Traditionally, Muslims read the Qur'an in its entirety during Ramadan, in a section a day. The Qur'an is split into thirty sections, called juz', and one section is read each night.
This year is the 12th year I am inviting people to tweet the Qur’an for Ramadan. I will be tweeting @islamoyankee.
Starting in 2019, I expanded the invite and encourage people share commentaries and art work. I am excited by the commentaries offered over at Sapelo Square, and I encourage you to check them out for yourselves. I'll also be tweeting commentaries from the Prophet's beloved family. In addition, you can find archives of beautiful artwork online at various museum and artist websites. Please give credit when you post these images.
NB: Because of the physical distancing we have to go through this year, I will aim to post English and Arabic this year, and will most likely be posting more during the day, than at night.
To see how the call has (not) evolved, here are the six call outs:
2010 (despite the title, which says 2011)
2014 A piece I did on Immanent Frame
The Background [from the 2009 post]
This year, I have been thinking it would be fun to tweet the Qur'an for Ramadan. Coincidentally, Shavuot came, and several people I follow on Twitter tweeted the Torah. Since that experience seemed to be successful, it further cemented my belief that this would be a good idea.
I remain grateful to Aziz Poonawala (@azizhp), who helps me refine our guidelines and provide technical feedback every year.
Our guidelines from last year:
- Anyone is welcome. You do not have to be Muslim.
- The point is to provide greater access to the Qur'an, so please tweet in English, regardless of the language you read in. Multiple language tweets are welcome. [2020 Update: Please tweet in whatever language you prefer.]
- You should tweet verses that appeal to you each night, not the entire juz'. Some of you may wish to do the whole juz', but the idea is that we find comfort in the word of God, and we approach it and understand differently every time we come to it. Each night, there are certain verses that will have more power/resonance. Simply tweet those.
- Include chapter and verse numbers using "Arabic" numerals, eg. 1:1, 33:72, etc.
- Some verses may be too long for 140 characters. Split the tweet. Summarize. As you will, but make sure you make it clear what you are doing, and include the verse number.
- You should feel free to offer commentary on why you chose that verse. If you know some tafsir, please include as well, if relevant.
- Tags: please include #ttQuran .
- You do not need to commit to reading/Tweeting every night. However, when you do Tweet, please make sure you are on the same juz as everyone else.
If there are are other guidelines you believe should be included, please leave them in comments and I'll move up some to the main post.
This year, I plan on using the The Study Qur’an and the translation by Ali Quli Qarai.