Wednesday, January 02, 2008

The Qur'an

So, for my first month of sagely living (see previous post) I'm going to be reading and studying the Qur'an (the Koran), the holy book of the Muslims as revealed by God to the prophet Muhammed. I chose this book for many reasons, some of which political, some of which spiritual, but I've simply never read it at all and there are a lot of people who have (20% of the world). Because school is starting in a week, and because I'm always trying to balance my life, I didn't want to overload on Chinese Medicine (though I was very tempted to read and translate The Art of War). I'm happy to be beginning this project and I chose Thomas Cleary's "Essential Koran" translation as a starting point.

There are some interesting things I've already learned. For one, the idea that reading the Qur'an in English is rather impossible task. As I've written here before about the limited nature of English, and the multi-layered meanings inherent in languages like Chinese and Arabic, a translation of this book into English lacks a great deal at the onset. Cleary understands this and creates some devices to help stretch English, like using poetic phrasing and pronouns. However, this is one of those things that would be hard to understand even if I did speak Arabic:
The text of the Qur'an reveals human language crushed by the power of the Divine Word. It is as if human language were scattered into a thousand fragments like a wave scattered into drops against the rocks at sea. The Qur'an displays human language with all the weakness inherent in it becoming suddenly the recipient of the Divine Word and displaying its frailty before a power which is infinitely greater than man can imagine. -- Seyyid Hussein Nasr


Thus, "the dramatic shifts in person, mood, tense, and mode become exhilirating exercises in perspective and translation of consciousness into a new manner of perception."
Whoah.

5 comments:

Eric said...

Wow - incredible quotes. I really love that you're doing this project, Brandon. A worthy goal. I'll be very interested to read more as you learn more. You probably know that we have a couple of practicing Muslims as part of our project - hopefully they will be able to engage you in stimulating conversation about your study.

Eric

Unknown said...

If "the text of the Qur'an reveals human language crushed by the power of the Divine Word" then perhaps you should counter balance it with an example of how the human language can reveal the Divine. I suggest "Leaves of Grass". If you have read it already, read it again.

Unknown said...
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Anonymous said...

I would recommend availing yourself of this text online:

http://www.sunnipath.com/library/Books/B0039P0000.aspx

And I cannot recommend highly enough reading about the "Living Quran" upon him be blessings and peace, by reading Martin Lings' Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources. It is a real page-turner in pristine English.

Anonymous said...

One other comment on your month's endeavor. I would suggest that you simply memorize the first Surah of the Quran: Surah Al Fatiha. Then you could recite it and experience the Quran in its own power through the medium of your breath. You could download any number of recitations.