More Comments Please...

If you are wondering why there hasn't been a post for a while that's because the discussion on the comments section has simply been too absorbing!
Please take time to keep up with the comments, and send in your opinions. They are moderated by myself, so they won't appear on the blog until I have had time time read, edit if necessary and comment if I feel the need.
Over the last week there has been an on going discussion about the respective merits of the Muslim and non-Muslim lands and hijra, see under Passport Control. Well done to Abu Mayriam for getting me thoroughly annoyed, starting the discussion and braving my scathing pen. One of the most worth while things about blogging is the ideas and discussion that articles and comments on articles can generate and having your ideas subjected to critical analysis and appraisal.
Otherwise I am also super busy here in the ICC and also in various I.socs in London who all seem to have the idea of having Islamic week during the same week.
Now let me see....many universities, very limited speakers all being asked to lecture over the same time period...hmmmm, you wonder what they actually learn at these Universities anyhow!
If you are interested in attending any of my lectures you can find out where and when I'm supposed to be on my Google dairy. On the right, scroll down -------->
My audio/visual web site is back up thanks to Allah first and the genius and hard work of Shabbaz Malik. You can find it at www.islamsgreen.com If you find it useful please donate. All proceeds go to help maintain and improve the site.

Comments

[Unite Muslims]

*** Mysterious Quran for download at Gutenberg.org e-books ***

Assalamu Aleykum,
Dear Abdur Raheem and all Islamsgreen readers,
Guternberg.org is a very popular Internet site for free e-books. Each month more than 2 million e-books are downloaded from this site. When I went through the top 100 ebook downloads list I was surprised to find the Quran in it and it seems around 3000+ Quran's (Korans) are downloaded each month from Gutenberg. (last 7 days alone 817 have being downloaded) But sadly this Koran is not a good one. It's a translation by Rev. J.M. Rodwell (M.A) and the sura's are placed in a mysterious order with the 96 sura as the first sura and 74 as the second etc. Also it has a very skeptical (or critical?) introduction by Rev. G. Margoliouth (M.A). please do download it yourself and go through. It's at:

The Koran (Al-Qur'an)
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/2800

The Top 100 books and authors at Gutenberg
http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/scores/top

You can also compare it with the Bible available for download at;
The Bible, Old and New Testaments, King James Version
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/10

Guternberg.org is a very good website and I have got scores of ebooks from them. Also they encourage help and feedback and are in a dire need of resources. Please do take some action and inshallah try to replace or introduce another good Koran (Quran) for download in place of the current Koran ebook or pass on the message to someone who can do something because a increasing number of people use this site to get ebooks and already 3000+ Quran downloads a month (and the number is increasing each day) is a achievement for any website. Jazakallah

your brother in Islam,

ARGcomment: Rodwells translation is indeed notoriously bad. There are so many better translation available, but at a guess this is probably an issue of copyright. I probably doesn't exisit or has expired on Rodwells.
What do you suggest, that we write in and politely complain?

[Unite Muslims]

Ps. brother I don't see any message appear that my comment has being saved for validation. Also the validation picture is too blurred. I wonder where this is only for me or everyone experiences this problem. You may need to look into it. salam,

ARGcomment: i'm not sure, but you are the fist one to mention it.

[Abu Abdurrahman]

Assalamu alaykum wa rahmatullah,

I am sooo sorry to come across predantic - and I know that this was definitely not the brother/sister's intent...but it's probably better if one doesn't say ..."this koran is not a good one...[and] ..that we should replace it with a better koran" - as I say, I know that this wasn't the intent of our beloved brother...

The Qur'an is one..and it is only in arabic...the speech of our Lord,may His mention be exalted..

However, undoubtedly, Rodwell's translation of [of his warped]meanings derived from the quran, is indeed not satisfactory.

Apologies once again.

Jazakallahu khairan

wassalamu alaykum wa rahmatullah

ARGcomment: errr, it was pedantic BUT i think its a valid point jzk khair. We should be careful with the words we use.

[Zimarina]

Oxymorons!

Something is either pedantic and invalid or un-pedantic and valid!

Or......is it?

This is the most pedantic blog response yet.

Or.....is it?

Oh dear.

