At Ease

19 Ramadhan, 1443

My reading for the Holy Month has been severely limited in scope, I'm sorry to say. But I knew in advance this was likely to be the case and, accordingly, I had it in mind to read just one book. Actually, I should say re-read since I first read Michael Sells's Approaching The Qur'an several years ago, being very impressed with it then. And I'm happy to say that Prof Sells's commentary on the early revelations and his translation of quite a number has proved illuminating over the last twenty or so days.

His sense of the text challenging our understanding of what is real is simply yet powerfully conveyed: There is a sense of directness and intimacy, as if the hearer were being asked repeatedly a simple question: what will be of value at the end of a human life? When I read those words I recognised my own experience. Yes, when I first encountered these suras (in translation) that was exactly what I felt.

His translations strive for a similar noble simplicity. And reading them in an unhurried manner has helped me to grasp the power of that simplicity. In Sura 94, for example, the repetition: After the hard time / there is the easing / After the hard time / there is the easing, struck me as being quietly magical in its way, helping me glimpse something of the consolatory power of its mighty original.

Sometimes it's best not to try too hard.