DeeGeesLifeBlog ~ Life as Art ~ Or is it Heart?

In Part Three of America on the Cusp of God’s Grace,  which I titled “Conflicting Ideologies”, and following the interpretive introduction, I go on to describe the following:

To give credibility to my studies, here is the validity of my copy of the Qur’an. It was a gift I received from a staunch Muslim believer, who was attempting to fulfill the pledge of a true SOA (Soldier Of Allah) by converting me to Islam. At the time I hadn’t even given a thought about whether I was a true, believing Christian or not. Its title reads “The Glorious Qur’an” with “Text and Explanatory Translation” by Muhammad M. Pickthal. It reads right to left so as not to “defile” the true text, and is the first ever (according to the late Christopher Hitchens, avowed atheist) “purest translation into English from the Arabic.” I am therefore, in possession of the most inscrutable, intentionally-correct Qur’an for maximum validity, that anyone in the English-speaking world would wish to have in their safe-keeping. Pickthal completed his translation in 1930, and was lauded by the London Times Literary Supplement as the “noted translator of the Glorious Qur’an into the English language, a great literary achievement.”

This was all by way of validating my studies over the intervening years, and said copy of the same book (looking these days somewhat bedraggled following more than 20 years use) still sits in my study library.

I relate this information in light of the rapid escalation of Islamic Jihadist Muslim Terrorism over the intervening years, particularly-so with an avowed Muslim sitting (and acting) somewhat imperiously for the past seven years in our own We The People’s mansion. I’ve related repeatedly the July 2001 debate in Manchester, England on the topic of rising recruitment and militancy in allowing Islamic Jihadist Muslim Immigrants into the United Kingdom and other Western nations. Must I repeat yet again, what happened in our own backyard just two months after I was labeled an “alarmist?”

Which is a wonderful lead-in to a piece I discovered in this past week’s American Thinker on the very same topic, with a gentle primer on the study of the “Glorious Qur’an” by Edward Thal. To quote Sun Tzu – “If you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles … if you do not know your enemies nor yourself, you will be imperiled in every single battle.”

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Study To Show Thyself Approved… (note that Edward Thal uses the Anglicized spelling as in “Koran”)

Greater clarity in the ongoing debate about Islam (radical or otherwise) would surely result from greater familiarity with the source document.

There’s a lot of commentary and speculation about the Koran and about those who are informed by its teachings — about their actions and their motives and their authenticity as Muslims.

Anyone who has an opinion on the matter would be well served by reading the book. I did, and it was a revelation.

Good English translations are available, although it should be noted that only the original Arabic is considered to be the very words of Allah. Since I have an intimate knowledge of the Christian Bible (both the Hebrew Old Testament and Greek New Testament, read in English) I was intrigued by the Muslim assertion that the Koran corrects and completes Bible texts that have supposedly been degraded by Jewish and Christian scholars. That, and the fact that over a billion people stake their lives on the Koran convinced me that I should inform myself of its contents.

So I came to it with an enquiring mind and a readiness to add to my fund of Scripture knowledge. I was surprised by what I found.

Firstly, the Koran is a rather slight book made up of 114 Suras (chapters). It’s an easy and quick read (so I read it more than once). Length is of course no indication of worth or authenticity, but in this case a lot was missing.

References to God, Creation, Adam, Eve, Sin, The Fall, Angels, Heaven, Hell, Abraham, Moses and other Prophets, and Jesus Christ, add nothing new to the original revelations in the Bible, but often detract from or distort the original. Moreover, the frequent brief references to Old Testament figures and events, and some from the New Testament, demand a reading of the Bible first in order to understand the context of the Koranic narrative and make some sense of it. In short, although it is claimed that the Koran completes and fully explains the Scriptures the fact is that it confuses characters and events without adding a single new insight or explanation. (For examples, see Sura 5:114-117; 7:39; 19:20-22; 28:5, 38; 29:39; 40:24; 41:9).

Then there are the numerous calls to violence and revenge or retribution (well over 100 .. for example 4:76; 8:12; 9:5-6; 9:29). Much has been written and debated with regard to the unyielding militant tone of the Koran and I will not rehash the arguments here, except to offer a stark contrast for consideration: Whereas a Christian is admonished by his Scriptures (specifically, the New Testament) to lay down his life (figuratively, but literally, if necessary) in love, for the salvation of another human being, a Muslim is taught by his holy book that his highest act of devotion to his god is to kill someone who stands in the way of Islam’s rule. A special reward is earned (indeed, the only guarantee of heaven for a Muslim), if he dies in the process of killing an unbeliever, blasphemer, or an apostate. I think that says it all.

But don’t take my word for it – read the book and Study To Show Thyself Approved…

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In other words, we infidels outside of Islam are given three choices: 1) convert; 2) if no conversion, then dhimmi (ie slave tax); 3) .. if no 1) or 2) then it’s the smiting of the neck. Great choices, are they not? (sarc).

And here is a wonderful simplified comparison between the book of love, and the book of hate …

Christianity vs Islam/Bible vs Qur’an … Click to enlarge