On reading the Koran | Lesley Hazleton | TEDxRainier
-
0:07 - 0:11You may have heard
about the Koran's idea of paradise -
0:11 - 0:13being 72 virgins,
-
0:13 - 0:16and I promise I will come back
to those virgins. -
0:16 - 0:19But in fact, here in the Northwest,
we're living very close -
0:19 - 0:22to the real Koranic idea of paradise,
-
0:22 - 0:27defined 36 times as "gardens
watered by running streams." -
0:28 - 0:32Since I live on a houseboat
on the running stream of Lake Union, -
0:32 - 0:34this makes perfect sense to me.
-
0:34 - 0:37But the thing is, how come
it's news to most people? -
0:37 - 0:40I know many well-intentioned non-Muslims
-
0:40 - 0:42who've begun reading
the Koran, but given up, -
0:42 - 0:45disconcerted by its "otherness."
-
0:46 - 0:48The historian Thomas Carlyle
considered Muhammad -
0:48 - 0:50one of the world's greatest heroes,
-
0:50 - 0:53yet even he called the Koran
-
0:53 - 0:58"as toilsome reading as I ever undertook;
a wearisome, confused jumble." -
0:58 - 1:00(Laughter)
-
1:00 - 1:03Part of the problem,
I think, is that we imagine -
1:04 - 1:07that the Koran can be read
as we usually read a book -- -
1:07 - 1:10as though we can curl up
with it on a rainy afternoon -
1:10 - 1:12with a bowl of popcorn within reach,
-
1:12 - 1:14as though God --
-
1:14 - 1:17and the Koran is entirely in the voice
of God speaking to Muhammad -- -
1:18 - 1:20were just another author
on the best-seller list. -
1:22 - 1:26Yet, the fact that so few people
do actually read the Koran -
1:26 - 1:32is precisely why it's so easy to quote --
that is, to misquote. -
1:32 - 1:33(Laughter)
-
1:33 - 1:35Phrases and snippets taken out of context
-
1:35 - 1:37in what I call the "highlighter version,"
-
1:37 - 1:40which is the one favored
by both Muslim fundamentalists -
1:40 - 1:43and anti-Muslim Islamophobes.
-
1:44 - 1:46So this past spring,
-
1:46 - 1:50as I was gearing up to begin writing
a biography of Muhammad, -
1:50 - 1:54I realized I needed to read
the Koran properly -- -
1:54 - 1:57as properly as I could, that is.
-
1:57 - 2:00My Arabic is reduced by now
to wielding a dictionary, -
2:00 - 2:02so I took four well-known translations
-
2:02 - 2:06and decided to read them
side by side, verse by verse, -
2:06 - 2:11along with a transliteration
and the original seventh-century Arabic. -
2:14 - 2:16Now, I did have an advantage.
-
2:17 - 2:22My last book was about the story
behind the Shi'a-Sunni split, -
2:22 - 2:25and for that, I'd worked closely
with the earliest Islamic histories, -
2:25 - 2:29so I knew the events
to which the Koran constantly refers, -
2:29 - 2:31its frame of reference.
-
2:31 - 2:36I knew enough, that is, to know
that I'd be a tourist in the Koran -- -
2:36 - 2:38an informed one,
-
2:38 - 2:40an experienced one, even,
-
2:40 - 2:42but still an outsider,
-
2:42 - 2:46an agnostic Jew reading
someone else's holy book. -
2:46 - 2:48(Laughter)
-
2:48 - 2:50So I read slowly.
-
2:50 - 2:54(Laughter)
-
2:54 - 2:57I'd set aside three weeks
for this project, -
2:57 - 3:00and that, I think,
is what is meant by "hubris" -- -
3:00 - 3:04(Laughter)
-
3:04 - 3:06because it turned out to be three months.
