Quran BloggerBloghttp://www.quranblogger.com/blog/2010-01-20T00:25:28ZSquarespaceHe Who Makes Mountains Movehttp://www.quranblogger.com/blog/2009/9/2/he-who-makes-mountains-move.htmlThe QB2009-09-02T14:29:57Z2009-09-02T14:29:57ZAnd so he cried out through the Depths of Darkness: "There is No god but You, Glory be to You!  I was indeed [wrong]!"

So We listened to him, and delivered him from Distress; Thus do We Deliver those who have faith.

So now here we are, a third of Ramadan having disappeared behind us, the remaining two-thirds threatening quickly to follow.  We are in the midst of it now: praying, fasting, struggling to fight off feelings of familiarity and routine; feelings that are the bane of a worshiper’s focus, the enemy of a dedicated heart.

]]>Steeds and Greedhttp://www.quranblogger.com/blog/2009/8/30/steeds-and-greed.htmlThe QB2009-08-30T19:39:11Z2009-08-30T19:39:11ZThey drip from our tongues like honey, and yet we rarely taste their sweetness.  Their appealing rhymes regularly fill our ears, and yet we often fail really to hear them.  They are the surahs of the last part of the Quran, the 30th part.  Many Muslims can recite the words of the surahs of the 30th part by rote, having committed them to memory when they were very young, or when they first found Islam.  Being very short and rolling off the tongue with melodic ease, the surahs in the 30th part are conducive to easy memorization and thus lend themselves to regular recitation in our daily prayers.  Despite their brevity, however, they are packed with meaning and busting with the significance of powerful messages.]]>The Folding Uphttp://www.quranblogger.com/blog/2009/8/26/the-folding-up.htmlThe QB2009-08-26T05:44:30Z2009-08-26T05:44:30ZThere but for the Grace of God go Ihttp://www.quranblogger.com/blog/2009/8/22/there-but-for-the-grace-of-god-go-i.htmlThe QB2009-08-22T15:25:10Z2009-08-22T15:25:10ZAn alligator was eating my son, and my wife and I were helpless to stop it. That was my wife’s dream last week. A large alligator. Eating our son. And we were helpless to stop it. Ridiculous, right?]]>Ramadan, in Three Partshttp://www.quranblogger.com/blog/2009/8/22/ramadan-in-three-parts.htmlThe QB2009-08-22T14:51:51Z2009-08-22T14:51:51ZThis Ramadan, I have decided to blog thematically. The blog posts in the first 10 days of the month will, God willing, revolve around the theme of God’s Rahmah, mercy, grace, and compassion. The middle 10, God willing, will be about forgiveness and repentance.]]>Here Comes the Gracehttp://www.quranblogger.com/blog/2009/8/20/here-comes-the-grace.htmlThe QB2009-08-20T19:39:43Z2009-08-20T19:39:43ZThe Straight Path - IIhttp://www.quranblogger.com/blog/2009/6/13/the-straight-path-ii.htmlThe QB2009-06-13T15:56:12Z2009-06-13T15:56:12ZAfter we pray for guidance regarding the Straight Path, the ayah continues with some further identifying descriptions: The way of those on whom Thou hast bestowed Thy Grace, Those whose (portion) is not wrath, and who go not astray.

I have seen two common ways in which this language is interpreted.  The first implies that the two identifying descriptions that appear at the end of the ayah (“those whose portion is not wrath” and “those who go not astray”) are counterpoints to and elucidate the meaning and identification of the path. The second (A.Y. Ali’s view) is that those two identifying descriptions are counterpoints to and elucidate the meaning and identification of God’s ni’mah (translated above as “Grace,” but which can also be translated as Blessing/Favor/Tenderness).

]]>The Straight Path - Ihttp://www.quranblogger.com/blog/2009/6/13/the-straight-path-i.htmlThe QB2009-06-13T15:53:43Z2009-06-13T15:53:43ZFor most of The Opening, God teaches us how to ask.  In the last part of The Opening, God teaches us a different, intensely profound lesson: what to ask for.

Before we get into the text of the final ayahs of The Opening, let’s pretend for a moment that we don’t know what the ayahs actually say.  Let’s ruminate then, in our state of feigned ignorance, about what we would assume the last few ayahs of The Opening ought to say.

]]>The Lord's Prayer -- Part II: Deenhttp://www.quranblogger.com/blog/2009/5/20/the-lords-prayer-part-ii-deen.htmlThe QB2009-05-20T16:44:00Z2009-05-20T16:44:00Z  However, because The Opening is so ingrained in the daily lives of Muslims and is such a fundamental part of so many rituals in the Islamic faith, I feel that it warrants some extra blogging attention, even if that means parsing some of the ayahs so closely that this blog begins to teeter toward the over-technical and risks making readers yawn uncontrollably (assuming, perhaps presumptuously, that the prior blog posts were not in their own rights boring to you readers).  May God guide us to a proper understanding of His message. ]]>This is Waterhttp://www.quranblogger.com/blog/2009/5/8/this-is-water.htmlThe QB2009-05-08T19:37:35Z2009-05-08T19:37:35Z

“[I] in the day-to day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping.  Everybody worships.  The only choice we get is what to worship.  And the compelling reason for maybe choosing some sort of god or spiritual-type thing to worship—be it JC or Allah, be it YHWH or the Wiccan Mother Goddess, or the Four Noble Truths, or some inviolable set of ethical principles—is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive.”

- The late David Foster Wallace, 2005

I was introduced to the writings of David Foster Wallace in the fall of 2008, shortly after he hanged himself after a decades-long bout with depression. 

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