As a matter of interest of any information whether Da Vinci's Mona Lisa, or a book boasting divinity, an introspective analysis of its credibility is the will of all sound men. We are afterall curious beings and are constantly judging the worthiness of all elements that make life.
The Holy Koran is a book that has been revered for hundreds of years with certitude. It has also been subject to criticism and sacrilege and rightly so, for we are humans afterall. Any rumination into the Koran starts with wanting to understand the reasons behind the particular choice of sequence of the chapters as they are not chronological. On grounds of common sense, it could be assumed that they are so for the simple reason of making more sense and conforming to standards of cohence imperious to all texts of any and all books. Upon research one may also find that we have not been able to identify the exactness of time, and location of quite a few verses. This makes one wonder about the credibility of all of history but we have no choice but to accept and move on with how much we assume to know about the past.
The perception of the Koran is that of a Holy Book and that God likes to reward people who revere it. Generally in the Muslim world there is no tolerence for any to disregard the Holy Koran. This belief is so widespread that most Muslims like to have a copy of the Koran kept at an elevated part of the house wrapped in a fancy silklike cover made specifically for the same purpose. Binding 'recommendations' of the Sunnah exclaim the prohibition of women to be in direct contact witht the scripture during their days of menstruation or 'uncleanliness'. Legend straining down again from sunnah exists of how reading/reciting the whole koran is worth multitude blessings in the afterlife. Hence, exist the will amongst all muslims to have their little ones read the Koran during adolescence, in Pakistan, the tradition being that of "Maulvi Sahab" who are mostly illiterate men with little or no knowledge other than their ability to understand Arabic Syllables. Statistically these men would hauntingly compose of childmolesting offenders who are so naively delegated the tasks of instilling good morals in their children, often so, to confrom to the traditional popular culture and an expectation from the society for all parents to do so. These men upon my introspection have primarily been motivated to choose a career in maulvihood for the lack of a skill.
Anyhow, this is somewhat of an analysis of the Holy book and not a commentary on Maulvis. The Holy Quran too optimistically boasts about being unmatchable in its texts. Perhaps, this exclamation makes best sense to those who have a command on Arabic. In terms of how the text of the Quran may rhyme and its poetry type prose etc. But as far as the translations are concerned, I have quite not been able to decipher the differnce between what was told to me as Sunnah and what was told to me as the Holy Quran. One could recite the quran or a comment from the Sahi Bukhari only for the listener to not be able to tell the difference. I may heavily be criticized for not being able to recognize the prominent differnce that exists, but as having grown up a Pakistani Muslim I only reveal my experience, and I may not be the only one with an experience like so. I contend with this belief after tried and tested experimentation with my peers.
In my quest for knowledge and a desperation for finding logic in what people around me called faith, my first attempt was to try and read the Koran. I was much excited well aware at the back of my head of the bounties that await me simply for choosing to read the Koran. I started with the First Surah, which undoubtedly is the most composite and meaningful surah that to quite an extent presents to the reader of
Who god is, what he is capable of, and he is the one to seek guidance from and he decides the route of ones faith. It expects the reader to realize that the decisions of man are indeed the will of god in asking God to have men follow the rights of those that please Him.
In the Second Surah al Bakara or "The Cow"
"As to those who reject Faith, it is the same to them whether thou warn them or do not warn them; they will not believe."
There is already an assumption that those who do not believe willl not believe. I do not know why, but everytime i have happened to have read this translation or any other, it doesnt give me the understanding that the Author is just trying to state the obvious, but always that God is aware and has predecided the faith of some who would disobey and reject faith, and throughout the rest of the Quran the destiny of such disbelievers has been reminded as being eternity in hell.
Having understood that, it must be clear that there is an understanding that God created us and is well aware that some of us would disobey, and yet he has a harsh punishment for all of us who disobey, and has promised the hell fire for the disbelievers. So in its entirety it would be assumed that there are some of us that are just bound to go to hell as God has willed and so it defies the central idea in the quran that humans have their own destiny in their hands, because the merciful god has already decided and knows that some of us would be going to hell. Given that there is God and that God has promised the disbelievers "Hell", my understanding as I would continue to read the quran would be that God of Koran would create us beings and is well aware that some of us would disbelieve and yet he would establish a penalty of hell for those beings. So God's plan of creating all of us and sending books and scriptures includes the existence of disbelievers who will go to hell and no one can help them. So merciful God in Quran Himself reminds us of the faith of the disbelievers but in actuallity if it wasnt for Him we wouldnt be there. And so if god created us and some of us would be disbelievers than god would be unfair in his choice of system of governing us for the simple existence of some of us scapegoats and ginnypigs and tools of social order and obedience to divinity. So how is god just.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
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