A Simple Koran

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 408 pages
• Published by: CSPI Publishing July 1, 2006
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0978552881
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0978552886
• Book Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Weighs: 1.4 pounds

Product Description
The standard Koran is arranged by length of chapter. The longest chapter is at the beginning and the shortest chapters are at the end. This makes it confusing and hard to understand. Now you can read and understand A SIMPLE KORAN. The words of the Koran are woven back into the historical life of Mohammed. In actual fact, the Koran did unfold over the course of Mohammed's life. A SIMPLE KORAN recreates the historical order of the Koran of Mohammed's day. The first chapters start with Mohammed's first recitations and the last chapters are those he recited before he died. Mohammed's life gives the Koran clarity and meaning. It becomes a powerful, epic story. Read A SIMPLE KORAN. It will change the way you see the world's events.

Reader Reviews
Since 9/11, Americans have been trying to dope out the Islamic holy book, the Qur'an (or, more commonly, the Koran). However, unlike the holy books of the other great monotheistic religions (i.e., the Hebrew Bible and the Christian New Testament), the Koran can't be read as a "freestanding" tome. Reading the Koran is like walking into the middle of a very esoteric conversation between two people you've never even met. A cold reading of the Koran makes no sense to non-Muslims who have no familiarity with the two other complementary sacred texts of Islam: the Hadiths (Ahaditha in Arabic), which are the traditions of Mohammed, and the Sira, biographies of Mohammed. These latter works are considered semi-canonnical by both Sunni and Sh'ia Muslims. The Koran is considered the verbatim word of Allah, engraved for all eternity in heavenly tablets. Thus, unlike the Holy Bible, which most Christians consider "inspired" by God, the Koran is considered by NORMATIVE Islam to be a literal transcription of Allah's final uncorrupted message to mankind ("humankind" would be somewhat innacurate, and likely too PC a descriptive for most Muslims), transmitted by the Angel Gabriel himself directly to Mohammed, the "Seal of the Prophets" to all Muslims. The Koran is a very recondite, confusing, tedious and downright "weird" read for most Westerners. As far as substance goes, many non-Muslim critics --likely including Pope Benedict -- over the centuries have maintained it adds not a single ethical teaching to those previously proclaimed by the other two Abrahamic faiths, Judaism and Christianity. As to form, most English translations leave much to be desired, and, to make matters worse, a number of Koranic-linguistic scholars claim that about 20% of the Koran is ambiguous in the original classical Arabic! Be that as it may, A Simple Koran solves the learning-curve problem of Westerners who want to delve into the Koran itself. It is written in modern "newspaper" (middlebrow) English, with foreign words defined. The thing that makes this Koran different from all the others on the market is that it is ordered chronologically -- the standard versions are ordered by length of suras (separate chapters), not by chronicity -- the pukkah Qur'an is always organized counter-intuitively into non-topical chapters called suras, because during his lifetime, Mohammed would have individual verses revealed to him unexpectedly and in surprising places. Often important topics (e.g., women's rights, Jihad, polytheism) are discussed helter-skelter in non sequiter snippets throughout various different suras -- an aya (verse) here, and an aya there. In A Simple Koran, much-needed commentary is provided in the form of references to relevant Hadiths and Sira so that Mohhammed's life is woven back into the Koran, giving all-important context. A Simple Koran -- written and edited by anonymous scholars -- sorts out and re-categorizes the hodge-podge of suras and ayas in the original version so that ease of readability and meaning is restored. Not a single word is ommitted from the standard version of the Koran. This volume contains 408 pages (the Koran itself is about the length of the New Testament). Because the Koran is very repetitive -- e.g., the story of Moses and Pharaoh is recounted more than thirty times! -- the publishers offer an abridged version of 220 pages entitled An Abridged Koran. If you are not a theological or literary obsessive-compulsive purist (like me), you will learn the teachings of the Koran just as well from this thinner and cheaper little tome as from the unabridged version, since only redundant verses are expurgated in the abridged version. In the final analysis, by reading A simple Koran (or An Abridged Koran) one can now determine for oneself if the Koran is (A) mostly seventh-century hate literature, (B) epic drama, (C) a nonpareil inspiration to living a more spiritual life, (D) one big exhortation to perform the sacrament of holy warfare against polytheists, infidels and pagans, or (E) none of the above (F) a little (or a lot) of some or all of the above, or (G) something quite different than any of the foregoing. Now, at least you can apply your own critical and value judgments to the Koranic text itself, instead of wasting time with some lowbrow propagandistic pabalum-commentary ABOUT the Koran such as The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Koran. Thus, for better or for worse, get the "full blast" of Allah's message by reading either A Simple Koran (unabridged) or An Abridged Koran. Caveat: The publisher strongly recommends reading their versions of the companion-complementay Islamic sacred texts, the Hadiths, entitled The Political Traditions of Mohammed, and Sira, entitled Mohammed and the Unbelievers, before tackling the mystery of the Koran. The publisher insists that reading the Koran after taking in the background info provided by these volumes covering both Hadiths and Sira will give one a much better understanding of the Koran itself.