-
3:06 - 3:08(Laughter)
-
3:08 - 3:10I did resist the temptation
to skip to the back, -
3:10 - 3:14where the shorter and more
clearly mystical chapters are. -
3:14 - 3:17But every time I thought I was beginning
to get a handle on the Koran -- -
3:17 - 3:19that feeling of "I get it now" --
-
3:20 - 3:22it would slip away overnight,
-
3:22 - 3:23and I'd come back in the morning,
-
3:23 - 3:26wondering if I wasn't lost
in a strange land. -
3:27 - 3:29And yet, the terrain was very familiar.
-
3:30 - 3:33The Koran declares that it comes
to renew the message -
3:33 - 3:34of the Torah and the Gospels.
-
3:34 - 3:38So one-third of it reprises
the stories of Biblical figures -
3:38 - 3:42like Abraham, Moses, Joseph, Mary, Jesus.
-
3:43 - 3:46God himself was utterly familiar
-
3:46 - 3:49from his earlier manifestation as Yahweh,
-
3:49 - 3:52jealously insisting on no other gods.
-
3:53 - 3:58The presence of camels, mountains,
desert wells and springs -
3:58 - 4:02took me back to the year I spent
wandering the Sinai Desert. -
4:03 - 4:06And then there was the language,
the rhythmic cadence of it, -
4:06 - 4:09reminding me of evenings spent
listening to Bedouin elders -
4:09 - 4:12recite hours-long narrative poems
-
4:12 - 4:14entirely from memory.
-
4:16 - 4:20And I began to grasp why it's said
-
4:20 - 4:24that the Koran is really
the Koran only in Arabic. -
4:25 - 4:29Take the Fatihah,
the seven-verse opening chapter -
4:29 - 4:33that is the Lord's Prayer
and the Shema Yisrael of Islam combined. -
4:34 - 4:37It's just 29 words in Arabic,
-
4:37 - 4:41but anywhere from 65 to 72 in translation.
-
4:41 - 4:44And yet the more you add,
the more seems to go missing. -
4:46 - 4:50The Arabic has an incantatory,
almost hypnotic quality -
4:50 - 4:53that begs to be heard rather than read,
-
4:53 - 4:55felt more than analyzed.
-
4:56 - 4:58It wants to be chanted out loud,
-
4:58 - 5:01to sound its music in the ear
and on the tongue. -
5:01 - 5:06So the Koran in English
is a kind of shadow of itself, -
5:06 - 5:09or as Arthur Arberry called his version,
-
5:09 - 5:10"an interpretation."
-
5:12 - 5:15But all is not lost in translation.
-
5:16 - 5:18As the Koran promises,
patience is rewarded, -
5:18 - 5:20and there are many surprises --
-
5:20 - 5:23a degree of environmental
awareness, for instance, -
5:23 - 5:27and of humans as mere stewards
of God's creation, -
5:27 - 5:28unmatched in the Bible.
-
5:29 - 5:32And where the Bible is addressed
exclusively to men, -
5:32 - 5:35using the second-
and third-person masculine, -
5:35 - 5:37the Koran includes women --
-
5:37 - 5:39talking, for instance,
-
5:39 - 5:41of believing men and believing women,
-
5:41 - 5:44honorable men and honorable women.
-
5:46 - 5:50Or take the infamous verse
about killing the unbelievers. -
5:51 - 5:52Yes, it does say that,
-
5:52 - 5:55but in a very specific context:
-
5:55 - 5:59the anticipated conquest
of the sanctuary city of Mecca, -
5:59 - 6:02where fighting was usually forbidden.
-
6:02 - 6:05And the permission comes
hedged about with qualifiers. -
6:05 - 6:08Not "You must kill unbelievers in Mecca,"
-
6:08 - 6:10but you can, you are allowed to,
-
6:10 - 6:15but only after a grace period is over,
-
6:15 - 6:18and only if there's no other
pact in place, -
6:18 - 6:21and only if they try to stop
you getting to the Kaaba, -
6:21 - 6:24and only if they attack you first.
-
6:24 - 6:28And even then -- God is merciful;
-
6:28 - 6:30forgiveness is supreme --
-
6:30 - 6:32and so, essentially,
-
6:32 - 6:34better if you don't.
