Reply #8: Agreed. The Koran is supposed to sound better in classical Arabic... [View All]

At least that's what I've heard/read during my 6 years living in Muslim countries.

Never heard any English translation described as "poetic," but the original is supposed to be.

Myself, I suspect it's the same tedious nonsense in any language, but I guess the believers think it sounds prettier in Arabic.

I sure don't. I was unwillingly and frequently exposed to "Koranic chanters" blasting thru my workplace in Egypt. Sometimes one guy had a favorite chanter, another one had different fave, and they would try to drown each other out. Man, THAT was fun!

In my ignorant Western-atheist opinion, all the Koranic chanters sounded like donkeys being sodomized by a cactus.

One day I was at a job site and the Egyptians were playing some nice Arabic pop music over the P.A. system, by a female singer. Probably one of the zillion Lebanese teen pop-tarts who make a career out of annoying Islamic fundamentalists, much to my personal delight.

Anyhow, a supervisor came in and put a stop to that. In no time we had the Koran rattling the speakers again. Argh!

Some more Koranic trivia, long as I'm here:

--Devout Muslims will concede they need translations to proselytize, but they are not happy with the idea of translating the Koran into anything.

It was dictated to Mohammed in Classical Arabic - which is considered THE sacred language. So if you want to be a REAL Muslim, you will learn Arabic.

This uppity attitude seems to cause problems in places like Indonesia, where most of the population is Muslim but not many people speak Arabic. Occsaionally I would run across a newspaper article etc. about this.

--Mini-Korans are used all over the Middle East sort of like St. Christophers in the Western world. They are carried on the dashboards of cars. They work about as well as any other icon, meaning they can often be seen after a wreck covered in broken glass. And blood.