/lit/ - Literature

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

To my brothers, السلام عليكم و رحمة الله و بركاته

There is increasing albeit sporadic interest in the Qur'an on this board, yet it is plagued by half-hearted pretenses to troll both Muslims and infidels, and, like sinewy weeds, disinformation chokes luscious discussion. Those lacking any serious knowledge about the Qur'an or Arabic can't be expect enlightenment in such environment, so I am taking the trouble to furnish a lengthy guide to appreciation of the Qur'an for those with little or no knowledge of Arabicor Islam. This series will be in seven threads Insha'Allah, one a week: Aesthetics, Narrative, Jurisprudence, Theology, Traditionalism vs Fundamentalism, Arabic, and Current Events (including the role of politics in sectarianism and contemporary translations). I begin with the aesthetics as that is what /lit/ is mostly interested in, then I will go into substance for those interested in appreciating the deeper elements.

Before delving into the nitty gritty, let's get one thing out of the way: there is no prohibition in Islam on translating or reading a translated Qur'an, it's just that it's referred to as tafsir (exegesis), in fact that's how it started long ago, commentary explaining the meaning in another language was written beside the Arabic. Now only the Arabic is valid for certain things, such as the formal prayer (supplication can be in any language) and other things, but reading the meaning in another language has always been permissible.

On style: there is a widespread misconception that the Qur'an is "poetry": it's not, in fact it explicitly states it's not (36:39). The idea it is stems from two factors, firstly the anachronistic conception of poetry. Today poetry can be just about anything so the fact that the Qur'an has a rhythm and literary discourse makes it sound very poetic, but poetry then meant songs, just as poetry in Homer's time was sung, often with instrumental accompaniment (Islam does prohibit instruments but permits singing in the tradition of poets).

Cont.

>God is the Light of the heavens and the earth. The similitude of His light is as a niche wherein is a lamp. The lamp is in a glass. The glass is as it were a shining star. kindled from a blessed tree, an olive neither of the east nor of the west, whose oil would almost glow forth though no fire touched it. Light upon light. God guideth unto His light whom He will. And God speaketh to mankind in allegories, and God is of all things Knowing
Have you seen the Light anon?

As you probably know, much of the Qur'an is contextual, that is requiring an outside source to understand what it refers to. This outside source is the Seerah, the Life of Muhammad, صلى الله عليه وسلم, and the Sunnah, or [his] Wont, and his explanation of the Qur'an.

For the Seerah the most rigorous work is The Sealed Nectar, it's about as academic as hagiography can get. I would suggest the revised version though because the first English translation is unreadable. The pocket version uses the revised. Besides that book,a good resource is the Seerah here, you can listen to it, it's based on Ibn Kathir's work
https://www.kalamullah.com/anwar-alawlaki.html

As you can see it's three lengthy parts, Mecca, Medina part 1 and Medina part 2, but it's well worth it and quite enjoyable.

The best written work is Martin Ling's but I would avoid that as even though he uses old sources he doesn't handle them very critically so it gets a bit outlandish and sensationalist as he includes any material that's old regardless of corroboration or isnad.

As for which English Qur'an about to post on that