Being an old I will disregard Khamenei's first attempt at YA because I am not the intended market. But if it get a movie series I might consider reading. However, the greater the dialog between the US and Iran the better. But I don't believe a one way letter to the youth of a nation serves that end. Between theses two nations ... one is practically a yearling to history and the other found setting in history's cradle, ... they bookend our past to the future. I am tired of hearing how peaceful Christianity and Islam are. I am tired of listening to nation-states, as well. All any of them speak of is imaginary lines and vicious boundaries.
This is at best naive, at worst disingenuous. > Receive knowledge of Islam from its primary and original sources. Gain information about Islam through the Qur’an and the life of its great Prophet. I would like to ask you whether you have directly read the Qur’an of the Muslims. Have you studied the teachings of the Prophet of Islam and his humane, ethical doctrines? Have you ever received the message of Islam from any sources other than the media? If the average fundamentalist muslim did this, instead of riling themselves up with the blood and death creed of extremist imams, east-west relations wouldn't be in the sorry fucking state that they are. The problem is not the west "persecuting" muslims. The problem is underemployed, disenfranchised - IN THEIR OWN COUNTRIES - oppressed and repressed young men being ripe for death cultish manipulation. Plus some lazy, ungrateful, entitled, indulged poorly raised western muslim fuckwits believing they have a raw deal and rushing off to spend their holidays camping with Al Qaeda or Isis or whoever the current fashionable extremists are. Western islamphobia is the result of this, not the cause. Educate them properly, accelerate democracy, improve women's rights, legalise homosexuality, allow a legal alternative to the current choice between unknown-virgin-cousin-bride vs cheap imported third world whore, and quit all the endless apologism and allowance-making.
I kind of want to read the Quran after reading this letter. Can somebody please link me to an English version that does a reasonable justice to the original Arabic text? OftenBen eightbitsamurai
Conspiracy theories are very common in the arabic world. Sadly, many conspiracies turn out to be true. An example of such a theory is that Israel is responsible for the creation of Hamas. Sounds nuts right? Well, there is enough evidence showing that Israel and the U.S. financed the Muslim Brotherhood in the 80s to build up a political antagonist to the PLO. This political player was/is the Hamas. Thereby making Israel partially responsible for their current biggest problem... The repetition of such events throughout the whole area makes the people more suspicious of their governments and practically believe every conspiracy theory that you throw at them.
I've read sections from the Quran, I'll eventually get around to reading the whole thing. (Though I'm probably not going to learn Arabic, so some would argue it's not the same thing) I've always liked this Sam Harris quote, with regard to fundamentalists."If there's something wrong with your fundamentalists, there's something wrong with your fundamentals."
This assertion has always bugged me. We have two close friends. He's Moroccan, she's Persian. His Koran is Arabic. Her Koran is English. Her parents' Koran is Farsi. A quarter of the world's muslims speak Malaysian. I'll bet they learn some Arabic for their religion but I'll bet they aren't fluent in it or else the language of Malaysia would change. And the Charlie Hebdo guys? Born in France, every one of them. The Taliban isn't reading an Arabic Quran, they're reading one in Pashto. I get that there's imprecision in translation. I've even read Reza Aslan talk about how imperfect verb tense can get you "admonish your wife and be patient with her" and "beat your wife and rape her" from the same Sura(t?). But it bugs me that stating you can't properly experience the Quran in any language but Arabic gets a bye. For starters, it implies that the Shia are fucked. For another thing, Mohammed transcribed the literal word of God, right? Why does God prefer Arabic? Why would God not choose language that is universally available to all people who speak all tongues? But most importantly, the assertion always comes up whenever someone who isn't muslim wishes to gain insight into Islam. Here we are, discussing a letter written by the mufukkin Ayatollah and that dude speaks Farsi. He didn't specify which Quran or in which language, he just said "read it." Yet the assertion comes up again - if you don't speak Arabic, it's an effort at least partially wasted. Can you imagine how rough the Jews would have it if they insisted the Old Testament was on a whole 'nuther level in Hebrew? Or if the Christians insisted the New Testament was only completely legible in Greek?
So like, yes and no. The people I know that understand and are the most intimate with the Quran are all Pakistani. My buddy Ahmed doesn't know a lick of Arabic outside of learning enough to read the Quran. You can gain 100% complete understanding of the Quran if you read it in English, in my opinion. I say this because my English is better than my Arabic, so that's how I read it. But Arabic has a poetic flow to it that you just don't get in English. Reading Surat Al-Fatimah in English does not make my mom cry, but reading it in Arabic does. The flow of reading a Quranic verse is so ingrained in Muslim culture that it's considered a skill to be learned. I forget what the exact word for it is, but it's there. It's not so much the meaning as it is the passion of the words themselves. The closest comparison I can compare it to is a hymm. You're not reading the Quran, as far as I like to think, you're singing it. I don't know how to explain it! But I'm not making it up, for real. I wouldn't want to dissuade someone from reading the Quran in English if that's the only language they know, but I am firm of the belief that the emotional impact you get from it just won't be the same. Shit, I hope any of that made sense.
In my opinion, Arabic being the "language of god" is part of the proof that the god that is depicted in Islam (or any other language) does not exist. What kind of god sends his message in a form that is open to interpretation? But lets talk about Arabic. I LOVE the language. Its the most beautiful and poetic language I know (as eightbitsamurai mentioned too). It is a rich language with many words. I used to love our Arabic literature classes at school. I admit, I wasn't that good in Arabic, but it is a beautiful complex language. Which is also a weakness when it comes to Qur'an. Many words used in the Qur'an are old words that aren't used in day to day life. A fun example is the word Banana. Which is mentioned in the Qur'an and means finger, and is believed to be the source of the word Banana that we know in English, but back to topic. As old words are used, for some words the exact meaning is not clear or has been lost. So eventually, it will come to misinterpretations. And as we know, its those fine differences that have the biggest influence. The way I read the Qur'an lead me to the conclusion that its not the scripture I want to live my life according to. It is however possible that others decide that it sounds right to them. Some differences are cultural ones, others are linguistic. Either way, we got to figure out how this is going to work out in the future.
It's probably one of the hardest languages to learn. And even if you speak perfect literature arabic, you might not understand everyone who speaks arabic. I don't understand people from Marocco or Tunisia, we talk in English instead :D But once you learn arabic to a point that you start understanding poems from the time before the Quran, man you will love it!!
It shouldn't matter textually, but I could see it mattering spiritually. I've heard both Hebrew and Arabic chants of their religious services, and it always sounds profound to me, even though I have no clue as to what is being said. I could cry at a Jewish funeral even if I thought the deceased was an asshole. There's something about perfectly intoned Hebrew...
I think this applies to a lot of languages, really. Poetry in particular. Haikus, in my opinion, work better in Japanese because the restrictions were designed to work for the language. This video explains it decently, even if it moves pretty slowly;