ARGcomment: Now this really is pendantic, but I get your drift!
The issue here is one of objective vs subjective truth, and since it is true that the comment being pedantic is, in this case, objective it is open to dispute and discussion. So from one angle it was pedantic, however from another angle it was a valid point, and thus not an oxymoron. Moral equilibrium is not pedantry, although its philisophic connotations in the broader syntaxical context might lead to the mental imprint of conflicting ethical paradigm stimuli. Such and objection would only be raised by those whose pschological condition was morally "frozen" by the indocrination systems of what is in essence a contoll mechanism society founded simply with the intent of constraining the mental flow to a sort of pysciopatic equilibrium. Ordered perhaps, but hardly a vehicle for inspiration or inter-cultural coexistence, except of course in an imposed neo-imerpialistic sense....even if you are from Afganistan, which give you less excuse!

[iMuslim]

eh?

ARGcomment: It' called post modernism dear! Just a bunch of long words strung together to make it sound deep but has no real meaning. There is a whole group of these post modernists who write drivel like this, so one guy wrote a computer programme to randomly generate a serise of complicted words, and then published the results in a book under a synonim. It got rave reviews from all the top post modernist philosophers!

[Unite Muslims]

Abu Abdurrahman,
Jazakallah for correcting my mistake.

ARG: "What do you suggest, that we write in and politely complain?"
I was spreading the message and seeking everyones help and advice. Yes, we can complain. But it would be better if we can get them a better Quran English translation for them to distribute as a free ebook.

Maybe I was not very clear in my earlier comment. I think this is a very serious matter. Who knows how many potential converts to Islam maybe put off by reading this poor quality Quran translation? Just imagine how many non-Muslims maybe forming misconceptions about us and Islam or reinforcing their existing ones by reading Gutenbergs free "Koran" ebook?... I have met many people online who have told me they have read the Quran and it doesn't make sense or feel confused! Maybe they read a Quran translations like this one. I hear even Thomas Carlyle said "Koran is a jumble of ideas" or something like that. Wasn't it a poor quality Quran translations that Thomas Carlyle read? What may have happened to this all time great American if he had got a qurancomplex.com English translation and other good Islam books?

BTW does anyone know of a online/downloadable English Quran translation suitable to direct a non-Muslim? Preferably one with commentary and guides for reading etc. Because all the translations I know are only verse to verse English translations. Now, for the Bible of course I find "Children's Guide to Bible" and all sorts of manuals to better understand the bible. But for the Quran....

ARG Sorry for going off topic,
Zimarina, I'm curious to know whether you're the same Zimarina of maniacmuslim.com forum?

ARGcomment: jzk khair for that. Yes, you are right, it is very important matter. I was just thinking out loud about what we could do.
I don't know the history of Carlyle BUT one thing is for sure, the Quran is a very strange reading experience for a western audience who are so used to everything being presented in cronologically. You have to really want to understand its ideas. There is no casual way to read the Quran (or translation of the meanings). And now you have asked the question I am ashamed to say I don't know and havn't checked which translations are available and which are most suitable.
We have ALOT of work to do!

[Zimarina]

Jolly good ol' chum, one must always muse over the delicate balance of moral equilibriums and ethical paradigms- but pray tell, whence commeth such fleeting moments of pseudo-intellectual banter when the searing reality remains that life was so much easier in Tora Bora....... *sigh*

Innit bruv!

ARGcomment: Ahh! That is indeed the question. Perhaps we are ever encapsualated by the inprint of our experiences! Tora Bora is always there! Not, however, anymore the dark and forbidding mountains and cave systems of Afghanistans inpeneratable fortress, but something more dark and foreboding: The innermost recesses of the human psyche!
Easier? I think not.....

[Unite Muslims]

Salam brother,
This page has links to more than 60 websites with Quran's and translation.

** Links to more than 60 Quran websites**
http://www.sparklywater.com/sparklywater/links.html

I've gone through only 4 or 5 of them so don't know how they are. I wonder which of them are suitable for a non-Muslim and whether any of them can be arranged to be included in the Gutenberg.org free ebook distribution project...

[UmSuhayb b David]

Asalamaoleykum, trying to find a reliable website that would be relevant to pass on to my Dad who's Christian. I converted over 12 years ago but realised now to stop celebrating birthdays so have in the kindest way possible let my family know about this. Most are OK but my Dad feels its taking something away from his sense of where he's from or something like that. He feels Islam is very uncompromising. He also found websites thatsay birthdays are ok in islam. I tried my best to explain things to him but I feel if he just 'googles' a subject about islam he can end up getting some dodgy info. I'm living away ion Sweden at the mo so dont get the personal contact which would be better for dawah...
UmSuhayb

ARGcomment: Any ideas anyone?

[Get Passports]

That’s very sweet of you to post all the guidance up here. Thank you so much with the information.

http://www.expresspassport.com/