wednesday wrote:

Ya'qub wrote:

wednesday wrote:

Analysing books is so easy!... once you get going, it just pours. You'll fnd that you always do it even when you read the most boring of books!... but for some reason it doesn't work with the Qur'an, not that i have tried delibrately, but I could never inetrpret it in my way... it always tells us what to do, in its exact and precise manner (if i knew Arabic (old version) then may be it would have been easier to grasp and understand some concepts, but to do that one must know the history!)

I completely disagree. If you read a good tafsir, it can open your mind to some of the 'hidden' messages inside: My favourite is why it is important to read Suratul-Kahf every Friday, and how it relates to our everyday lives.

EXACTLY! you would have to read the tafsir to understand the words!

Hmmm... I meant that if you read a tafsir it 'opens up' the text for you, and then you CAN take your own personal meanings and lessons from it (it applies to us all on an individual level as well as a communal level).

I have lost count of the number of times I have opened the Qur'an onto a 'random' page, only to read an ayat that corresponds EXACTLY to whatever issue I happen to be going through at the time. It happened yesterday, masha'Allah.

not read " the inspector calls" bu did read "of mice and men" for GCSE, good book that was, the movie even better loved all the charcters excpt da curly geezer, ma fav has to be Lenny he's so innocent bu gota say the ending nearli made me cry lol

Wait till you read To Kill a Mockingbird, that'll make you cry for longer. It managed to get lots of people interested in becoming a lawyer, with Atticus. He's a great guy and dad.

Courage wrote:

Wait till you read To Kill a Mockingbird, that'll make you cry for longer. It managed to get lots of people interested in becoming a lawyer, with Atticus. He's a great guy and dad.

I suppose you'll be pleased to hear that Ive begun reading To Kill a Mokingbird.. Ive even put it before A Thousand Splendid Suns (Khaled Hosseini) :shock: It better be worth it!

wednesday wrote:

If you want competition... compete with Wuthering Heights :!:

Wuthering Heights was a good book. Its very dark sad book. Wide Sargasso Sea (Jean Rhys) gives the storyline in Wuthering Heights a unique twist.

Ya'qub wrote:

If you read a good tafsir, it can open your mind to some of the 'hidden' messages inside: My favourite is why it is important to read Suratul-Kahf every Friday, and how it relates to our everyday lives.

Any particular tafsir you recommend (apart from ibn Kathir!)?

I've been reading Ibn al-Qayyam. He talks about what a great blessing the written word is. There is relevance that the first revelation that the Prophet received talked about the pen, even though the Prophet himself was illiterate.

Written words are beauitful in themselves. The shapes of the letters, the patterns. Many people put up beautiful Arabic calligraphy in their houses, even non-Muslims. Many people put up Chinese calligraphy too. But the MEANING of these words can be even more beautiful than the writing/lettering itself. It can put across ideas, feelings and messages in a way that is better than any picture/film ever could.

When you read a book you can visit the past, the future, you can travel to every corner of the earth and even to distant galaxies, you can also see inside people's hearts and minds. You can do all this without leaving the chair in you your home.

Think about how difficult life would be without being able to read! How could you learn things? Or find your way around? How could you order food in a restaurant? How could we learn the Qur'an if we didn't know anyone personally who could teach it to us? So we should thank Allah (swt), because there are 2 billion people in the world today who can't read or write!

To be honest, distinguishing the elements of the written word (as opposed to singling only its meaning) has never come to my mind, except in passing. It goes to show the great length of detail one could go into when analysing and explicating the Qur'an, and why Qurtubi's tafsir comprises of some 20 odd volumes!! :shock:

Too often we focus our attentions and energies on areas that much more complex, overlooking the simplicity that is before us.

Amal wrote:

Any particular tafsir you recommend (apart from ibn Kathir!)?

I like Muhammad Asad's translation and tafsir, but I know that many people have 'issues' with it.

What sort of issues?

Courage wrote:

What sort of issues?

I have no idea (I can't remember). Ask Ed cos he highlighted them for me.

OK, here's a message to the Editor. Sajid, if you can hear me, respond. What issues do you have with the tafsir?

Courage wrote:

OK, here's a message to the Editor. Sajid, if you can hear me, respond. What issues do you have with the tafsir?

I don't think they were his issues in particular, he just told me that some people had the issues.

It doesn't matter anyway. Many people have many issues with many things. Many people disagree on many aspects of Islam. The most important thing is that we respect each others' opinions.

