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Literal Truths

I was recently reading this article from the Boston Globe about the historicity of the New Testament, and it got me thinking, not so much about the historicity of the Qur’an, but about literal reading. Two verses of the Qur’an come to mind: We sent not an apostle except (to teach) in the language of his (own) people, in order to make (things) clear to them. Now God leaves straying those whom He pleases and guides whom He pleases: and He is Exalted in power, full of Wisdom. (14:4) He it is Who has sent down to thee the Book:…

Eid Mubarak!

Today is the Feast of the Sacrifice, Eid al-Adha, commemorating Hazrat Ibrahim’s and Hazrat Ismail’s willingness to sacrifice everything to God. Traditionally, some sort of animal is sacrificed to symbolize our willingness to do the same. While I appreciate the symbolic value, I’m also a firm believer in the adage about teaching someone to fish; right now the sacrificed meat is distributed to the needy. I remember the story as being Hazrat Ibrahim being asked to sacrifice what was most dear to him, and now that is money. With all of the above in mind I tried to get a…

We need to do something.

The Sydney Morning Herald is reporting the imam of a local mosque, the largest from what I understand, has commended the 9-11 hijackers in a khutba in Lebanon. The defense is that the comments were taken out of context, but the text is not made available. Give us the context. More telling is the final line: “”When you make a speech in an Arabic environment, the translation will be different in an English environment.”” How will it be different to recommend murder in one language than in another? I agree we shouldn’t rush to judgment, but the Muslim community of…