katy, no need to apologize, thanks for the answer
planten, my answer to another users was related to my experience not yours or anyone else’s, but what happened to me. Every culture has stories of many things that are simply either untrue or exagerated. In this case what the person told me had been told to him, which he believed and passed on to me. I however can not commit to something, especially when it questions my complete belief system, without having researched it, from reading both Quran and Hadith and articles/statements by Islamic scholars. I mean honestly, I wouldn’t expect a Muslim that had read the Bible once to fully grasp the entire text without needing explaination or at least more serious study than one read, to me it is a sign I took the endevor seriously. After I read the Quran, I still had questions, whether it was in matters inconsistant with the Bible, or simply issues within myself that needed further clarification. Even in school, when you are required to read a book, you read, you discuss, you possibly do further research or read other books to fully understand the issues. When I was in high school we were required to read Hamlet in two seperate years, with seperate issues tackled in each year. On the second read through, we read other books about explainations and opinions, whould I not do at least that much for what is a holy book to over a billion people?
And yes I absolutely agree with katy, I do not believe that the language of God is limited to Arabic. If the text, IN MY OPINION, were true and from the Almighty God it would reach through any and all language barriers, yet when I asked questions about it I was often confronted with “its a bad translation” or “it doesnt translate” or my personal favorite “it is a cultural thing that probably wouldn’t be understood”. Where may I ask is the original Quran? From what I understand the rough drafts were burnt.
After the prophet passed away, Abubakr took the step to compile the Quran. Next Umar did the same. Quran was written in proper order. In the time of Uthman, six copies were made of the authentic Quran and provided to the public. Quran has a good history of its preservation and protection and compilation and circulation and its sanctity.
What I do not understand here is why was the way the angel revealed it not the correct order? A second issue I have, which I suppose concerns Islam as a whole, why an angel, both Jesus Christ and Moses spoke to God, why not Muhammed? (the above statement just brought it my mind so forgive me if its out of order in the discussion, but I don’t want to forget). Also, why did the angel not discribe Christianity and its practices and beliefs correctly? I have seen many instances of Muslims claiming that the Virgin Mary is part of the Trinity, that she is the wife of God. Untrue, by Christianity at any point in history.
Now, according to wikipedia the first Latin translation of the Quran occured in 1143 by a man named Robertus Ketenensis, then the second translation again in Latin did not occur until 1698 (this was apparently to correct errors in the first). So, for what, about 500 yrs there were only duplicates made in the original Arabic and when the text was translated for either study/understanding it wasn’t even by the Arabs. I think it is pretty easy to claim that it has been uncorrupted for nearly 1400 years, when there were literally no other translations or anything other than a pure xerox copy. I have a book of Shakespeare’s works, does that mean it is divine as it hasn’t changed in over 400 years?
Why would Muslims desire to “keep it a secret” why have people convert that do not fully or even partially understand it? I have seen, which may be incorrect so if you have another stat I welcome it, but anyway I have seen that only about 15% of Muslims actually speak Arabic as their first language, which leaves the remaining 85% learning Arabic as a secondary language based upon the first. How many Muslims actually are receiving the true word of God, in God’s language, as it is meant to be understood? The window here is quite small, especially when most Muslims claim that Arabic version is the only correct and complete version.
There is no prophet who did not live at least half of the life of his predecessor prophet. Jesus lived for 120 years and I believe that I shall go away at the head of 60.
This I do not understand, do Muslims believe that Jesus was 120? Christians believe he died at 32 (approx.). If you could explain that statement I would appriciate it, as there is a significant difference in the ages.