A little help here...
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Peace,
I was reading the following website, out of curiosity, because it referred to "Quran Only cults". I myself belong to that "cult", so to speak, and I didn't have much trouble with most of the questions they were proposing on that site. But something there caught my eye and I was wondering if anyone would share their thoughts on it?
These 2 questions made me think
- How do you translate the Qur'an using The Qur'an only?
- Is it possible to translate the Qur'an using the Qur'an only and nothing else?
Here is the link
www.geocities.com/asim_iqbal_2nd/quranonlycults.htm
Thank you in advance for any comments.
God bless,
dotty
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Salaam Dotti,
Oh yes there is, and it is very simple. The Quran is based on Classic Arabic, so you need to study Classic Arabic to understand the terms. next to this, the Quran says it explains itself and makes use of Tasreef-alAyat, the repitition of verses to explain words or subjects.
The Freeminds translation uses this and QXP is also such a translation, here is the preface of QXP, see also www.ourbeacon.com
PREFACE QXP
The author of the Quran is none but Almighty God. Before the reader is an English rendition of the Glorious Book by an ordinary servant of God, Shabbir Ahmed.
The work although close to translation, is more of an understanding from within the Quran itself. This Divine Writ calls itself An-Nur (the Light) and light needs no extrinsic sources to show itself. Therefore, I have based my presentation on two principles
- Focusing on the language in which the Quran was revealed.
- Making use of Tasreef, that is, how the Quran repeats its messages from very diverse vantage points.
A diligent study of the Book using Tasreef helps us look at the Quran in its Big Picture, and this method gives us a phenomenal advantage toward its understanding.
I have rendered the terms and linguistics of the Quran using the Quraish (Quresh) dialect of Makkah since it is the Arabic dialect in which the Quran was revealed to exalted Muhammad bin Abdullah, the Final Prophet, Messenger and Apostle of God (570-632 C.E.)
Being a young member of the royal medical staff, I had the good fortune of learning the Quraish dialect in the 1970s under the auspices of Malik Faisal bin Abdul Aziz and Malik Khalid bin Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia. In addition, the opportunity to socialize with the Bedouins was certainly a great advantage since even today they frequently speak the Quraish dialect. Learning the dialect, by no means, amounts to absorbing the Saudi theology.
Some of the well-known western scholars who learned Arabic by socializing with the Bedouins- In the 1810s - The Swiss Muslim traveler-explorer, Johann Ludwig Burckhardt (Sheikh Ibrahim bin AbdGod 1784-1817).
- 1850s - The British Muslim Sir Richard F. Burton (1821-1890), adventurer-explorer-soldier-writer, famous for the first ever English translation of ?The Arabian Nights?.
- 1860s - The German non-Muslim scholar-traveler-explorer, Heinrich von Maltzan (1826-1874). Unfortunately, upon his return from Arabia, much furor was raised by his fellow men and the dejected von Maltzan went to Italy and committed suicide by throwing himself from the Tower of Pisa!
- 1920s - The Austrian Muslim Leopold Weiss (Muhammad Asad 1900-1992), traveler-explorer- journalist-author-exponent of the Quran.
- 1960s - The French, not widely announced, Muslim surgeon-scholar-author, Maurice Bucaille (1920-?).
The first ever commentaries of the Quran were written in the third and fourth centuries after the exalted Messenger during the Abbasid Dynasty when Zoroastrian influence held sway in Islamic politics, society and even in the Arabic literature. The commentators of the Quran, historians, Muhadditheen (the Hadith/Tradition collectors) and Fuqaha (?Islamic? Jurists) overwhelmingly originated from among the non-Arab Persians.
The late Allama Ahmad Amin Al-Masri sums up the resulting chaos in his excellent work Fajril Islam
?Very certainly, the reader will agree with me that the Persian literature gave an entirely alien complexion to the Arabic linguistics.?Many celebrated thinkers and authors in the Islamic world strongly agree with the Egyptian scholar on this score. We need not go into details since the point will become sufficiently clear soon, when we cite some examples.
How was mankind robbed of God?s Final Revelation? He Himself extols this Revelation, ?And this Grace of your Lord is better than all the treasures that they may amass.? (4332)By robbing I mean giving alien, erroneous and misleading meanings and concepts to the original matchless, powerful and glorious Quranic terms. Here is how it happened
THE FIRST DILEMMA While the language of the Quran remained untouched, its words and terms were made to lose the splendor they so beautifully conveyed in the original, revealed Arabic. So much so, that the Quranic terms were dressed up with the erroneous philosophies prevalent in the once Zoroastrian culture of Persia, and they became widely accepted even among the Arabs!
