User:Soft coder: Difference between revisions

Content deleted Content added

Inline

Revision as of 17:59, 23 November 2016

In Wikipedia, I am an active reader and mostly only a passive editor. When I contribute, my edits are usually in topics related to religion.

vb

This user is a fluent Visual Basic user.

@@ Line 3: / Line 3: @@
 In Wikipedia, I am an active reader and mostly only a passive editor. When I contribute, my edits are usually in topics related to [[religion]].
-I am generally interested in the study of all religions. Currently I am engaged in the study of [[Quran]].
-Following is a quote about Quran by [[orientalist]] [[George Sale]], a critic of Islam, who has translated Quran to English.
- I will mention but one instance out of several, to show that this book was really
- admired for the beauty of its composure by those who must be allowed to have been
- competent judges. A poem of Labîd Ebn Rabîa, one of the greatest wits in Arabia in
- Mohammed’s time, being fixed up on the gate of the temple of Mecca, an honour allowed
- to none but the most esteemed performances, none of the other poets durst offer anything
- of their own in competition with it. But the second chapter of the Korân being fixed up
- by it soon after, Labîd himself (then an idolater) on reading the first verses only, was
- struck with admiration, and immediately professed the religion taught thereby, declaring
- that such words could proceed from an inspired person only.
-       The style of the Korân is generally beautiful and fluent, especially where it imitates
- the prophetic manner and scripture phrases. It is concise and often obscure, adorned
- with bold figures after the eastern taste, enlivened with florid and sententious expressions,
- and in many places, especially where the majesty and attributes of GOD are described, sublime
- and magnificent; of which the reader cannot but observe several instances, though he must not
- imagine the translation comes up to the original, notwithstanding my endeavours to do it
- justice.
-     Though it be written in prose, yet the sentences generally conclude in a long continued
- rhyme, for the sake of which the sense is often interrupted, and unnecessary repetitions
- too frequently made, which appear still more ridiculous in a translation, where the ornament,
- such as it is, for whose sake they were made, cannot be perceived. However, the Arabians are
- so mightily delighted with this jingling, that they employ it in their most elaborate
- compositions, which they also embellish with frequent passages of, and allusions to, the
- Korân, so that it is next to impossible to understand them without being well versed in this
- book.
-     It is probable the harmony of expression which the Arabians find in the Korân might
- contribute not a little to make them relish the doctrine therein taught, and give an
- efficacy to arguments which, had they been nakedly proposed without this rhetorical dress,
- might not have so easily prevailed. Very extraordinary effects are related of the power of
- words well chosen and artfully placed, which are no less powerful either to ravish or amaze
- than music itself; wherefore as much has been ascribed by the best orators to this part of
- rhetoric as to any other. He must have a very bad ear who is not uncommonly moved with the
- very cadence of a well-turned sentence; and Mohammed seems not to have been ignorant of the
- enthusiastic operation of rhetoric on the minds of men; for which reason he has not only
- employed his utmost skill in these his pretended revelations, to preserve the dignity and
- sublimity of style, which might seem not unworthy of the majesty of that Being, whom he gave
- out to be the author of them; and to imitate the prophetic manner of the Old Testament; but
- he has not neglected even the other arts of oratory; wherein he succeeded so well, and so
- strangely captivated the minds of his audience, that several of his opponents thought it the
- effect of witchcraft and enchantment, as he sometimes complains.
 {{User vb-N}}