Wednesday, June 16, 2010

On the Koran

A few notes on the Koran and Islam:

  • The Koran was supposedly given to Mohammad through revelation by the archangel Gabriel.
  • The Koran does not replace the bible, but supposedly corrects misconceptions due to translation error and errors of the original telling.   Because of this, certain tales are not fleshed out since it is expected that believers would know who certain characters are.
  • Islam is an Abrahamic religion, just as Judaism and Christianity are.
  • The Koran is not presented chronologically, it is ordered by length of the chapters.  The longest chapters are first.  
  • A chapter of the Koran is called a surah, verses are ayah.
  • Jesus is a prophet of Islam.
  • The Koran is supposedly the only holy book that mentions that women and men are equal.  However, it still maintains that men should have dominion over women in certain matters (ex: financially). 
Just wanted to share a few things about Islam as I work my way through the Koran.  I am by no means an expert on the subject and am reading the Koran for the first time.  I am also reading the Blackwell Companion to the Qur'an, so hopefully that will lend some balance to my first impressions. 

No comments:

Post a Comment