Reading the Qur'an by Tariq Ramadan || Suhaibwebb.com

This article is written beautifully.

One of the things I really like about Tariq Ramadan is that he predicts what his critics are going to say and responds to their retorts before it’s even thought of. He’s really great at responding to critics.

This article was originally published in the New York Times for a broader audience, but it’s still something very much worth reading if you’re Muslim.

The Ten Commandments in the Bible and the Qur’an || Darvish

In the 17th chapter, “Al-Israa” (“The Night Journey”), verses 17:22, the Qur’an provides a set of moral stipulations which are “among the (precepts of) wisdom, which thy Lord has revealed to thee” that can be reasonably categorized as ten in number. These resemble the Ten Commandments handed down by God to Moses, and represents the fullest statement of the code of behavior every Muslim must follow. However, these verses are not regarded by Islamic scholars as set apart from any other moral stipulations in the Qur’an, nor are they regarded as a substitute, replacement, or abrogation of some other set of commandments as found in the previous revelations…

The Ten Commandments (Qur’an 17:22-37)

1. Worship only God: Take not with Allah another object of worship; or thou (O man!) wilt sit in disgrace and destitution. (Qur’an 17:22)

2. Be kind, honorable and humble to one’s parents: Thy Lord hath decreed that ye worship none but Him, and that ye be kind to parents. Whether one or both of them attain old age in thy life, say not to them a word of contempt, nor repel them, but address them in terms of honor. (Qur’an 17:23) And, out of kindness, lower to them the wing of humility, and say: “My Lord! bestow on them thy Mercy even as they cherished me in childhood.” (Qur’an 17:24)

3. Be neither miserly nor wasteful in one’s expenditure: And render to the kindred their due rights, as (also) to those in want, and to the wayfarer: But squander not (your wealth) in the manner of a spendthrift. (Qur’an 17:26) Verily spendthrifts are brothers of the Evil Ones; and the Evil One is to his Lord (himself) ungrateful. (Qur’an 17:27) And even if thou hast to turn away from them in pursuit of the Mercy from thy Lord which thou dost expect, yet speak to them a word of easy kindness. (Qur’an 17:28) Make not thy hand tied (like a niggard’s) to thy neck, nor stretch it forth to its utmost reach, so that thou become blameworthy and destitute. (Qur;an 17:29

4. Do not engage in ‘mercy killings’ for fear of starvation: Kill not your children for fear of want: We shall provide sustenance for them as well as for you. Verily the killing of them is a great sin. (Qur’an 17:31)

5. Do not commit adultery: Nor come nigh to adultery: for it is a shameful (deed) and an evil, opening the road (to other evils). (Qur’an 17:32)

6. Do not kill unjustly: Nor take life – which Allah has made sacred – except for just cause. And if anyone is slain wrongfully, we have given his heir authority (to demand qisas or to forgive): but let him not exceed bounds in the matter of taking life; for he is helped (by the Law). (Qur’an 17:33)

7. Care for orphaned children: Come not nigh to the orphan’s property except to improve it, until he attains the age of full strength… (Qur’an 17:34)

8. Keep one’s promises: …fulfill (every) engagement [i.e. promise/covenant], for (every) engagement will be enquired into (on the Day of Reckoning). (Qur’an 17:34)

9. Be honest and fair in one’s interactions: Give full measure when ye measure, and weigh with a balance that is straight: that is the most fitting and the most advantageous in the final determination. (Qur’an 17:35)

10. Do not be arrogant in one’s claims or beliefs: And pursue not that of which thou hast no knowledge; for every act of hearing, or of seeing or of (feeling in) the heart will be enquired into (on the Day of Reckoning). (Qur’an 17:36) Nor walk on the earth with insolence: for thou canst not rend the earth asunder, nor reach the mountains in height. (Qu’ran 17:37)

The Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:2-17)

1 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before Me.

2 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My Commandments.

3 “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.

4 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God.

5 “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.

6 “You shall not murder.

7 “You shall not commit adultery.

8 “You shall not steal.

9 “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

10 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.”

