In 2011, it is no longer possible to hide behind ignorance and indifference our inability to comprehend and understand the Quran.
IT connectivity and it's ubiquity make such excuses redundant. Whether you are an Eskimo in Greenland or a fan of Christopher Hitchins and Richard Dawkin in England , Europe or Kuala Lumpur, you now have no valid excuse to remain ignorant. Whether you are white, black , brown or yellow; Christian, Buddhist, Hindu or agnostic, The Quran is addressed to you, as it was addressed to Prophet Muhammad some 1432 years ago:
click here
Likewise if you think you are too clever and a firm 'fan' and enthusiast in some abberant philosophy be it perinneal philosophy, liberal Islam or some 'woolly woolly' ideology, be warned : you are on very flimsy ground !
This Ramadan you can make a start towards your very own 'education' : Recite or listen to The Quran with some modicum of understanding. Follow up later with your own adventure in reading tafseer work of whichever shade you like. If your inclination is simple minded, straight forward [' betul macam bendul '] and literal, 'salafi', go the Ibnu Katsir way. If you want a European and progressive outlook of Islam, read perhaps Muhammad Assad [ for Dr Farouk Musa's take on Muhammad Assad's 'Message of The Quran', click here ].If your inclination is to feel energised and 'angry',read the more radical stuff from Maududi or 'angry' with a tinge poetic beauty, read Sayyid Qutb.If you have a lot of time and want a Nusantara perspective, Hamka's Tafsir Al Azhar would be perfect.
One has to start somewhere, sometime, somehow. Disregard your current background . You may be a nuclear scientist, may have a Masters degree from Harvard or a Phd from Cambridge but if you remain impervious to The Message of The Quran, you are what Allah termed as deaf , dumb and blind ! HE is very definitive about it: You are just DEAF, DUMB, and BLIND, my friend !.
Alhamdullillah, Islam is not constrictive. There is a spectrum of views even during Rasullallah's time and the sahabat. It is the myopic views of present day Muslims that are putting us all in the 'last lane' of everything. As if Islam put a heavy constraint on thinking. The early Muslims were mostly thinkers. The European Renaisance was just a carbon copy of what went on earlier in Cordoba, Baghdad and Servile.
Stop warming your ar.. on your chair my friend. Recite, Recite and Recite. Life is very short. By the time you realise it, you are almost there !
al Fatihah to al Baqarah 141, click here
al Baqarah 142 to al Baqarah 252, click here
al Baqarah 253 to Ali Imran 92, click here
Ali Imran 93 to An Nisa 23, click here
An Nisa 24 to An Nisa 147, click here
An Nisa 148 to al Maidah 81, click here
al Maidah 82 to al An'am 110, click here
al An'am 111 to al A'raf 87, click here
al A'raf 88 to al Anfal 40, click here
al Anfal 41 to al Taubah 92, click here
al Taubah 93 to Hud 5, click here
Hud 6 to Yusuf 52, click here
Yusuf 53 to Ibrahim 52, click here
al Hijr 1 to al Nahl 128, click here
al Isra' 1 to al Kalf 74, click here
al Kalf 75 to Ta Ha 135, click here
al Anbiya 1 to al Haj 78, click here
al Mukminun 1 to al Furqan 20, click here
al Furqan 21 to al Naml 55, click here
al Naml 56 to al Ankabut 45, click here
al Ankabut 46 to al Ahzab 30, click here
al Ahzab 31 to Yaseen 27, click here
Yaseen 28 to Az Zumar 31, click here
az Zumar 32 to Fusilat 46, click here
Fusilat 47 to al Jathiya 47, click here
al Ahqaf 1 to Adh Dhariya 30, click here
............then with HIDAYAH and FAITH, two God-given gifts, without which we would just be big-time time experts like John Esposito or Bernard Lewis: dumb, deaf and blind .....despite all their knowledge !
In the realm of Quran on the net, I like best still Quranexplorer, founded by a group of committed Muslims, of all places, Florida, USA.
With the Quranexplorer, it is possible to 'khatam' the Quran 3 times in a year without much sweat !
May Allah bless this fine work of daawah by these group of young bright people from Florida.
click here
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