Srah Interprets the Quran

This project is long overdue. Srah must read the Quran.

As many of you know- or don't- exactly one half of my honours program was devoted to Religious Studies. While specifically I focused on East Asian Religions, thanks to the undefined curriculum at McGill I was able to branch out and take a variety of courses surveying the religions of the world.

In my third year, while taking one such wanderlust class, "Bible and Quran Interpretations", I thought I was finally going to embark on a personal project I had always been really curious and equally too lazy to try, read the Books.

Unfortunately for me and about 99% of my fellow classmates this particular course was not going to force us to read the Books, front to back cover. Instead, it forced us to read only certain passages and find their roots and historical understandings.

In reflection, while I was disappointed to not have been forced a reading of the Books in entirety, this course actually served to be the perfect introduction to such an endeavor, should and when one ever take place. You see, the course taught us about one, big, gigantic, thing: interpretation. We learned how words, passages, scriptures, books-- all the things in man's (sorry) possession-- have been understood, and re-understood from one point of history to another; and from one man/woman to another.

In so teaching me this, the course taught me another really important-- albeit dangerous-- lesson: like beauty, scripture is in the eye of the beholder.

So, about a year after finishing this course and feeling like I have a theosophical theological license to kill with my new found degree I am deciding to (finally) Read The Books.

I have decided to start with the Quran for a number of reasons... none of which I think particularly matter save for one thing: I couldn't find my copy of the Bible, lost somewhere in my boxes between Ottawa/Montreal/and Buffalo.

Now, this is where I throw out a disclaimer. I do not wish to provide an authoritative interpretation of the Quran. Far from it. First of all, I realize to perhaps a lot of people's chagrin that I am reading it in English and not Arabic. And secondly, Yes, I am reading the Quran removed from the support of other Islamic texts and authorities.

Essentially my curiosity is purely personal and concerned solely with the words and passages at hand. For this reason, I don't want to seek the interpretations of others to get me through (maybe only to compare and feel outdone). I want to read the Quran like I would read any other text, say, on astrophysics, or computational mechanics... you get the point.

So it is that I will read the Quran for myself, by myself, and in English.

I have made this a public statement (of incrimination) because I would like to share my curiosities with others. When I had first decided to read the Quran, a lot of people got excited and started throwing out questions left and right. People are curious about this Book. Obviously, it's a big part of our political-- and hence, social rhetoric. And the fact is that while this book is arguably the most influential text in history—rivaled only by the Bible—very few of us here in the West will actually ever read it.

So, I am opening up the floor to questions, comments, or whatever you would like to share. And-- just as our grade school teachers used to encourage us-- there is no such thing as a stupid question!

I have to be honest and say that I can probably promise to answer none of your questions. But, I can at least also promise to try and engage them as I go along reading the Quran.

My father in his infinite wisdom got the ball rolling with what he calls his burning question. As he says, everyone speaks of Jewish/Christian influences in the Quran, but few ever speak about Persian and Arabic pagan influences (probably because the archeological findings are not straight linear to allow for such divided study). Now, I have only in passing come across academia of the Persian and Arab pre-Islam pagan religions. But, I had to promise him that I would bring back a few points of relevance by the end of my read. Although I think he is expecting a whole Sun of relevance, at least (pagan joke, haha).

Anyways, I will try to update this blog as I go. And I encourage you to follow along/ jump in whenever and wherever the desire fuels you.