SURA 1 AL-FATIHA

Last evening before I went to bed I read the first SURA AL-FATIHA and up to verse 62 of SURA 2 AL-BAQARAH of the Qur'an.

SURA 1 opens with a prayer that, from my reading covers four elements. (1) The prayer describes the Nature of God; Most Gracious, Most Merciful, Cherisher and Sustainer of the World, Master of the Day of Judgment. God is described in this prayer as a being who cares deeply for His creation and one who will vindicate and reward those who have chosen to honor Him. (2) God is one who helps his followers and humble followers should depend on Him for help and aid; vrs. 5 You do we worship, and your aid we seek. (3) Morality; vrs. 6 Show us the straight way (4) Tradition and Obedience; vrs. 6-7 Show us the straight way, the way of those on whom you have bestowed your Grace, those whose portion is not wrath. And who go not astray.

Now mind you I am no Islamic theologian and these are just my observations. These four elements seem to blend heavily into the second SURA and the elements of the prayer may be the very theme of the entire book for it already starts to play heavily into the first 62 verses of the second SURA, which I am still in the process of reading.

I must say that what I have read thus far is fairly easy to understand. It could be a combination of the English translation that I have and the fact that I read the introduction which gave me some background and insight on how to read the book. I also think that going into this reading with as much of an open mind as possible helps. While I certainly do not agree with some of the statements regarding those who reject Faith; As to those who reject Faith, it is the same to them whether you warn them or do not warn them; they will not believe. Allah has set a seal on their hearts and on their hearing. And on their eyes is a veil; great is the chastisement they (incur) SURA 2:6-7 I can't really argue with the logic or the point of view. My intention is not to make arguments, although that will probably happen from time to time, but instead to gain understanding for the sake of peace and harmony.

The amazing thing is that for theistic centered religious literature the style and writing of the Qur'an is incredibly clear and plain in language. Again however I must emphasize I have not read too far into the book so I don't know if I will run into apocalyptic writings or other types of genres common to scripture that will prove more challenging.

In some of the theistic religious literature I have read, when the author begins to make theological arguments such as those found in the Pauline Epistles in the New Testament of the Bible and the ethical discussions between Krisna and Arjuna regarding war and duty in the Bhagavad-Gita for example, the waters can seem to get muddy and hard to wade through. However I find the Qur'an to be quite cut and dry and easy to follow. There are some details that I do not yet understand such as why "We" is used instead of "I" when Allah speaks. The use of We instead of I could be a literary tool as to include all of God's messengers of the past and present who are speaking or testifying through one voice. Nevertheless, the overall premise is quite easy to follow and I haven't yet got lost in the small details I don't quite understand as of yet.

At any rate I forgot to mention that I received my copy of the Qur'an for free. I ordered it online at http://www.alarqamdawacenter.com/. It came to me in the mail and no Federal Agents have stormed my home yet so I guess it's safe. For those of you who may be afraid of ending up on a no fly list you may feel better going the mainstream rout and buying a Qur'an at Borders or something. But I would certainly recommend reading it.