My plans for Ramadhan reading are pretty much in place. I picked up The God Delusion from the library, intending to test the 'robustness' of my faith. At least the blurb on the back says it will, so here's hoping. I'm intending to re-read Karen Armstrong's fine biography of the Prophet (peace be upon him) since the last couple of biogaphies I read have been hagiographical if not devotional in nature - though very fine. (Martin Lings & Tariq Ramadhan.) And striking out into new territory (and not reading at all) I'm intending to watch the full BBC Life series (which Noi bought for a birthday that's now rather too long ago.) This is by way of reading the book of the world. Looking for signs, as they say.
I've decided to forego a reading of the Qur'an, partly because I feel it's time to tackle a different translation from the three I know, and I haven't got one.
4 comments:
I find your take on faith and religion in general very interesting. If you will forgive my being forward, where do you see yourself fitting into Islam, or faith as a whole? Did you have other reasons for converting or was it a social necessity? To what extent is your faith unshakable?
Not forward at all, and thanks for the stimulating questions. (Stimulating to me, that is. Apologies to any readers who might find this all a bit unagreeably self-centred.) I need a bit more space than this to reasonably address them so I'll post later on this in the week. But, just for now, I find myself reflecting on the oddness of the fact that I fit into Islam with a quite uncanny degree of comfort. I feel temperamentally at home in the Islamic thought world. You'd think the odds would be against that for a renegade Catholic lad from the wrong side of Manchester, but that's the way it is, in a way that I find delightfully surprising.
Life always surprises us, sometimes pleasantly, sometimes not so much. Glad to hear it's the former for you. Would you care to recommend one or another translation of the Qur'an? I've been meaning to have a read of it but always found myself somewhat lost as to where to begin.
Sorry to take a while over this, but here we go:
First pick, the Abdullah Yusuf Ali interpretation (a word Muslims generally prefer over 'translation' on the grounds that the Qur'an is untranslatable). Specifically in the version published by Awana (I think that's the company.) Very good accompanying notes, which are a necessity for any reading.
Second pick, the Arberry translation which used to be available in Oxford Classics.
Third pick, old Marmaduke Pickthall, who sticks very close to the original grammar in places. Not great English but gives a sense of the workings of the Arabic.
Definite no-no: The Dawood translation which Penguin did once in a parallel text. Downright misleading in places. As is the one from Muhammad Muhsin Khan, which seems to come straight out of Saudi Arabia. I've got a little one of these on my desk, given as a present from someone back from the Hajj, but it looks very dubious to me in places.
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