"Be easy, do not be difficult."
Muhammad, Hadith
One of the many advantages of Ramadan is being free to read and re-read portions of the Quran and the hadith and other related writings. Often this is absolutely necessary because the material is so complex that it requires multiple readings. For instance, the other day I was reconsidering the extraordinary metaphoric complexity of surah 18 (much, much more on that later when I'm operating on more sleep) and it really hit me how much better I understand the meaning and purpose of the surah now, and how much more I'll understand five years from now. In the pre-dawn hour this morning I was struggling with Nasr's commentary on the pre-temporal covenant between God and humans and its implications, and I feel that I'm slowly getting my brain around it and maybe in ten years I'll finally nod my head and think, doubtlessly incorrectly, "yeah, OK, got it." At other times I stumble across a section that I overlooked or read previously and it didn't stick. This often happens with the ahadith that are embedded in the Study Quran. It's not that they aren't important, obviously, but they're buried in the massive, small-print commentary that are take up half or two-third or sometimes entire pages of the Study Quran. Nasr is focusing on the Quran itself, but in the process of dissecting bigger themes he'll, naturally, incorporate ahadith, that is the sayings of the Prophet, into his answer. Anyway, "Be easy, do not be difficult" jumped out at me this morning. In was in the midst of a lengthy complex discussion buried in the commentary and maybe that's why it never clicked with me before. It's sad, because I would argue that it may be one of the most important concepts in the Quran. Granted, I'm wired to like a statement like this because I'm a simple man, but also because it cycles back to my belief that what really matters, what we can really learn, is how to treat each other on a day to day basis. Seriously, how many of our problems would be solved it we simply decided to avoid being difficult? I think I have a new mantra.
Muhammad, Hadith
One of the many advantages of Ramadan is being free to read and re-read portions of the Quran and the hadith and other related writings. Often this is absolutely necessary because the material is so complex that it requires multiple readings. For instance, the other day I was reconsidering the extraordinary metaphoric complexity of surah 18 (much, much more on that later when I'm operating on more sleep) and it really hit me how much better I understand the meaning and purpose of the surah now, and how much more I'll understand five years from now. In the pre-dawn hour this morning I was struggling with Nasr's commentary on the pre-temporal covenant between God and humans and its implications, and I feel that I'm slowly getting my brain around it and maybe in ten years I'll finally nod my head and think, doubtlessly incorrectly, "yeah, OK, got it." At other times I stumble across a section that I overlooked or read previously and it didn't stick. This often happens with the ahadith that are embedded in the Study Quran. It's not that they aren't important, obviously, but they're buried in the massive, small-print commentary that are take up half or two-third or sometimes entire pages of the Study Quran. Nasr is focusing on the Quran itself, but in the process of dissecting bigger themes he'll, naturally, incorporate ahadith, that is the sayings of the Prophet, into his answer. Anyway, "Be easy, do not be difficult" jumped out at me this morning. In was in the midst of a lengthy complex discussion buried in the commentary and maybe that's why it never clicked with me before. It's sad, because I would argue that it may be one of the most important concepts in the Quran. Granted, I'm wired to like a statement like this because I'm a simple man, but also because it cycles back to my belief that what really matters, what we can really learn, is how to treat each other on a day to day basis. Seriously, how many of our problems would be solved it we simply decided to avoid being difficult? I think I have a new mantra.
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