|
The World of Home Pages
By A Staff Writer
For researchers, scholars and students of Islam, today, the Internet offers authentic material on the Quran and Hadith which is often unavailable in smaller institutions and remote places.
The convergence of information technology, tele-communication and electronics has made available an authentic collection of primary material about Islam on the Internet. Full texts of the Qur’an in various translations, several collections of Hadith and classic works of Islamic literature are freely available on Internet with free downloads.
The Internet provides access to primary sources and research material that is often unavailable at smaller institutions and remote places. It can also expose students to different points of view within the Muslim community.
Web sites such as http://www.quran.org.uk/ has made available several translations, or interpretations of the Qur’an through the Internet. Reading Qur’an on the Internet, rather than (or in addition to) buying a copy, enables students to read and compare different interpretations, use search functions to quickly locate passages on topics of interest, view the Arabic text, read it in transliteration, and/or hear Qur’an recitation. Not surprisingly, most of the material related to the Qur’an and other religious material was put on the Internet by Muslim groups. As a result, most of these sites contain pamphlets on a wide variety of topics related to the Qur’an and Islam in general in addition to primary source material.
Searchable, full text interpretations of the Qur’an by reputable scholars are available through the Internet in hypertext format. Perhaps the easiest way to locate this material is to go to a site that includes links to several different interpretations. A Muslim group in the U.K. maintains a site at http://www.quran.org.uk/ that provides links to eight different English interpretations of the Qur’an, including widely used versions by Marmaduke Pickthall, M.H. Shakir, and Yusuf Ali. The Quran Browser home page, at http://goon.stg.brown. edu/quran_browser/pqform.shtml, provides links to five translations, with a sophisticated search function. Clicking on the highlighted name of the translator, then on one of the surahs listed, brings up the passages on a line-by-line basis.
Another site at http://islam.org/Mosque/Quran.htm, part of the Islami City Web page, includes links to interpretations by Yusuf Ali and T.B. Irving. The T.B. Irving version includes a short introduction to each surah (chapter), with information about when the surah was revealed.
A different interpretation by Muhammad Taqi ud-Din al-Hilani and Dr. Muhammad Muhsin Khan with a glossary and introductions to each surah is available from the U.N.N. Islamic Society in the United Kingdom at http://www.unn.ac.uk/societies/islamic/quran/neindex.htm.A translation by Maulvi Sher Ali can be found at http://www.utexas.edu/students/amso/quran_html/. Translations of each line of the surah by three different scholars, Shakir, Pickthall, and Ali, appear listed together line by line. The site includes a comprehensive index as well as a search function. The Quran Browser home page, at http://goon.stg.brown.edu/quran_browser/pqform.shtml also permits comparisons of different translations. Students can bring up a passage, then click on “all” to see the passage displayed in a table showing five different interpretations. It is also possible to read a passage or surah at this site, and then click on one of the four other translations of the same passage.
The M.S.A. at the University of Southern California provides another useful source at the same address; they have put excerpts from Syed Abu-Ala’ Maududi’s noted commentary, ‘The Meaning of the Qur’an’, online. Though severely abridged, the online version includes useful introductions to each surah, with information about the surah’s name, a discussion of historical events related to the text, and exegesis of the surah’s themes. To access this site, go to the address http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/quran. Maududi’s commentary can also be accessed through the Islamic Society’s site in the U.K. at: http://www.unn.ac.uk/societies/islamic/quran/intro/iindex.htm.
Those who are interested in women’s issues can go to a home page that contains a collection of ayahs (verses) related to women. To access this site, visit the Muslim Sister’s home page at http://www.albany.edu/~ha4934/sisters.html, scroll down the first section, and click on the article entitled “177 Ayahs about Women in the Qur’an.”
Those who are interested in reading the Quran in Arabic through Internet can do so by logging Ibrahim Shafi’s comprehensive “Islam Page,” at http://www.islamworld.net/ and click on the section “ Quran”. The Islami City Web site has put a recitation of the entire Qur’an by renowned reciter Shaykh Khalil al-Husari online at http://www.islamicity.org/radio/ch100.htm.
Various Hadith collections, records of Prophet Muhammad’s (Pbuh) words and deeds, are available through the Internet. The M.S.A has put reputable, full text translations of Hadith collections by al-Bukhari and Malik’s al-Muwatta online through the following address: http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/fundamentals/hadithsunnah. This site also contains partial translations of Hadith collections by two other Hadith scholars, Muslim and Abu-Dawud. Since these collections are arranged by topic - revelation, ablutions, Friday prayer, witnesses, manumission of slaves, and so on - students can easily locate sections of interest, there is also a search function. Other interesting primary source material is available through the U.S.C. site, such as translations of Hadith Qudsi, sayings revealed by God to Muhammad, but narrated in the Prophet’s words.
|
