As promised, Robert Spencer today started a series explaining the Qur’an, beginning with Sura 1, Fatiha:
The final two verses of the Fatiha asks Allah: “Show us the straight path, the path of those whom Thou hast favoured; not the (path) of those who earn Thine anger nor of those who go astray.” The traditional Islamic understanding of this is that the “straight path” is Islam — cf. Islamic apologist John Esposito’s book Islam: The Straight Path
(updated with new epilogue). The path of those who have earned Allah’s anger are the Jews, and those who have gone astray are the Christians.
As noted by Spencer, a devout Muslim who prays as required five times daily repeats the Fatiha seventeen times, reminded as many times every day that Jews have earned Allah’s anger and Christian’s have gone astray. That’s a hard shell to crack through conversationally.
An interesting point brought up by Spencer is the literal meaning (in Arabic) of “Allah” — al-lah means “the God,” singular in number. I might translate it as “the (one and only) God” for emphasis.
For those curious about the Qur’an, this is a mostly painless way of learning more. I personally have found reading the Qur’an (in English translation) heavy sledding, due mostly I suspect because the worldview is alien from my own.
Technorati tags: Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Religion in the Public Square.
