I've Always Wondered What the Koran Said

I've been very busy lately, but really will try and do shorter, more frequent posts.  My friend EV, who very kindly said he would check out my blog, was confused (and I think a bit daunted) by my long, infrequent posts.  He's used to reading more political blogs, updated more than once a day with links or other brief blurbs.  I see what he means.  I know the blurby blogs that are links-a-lot, and I even like a couple, but those links eventually have to lead to something you read.  It can't be all links; there's got to be some substance, somewhere, right?  This is substance.

But of course, I will lighten up.  On that note, let me mention the Koran.  In preparation for an upcoming Egypt trip, in a couple months, I am starting to do some self-education: learning a a few Arabic words, pouring over a guidebook, ordering some Egyptian literature for the trip, reading a book on how to read hieroglyphics (I should have at least a passing familiarity with that, before being confronted with so many temples - historical interest is what keeps tourists from getting museum-ed and cathedral-ed and temple-ed out).  I am also reading another in that recent series I love, "A Very Short Introduction to...The Koran." 

I have also read the very short introduction to:

• Consciousness (a bit disturbing, frankly, and suspect)
• Contemporary Art (a bit heavy on the Brits, too much about Damien Hirst and Tracy Emin)
• Globalization (only got thru a bit of that)

I have Judaism and another one I can't remember, but I haven't read them.  The Koran is very interesting.  I've seen some beautiful old illuminated Korans at the Chester Beatty Museum (http://www.cbl.ie/Collections/The-Islamic-Collection.aspx)
but I don't know much about the book itself, its history and contents.  This seemed like the right time to check that all out.

I grew up reading the Bible, so I am not unfamiliar with how scripture looks and sounds - how strange it can seem, with its odd references (breasts like heaps of wheat or whatnot) and foreign syntax - but the Koran is even more unfamiliar to me than I expected.  There are a lot of almost shocking things in there - metaphors I can't quite get, concepts I can only hover on the edge of.  But it's all very interesting and I respect it as a I would any text a people consider sacred.

There was one phrase that stuck with me, which I want to, with all respect, share.  In a passage about God's creation of man, it speaks of God knowing what you have done, even when you thought He was not looking, and it says this:

"That then, the thought you thought about your Lord, has destroyed you, and therefore you find yourselves this morning among the losers."

I added the emphasis - and that was the part that struck me.  It was so - direct and clear and had a ring of truth, of poetry.  I don't know exactly what I think of it, but I do know I have been thinking of it since I read it.  Well, that was all I wanted to say about it. 

Now you know at least something about the Koran.