Comments on: Have you read the Quran?

By: kat

kat — Thu, 14 May 2009 04:55:00 +0000

Trying to read the Torah—but I discovered that my understanding of the Torah —just by reading it without knowing the Jewish culture or background—was different from how a Jewish person would understand its spirituality. Judaism has the Mishneh, Midrash/Gemerrah and Rabbinical works that enhance the meaning of the Torah. A Rabbi commented that religious texts (or wisdom teachings) were often multifaceted.

By: James Tracy

James Tracy — Thu, 14 May 2009 01:24:26 +0000

Glad to hear from you! In that case, have you read the holy books of any other religious tradition?

By: kat

kat — Thu, 14 May 2009 01:20:06 +0000

I am a muslim—(and naturally I have read the Quran—but the question/poll was directed at non-muslims.) I agree with Synthaetica. Apart from the text—or "wisdom teaching" itself—both Judaism and Islam have a body of works that make-up the theology. The wisdom teachings are understood within this context. Reading the texts on their own sometimes misses the rich understanding that those who follow that religion have.

If one is looking for translations only—there are plenty on the net (for free) —Yusuf Ali, M. Pickthall, Shakir and M. Asad are a few names of translators. All translations are slightly different from each other because the bias of a translator colors the work. (But there is only one Quran in arabic)

By: James Tracy

James Tracy — Thu, 14 May 2009 00:56:01 +0000

I do admit to getting my Quran for free – and my Book of Mormon and several Bibles. But these tend to show up fairly often on my college campus.

By: SeandBlogonaut

SeandBlogonaut — Thu, 14 May 2009 00:54:01 +0000

i find that there is so much better information out there to read, that and living where I do getting my hands on a cheap Koran is hard.

By: James Tracy

James Tracy — Wed, 13 May 2009 16:19:55 +0000

I get what you are saying. After speaking with some Mormon missionaries I started reading the Book of Mormon – only to stop after a few chapters because it is such a crap book. But I want to finish it at some point because I do feel like there is some value in that. After all, you can then say, I've read your Jospeh Smith now why woun't you read my Dawkins?

By: Synthaetica

Synthaetica — Wed, 13 May 2009 15:24:33 +0000

I fall into your 17%, as a former thumper of the bible.

While understanding religions, especially the major Abrahamic ones, is a noble gesture, it misses the point on certain levels. If you've never read the Bible, or the Quran, simply reading them is not going to give you a lot of insight into the religions themselves: The functional "religiosity" of them expands well beyond the words in their supposedly-holy books. Of course, reading them does provide a decent insight into the tenets and principles under which practitioners presumably live, so the reading isn't an entirely useless endeavor. I just don't believe it really goes all that far to dealing with religious fundamentalists as people and appealing to their status as citizens.

So, to summarize that: I see *some* value in it, just not very much.

By: RevOxley

RevOxley — Wed, 13 May 2009 15:03:49 +0000

I read the Quran, once, as a Christian…all the way through….my conclusion was that it was incredibly similar to the Bible…and that is my conclusion now as an Atheist….it is very similar, makes similar claims, and is just as dangerous.