Excellent write-up by SAA. Putting it here to share and for personal records. To get a good grounding of the basics of the Quran, and if you cannot read Arabic, just read any translation of the Quran first. Many of the translations are horrible but still you can get a pretty good idea of what is INSIDE the Quran. Here is a hint – those words inside the brackets that you find in the translations are NOT part of the Quran. They are the translators own choice of words, extrapolations etc. Don’t get confused. Also the footnotes at the bottom of the page in many translations are also not from the Quran. So, for the time being, to avoid confusion and to understand more exactly what is written in the Quran, just ignore the words in brackets and the footnotes. On a scale of 1 – 10 (1 being best and 10 being worst) here is my own approximate score about the quality and reliability of some Quran translations (by translator’s name and language) available in Malaysia or through the Internet. Terjemahan Al Quran Secara Lafziyyah (Indon) – 3 (the best so far) Terjemahan Al Quran oleh Departemen Agama Republik Indonesia – 4 (very good) Rashad Khalifa (English) 1st Edition (banned in Malaysia) - 4 Shakir (English) – 5 Sher Ali (English) – 5 Submitters International English Translation - 5 Abdullah Yusuf Ali (American version) - 6 Muhammad Marmaduke Pickthall (English) - 6 Muhammad Assad (English) - 6 AJ Arberry (English) – 6 Sale (English) - 6 Abdullah Yusuf Ali (original English version) - 8 Rashad Khalifa 2nd Edition (banned in Malaysia) – 10 (it is crap). JAKIM’s Malay translation – 10 (if you read it you will become more confused). Muhammad Muhsin Khan (English) – 10 (worse than crap – if you read it you can become sesat) You can also read translations online. Five of the above English translations ie Shakir, Yusuf Ali, Sher Ali, Muhammad Pickthall and Rashad Khalifa can be found at the following site : quranbrowser.org. It also has a powerful word search in English. For those of you who want to do serious academic type research about the Quran, there is a powerful Quran search function at this site openburhan. But you must be able to read Arabic. In land surveying there is something known as a demarcation survey. Sometimes land titles were issued in the 1920s or even in the 1800s for land that was quite inaccessible. Now with urban encroachment, such lands gather new life. After so much time has passed sometimes the marker stones are lost and squatters may have encroached on the land. Trees may have grown big and tall with the tree trunk straddling property lines. If there are rivers and streams the waterway may have shifted its course, complicating the boundary issue even more. The original boundaries of the land are not plain anymore. Over the years, it has been covered over and no one knows where his own property ends and where the neighbour’s property begins. To find out exactly where the boundaries of the land lie the Land Surveyors do a demarcation survey. By referring the original Title (from the Land Office) they determine the boundaries of the land. Then they survey the land and see if anyone has encroached upon the land (in Malaysia this is important when it comes to settling claims by illegal squatters). So the absolutely crucial step is to simply determine the original boundaries of the land. Everything else is secondary – it comes later. What the squatters have built on the land, the trees they have planted, encroachment by the adjacent land owners etc. itu semua bab nombor tiga, empat, lima. The most important thing is to identify and isolate the original boundaries as per the original Land Title. Now the same thing applies to the Quran. In the beginning there was only the Quran – Allah’s revelation or wahyu for mankind. Then over the years other things have been added eg fiqih, ijma’, qiyas, hadith, ra’i and other things. Covered over by all these extra additions, the Quran has been buried under. Today the Muslims cannot see the boundaries anymore between what is inside the Quran and what is outside the Quran. They do not know if something is from the original Arabic Quran (which we all have at home) or is it from the fiqih, the ijma, the qiyas, hadith, ra’I or even the Bible and so on. Some say that “all of this is part of Islam from Adam to Nabi Ibrahim to Moses, Jesus etc”. OK fine. I don’t wish to argue this point because these points are already being argued everyday by the different sects in Islam. The never ending arguments between the Sunnis, Shiahs, Wahhabis, Salafis and the hundreds of other sects, cults and groups in Islam are all about the the fiqih, the ijma, the qiyas, hadith, ra’I etc. It is rarely if ever about the Quran. When was the last time you heard an argument about an ayat Quran? For example both the Shiahs and the Sunnis read the same Quran. The Shiahs and Sunnis rarely differ about the Quran. But they differ over the hadith, ijma, the fiqih etc. That is where the problems start. Similarly, the Salafis or Wahhabis read the same Quran as the other Sunnis but they differ over the interpretations of the fiqh, the hadith, the ijma etc. So the single most important factor that unites Muslims of