Christians who have read the Koran?

[notuptome]

Which has nothing to do with me trying to improve my skill at reading and writing Arabic. Since I'm not a Muslim, nor have any intention of becoming one, I don't see what Arab muslims and American muslims have to do with anything that I was talking about.

I did not intend to imply that you wanted to be a muslim. I only referenced that islam in the west is not considered true islam by those in the east.

I picked up bits of the language the two times I was in Iraq. I'm not a perfect speaker and, without any way to practice, it's slipping ever so quickly.

Your service is appreciated and for the sake of all those in the service let us hope that additional deployments become unnecessary and our troops may return home.

For the cause of Christ
Roger

[decrumpit]

CN is right, you do lose quite a bit of meaning when you translate it into English, and depending on the translator he might add things that are not there to make it more "western friendly". However, you can get the gist of it with a decent translation, but its rather repetitive and if you don't know the context of the particular sura (chapter) it is nonsensical.

Of particular interest are suras telling the stories of prophets such as Abraham, Jonah, Jesus, etc. and the second sura (Al Baqara) which contains a huge portion of Islamic theology, although it's quite long.

Start from the back if you want to read the shorter ones first.

[Clavicula_Nox]

I did not intend to imply that you wanted to be a muslim. I only referenced that islam in the west is not considered true islam by those in the east.

Your service is appreciated and for the sake of all those in the service let us hope that additional deployments become unnecessary and our troops may return home.

For the cause of Christ
Roger

Sorry, I was overly defensive; it was unwarranted. I get a lot of negative attention because of my desire to improve my Arabic and projected that onto you and it was uncalled for.

Of particular interest are suras telling the stories of prophets such as Abraham, Jonah, Jesus, etc. and the second sura (Al Baqara) which contains a huge portion of Islamic theology, although it's quite long.

Gosh, Islamic theology is crazy. I've been reading about the Ismaili schism and the constant reversals of Nizari scholars, Mohammad II and Hasan III of Alamut, for example, and it's just nuts. To go from an ultra-strict Shariah dude like Hassan-i Sabbah to Hasan III literally shrugging off Shariah completely, in what..less than 150 years? Only for the next Lord of Alamut to reverse straight back to Shariah!

[GreekAsianPanda]

If you don't own a Quran and want to read it, there's one online right here:

al-quran.info

[RevLogos]

Arabic muslims will tell you that the quran cannot be read in any language apart from arabic. It is a pollution to translate the quran into english. Arabic muslims do not accept american muslims as true muslims but see them as infidels.

For the cause of Christ
Roger

That last sentence is not true unless you are specifically referring to the "Nation of Islam" which is definitely not considered true Islam by Muslims.

The first 2 sentences are more or less correct though opinion varies; I'll add a little detail. According to Islam, the Koran contains the utterances of Allah, as dictated by the Archangel Gabriel, to Muhammad. Muhammad was in essence, a conduit, for the word of god. This is very different from our concept of the Bible. We hold the Bible to be inspired by God (literally “God–breathed” 2 Timothy 3:16). God inspired His word through human writers. Thus the Koran itself is holy and any translation is necessarily an approximation. Normally when someone quotes the Koran in English, they will preface it with something like "an interpretation of the meaning of...".

That difference is why Muslims get so upset if someone defaces a Koran.

[RevLogos]

I'm a 7th grade Math teacher but this year, due to budget cuts, I'm having to teach one class of Social Studies. Over the past two weeks we've been discussing the major religions of the world.

I'm a Baptist so I know the most about Christianity...very little about other religions.

Today we started discussing Islam and watched a video that at times compared the Bible to the Koran.

I went to the library today and picked up two books: The Complete Infidel's Guide to the Koran and The Qur'an translated by Haleem.

Anyway, I guess I'm just wondering if any Christians here have read The Koran and your thoughts on it?

Thanks.

TripleB

I've read much of it, all Suras through 9 and a few parts after that. It gets very repetitive. Though it has over 100 Suras, they're ordered more or less from longest to shortest, so the first 9 is a big chunk of it. Also the longer Suras are generally considered the most important for most topics.

Commentary is essential for understanding the Koran. Commentary is called "tafsir". Tafsir Ibn Kathir (http://www.tafsir.com/ ) is a very good site for tafsir. This is linked to by many Islamic web sites, and well respected in the Muslim world.

I would also go to various Muslim web sites where Imams discuss different aspects of it. I can give some links if you want.

I found the theology in the Koran to be the opposite of Christianity in every about respect imaginable. I also felt like as I read it it would suck the spirit right out of me. I couldn't read too much at any one time.

[Christ-4-D]

Arabic muslims will tell you that the quran cannot be read in any language apart from arabic. It is a pollution to translate the quran into english. Arabic muslims do not accept american muslims as true muslims but see them as infidels.

For the cause of Christ
Roger

I feel that is a mass generalisation which is unfair to be honest.

A few people have said the theological side of it is the downfall - what aspects do you mean?

[decrumpit]

I feel that is a mass generalisation which is unfair to be honest.

A few people have said the theological side of it is the downfall - what aspects do you mean?

It's completely dishonest - there are many American Muslims who speak Arabic and since most Muslims don't know Arabic, it's counterproductive to try and put words in Arabic Muslims' mouths.

As for the Quran, it is a book of false doctrines dedicated to a false God, and written by a false prophet. THAT'S its downfall.