{"id":65277,"date":"2018-09-16T22:06:39","date_gmt":"2018-09-17T04:06:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=65277"},"modified":"2018-09-16T22:06:39","modified_gmt":"2018-09-17T04:06:39","slug":"two-of-the-most-beloved-verses-in-the-quran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2018\/09\/two-of-the-most-beloved-verses-in-the-quran.html","title":{"rendered":"Two of the Most Beloved Verses in the Qur\u2019an"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Shaykh<\/a>
The interior of the main prayer hall of Abu Dhabi\u2019s Shaykh Zayid Mosque
(Wikimedia Commons public domain photograph)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I offer here my own inadequate translations of two of the most loved verses in the Qur\u2019an, which is revered as holy scripture by the world\u2019s more than 1.5 billion Muslims:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The famous throne verse of the Qur\u2019an (2:255), the \u201cayat al-kursi\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

God! \u00a0There is no God but He, the Living, the Self-Existent.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Neither slumber nor sleep can seize Him.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Whatever is in the heavens or on the earth is His.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Who can intercede in His presence without His permission?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

He knows what is before them and what is behind them<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

and they cannot comprehend anything about Him except as He wills it.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

His throne extends across the heavens and the earth<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

and their preservation does not fatigue Him,<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

for He is exalted and most great.<\/strong> \u00a0(Qur\u2019an 2:255)<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"One<\/a>
The so-called \u201cayat al-nur\u201d or \u201cverse of light\u201d (Qur\u2019an 24:35)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

God is the light of the heavens and the earth.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The likeness of His light is as a niche in which there is a lamp.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The lamp is within a glass.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The glass is as if it were a brilliant star,<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

kindled from a blessed olive tree of neither the east nor the west.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Its oil would almost glow even if fire had never touched it.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Light upon light.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

God guides to His light whomever he wills,<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

and He creates symbols for the people.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

And God knows all things.<\/strong>\u00a0 (24:35)<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Incidentally, a reader of this blog accused me, the other day, of cunning sleight of hand because I typically translate Allah<\/em> as God<\/em>, rather than leaving it as Allah<\/em>. \u00a0(I\u2019ve just done it again in the translations above.) \u00a0I realize that some, particularly (but not always) Muslims themselves, often retain the Arabic\u00a0Allah<\/em>. \u00a0I myself prefer rendering it as God<\/em> \u2014 just as I would translate German Gott<\/em>, French Dieu<\/em>, Greek ho Theos<\/em>, Latin Deus<\/em>, and Spanish Dios\u00a0<\/em>\u2014 because I worry that keeping it as Allah<\/em> encourages the Western misunderstanding that Muslims worship a foreign God named<\/em> Allah. \u00a0On this subject, see an article that Bill Hamblin and I published back in January 2013:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Allah\u2019 is not pagan term \u2014 it means \u2018God'\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Another point: \u00a0The word that I\u2019ve rendered as star<\/em> in my translation of Qur\u2019an 24:35 is kawkab<\/em>. \u00a0Compare that word to the Book of Abraham\u2019s kokaubeam<\/em> or \u201cstars\u201d (at Abraham 3:13, 16). \u00a0Especially if you remove the Hebrew masculine plural ending -eam<\/em> (today usually transliterated as\u00a0-im<\/em>) from kokaubeam<\/em>, it\u2019s not at all difficult to see the relationship between that word and kawkab<\/em>. \u00a0I don\u2019t, of course, offer this (as such) as evidence for the authenticity of the Book of Abraham; Joseph Smith was studying Hebrew with Joshua Seixas at the time. \u00a0I just thought that some who didn\u2019t already know it might find it interesting.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 I offer here my own inadequate translations of two of the most loved verses in the Qur\u2019an, which is revered as holy scripture by the world\u2019s more than 1.5 billion Muslims: \u00a0 \u00a0 God! \u00a0There is no God but He, the Living, the Self-Existent. Neither slumber nor sleep can seize Him. Whatever is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-65277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nTwo of the Most Beloved Verses in the Qur\u2019an<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"    I offer here my own inadequate translations of two of the most loved verses in the Qur\u2019an, which is revered as holy scripture by the world's\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2018\/09\/two-of-the-most-beloved-verses-in-the-quran.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta 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