Random thoughts on Islam theology
Nov. 28th, 2010 01:45 pmSapir-Whorf hypothesis was taken as a proven fact quite a few centuries ago by Muslim scholars. "Any Qur'an translation is an interpretation."
One could argue that some branches of Christian church followed the same doctrine for centuries, but it is quite different point: Christ apparently did not write the New Testament in Latin.
However, modern Arabic is quite different language from what was spoken in 7th century. It's no longer a single language, the dialects: Magrib, Egyptian, etc are quite distinct. So according to their own doctrine, one can only truly understand the holy book if he is a native speaker of Arabic dialect used in 7th centure in Mecca region.
I think this point is quite apparent so it should have been discussed by Muslim scholars who had probably found a workaround. Unfortunately short googling did not help me to find what is it.
Why I bother? A billion ppl in this world think it is important part of their lives. I have some friends that think so too. Also there are bad guys who think they own the only correct interpretation.
I have a book with several annotated Qur'an translations to Russian. There is Arabic version there as well. But unlike New Testament which reads like a story, it is insanely difficult to read. I've recently found Wikipedia Quaran. It is much easier to read.
One could argue that some branches of Christian church followed the same doctrine for centuries, but it is quite different point: Christ apparently did not write the New Testament in Latin.
However, modern Arabic is quite different language from what was spoken in 7th century. It's no longer a single language, the dialects: Magrib, Egyptian, etc are quite distinct. So according to their own doctrine, one can only truly understand the holy book if he is a native speaker of Arabic dialect used in 7th centure in Mecca region.
I think this point is quite apparent so it should have been discussed by Muslim scholars who had probably found a workaround. Unfortunately short googling did not help me to find what is it.
Why I bother? A billion ppl in this world think it is important part of their lives. I have some friends that think so too. Also there are bad guys who think they own the only correct interpretation.
I have a book with several annotated Qur'an translations to Russian. There is Arabic version there as well. But unlike New Testament which reads like a story, it is insanely difficult to read. I've recently found Wikipedia Quaran. It is much easier to read.