Why a non-Muslim should know the Quran??

[foqia khan]

The Qur'an is undeniably a book of great importance even to the non-Muslim, perhaps more today than ever, if that is possible. One aspect of Islam that is unexpected and yet appealing to the post-Christian secular mind is the harmonious interplay of faith and reason. Islam does not demand unreasoned belief. Rather, it invites intelligent faith, growing from observation, reflection, and contemplation, beginning with nature and what is all around us. Accordingly, antagonism between religion and science such as that familiar to Westerners is foreign to Islam.

This connection between faith and reason enabled Islamic civilization to absorb and vivify useful knowledge, including that of ancient peoples, whereby it eventually nursed Europe out of the Dark Ages, laying the foundation for the Renaissance. When Europe got on its cultural feet and expelled Islam, however, the European mind was rent by the inability of the Christian church to tolerate the indivisibility of the sacred and the secular that characterized Islam and had enabled Islamic civilization to develop natural science and abstract art as well as philosophy and social science. The result was a painful, ill-fated divorce between science and religion in Europe, one whose consequences have adversely affected the entire world.

In the post-Christian West, where thinking people, including scientists themselves once more, are seeking solutions to the difficulties created by the Christian divorce between religion and science, the Qur'an offers a way to explore an attitude that fully embraces the quest for knowledge and understanding that is the essence of science, while at the same time, and indeed for the same reasons, fully embraces the awe, humility, reverence, and conscience without which "humankind does indeed go too far in considering itself to be self-sufficient" (Qur'an 96:6-7).


Even for the secular Westerner, apart from any question of religious belief or faith, there are immediate benefits to be found in reading the Qur'an. First, in view of the sacredness and vital importance of the Qur'an to approximately one-fifth of all humanity, a thinking citizen of the world can hardly develop a rational and mature social consciousness without considering the message of the Qur'an and its meaning for the Muslim community.

With the fall of communism, it has become particularly clear that global peace, order, and self-determination of peoples cannot be achieved without intelligent respect for Islam and the inalienable right of Muslims to live their religion. The second immediate benefit in reading the Qur'an, therefore, is that it is a necessary step toward the understanding and tolerance without which world peace is in fact inconceivable.

For non-Muslims, one special advantage in reading the Qur'an is that it provides an authentic point of reference from which to examine the biased stereotypes of Islam to which Westerners are habitually exposed. Primary information is essential to distinguish between opinion and fact in a reasonable manner. This exercise may also enable the thinking individual to understand the inherently defective nature of prejudice itself, and thus be the more generally receptive to all information and knowledge of possible use to humankind.



Excerpted from "The Essential Koran" by Thomas Cleary. Thomas Cleary has translated various religious texts, including The Essential Tao, The Secret of the Golden Flower and the bestselling The Art of War.

 

[taul]

---As always a delight getting hold of such an enlightening discourse,indicating and giving a sense of direction to all :)

 

[contra]

----------------------

 

[taul]

ZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...........yawn!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

---You'll get your wish once you'll be put to rest once and for all but make no mistake about it,it won't be any where close to a soothing one :cry: coz you time and time again opted for this ZZZZzzzzzz here in this lifetime :ugeek:

 

[ftandan]

quran is undoubtdly a holy book. whatever u discribe might be written in quran.but one dose not find any of these qualites in muslims behaviour.seldom u find a muslim who believe in harmony ,peace or tolerance.muslims need to show some kind of possitive,moderate, progressive attitude to the world. only than others may think of reading quran

 

[taul]

quran is undoubtdly a holy book. whatever u discribe might be written in quran.but one dose not find any of these qualites in muslims behaviour.seldom u find a muslim who believe in harmony ,peace or tolerance.muslims need to show some kind of possitive,moderate, progressive attitude to the world. only than others may think of reading quran

---Unfortunately,Muslims have taken a route that wasn't meant for them and have left true teachings of Islam :( but nonetheless the attitude of good and pious muslims have inspired many to re-discover themselves and the truth and it's showing in huge numbers in the west and europe where despite all the hype created people are embracing the True Faith and reverting to Islam :D..There's simply no room for "might" when all is "certainly" in The Holy Quran and modern day scientists are shell shocked to know when they see all their newly researched findings to have already been in The Holy Quran :)..You have plenty of pious muslims in your own india who better than the spectacular Dr.Zakir Naik see the light of Islam he's spreading and people from all walks of life and religions are entering into Islam :D

 

[R Bhatti]

Contra,bad boy!why do you always have to behave like as if you were evolved from a monkey?hmmm?

