Ramadan starts today, and as I was looking at information about it for a possible blog post, I saw mentioned that one of the traditions in Islam is the recitation of entire Koran over the course of the 30 days. I haven't read more than a few verses here and there since college in my copy of the Koran, and one of my 101 in 1001 goals was to read the entire Koran, so I thought that this seemed like a good thing to try. My copy of the Koran from college is about 425 pages, this works out to roughly 15 pages per day. Although I'm not reading at the rate I used to, 15 pages a day should be no problem.
So, for the next 30 days, I'm going to read about 15 pages of the Koran each day and post some of the verses that I find interesting. I'm not Muslim, and I'm not going to try to do any deep interpretation of the scriptures or comparisons to other scriptures. That's simply not something I'd be comfortable doing on a first reading of scripture in any case. However, I'd be happy to discuss, in the comments or in future posts, any ideas that people have regarding what I've read. If anyone cares to join me in this project I'll try to post my next-day reading plan each day as well.
So... Day 1 (1:1 - 2:141)
1. The Exordium
The first Chapter, only a few verses long, offers praises to God and asks for guidance.
2. The Cow
The first half of this chapter seems to focus on interactions with those who don't follow Islam. The general idea seems to be that God has revealed himself to various prophets and discounting any of them is wrong.
Notable verses:
(2:62) Believers, Jews, Christians, and Sabaeans -- whoever believes in God and the Last Day and does what is right -- shall be rewarded by their Lord; they have nothing to fear or regret.
(2:87) To Moses We gave the Scriptures and after him We sent other apostles. We gave Jesus son of Mary veritable signs and strengthened him with the Holy Spirit. Will you then scorn each apostle whose message does not suit your fancies, charging some with imposture and slaying others?
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