Qur'an Reading Has Begun!

We have embarked on our quest to read the Qur'an. On the sidebar are some introductory links.

For January, please read The Opening and The Cow.

I am going to produce some quizzes and a synopsis for each reading. I will have January's synopsis and quiz up shortly.

This will be fun (that is how it is intended anyway) and a learning experience for me. Any suggestions are more than welcome!

There is an on-line translation by Yusuf Ali to which you can link from the sidebar. This translation and other great resources can be found at Islamicity.

You can also find other on-line translations at this site maintained by the University of Southern California.

Also, a couple of different folks have recommended Michael Sells' Approaching the Qur'an. I have purchased the translation by Tarif Khalidi and am off to the bookstore to check out some others. I would guess that it is good to have more than one translation handy.

You can request a free copy of the Qur'an here.

January Reading

For January, please read

"The Opening" and "The Cow"

These suwar are from the on-line translation by Yusuf Ali.

A sura is a chapter and the plural of sura is suwar.

Welcome to Qur'an and Jive!

Please don't be offended by the title. My main blog is Shuck and Jive (a riff off my surname). In 2008 we read the Bible and I created a blog, Bible and Jive. In 2009 we will read the Qur'an and the blog is called Qur'an and Jive.

The "Jive" is purely me!

We will read the Qur'an over the course of the year. We will read about 1/12 of it every month. This will be a learning experience for me, so I welcome insights of yours and resources you may have.

The first challenge will be to secure a reliable English translation. Once you have that, join us!

Qur'an Cover to Cover in 2009

In 2008, in honor or our 225th anniversary (actually our 226th, but we kept the party going) my little club of bandits read the Bible (including Apocrypha) cover to cover. I created a blog for it, Bible and Jive, which I will keep posted.

For 2009, we are going to read the Qur'an cover to cover. I have created a blog for it--you guessed it--Qur'an and Jive.

I am way out of my element on this one. I don't even know a decent English translation to read. By "decent" I mean something that is easy to read, is true to the Arabic, and one that may have historical/critical notes. In other words, I am looking for a translation/edition of the Qur'an that a religion professor who is committed to the principles of the Enlightenment would use in a university religion class.

In seminary, I took a course on Muslim-Christian relations and we read the translation by Dawood (Penguin). There must be some better translations since that one.

The Qur'an isn't that long. We will read about a 12th of it each month. For January, if you would like to join us, read "The Opening" and "The Cow." I will spend at least one Sunday per month speaking about what we have read during worship.

If you have suggestions for introductions to Islam or guides to the Qur'an, that would be helpful. I'll post a bunch of links on the blog.