[Rhodes22-list] A little more on Islam

[M. Abdullah]

Howdy Bill and all,

Yep, I'm still sailing my little WindRider 17 Trimaran in the lakes 
around Austin, crewing on big boats in Houston with my homies, and 
dreaming of when I can get a Rhodes 22.

To set the record straight I'm not a native Texan, I'm much better than 
that - I was born and raised in Savannah, GA just down the road from 
Rummy. Dad is from Sudan and Mom is a Gullah from SC. Gullah is a low 
country culture and language. There's plenty of Gullah info on the web. 
Anyway I learned Arabic from my father and while on stays in Sudan and 
later working in Saudi Arabia. So my languages are Gullah, English, 
Arabic, and now Spanish (really Texmex) in that order.

Arabic is a Semitic language. The other modern Semitic languages are 
Hebrew and Amharic (the official language of Ethiopia) and Aramaic (most 
scholars say this is what Jesus spoke - I don't know). I visited some 
Christian communities in Iraq that spoke Aramaic. This was way before 
Gulf War 1 which I was against because Kuwait is historically a part of 
Iraq. And the Kuwaities were screwing Saddam by slant drilling. And the 
Kuwaities are a bunch of slave traders. I wish we had never gotten 
involved. What was Saddam going to do with the extra oil? Drink it? No, 
he was going to sell it to us a low price.

Ancient or classical Arabic is the language of the Quran. Modern Arabic 
is both different and similar. The easiest way to explain it is to 
compare Shakespeare’s English to modern American English.

The Arabic of the Quran is mesmerizing in its style, substance, and 
subject matter. It’s like a high form of very advanced poetry. The Quran 
is the only miracle of Prophet Muhammad. Muhammad was accused of being a 
mad poet. People would put their fingers in their ears and do the 
la-la-la-la thing so they would not become enchanted. LOL

Sidebar: In Quran Muhammad is mentioned by name only 3 times, Jesus 25 
times, Moses, Abraham much more. If you read an English translation 
you'll see Muhammad many more times but this is just the translator 
giving his opinion. I've read a few English translations but have had 
problems with some of the text. If you ever do read an English 
translation and something just hits you as wrong it more than likely is.

Arabic just like any other language can be manipulated to your own good 
or evil ends. Example: "Mary had a little lamb, little lamb ..." Did 
Mary own a lamb, or did she have lamb for dinner, or was Mary part of a 
DNA experiment and have birth to a little lamb? Quran tell believers to 
"follow the best meaning" to me this means that you pick the most 
sensible and moral meaning. But y'all know how people are, especially 
non-sailors.

Bill, I'll tell you what I think of hadiths in another post.

Mike Abdullah


Bill Effros wrote:

> Mike,
>
> Glad you're still here.
>
> I would love to know as much as you care to send. It's hard to find 
> anybody who knows what they are talking about on this topic. Will 
> formulate and get back with specific questions.
>
> Do you read/write/speak Arabic? Let's start with that. How are the 
> Arabic languages connected? What are they? Who uses which? Is ancient 
> usage different from modern? Were the political texts written in the 
> same language as the Quran? How are the hadiths organized?
>
> Many more questions to come.
>
> Bill Effros