This is a great, great TED talk by Lesley Hazleton, who in the course of researching an upcoming biography of the Prophet Mohammed SAW decided to undertake a reading of the Qur’an. It is a marvelous (and brief) talk, only about ten minutes, but she masterfully captures the essence of the Qur’an as a spoken text, a subtle text, and a flexible text. Also, she makes it clear yet again that there’s no 72 virgins nonsense on the Qur’an at all.
http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/1045
I look forward to reading her biography of the Prophet SAW. And I think her insights on the Qur’an align perfecty with Michael Sells’ brief volume, “Approaching the Qur’an“, which does not pretend to be a translation. I have a review copy and really need to talk more about that book. Highly, highly recommended, as I am sure Hazleton’s book will be.
Incidentally if she had asked me, I would have saved her a lot of trouble by pointing her to Quran.com where she could have read all three translations and the Arabic simultaneously instead of doing it the hard way (that slide of her desk was cringe-inducing).
Reprinted from City of Brass, by Aziz Poonawalla on blog.beliefnet.com
Dear All,
It is nice she saw no 72 virgins in the Quran. My faith has been rekindled! However, is it important that an agnostic once again requalify what moderate muslims have been passionately speaking out for for ages? It is boring and very much a put down for muslims. We know our religion. It is one of peace despite what anyone says.
Morty
Do you really think there is something called Agnostic Jew? If you are athiest or agnostic, you can’t have any other religion.
Even though the Qur’an does not mention the number of virgins, it does say in verse 56:36 that Muslim men will be awarded with virgins in Islamic heaven. Quran describes their physical attributes for example they will have large eyes (56:22) and big breasts (78:33) and so on. The actual number of houris is thus a minor issue and 72 is the number of those houris confirmed in multiple hadith. The hadiths are a crucial part of Islam and certain Muslims ignore them because sometimes they contain uncomfortable details about Islam. See Qur’an only Islam – Why it is not possible. There are many hadiths and Qur’anic verses which talk about various issues of a sexual nature. According to Sahih Bukhari 1:5:268 which belongs to the most authentic collection of hadiths, Muhammad himself was given the sexual strength of 30 men and so on.
Assalaamu Alaykum
I hear you but I don’t think she called herself addressing Muslims. Sadly, in some circles we are looked upon as the other. And because of that, people in those circles are more likely to listen to someone they relate to or think they have more in common with than they are to listen to us. Once the door is open to “our world”, they are more likely to see the beauty their.I don’t mean that they will have an epiphany and take shahadah. Allah makes Muslims. But it might mean that someone in a position to do so might be predisposed to be used my Allah to make life easier for Muslims in America.
I think that we can all agree that no one can become a Quranic scholar in 3 or 4 months. But I do think that studying Quran, even for only a short time, is advantageious for anyone. And only Allah knows where that study will ultimately lead her. I became Muslim almost 40 years ago before I had even read the Quran. But I always loved God and in less than a month I grew to love and trust Mohammed (PBBU) and took Shahadah. I trusted that the Quran was from Allah because Mohammed said so. I always loved God but my husband was an athiest before becoming Muslim. We, as humans have no way of knowing if the road someone is on will lead them to Islam or not. So, it is good to avoid throwing thrones in front of them.
As Musims, the label she has chosen to give herself is not logical. But it is an acceptible label within Reformed Judism. As long as she is not calling herself an Agnostic Muslim, I don’t care how she self identities.
I think that the point she was making about the houris is that all Muslim men who reach paradise are promised this. One does not have to a martyr to get that reward and terrorist need not expect it. Some scholars say that the houris are symbalic but then a brother once told my husband, “If I get to heaven and don’t have 72 houris, I am going to be very dissappointed.” But, insha Allah,the wonder and glory of it will make him forget about having them.
I would be insulted, if she were talking to a Muslim audience. But since I believe she is talking to her peers, I see no problem with her talk. She is not a scholar of Islam but she knows more than they do.