I decided today to engage myself with two long-term projects. I plan to run the Philadelphia Marathon Nov. 22, which will take a lot of training over the next 24 weeks. Since no one reads this blog anyway, it doesn't matter, but I'm going to post occasionally on my progress as a form of motivation. Hopefully.
My other project is to read the Koran. I've read some of Sura 2 in the past, and I didn't enjoy it. But I'm starting over. Here goes.
Sura 1 is a short devotional statement known as Al-Fatiha. This sura is only seven verses long, and says some nice things about God:
"Praise be to Allah, Lord of the Worlds, the Benificent, the Merciful, Thee alone we worship, Thee alone we ask for help." (1:3-5)
It finishes up by expressing the hope that those who recite the prayer will not be led astray. As we'll see in the next Sura, the Koran doesn't waste any time in condemning non-believers. This little doxology here doesn't mean much to me. I hope that I never become a Muslim just as strongly as any Muslim hopes not to someday become an apostate.
It should be noted that Bismillah is the first word of the Koran.
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Orwell noted that "[i]n certain kinds of writing, particularly in art criticism and literary criticism, it is normal to come across long passages which are almost completely lacking in meaning." Chances are that will apply to most of the things you read here.