 

[Mujahid]

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3u0DhneGm78[/video]

 

[taul]

The mooment you start throwing word like undoubtedly undeniably without giving anything in support of that claim your whole logic becomes garbage.
To me perfect books also means free from the suceptibility to be misinterpreted and in my experience eveyritm I question muslims sick acts ( they even attack blst mosques of each other too) all i get qran have bene misinterpreted.

To me if anythign is so suceptible to misinterpretation then it lacks the water-tight logic . Nobody misinterprets Neton's Laws of Motion and similar well established laws of science then why are these holy book thumpers whsoeover they may be chrstian muslim jews hindus anyone hiding behind '' we got misinterpretetd .."

---Reason needs one to apply logic and rationale.You seem to have yet again displayed irrational motives and absurd reasoning since you keep equating atrocities with Islam. :shock: ..For misinterpretation you need to comprehend a thing first and get it across but if you start misinterpreting a thing that is NOT even there and does NOT exist at all,then any normal and logical mind would question your sanity :)


--Suicide bombing was it's peak in mid 80's initiated by tamil tigers, i'd be astonished and amazed if retards like you would even equate that with hinduism or buddhism :ugeek:


---Any thing "Precise and Accurate"qualifies for being called Undoubtedly and undeniably and The Holy Quran is an accurate and precise word of Allah ( SWT) with no errors whatsoever :ugeek: ..Further proven by various Scientific discoveries the theories of which were already present in The Holy Quran :ugeek:

 

[contra]

--Suicide bombing was it's peak in mid 80's initiated by tamil tigers, i'd be astonished and amazed if retards like you would even equate that with hinduism or buddhism

taul bhai,

1. LTTE was not using religion for motivation, they are/were a Marxist group.
They never said Jai Shri Ram, when they slaughtered people...
Also, they didn't want to wage a holy war, and conquer the world for Hinduism...

2. Muslims on the other hand use the Quran for motivation, verses of this "book" are used to justify discrimination, killing etc. by the people who follow Islam...

3. When you see the video a suicide bomber has made of himself, before the bombing, he clearly states that the motivation for such barbaric act comes from religion...

He wants to enjoy with 72 "hoories", also if he carries out a suicide bombing, his family will also get a free "pass/ticket" into heaven...

 

[taul]

@ contra





---The Holy Quran clearly mentions "Killing of any innocent human being is haram and forbidden" :ugeek:


--Litmus test is right here if anybody who isn't learnt enough and is using verses from our Holy book does NOT mean they mean as such :ugeek: ..Such half told and malicious insinuations would NEVER justify anybody killing any innocent fellow being,or the agenda of disbelievers trying to defame Islam :ugeek:

 

[contra]

@ contra





---The Holy Quran clearly mentions "Killing of any innocent human being is haram and forbidden" :ugeek:


--Litmus test is right here if anybody who isn't learnt enough and is using verses from our Holy book does NOT mean they exist or mean as such :ugeek: ..Such half told and malicious insinuations would NEVER justify anybody killing any innocent fellow being,or the agenda of disbelievers trying to defame Islam :ugeek:

taul bhai,

1. If a religion is sooooooooo open to interpretation or mis-interpretation or misuse or whatever...
then, this religion is like any other religion...

2. This religion should stop claiming finality and superiority. :geek:

 

[taul]

taul bhai,

1. If a religion is sooooooooo open to interpretation or mis-interpretation or misuse or whatever...
then, this religion is like any other religion...

2. This religion should stop claiming finality and superiority.

--- :lol: Truth has to claim "Finality and Superiority" over all evils and falsehood :ugeek: ..And this the ONLY truth is backed by all the Scientific discoveries by your beloved science..Not a mere Hypothesis but proven theories and discovered practically.. :ugeek:


---You are trying to suggest under the pretext of "Interpretation" that if something is misinterpreted it should NOT be regarded as truth :o ..Third law of newton suggests "Every action has an equal and an Opposite reaction" someone could easily misinterpret it and use it for his own selfish purposes on the way harming folks,although the meaning,logic and rationale behind is very obvious and known.



--The Holy Quran is very clear and simple on all issues and it's interpretation isn't a rocket science but just as for any science/subject to understand you need to have Good,competent and educated teachers to walk you through all the basic steps and help understanding the basic concepts of any theory similarly you need to have good 'n' educated Islamic Scholars to make you understand the content of every verse and the context of as to why it was revealed :D ..


---Getting to misunderstand a very clear and a vivid thing does ONLY mean either the person was misguided purposely by someone NOT knowledgeable or was NOT educated or qualified enough!!

 

[contra]

taul bhai,
I request you to please activate the PM (Private Message) feature.

I have some information that i want to share with you.

 

[taul]

taul bhai,
I request you to please activate the PM (Private Message) feature.