-
6:34 - 6:37(Laughter)
-
6:37 - 6:40This was perhaps the biggest surprise --
-
6:40 - 6:42how flexible the Koran is,
-
6:42 - 6:46at least in minds that are not
fundamentally inflexible. -
6:47 - 6:51"Some of these verses
are definite in meaning," it says, -
6:51 - 6:53"and others are ambiguous."
-
6:54 - 6:57The perverse at heart
will seek out the ambiguities, -
6:57 - 7:02trying to create discord
by pinning down meanings of their own. -
7:02 - 7:04Only God knows the true meaning.
-
7:06 - 7:10The phrase "God is subtle"
appears again and again, -
7:10 - 7:12and indeed, the whole
of the Koran is far more subtle -
7:12 - 7:15than most of us have been led to believe.
-
7:15 - 7:20As in, for instance, that little matter
of virgins and paradise. -
7:21 - 7:24Old-fashioned orientalism
comes into play here. -
7:25 - 7:30The word used four times is "houris,"
-
7:30 - 7:35rendered as dark-eyed maidens
with swelling breasts, -
7:35 - 7:38or as fair, high-bosomed virgins.
-
7:39 - 7:43Yet all there is in the original Arabic
is that one word: houris. -
7:44 - 7:47Not a swelling breast
or high bosom in sight. -
7:47 - 7:49(Laughter)
-
7:49 - 7:54Now this may be a way of saying
"pure beings," like in angels, -
7:54 - 7:57or it may be like
the Greek "kouros" or "kore," -
7:57 - 7:58an eternal youth.
-
7:58 - 8:01But the truth is, nobody really knows.
-
8:01 - 8:02And that's the point.
-
8:03 - 8:06Because the Koran is quite clear
-
8:06 - 8:10when it says that you'll be
"a new creation in paradise," -
8:10 - 8:16and that you will be "recreated
in a form unknown to you," -
8:16 - 8:18which seems to me
a far more appealing prospect -
8:18 - 8:20than a virgin.
-
8:20 - 8:27(Laughter)
-
8:28 - 8:31And that number 72 never appears.
-
8:31 - 8:35There are no 72 virgins in the Koran.
-
8:35 - 8:38That idea only came
into being 300 years later, -
8:38 - 8:41and most Islamic scholars
see it as the equivalent -
8:41 - 8:45of people with wings sitting on clouds
and strumming harps. -
8:46 - 8:49Paradise is quite the opposite.
-
8:50 - 8:52It's not virginity;
-
8:52 - 8:53it's fecundity;
-
8:54 - 8:55it's plenty.
-
8:56 - 9:01It's gardens watered by running streams.
-
9:03 - 9:04Thank you.
-
9:04 - 9:11(Applause)
- Title:
- On reading the Koran | Lesley Hazleton | TEDxRainier
- Description:
-
Lesley Hazleton explores the Quran and finds much that is quite different from what is reported in commonly cited accounts.
A psychologist by training and Middle East reporter by experience, British-born Lesley Hazleton has spent the last ten years exploring the vast and often terrifying arena in which politics and religion, past and present, intersect. Her most recent book, After the Prophet: the Epic Story of the Shia-Sunni Split, was a finalist for the 2010 PEN-USA nonfiction award.
She lived and worked in Jerusalem for thirteen years -- a city where politics and religion are at their most incendiary -- then moved to New York. She came to Seattle to get her pilot's license in 1992, saw the perfect houseboat, and stayed. By 1994, she'd flown away all of her savings, and has never regretted a single cent of it. Now her raft rides low in the water under the weight of research as she works on her next book, The First Muslim, a new look at the life of Muhammad.
Twitter: @accidentaltheo
Blog: http://accidentaltheologist.com/Arabic translation: Amineh Ayyad.
TEDxRainier is an independently organized TED event held in Seattle Washington.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDxTalks
- Duration:
- 09:16
Maggie S (Amara staff) approved English subtitles for Lesley Hazleton at TEDxRainier | ||
TED Translators admin edited English subtitles for Lesley Hazleton at TEDxRainier | ||
TED Translators admin edited English subtitles for Lesley Hazleton at TEDxRainier |