OK, since KafirGirl is no longer doing it, I guess I have to.
A couple years ago, KafirGirl started to blog the Quran. And she did an absolutely fantastic job, too. I linked to all of her posts, revising the SAQ as she went along. Then, early last year and without warning, she suddenly stopped. She hasn't posted since and no one seems to know why. I sure hope she's OK.
So I've decided to start blogging my way through the Quran, starting with Surah 1. It's the only way I can force myself to re-read the Quran and revise the SAQ. I'm hoping that as I work my way through it, you'll read it along with me and point out things that I either missed or messed up.
There's not much to the first surah (or sura), just seven short verses (or ayat).
Here's the first verse.
1. In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful.
Now that sounds nice enough, until you read a bit more of the Quran and see just how anti-Beneficent and anti-Merciful Allah really is. But I'll save that for later.
The next verse is the most interesting to me. Allah is the "Lord of the Worlds."
2. Praise be to Allah, Lord of the Worlds,
Does this mean that the Quran recognizes, prophesies even, the existence of other solar systems, planets, and earth-like worlds, an idea that Giordano Bruno was burned alive for (at least in part) nearly 1000 years after the Quran was written?
If so, then the Quran gets off to a better start (as far as science is concerned, anyway) in Surah 1 than the Bible does in Genesis 1.
And then Allah has to blow it all by repeating himself, saying how beneficent and merciful he is. He just lied bragged about that two verses ago.
3. The Beneficent, the Merciful.
Now we get to stuff that Allah really cares about: the Day of Judgment. As we'll see later, Allah is completely obsessed with it.
4. Master of the Day of Judgment,
Allah, like his buddy Yahweh, is stuck on himself. He wants us all to grovel in front of him forever. Worship him alone; ask him for help; ignore everyone and everything else.
5. Thee (alone) we worship; Thee (alone) we ask for help.
And if you do that, then maybe, if you ask him nicely, he'll tell you what to do. Just don't try to think about it yourself.
6. Show us the straight path,
The straight path, by the way, is the path of those that Allah favors (Muslims).
7a. The path of those whom Thou hast favoured;
All non-Muslims have either gone astray (like the Christians) or have earned Allah's anger (like the Jews).
7b. Not the (path) of those who earn Thine anger nor of those who go astray.
And that's the end of the first surah, Allah's praise of, and prayer to, himself.
I know that was kind of boring. But Allah has lots of interesting things to say in the next Surah. So don't give up on the Quran just yet.