I have some information that i want to share with you.

--- :shock: what happened,you can always ask me anything out here in this forum :) May be you wanna use some obscenity and then play saint all the way :roll: ..anyhow you are making it sound as if that piece of information will clear all your doubts and put to rest your centuries old anguish :D ...

 

[Bret Hawk]

@ Dada-rocks and Contra bro

In my humble opinion to say that Holy Quran has been misinterpreted and wrong deductions have been made by some people for their own needs and agendas is somewhat simplistic & immature approach to deal with this subject. Actually according to the classical exegetes of Holy Quran (And some contemporary ones as well) there is simply no comprehensive interpretation of the Holy Quran which a mortal can do in his limited life span no matter how much learned and qualified he claims to be in that discipline. Only the Prophet PBUH of Islam had that capacity by the grace of Allah SWT to know about the in-depth meanings of this last divine message of Holy Quran.


Therefore the logical conclusion which can be derive here in this regard is that one can only understand and interpret the teachings of Holy Quran to the extent of ones capacity and level of knowledge related to some disciplines. For example the knowledge of semantics, syntax and linguistical nuances of Arabic language, methods of logic and symbolism, physical and biological sciences, jurisprudence, philosophy of history and historical context of its revealed Suras, knowledge of Hadith literature (Where some extensive exegesis has been provided by non other than by the Holy Prophet PBUH of Islam) and so on. Some scholars have delineated these disciplines from the range of 12-16 among the Sunni school of thought.


Now coming back to the sole attribute of Holy Quran is its accuracy and incorruptibility which non other divine scriptures can claim in these times including the old and new testaments of the Bibles (The Bibles own scholars claims those facts vehemently and I dont have to go further in its details). Same is true with the other scriptures of the Non-Abrahimic faiths such as Hinduism, Buddhism etc. So when you guys mentions the possibilities of misleading interpretations and distortions of the true spirit of the divine message of Almighty then you dont have the right to equate the glorious Quran with any of them. Now having said that you should not get this misleading impression that the Holy Quran is reserved only for some elite group of blessed scholars or mystics in order to understand its esoteric messages and codes. As far as the general purpose of Holy Quran is concerned it is to guide the common populace and those who seek that divine guidance can do that by simple introspection and contemplation on this miraculous book. But those who want to quench their thirst from the divine treasure of its knowledge can choose to do so by delving deep into the variety of disciplines of knowledge in order to better equip themselves for deciphering the hidden and in-depth meanings of Holy Quran.


Last but not least this misconception that the physical sciences can provide the same reading to its observers at all times in any given conditions is also not true and history is replete with such cases where we can see that many so called the behemoths of the physical sciences fall into the pit of misleading consequences and conclusions. For example I have to quote here the two classical fallacies of the physical scientists in the past and present to solicit my opinion in this regard. The Newtonian physicists have long uphold this concept of indestructibility and eternity of the matter and for this regard the universe which proved to be based on wrong premises by Einstein in 1905 when he made his revelations of the realities of the matter in its quite diametric opposition of his prominent predecessor scientist. Then came the false illusion of Human evolution from Darwin (Who himself borrowed that deranged concept from Robert Chambers and Alfred Wallace and hence not the first person, as many people deceived to believe, who professed that theory of evolution) who was never been trained as a serious biological scientist but was nothing more than an observational naturalist and that also on amateur basis. So much more can be cited here but my point is only to allude to two of the most fatal and glaring misreadings from the so called rational physical scientists of the near past and present era and therefore one should not heed them blindly and without questioning their scientific logic unless one has become satisfied and content. But the million dollar question is that how much the prowess of intellect that individual holds in order to get satisfied from the modern day scientific findings and outcomes from the research is depends on that individuals own rationale capability.

 

[taul]

Mr. retard no LTTE soldier ever goes blowing themselves up shouting Jai Shri Ram unlike Alla ho Akbar chanters and hoori seekers who explictly say their religion asks them to do so.. Anyone who has an iots of brain cells would know how oen is explicitly himself wrapping his act in his own religion while other doesn;t invoke hsi religion at all..

---Doesn't look nice when you call your own name to others since your pathetic and moronic approach to each and every issue keeps highlighting it more and more :ugeek: i believe you've suffered from demyelinating and debilitating illness not being to able to process information as it ought to normally :)

--Your inability to process a basic criterion surprises me NOT as you've allowed yourself to float in a bubble that needs a subtle blow and only then all the reality of the surrounding will penetrate in your microcephalic head :ugeek:

--Incompetent people like you run far from knowledge and try to befriend the rumors and misinformation being spread and tend to put their faith on such absurd notions mainly due to self inflicted lethargy :)