Friday, May 9, 2008

Qur'an 20080509

In the name of Allah, most Gracious, most Merciful.

30. Or do they say, "A poet! We await for him some calamity by time!"

31. Say thou, "Await ye! I too will wait along with you!"

32. Is it that their faculties of understanding urge them to this, or are they but a people transgressing beyond bounds?

33. Or do they say, "He fabricated this?" Nay, they have no faith!

34. Let them produce a recital like unto it, if they speak the truth!

The Mountain 52:30-34
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Await ye! I too will wait along with you!

One of the Evidences of the Divine Nature of the Qur'an is its inability to be mimicked. The ancient Arabs were a society of poets, and they tried their best to mimic the Qur'an, but to no avail. Now, what you, the reader here, are seeing is a translation into English of a few verses of the Qur'an. Ancient Arabic, with its vowel and grammar system, is very meticulous, and complex. Add a complex rhyme, rhythm and story system to that. Add a comprehensive legal structure to that. Add great density, and manipulation of time to that. A pure translation of the Qur'an is near impossible, let alone an imitation.

I find it easiest to understand the Qur'an as a Book of Law, in which to live my life with. But it's much more than that- often I find that the Qur'an lives, and breathes. But only God knows the meaning of all this Qur'an.

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Death of a clown

There was a clown, who worked as a mascot for a baseball team. The team was successful, thus the clown was wealthy. He was gay, and he was a transvestite clown. He and his gay lover would make a mess of his nice house, and expect the servants to clean it up. He would wear very short skirts with no underwear, and allow his urine to stain his clothes after he used the bathroom. Then he would go straight to work at the stadium, slapping hands with the crowd waiting in line. Everybody knew him! As he entered the gate, the crowd and the gatekeeper would say, "Hello Clown!" Even as he got older, and uglier, and started to dress more modestly, he was still very popular. One day the gatekeeper saw him at the gate, and said "Hello Clown! You look much younger today!" But the Clown happened to be a faceless man with a mask, and he said, "No! The Clown is dead! I'm just emulating my hero!" The Clown was very famous.

Every time the Clown went to work, he would go high up the stairs into the bleachers, because there were many people and cameras there. The crowd would cheer him on, as he made them laugh. One day, he saw some nicer seats downstairs, so he descended, and it turned out to be the Presidential Booth. He wanted to play a joke on the President, so the Clown stuck his head out from the seats above the booth, and surprised the President. The President got angry, and started to swear, and shook his fist at the Clown. The crowd thought it was very funny, so the Clown turned the incident into a routine, using his gay lover to reprise the role of President.

One day the Clown descended to the seats below, and found a basketball. He had never played basketball before, so he became curious, and began to bounce the ball. Some people upstairs started to cheer him on, and threw down some change and peanuts. The Clown threw the change and peanuts back, and it fell into their drinking cups, without missing a single one! It was then that the Clown discovered that he was good at basketball. He tried for a career in basketball, but everyone he turned to said, "No, we don't want you to play basketball because you're too old, and everyone likes you as a gay clown who is a mascot for the baseball team. It doesn't matter if you're good at basketball or not."

One day, the Clown did his Presidential Booth routine, and he descended down to surprise his gay lover. But he wasn't there. Instead, there was a stadium official sitting there. He said to the Clown, "Your gay lover is dead. Didn't you know?" The Clown didn't.