En koran du helst ikke må læse

The Koran is a very recondite, confusing, tedious and downright “weird” read for most Westerners.

As far as substance goes, many non-Muslim critics –likely including Pope Benedict — over the centuries have maintained it adds not a single ethical teaching to those previously proclaimed by the other two Abrahamic faiths, Judaism and Christianity. As to form, most English translations leave much to be desired, and, to make matters worse, a number of Koranic-linguistic scholars claim that about 20% of the Koran is ambiguous in the original classical Arabic!

Be that as it may, A Simple Koran solves the learning-curve problem of Westerners who want to delve into the Koran itself. It is written in modern “newspaper” (middlebrow) English, with foreign words defined. The thing that makes this Koran different from all the others on the market is that it is ordered chronologically — the standard versions are ordered by length of suras (separate chapters), not by chronicity — the pukkah Qur’an is always organized counter-intuitively into non-topical chapters called suras, because during his lifetime, Mohammed would have individual verses revealed to him unexpectedly and in surprising places. Often important topics (e.g., women’s rights, Jihad, polytheism) are discussed helter-skelter in non sequiter snippets throughout various different suras — an aya (verse) here, and an aya there.

In A Simple Koran, much-needed commentary is provided in the form of references to relevant Hadiths and Sira so that Mohhammed’s life is woven back into the Koran, giving all-important context.

A Simple Koran — written and edited by anonymous scholars — sorts out and re-categorizes the hodge-podge of suras and ayas in the original version so that ease of readability and meaning is restored. Not a single word is ommitted from the standard version of the Koran. This volume contains 408 pages (the Koran itself is about the length of the New Testament).

Because the Koran is very repetitive — e.g., the story of Moses and Pharaoh is recounted more than thirty times! — the publishers offer an abridged version of 220 pages entitled An Abridged Koran. If you are not a theological or literary obsessive-compulsive purist (like me), you will learn the teachings of the Koran just as well from this thinner and cheaper little tome as from the unabridged version, since only redundant verses are expurgated in the abridged version.

In the final analysis, by reading A simple Koran (or An Abridged Koran) one can now determine for oneself if the Koran is (A) mostly seventh-century hate literature, (B) epic drama, (C) a nonpareil inspiration to living a more spiritual life, (D) one big exhortation to perform the sacrament of holy warfare against polytheists, infidels and pagans, or (E) none of the above (F) a little (or a lot) of some or all of the above, or (G) something quite different than any of the foregoing.

Muslimer vil straks sige, at koranen ikke kan oversættes. Det kan du læse Ibn Warraqs mening om i kronikken ‘How to debate a muslim.’