Quran reading plan by a Christian

From: http://christianreadsquran.wordpress.com/tag/reading-plan/

January 2, 2011


My Reading Plan

Posted by Jason Knight under Uncategorized
Tags: Islam, Muhammad, Muslim, Qur'an, reading plan, structure



Traditionally, the Qur’an is said to have been revealed to Muhammad by Allah (a name that simply means “God” in Arabic) through the archangel Gabriel over the course of twenty-three years, from 610 C.E. until Muhammad’s death in 632 C.E. It is contested exactly how these revelations came to be written down and collected into one book, but all agree that within twenty-five years of the Prophet’s death the Qur’an was a written document. Much like with Christians and the Bible, conservative Muslims believe the Qur’an we have today is pretty much identical to the revelations given to Muhammad; liberals allow for omissions, lost passages, and variants. By and large, though, Muslim textual criticism of the sort seen in the study of the Hebrew Bible or the New Testament is still in its infancy.



The Qur’an is divided into 114 chapters or “surahs.” Each has a name (e.g., the first is called Al-Fatiha). Each surah is divided into “ayahs” or verses. After the first surah — an introduction to the book — all surahs are organized according to length, from longest to shortest. Because of this the Qur’an is not remotely chronological. The correct format for making a citation is to give the surah followed by the ayah (e.g., 2:255 or Al-Baqarah 255).



For discussion, the surahs are typically divided into two groups, the Meccan and Medinan surahs. The former were revealed before Muhammad’s move to Medina in 622 C.E. (the Hijra) when Islam was just beginning. The latter group comes from after the move. However, the Meccan and Medinan surahs are not grouped together at all in the Qur’an so at any point one could be reading from one or the other (some versions of the Qur’an label the individual surahs as Meccan or Medinan or this website can help). Chronological lists show that the Qur’an is very jumbled historically.



It is held that Gabriel told Muhammad where to place each surah, but the angel’s reasoning is unclear today. It would appear length is the only sure organizational matrix. All of this means I am going to have to read the Qur’an differently than I am used to reading the Bible where context is everything.



The Qur’an is also grouped into larger and smaller parts useful for weekly and monthly recitations and for use during Ramadan. Unfortunately, none of these divisions are suitable for a year-long reading schedule.



So, a simple Google search later and I am going to go with the advice to read 125 ayahs per week or 21 ayahs per day, with one day off per week to catch up. That is equivalent to one New Testament chapter per day — easy! Generally, I’ll go with that plan and likely take Sundays off.



Several people online have suggested that one read a tasfeer (commentary) alongside the day’s reading (see tafsir.com or quran-online.net for online examples). But this is exactly what I don’t want to do: read other people’s opinions and religious traditions about the text. I just want to read the text. Maybe this is a very un-Muslim sentiment. So, we’ll see.



Tomorrow, we begin to read the text. I’ll start with just the first surah, 1:1-7.

Blogger comment:
There are many ways to read the Quran. One simple way is start from the first page and read every day few verses as much as you can read or 1/2 to 1 hour daily and more important to understand. Another thing is to go by part every 5  days since the Quran is divided into 30 parts. The  other thing you can do is to do Quran search or even you can look in my website and others to find a certain word like honesty, justice, .... and so on and find what the Quran says about them. You will be amazed when you read in each topic about the verses that come from different chapters and have no contradiction and tell you the main points that God want us to know. If these verses came from the mind of Muhammad he will never be able to do so. The third thing if you are a Christian or a Jew read the main topic related to your religion like Adam, Moses, Jesus.... and see what God had informed Muhammad and us about. If you want to read to find out if the Quran is true word of God or not read under this topic in my web and others to find out all the facts from the verses of the Quran  that point clearly that the author is God and not a single Arab who does not read or write. The Quran may look to you disconnected but in fact it is a speech from God to all humanity and there is always a link that all verses revolve about that there is God the creator and he has the right away and the other ways are confusion and loss. Be careful when you read to websites that want you not to consider that the Quran is God's book since has lies, twisting the meaning of the verses or giving false history of Quran and Islam. Do not stop at the beginning thinking why should even I consider the Quran with all the violence of Muslims. The fact is all people fell in violence. America has ignited war between Iraq and Iran and supported both sides. America had two Gulf wars for the oil and to protect the evil Gulf tyrants. Many Christan right went to Iraq to destroy it thinking that it is the mystery Babylon that will be destroyed before the Second Coming of Jesus. With all the corruption of the world God make us taste the fruits of our sins including wars, earthquakes and other disasters. It is well described in the Bible and Quran that will happen before the second coming. Read the Quran and look to the sky since we are the generation that will see the descent of Christ.