Chinese-made Qur'ans full of errors, warns Iranian official

Cheaper imports not subject to high level of quality control, says head of Qur’an oversight office

Iranian publishers are complaining that cost-saving plans to print Qur’ans in China have led to an embarrassing number of typographical errors.

The head of Iran’s Qur’an oversight office, Ahmad Haji-Sharif, warned consumers that lower-cost Qur’ans may have mistakes in the holy verses. He noted earlier this week that Iranian-produced Qur’ans carry a higher price but have passed a careful inspection.

Officials are now discussing a ban on Chinese-printed Qur’ans.

The Qur’ans in Iran often have both Farsi and the original Arabic. Haji-Sharif didn’t say whether the errors prevail in the Arabic or Farsi segments.

Tribeca: "Koran by Heart" -- Islamic slapdown! - Salon

Fundamentalist Islam meets “American Idol” in an enthralling new documentary about an unexpected event

Here’s the only thing I need to say about Greg Barker’s documentary “Koran by Heart,” which premiered this past weekend at the Tribeca Film Festival, at least after I tell you the title: It’s a movie about the International Holy Quran Competition, held every year in Cairo, where students from all over the Muslim world show up to demonstrate their total recall of Islam’s gospel, all 600 pages of it. It’s “Spellbound” plus a poetry slam. Plus Islamic fundamentalism. Exactly: OMG. (I’m sorry about the variant spellings, by the way, but there’s no consistent standard for transliterating Arabic into English. The movie uses “Koran” and Salon uses Associated Press style, which is “Quran.” At least it’s not as bad as Gadhafi/Gaddafi/Qaddafi/Khadafy etc.)

And here’s the second thing about “Koran by Heart”: It’s a colorful and dramatic saga of human competition, with a fascinating setting and utterly irresistible pint-sized heroes, but it doesn’t soft-pedal the things about 21st-century Islam that are likely to make at least some Western viewers uncomfortable. One of our stars is a 10-year-old kid from Tajikistan named Nabiollah, an angelic, big-eyed moppet who can recite the entire Quran from memory in an astonishingly pure boyish soprano, with remarkable command of melody and intonation. He’s like the Justin Bieber of Quran recitation, and judges at the Cairo event seize on him as an amazing gift from Allah. But memorizing the Quran (in Arabic, which he does not otherwise speak or read) at a rural madrassa has nearly been Nabiollah’s entire education; he is functionally illiterate in Tajik, his own language.

You can’t say that about Rifdha, also 10, a cuddly, sparkling child from the Maldives (an archipelago nation in the Indian Ocean) who seems younger than her age but is something close to a prodigy. She excels at Quran recitation, but it’s clear she would excel at anything she pursued. She studies advanced science and math, speaks several languages and yearns to be an undersea explorer and researcher. Her mother is fully supportive, but her father, a calm and thoughtful man with the untrimmed beard that indicates a certain stream of fundamentalism, insists that Rifdha must receive a strict Islamic education — perhaps in Yemen, rather than the relatively liberal Maldives — and become a housewife.

Perhaps most affecting of the film’s three 10-year-olds, however, is Djamil, an earnest imam’s son from an impoverished village in Senegal who travels to Cairo all by himself as a representative of an entire nation on the outer fringes of the Islamic world. Barker filmed the 2009 competition (when Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, seen in the film, was still in power), which featured 110 contestants ranging in age from 7 to about 20, including a few from Western nations: a teenage girl from Italy, a 10-year-old Australian boy.

Whatever assumptions you might have about a Quran-recital competition, they’re likely to be wrong. It’s a high-tech affair held in a luxurious meeting hall, with a touch-screen interface and electronic scoring. (The finals are broadcast on live TV around the Arab world.) Although the contest is fierce and the atmosphere solemn, the judges are affectionate and supportive. Girls are not only not forbidden but encouraged; lead organizer Salem Abdel-Galil, an Egyptian government minister, is particularly excited about Rifdha, and eagerly explains that Islam sees men and women as equals. (Take it up with him, not with me!) A youthful and charismatic imam and TV personality, Abdel-Galil further elaborates that the annual competition was meant as a counterweight to extremism, as evidence that young Muslims can embrace the Quran in highly literal fashion without rejecting modernity or supporting violence.

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