Sumaiya wrote:

salams,

we've just completed an inspector calles by j.b priestly for our GCSE's, and it is the most suspensefull book i have ever read in my life! however i dont fully understand the ending. if anyonw has read or studied it, would u care to explain. and other comments on the book.

Right, this is what I understood:

The inspector's name is Goole. This is a hint through out the play that there is something unnatural about him i.e. that he is a ghoul or ghost. Interestingly, his arrival does not come after the death of the young girl but precedes it. I have no idea why the writer did that except to make it more spooky.

The ending shows how some events such of these change people. When they find out no-one is actually dead, some of the family revert back to their earlier personas but (if I remember correctly) Sheila and Jack are permanenetly changed by this.

To sum up, the inspector is the spirit of humanity come to shake the nouveau-riche from their decadent slumber. Hope lies with the young who need only the warning of someone drinking bleach to change their ways; unlike the parents, who need it to actually happen before they will care.

Courage wrote:

OK, here's a message to the Editor. Sajid, if you can hear me, respond. What issues do you have with the tafsir?

Muhammad Asad was a Jewish convert to Islam, and was well versed with Old and New Testament and Judeo-Christian teachings. His translation, coupled with his footnotes do not follow the traditional approach, but are more independent and autonomous. Some argue (Saudis mainly) that he incorporated bits from Judeo-Christian thought into the translation. But from what I see, his commentaries simply compare the Judaeo-Christian injunctions with the Qur'an, and are more inclined towards creating inter-faith harmony and understanding. As it is supposedly "less orthodox" to the Saudis, they've banned it.

I visited Amazon.co.uk, and found these reviews for Muhammad Asad's Message of the Qur'an:

Quote:

This has to be, for me, the finest translation i have come across. Asad's translation is careful to explain WHY he has chosen to translate a word as this rather than as that and puts many references into their historical context.
Comparing to other translations, at least this sort of information allows you to make your own mind up.
i read this cover to cover and not long after, converted. That is how inspiring and powerful i found this text. There are several occasions where Asad has gone beyond the translation and explained the logic of a particular statement in the Qur'an (why men are permitted 4 wives but women not permitted 4 husbands, for example) allowing the reader to actively engage with the Qur'an message.. but what i like most is that he goes beyond the translation but only in the footnotes, not in the actual text (not putting words into God's mouth, as it were)

i found reading this to be inspiring, an eye opener and my first big step into what Islam really is about.

Quote:

This is the most beautiful but also the most intelligent translation of the Qur'an i have ever come across. First you have the Arabic text, then a transliteration to help you pronounce it correctly, then a translation into English with any extrapolations of Asad's clearly bracketed and finally a commentary.

Asad was clearly someone who saw Islam as progressive, universalist and open. He brings out the Light of the Qur'an, letting God's world illuminate our modern world as it illuminated the Prophet's. At the same time he engages with it. His Qur'an is a teacher not a paper idol. In fact he dedicates the book to "people who think"

Truly this is a gift of gifts.

Mashallah! Amazing and brilliant! Must be quite big and heavy, though?

Courage wrote:

Mashallah! Amazing and brilliant! Must be quite big and heavy, though?

Ya. Huge, with not very large print, either. I left it conventiantly 'out' when I left home, just in case my mum feels like picking it up and reading it, insha'Allah.

Ending of inspector calls confused me too. Basically, none of it actually happened. When you read the play it tends to confuse you but if you actually go to see the play in action you'll be able to see all the effects the playwright wanted to create, in this instance, the play is more or less a dream, it is based on each of the characters guilt and sub-conscious-none of the events actually happen but the playwright wanted to show to the audience through his characters and the plot that all actions have consequences. When I went to see the play live, the lights were dim and it was very dream-like; the way the characters moved in and out of the scenes, the lighting, the clothes. but when you read the play you dont tend to focus on the narration or the setting which is why it tends to confuse you. But basically the whole play was either a dream or a play acting what is going through the characters mind. the only "real" part is the final scene where they receive the phone call.

All a dream eh?

This was my understanding:

The inspector's name is Goole. This is a hint through out the play that there is something unnatural about him i.e. that he is a ghoul or ghost.

Isn't that the worst way to end a story?

Courage wrote:

Isn't that the worst way to end a story?

In many situations, yes.

But not if there is a specific reason/meaning/metaphor behind the fact that it was all a dream/imagined.

Has anyone here read 'Catcher in the Rye' ? It's quite deep and I was wondering if someone could help me make sense of it. Thanks !

mi twin read that for gcse. she loved the book.

Ya'qub wrote:

Has anyone here read 'Catcher in the Rye' ? It's quite deep and I was wondering if someone could help me make sense of it. Thanks !