This staggering tragedy explains why, how and where, even the Arabic speaking people lose their touch with the Quran! The Book describes this staggering tragedy very clearly,
2530 And the Messenger will say, ?O My Lord! These are my people, the ones who had disabled this Quran making it of no account." (They had immobilized it like villagers who bind a cow by tying her front foot to her horn. Mahjoor = A cow thus immobilized.)This ill treatment of the Divine Message and the subsequent filling of the void with conjecture is THE cause of the Muslim downfall on a Global scale.
Any nation that holds on to this Divine Writ in letter and spirit can make the world a Paradise on earth. The early Islamic history is a great testimonial to this claim, but we will explore this point a little further.HOW, THEN, DO THE OTHERS (NON-MUSLIMS) CONTINUE TO MAKE PROGRESS?
Naturally, a very important question arises here. In the last several centuries, the West and many other non-Muslim countries have been making spellbinding advances in education, science and technology and in their governmental systems without the Quran! The short answer is that they have been using well their faculties of reason and intellectual inquiry.
Another very significant factor has been quietly playing its role in this regard. The Quran has been, perceptibly and imperceptibly, making a Universal impact on human civilization during the last fourteen centuries. The celebrated French surgeon, thinker and historian, Robert Briffault (1876-197 has very convincingly elaborated this fact in his remarkable work, "The Making of Humanity."Muslims, on the other hand, after disabling the Divine Revelation, have also allowed their intellect to paralyze. They have fallen easy prey to the utterly senseless dogmas fabricated centuries after the exalted Prophet and his noble companions.
However, the rule stands for all nations that the Last Revelation of God economizes human effort (Sir Allama Iqbal). It can give them eminence they have never imagined before, scientific and moral achievements side by side, in a short span of time without having to go through the prolonged ordeal of learning through trial and error. And thus, they can adopt a progressive system of life that embraces all that is good, promoting the well-being of humanity, while avoiding all that is evil and harmful. Furthermore, this Revealed System of Life is fully sustainable and durable.
HOW DOES THE CURRENT ARABIC ROB THE QURAN?
4458 Certainly, (O Prophet) We have made this Quran easy in your tongue, in order that they might take it to their hearts.
6940 Certainly, this is the utterance of a noble Messenger.It is of paramount importance to know that the mentioned dialect is not extinct. It is very much alive and well in the Pre-Islamic and ?Para-Islamic? poetry and well preserved in some good dictionaries such as Tajil ?Uroos, Lisanil ?Arab, Qamoos, Lane?s Lexicon, Al-Mufridaat Fi Ghareebil Quran and Lughaatil Quran. The first of these practically embraces the next two and the last one is from Arabic to Urdu. Edward Lane?s Lexicon is primarily based on Tajil ?Uroos. The role of the desert nomads, especially in the Empty Quarter, has already been mentioned.
I will keep this discourse brief since nothing is more convincing than citing relevant examples. Plenty of such examples are given throughout the rendition for the reader to see for himself how the Ajami (Non-Arab, and more specifically, non-Quranic) concepts rob the Quranic terms of their clarity, power and grandeur.
Herein are given only a few of those examples
- Taqwa is usually translated as Righteousness, goodness, avoiding evil, God-consciousness, warding off evil, piety, fearing God, doing good etc.
Now a non-Muslim, or even a bright Muslim youngster may ask, ?Well, the Quran in the very beginning claims that it is a Guidance for the righteous, the God-conscious, he who wards off evil, the pious, he who fears God, one who does good works. But, why should such people need any Guidance??
The answer lies in the Quraish dialect that describes Taqwa as walking in security, like someone who strolls through a garden but watches his garment against getting entangled in bushes and thorns. All of a sudden the verse now makes beautiful sense, that the Quran is a Guide to those who wish to journey through life in honor and security.-
Manyyasha is almost invariably translated as ?whatever God wills.? Since this term appears in the Quran very frequently, its wrong translation lays down the foundation of FATALISM in Islam. Such erroneous translations can only convey abject Messages and results like this ?God honors whomever He wills and humiliates whomever He wills.? Or, ?God sends astray whomever He wills and guides whomever He wills.? An intelligent reader has every right to ask, "Why then did God reveal His Message in the first place?"
