jordan who is his father of course .
the book has received rave reviews on the back cover from the dalai lama from mufti
usmani from sheikh mohammed al-yakubi from sheikh nur keller from various academics at oxford
yale georgetown ... i won't bore you with all the quotes but they love it . it is very readable
it's full of interesting observations and insights into the sharia , into the different
groupings within islam in the quran and everything . there's a lovely passage here
on the obstacles he sees in reading the quran i wanted to share that with you i
believe what he's saying is really quite spot on . and he says when people even muslims
who have never read the quran in their lives start to read it with concentration
their first reaction is often one of surprise and even confusion some people cannot seem to
make sense of it at all this is because there are obstacles to overcome in reading the quran
these obstacles are not difficult to overcome but it helps to be aware of them and he says there are
three kinds of obstacles preventing people from understanding the book these are 1- obstacles in
the act of reading . 2- obstacles in the reader . and 3- obstacles in the quranic text itself
so as regards one obstacles in the act of reading he says : the quran is in classical arabic in the
dialect of the tribe of quraish not the standing a few well-known words of non-arabic origin
it is not the same as colloquial or modern standard arabic because of its linguistic
richness it cannot be translated properly its translations are all only interpretations
quranic arabic has to be led anew even by native arabic speakers
nevertheless this is usually a question of a limited number of arabic words
the quran was an oral revelation set in an oral culture without hearing it read aloud according
to his own rules of recitation the reader misses not only the melody of the verses
but also the power and the resonance of the words as well as their inner connections with each other
and this next point i think is really insightful modern education leads people to expect to read
simple short texts which immediately offer up all their information and which are nothing more than
they appear usually these also have even simpler executive summaries of very important points
but the quran must be read slowly and in depth because the author the capital a
is omniscient and so all the different linguistic possible meanings of the words are pre-intended
by the author also it is full of symbols similes metaphors allegories hints leads illusions and
internal references . this is perhaps because certain truths cannot be fully conveyed by the
surface of words alone moreover it's not a short text 600 pages in most arabic editions and needs
time and patience to even begin to contemplate it indeed most devout muslims learn it in childhood
anywhere between 1 to 10 million muslims know the quran by heart
and spend between 30 minutes and an hour every day of their lives reading it . the quran is not
a chronological or a linear text , the bible is basically a historical chronologically arranged
text . it starts with the beginning ( the book of genesis ) and goes right through to the end of the
hebrew prophets notwithstanding an interlude of timeless wisdom books such as the psalms
then the new testament tells the story of jesus peace be upon him then his disciples
and he ends with the book of revelation looking forward as it were but the quran is not arranged
in the order it was revealed and does not refer to events chronologically it does not
seek to tell a story even a sacred one rather it is a temporal or at least a chronological
so it often returns to the same themes again and again equally it is not a systematic exposition of
philosophy like plato's dialogues nor of morality or theology like plotinus's aniads nor finally of
cosmology and logic like aristotle's metaphysics and his organ rather it contains different
kinds of wisdom scattered throughout and the reader has to piece them together
the quran is an operative text not a speculative text reading it is meant to be transformative and
informative it has to be approached like a student begging for knowledge not a film critic passing
judgment on a pastime without this attitude and intention different from when reading a normal
book , the quran does not transform or even really inform it merely confirms the reader's prejudices
god says in the quran and indeed we have explained things in various ways in this quran
so that they may remember but he only increases them in a version . that's al-isra at 17:41
as regards obstacles in the reader these come from the difference in time , place , culture , circumstance
experience and context between the reader and the quranic revelation
distraction scatteredness lack of concentration wandering imagination interruption by bodily
functions and needs lack of patience improper intentions lack of openness lack of humility
and blindness to spiritual truths all of which lead to an inability to contemplate the quran
and an inability to meditate upon it now god calls upon people to contemplate
his words in the quran and meditate upon the quran now there's a whole bunch of references
there which i'm going to skip over the difference between the two is that contemplation is active
it requires an having an image in the mind whereas as meditation it is more passive but more profound
nevertheless both can set off in the heart of the listener either a rainfall of startling and
luminous intuitions or even a kind of internal silent flash of understanding
so that he or she instantly understands dozens of things at once with their multiple connections and
this is a remarkable witness here to a book very very few other books in the what in the history of
the world do this when the reader approaches it . god says in the quran : is he whose breast
god has opened to islam so that he follows a light from his lord like he who disbelieves so woe to
those whose hearts have been hardened against the remembrance of god such are in manifest era
god has revealed the most beautiful of teachings a scripture that is consistent and draws comparisons
that causes the skins of those who fear their lords to quiver their skins and their hearts
soften to the remembrance of god that is god's guidance by which he gives whomever he wishes
and whoever god leads astray for him there is no guide . al-zuma chapter 39 22-23
the demands that the quran makes upon people the quran urges not only laws but also ethical
principles and they can be quite demanding so there is bound to be something in the
soul which shrinks from these this is because the ego does not want to be told what to do
or leave its comfort zone much less to have to change its ways completely
finally as regards obstacles in the chronic text itself there are providentially a number of these
and they take some getting used to they include one constant shifts in arabic called
ultifat healthy fat not only of subject but of narrative tone
even the pronominal narrative voice changes god sometimes refers to himself as " he " sometimes as
" i " sometimes as " we " and sometimes by his divine names .
god clearly cannot be limited or constrained by pronouns or by a single point of view
and each of these shifts contains a secret and a meaning sometimes the quran also shifts whom it is
talking to sometimes it is the prophet , sometimes it is believers , sometimes disbelievers , sometimes
everybody . each of these shifts draws attention to something new in so doing it shocks the reader or
the listener out of his or her mental habits in order to show them something about themselves
the crown at first seems to contain a number of apparent obscurities repetitions interrupted
sentences abridgement and ellipses these two have certain secrets and meanings that have
to be penetrated they force people to stop and think deeply and that is perhaps part of
the reason they are there . they are like geodes that's geodes the word i'm not familiar with by
the way . they are rocks that look plain from the outside but once they are cracked open reveal
a pattern of unexpected and beautiful crystals isn't that amazing they're a wonderful metaphor
and finally there are also a number of things that can seem strange and unlikely
to a modern reader some of these we have already mentioned in a previous chapter
such as the explicit descriptions of the afterlife and some will be discussed later such as sharia
and jihad some of them seem to reflect the context of 7th century arabia such as
descriptions of the natural desert environment tales of ancient arabian and biblical prophets
and even business imagery the important thing to bear in mind is that the quran seeks to address
every possible human mentality motif and level of education and sophistication not to mention every
spiritually relevant subject . so it contains something that speaks to every kind of person
end quote . i think there's a beautiful survey there of the obstacles to really appreciate in
the quran and i'm always constantly struck how radically different people are in their response
i constantly meet people speakers conor and elsewhere who are utterly impenetrable they
cannot understand why people like the crime for them it's totally of lacking of interest
and intelligibility and then i meet muslims and i know this for myself as well that who are
profoundly engaged in a transformative way by their encounter with the same book and that's
one of the remarkable things about the word that book contains . anyway , until next time