I hope this explanation will help

Submitted by Glade (Egypt), Jan 8, 2009 at 18:54

Hi Dean,

I'm always happy to hear of someone who makes a conscious effort to try and understand the culture and religion of his friends. Without the intention of converting, it's useful to understand the way of life of others. We need more of this from all sides (Muslims, Christians, Jews and people of other or no faith).

As a convert to Islam and English being my native language, I've read the Quran in English numerous times. At first I would read it from beginning to end but over the years I've started to read it differently – according to its revealed order. The written Quran is not in this order, instead it's arranged from longest to shortest chapter.

The Quran was sent down to the Prophet Mohamed (peace and blessings be upon him) in parts over a period of about 23 years. Many of the chapters and verses were revealed according to what was happening at the time (i.e. the persecution of the Muslims by the pagan Arabs), to teach the new Muslims how to conduct their lives, to respond to the frequent questions which arose, to answer disputes among Muslims and between the Muslims, the Pagan Arabs and People of the book etc

For this reason the Quran is divided into two eras, the Meccan and Medinan. This relates to the places in which the Quran was revealed (Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia). The chapters revealed in Mecca are mostly dealing with the issues surrounding where the people of that time went against monotheism – idol worship, following other pagan traditions, marriage customs, Female infanticide etc, this of course caused the Pagan Arabs to react violently as they saw the popularity of the message grow. Idol worship especially was financially beneficial to them for a number of reasons.

During this time it should be noted that the Muslims were not instructed to fight back, they took the abuse and violent public displays of disapproval without retaliation! I believe this was intended to build faith and patience in the Muslims. You find in these parts that the Quran mentions the persecution suffered by earlier prophets and believers in Monotheism, almost as a way of reassurance.

Eventually the Muslims fled to Medina and started to build the Ummah (Islamic community) and then the Medina chapters were revealed. These relate to transmitting the rules and laws of Islam – the building of an Islamic society, allowances, prohibitions etc. It was during this time that the wars began since the Muslims were finally allowed to fight back. I hope that answers you're question regarding hard punishment seeming to be the starting place in the Quran. It's not!

There is absolutely no reason why you shouldn't be able to read the Quran in English, however in my opinion you do need to choose your translation carefully. I personally stick with translations given by Yusuf Ali and it's widely available (even online). What your Muslim friends have probably told you is that you can't get the full understanding of the Quran in any other language but Arabic, which is true, but you should still be able to understand the gist of it in English. The difficulty with Arabic and translation is that one word can have a number of meanings depending on context and when I say "number" I'm being modest. I've seen words which can have up to 10 meanings! It's these things (among others) which can cause the Quran to be misinterpreted at times.

Something I use to help me understand the context of the Quran is called "Tafsir" which basically means "interpretation" (or at least that's one of its meanings!). One well known interpreter of the meanings of Quran is Ibn Kathir (you can find his database online). As some Christians might not seek to undertake a study of the Bible without external guidance, the Muslims should also seek reference from one who has fully studied the Quran, Islamic Law etc (it's not a must, but it does help greatly!) Unfortunately you'll find that not all Arabs are well versed in Classical Arabic (think Shakespeare) due to the use of Arabic dialects in everyday life; therefore even among natives there is a chance of misinterpretation.

I wish you all the best in your future attempts at reading the Quran, don't give up! Just try to keep an open mind and heart when doing so.

I'll close this "summary" with a phrase Muslims should use when trying to explain aspects of Islam which is "Allah (God) knows best". We do this because we're not infallible and there is the chance that we can make mistakes in our explanations.

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