The original Quranic meaning of Manyyasha is, ?according to His Laws?. God has appointed Laws for success vs failure, and for Guidance vs straying. (And these Laws are given in the Quran. See 48 -
Such terms as Sayyeh, Ithm, Zanb, Fisq, ?Udwaan and the like are all blanketed together as the vague term ?SIN?. I have let the Quran explain the true meanings of each term repeatedly in the text, at times in parentheses.
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Zulm has almost always been given a very vague meaning, ?wrongdoing?. But the Quranic concept of Zulm is extremely clear and appealing To displace something from its rightful place ? to harm one?s own self ? violation of human rights ? living in darkness - oppression ? distortion of the Truth ? to hurt anyone?s well being. These meanings become crystal clear in their context in every single related verse.
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Hasanah, Khair, Salehat, ?Amal-e-Saleh, Birr etc are all blanketed together as the vague 'good deeds'. The correct Quranic meanings I have incorporated in the text at the relevant places.
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In addition, the true Quranic understanding of terms such as Adam, Angels, Satan, Jinn, Salaat, Zakaat, Saum, Hajj, The Unseen, The Occult Phenomena, Belief, Kufr, Resurrection, The Law of Requital, Duniya, The Hereafter, Haram, Halal, Jihad, Islam, Iman, and many more will repeatedly be found in the text just as the Quran explains them.
THE SECOND DILEMMA It occurred when the commentators of the Quran, centuries after its Revelation, tried to connect every verse with a certain historical event, calling the process Shaan-e-Nuzool (Circumstances of a Revelation.) Here the words and terms of the Quran were given tailor-made meanings to fit the supposed story, with total disregard to their original vibrant meanings, concepts and Messages.
This deplorable practice only serves to bind the verses of the Timeless Quran to some supposed incidents and chain the Word of God in another set of shackles!
A very significant Islamic jurist, Imam Ahmad bin Hanbal (d. 241 AH) in those early times saw the chaos and raised a very strong voice against this awful practice."Three kinds of books are absolutely unfounded, Maghaazi, Malaahem and Tafseer? (The exalted Prophet's battles, dreams and prophecies, and expositions of the Quran)
(Ref Tazkarah-til-Maudhua?at, Ash-Shaikh Muhammad Tahir Al-Makki and Maudhu?aat-e-Kabeer, Mulla Ali Qari)
Worst of all, and inevitably so, this conjecture of Shaan-e-Nuzul was attributed to the exalted Prophet and his noble companions. This led people into believing that this was how they (the Prophet and his companions) used to understand the Quran!
Hence, the foundation of an Islamic decline was laid down and mankind was robbed of the Supreme Gift of Guidance bestowed upon them by the Creator!NOW THE THIRD DILEMMA The later generations of translators and commentators have uncritically followed the men of old and this tendency has been consistently taking its noxious toll. They have been thinking of the Ajami Arabic as the known Language of the Quran. By Ajami Arabic I mean applying Zoroastrian or any alien concepts to the Arabic words and terms of the Quran.
Please recall that this deplorable practice of ?Shaan-e-Nuzul? was given legitimacy during the Abbasid Dynasty to the extent that the alien, empty and erroneous concepts given to the Quranic terms became widely known and well accepted. The Mighty Word of God, the great Equalizer of humanity, threatened the vested interests of the elite, whereas a ?disabled? Quran very well suited the ulterior motives of the Royalty, the Elite and the Islamic priesthood. A formidable coalition of this ?eternally? sinister TRIO thus made their inroads into Islam and supported each other toward a common goal, that is, exploitation and enrichment at the expense of the masses.
The later commentators whether Arabs or non-Arabs, have since looked at the Quran with the tinted glasses of the earlier Mufassireen (explainers, commentators or exponents.) This dilemma has only helped perpetuate the pathetic state of mental slavery of the ?Islamic? world to this day.THE BEWILDERMENT Muslims, then, keep wondering What went wrong? What has happened to us? How can we stand up? Which way to go? What brought upon us the current, in fact, the last many centuries of Global humiliation? Is a Renaissance possible? If yes, how?
The answer is one word, Al-Quran, in its true meanings as the companions of the Prophet understood and strove to apply it and, thereupon, success embraced their feet at every step and in every walk of life.