all shades, sects and flavours is the Quran. Shiahs, Sunnis, Salafis, Wahhabis, Soofys have little or no differences about the Quran. All these Muslims start to fight and argue only when they leave the Quran behind, ie when they argue about things that are NOT found in the Quran. Let me give you an example. Did the Prophet order that apostates should be killed or not? Referring the hadith, some argue that yes the Prophet did order the killing of the apostates. But referring the same hadith, others say no. They say the apostates were ordered killed not because they were apostates but because it was wartime and the apostates had joined the enemies and launched an attack against the Muslims. Hence they got killed as combatants in war. Not because they were apostates. And then there is a counter argument – and it goes back and forth, splitting hairs all the way. Now all this is not found in the Quran. What does the Quran say about punishing apostates? The Quran does not say that the apostates should be punished in any way. In Surah 4:137 the Quran tolerates the act of moving in and out of belief and leaves it to Allah to deal with the apostates. Some of you have asked about prayer. The scholars will confirm that the details of the prayer are not mentioned in the Quran. Some say that the details are found in the hadith. Even this is debateable because some say the hadith is not fully clear about the details of prayer. Prayer is found more detailed in the books of fiqih. Fiqih means jurisprudence and refers to the writings of the jurists or fuqaha. Among Sunnis the well known jurists or fuqaha are Maliki, Abu Hanifah, Hambali and Shafie. The Shiahs have their own jurists. The prayer differs slightly even between the Sunnis. In Masjid India for example the Indian Muslim mosque (which is Hanafi) prays the evening Asar prayer at least half an hour after the other mosques which are Shafiee. In Iraq I observed the Shiahs praying in their mosques. The Sunnis said that even the qiblat or direction of prayer in the Shiah mosques in Iraq is slightly different from the Sunni mosques. So there are still differences in prayer between Shiahs and Sunnis. A large number of Shiahs do not pray the Friday prayers mandatorily. Plus their azan is different. Yet both are Muslim. The Hanafi mazhab has a book called Al Bab al Salat (shortened to Bab-us-Salat) which details prayer. The book is a compilation of hadith and fiqih. And bear in mind that these differences exist despite 1400 years of filtering and streamlining religious beliefs. They say that somewhere in the 4th century Hijrah some scholar (al Qaffal?) issued a fatwa (please feel free to dispute this - I read this somewhere) which closed the door on ijtihad. Ijtihad refers to interpretation, discussion and debate. Ijtihad was replaced by taqlid or following by rote, without questioning. This was done to put an end to all the different opinions that were causing disputes among Muslims. Hence a status quo was declared - all the different interpretations within the Sunni school up to that time in history would be accepted. New interpretations were not necessary. There was no need for new ijtihad. By putting a freeze on ijtihad, the Sunnis actually froze their differences of opinions into solid concrete with no avenue for review. That is what the Sunnis (and the Shiahs) are stuck with until today. Lately, some brave voices are calling for reopening the doors of ijtihad. My view is I dont think these people know what they are saying. It is a huge can of worms - actually a Pandoras Box. But we digress. We were talking about land titles and demarcation surveys. As a first step I think it is important for the Muslims to differentiate between what is inside the Quran versus fiqih versus ijma versus hadith versus qiyas etc. It is too dangerous to simply say it is all part of Islam. If so, then why are Shiahs prosecuted and persecuted in Sunni countries and Sunnis prosecuted or persecuted in Shiah countries? In Pakistan they just shoot and kill each other. Now even within the Sunnis, a war is developing between Salafis and other Sunnis. It is never ending. Which is why I like to point out what is inside the Quran. And from time to time, to also point out certain things that are NOT in the Quran but which many people thought was in the Quran. The Aa-meen is just one example. Some of you have insisted that the Aa-meen is found at the end of Surah Fatiha in the Quran. Please go and read Surah Fatiha in Arabic. There is no Aa-meen there. I believe that if the Muslims first understand what is written inside the Quran versus all the other things that are NOT found written in the Quran - that by itself will lead to a great awakening. Once you know this then you can go and study the rest. To avoid boundary disputes, we have to know what are the boundaries of the original Land Title. Only after that you can plant your durian trees, oil palm trees, build your bungalow etc. Similarly we have to know what is written inside the Quran and what is NOT written in the Quran. After that you can go on to other things.
Posted on: Mon, 13 Oct 2014 06:53:33 +0000
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