Yesterday I posted my first vidcast “Tips for New Muslims: Approaching the Qur’an,” but I thought I’d do a written post on the topic as well. This is for those who can’t/don’t want to view vidcasts and also to make the content searchable in the future.

Introduction

The Qur’an, the holy scripture of Muslims, was revealed in the Arabic language to the Prophet Muhammad , peace be upon him, over fourteen hundred years ago. Muslims believe the Qur’an in its Arabic original is literally the word of God (not the word of Muhammad). As such, the English texts we read are really translations of the meanings of the Qur’an.

This post assumes that readers have little to no knowledge of Arabic, and is designed for those who have never read an English translation of the Qur’an.

Purifying intentions

Traditionally, Muslims perform ritual ablutions (a ritual ablution), purifying the bodies and souls, before touching a copy of the Qur’an. This isn’t a concern if you are simply reading an English translation, but it is good to make an intention that you want to read the translation of the Qur’an for the sake of Allah . This is because the intention behind any action is extremely important according to Islamic belief.

The holy Prophet, peace be upon him, said: “Actions are only by intention, and every person shall only have what he intended.”

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My (earnest, irate) thoughts. Very enjoyable, has been added to blogroll (well… I’m about to go do it now inshallah).

AcademcHack. I’ve known about this for a while, but now am really starting to get into it.

Abu Yasmin and I have offloaded the offspring (heh) to Grandma this weekend, and we’re enjoying a lazy day doing our own thing. This means not shopping, not cleaning the house and not arranging weekend suitable activities for four-and-a-half year old. So for lunch we decided to toodle up/down (depending on your geography) to Berwick. We found a gorgeous little cafe, ordered coffees and lunch (I had a lovely vegetarian pastie), Abu Yasmin read the Hun, and I read Darren’s ProBlogger book. All-in-all, life is good alhamdulillah.

My very first vidcast. This week I talk about approaching the holy Qur’an for new Muslims or people generally interested in gaining a better understanding of Islam through reading a translation of the Islamic scripture.

Years ago I stumbled across Darren Rowse’s Living Room blog, about his experiences as pastor of an Emerging Church in Melbourne. A couple of years previously I had experimented with being an online diarist (we turned up our noses at weblogs, which were merely collections of links and web flotsam and jetsam). When I saw Darren’s blog, I knew I wanted one too. By strange co-incidence, it turned out that Darren had seen me at a mosque open-day that I had fronted once

So I started up Dervish and have had fun ever since. Since then I’ve spoken at his church and seen his blogging career launch into the stratosphere. My only regret is that his blogging at Living Room has dwindled into almost nothingness *sigh*.

When he announced his first book on professional blogging was about to be released I excitedly ordered a copy. I can say it’s well-written (co-authored with Chris Garrett), interesting, and is making me look at blogging in a new light.  Well done Darren and Chris!!

Episode 2 of Salam Cafe is online. I am a bit cross at Naz’s Uncle Sam. I got an asthma attack from laughing so hard. This week’s guest Rhys Muldoon was really good too, although it is a bit strange seeing Play School people being normal adults.

Anyway, well done to all involved - the show is getting funnier every week, despite the high benchmark.