Respected reader! Right before you is my sincere effort to break free of those "time-honored" shackles of mental slavery, and to breathe in some fresh air - THE QURAN AS IT EXPLAINS ITSELF.INTRODUCTION
QXP is a *TASREEF-based understanding of the Quran presented in contemporary English that is easy enough even for teen-agers. It is not a literal translation.
*Tasreef is the Quranic process where verses in one part of the Quran explain or provide deeper understanding of the verses in other parts of the Book. Concisely, it means looking at the Quran in its Big Picture. The Quran, thus, lets us look at its terms and concepts from different vantage points. This is how special care has been taken to explain every verse from within the Quran itself.The respected reader should expect to find THE QURAN AS IT EXPLAINS ITSELF different from the prevalent translations and explanations because of the use of TASREEF and the QURAISH dialect, and for rejecting extrinsic sources.
I have purposely refrained from explaining the Quran through extrinsic sources such as hadith and history. That trend in the distant and recent past has only served to confound the Word of God with manmade traditions and it takes away the profound Glory of the Divine Message.
Relevant historical accounts have been given only sparingly for the interested reader and they have no bearing on the Pristine Divine Message.
The following three principles applied in this rendition are derived from the Quran itselfOne The Quran explains itself. (6115, 1037, 7517-19)
Two It repeats its verses from different vantage points for clear understanding. (1741, 1789, 1854)
Three It has been revealed in the Plain Arabic of its times. (122, 20113, 392The Prophet, who was born and raised in Makkah, belonged to the prominent Quraish tribe. Since the Makkans were the first audience, the Quran was revealed in their dialect.
4458 Certainly, (O Prophet) We have made this Quran easy in your tongue, in order that they might take it to their hearts.?Surah? means a fence and thus it implies a Chapter that encircles some verses. There are 114 Chapters (Surahs) in the Quran with just over 6,200 verses in all. By volume, the Quran is a much smaller Book than the Bible.
About the use of parentheses ( ) and bracketsWhenever the reader finds a sentence that is not seen in the original Arabic verse, it will be representing another verse found elsewhere in the Quran and, where appropriate, the proper reference will be given right there. In this effort, no meanings will be imported from outside of the Quran or borrowed from the ancient or recent exponents.
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Peace Warner,
I have copypasted this from QXP, so I'm not promoting a certain Dialect. I believe it also doesn't matter if you call it Quraish dialect or Classic Arabic, in any case, this has nothing to do with this thread.
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Peace Arnold
I wasnt challenging your post. I will reserve my opinion on it because I feel it is not for me to comment here. But if someone claims understanding the Quran can be based on the knowledge of the Quraish dialect then naturally I want to know about the Quraish. I thought it was relevant since.
I used to think on the issue of Quraish of Makkah and the account that Muhammad was from that tribe was based on traditional literature. What I wanted to know was whether do we have evidence of this Quraish from any authentic sources.
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I read the article and the questions asked by the author shows that he is probably a typical hardcore Sunni drone who is afraid to use his own intelligence. I think to add to those questions he should also ask How do you drink a water using the Quran only? How do you take a shower using the Quran only? How do you brush your teeth using the Quran only? How do you play soccer using the Quran only?
Peace,
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How do you drink a water using the Quran only?
actually, i hate to break it to you, but using the quran only to drink water won't do... it doesn't hold the water very well, and the pages get all wet and the ink runs... you are better off to use a glass or water bottle. feel free to also use a plastic cup or a mug, whatever suits your fancy.
i don't think god will get mad at you for following your lowly desires if you use these other tried and true methods P
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haha joe you remind me of this thing i heard people talkin about and saw on the internet years ago about this boycott against this certain soccer ball that had the flags of the world on it... including the flag of saudi arabia...
seems people were outraged at the prospect of kicking the shahada
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Thanks for trying to help all.
And Jankren... I completely understand where you are coming from. Of course the Quran doesn't tell us how to do every day things like how to drink water, how to brush our teeth, how to sleep, etc. If it isn't in the Quran, then God surely felt it is up to us to decide, and it isn't important to our souls in this world.
Peace,
dotty
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Thanks for trying to help all.
And Jankren... I completely understand where you are coming from. Of course the Quran doesn't tell us how to do every day things like how to drink water, how to brush our teeth, how to sleep, etc. If it isn't in the Quran, then God surely felt it is up to us to decide, and it isn't important to our souls in this world.
Peace,
dotty
Lol if you read closely actually I was being sarcastic with my previous post.