Lesley Hazleton: A "tourist" reads the Koran

http://www.ted.com Lesley Hazleton sat down one day to read the Koran. And what she found -- as a non-Muslim, a self-identified "tourist" in the Islamic holy book -- wasn't what she expected. With serious scholarship and warm humor, Hazleton shares the grace, flexibility and mystery she found, in this myth-debunking talk from TEDxRainier.

TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. Featured speakers have included Al Gore on climate change, Philippe Starck on design, Jill Bolte Taylor on observing her own stroke, Nicholas Negroponte on One Laptop per Child, Jane Goodall on chimpanzees, Bill Gates on malaria and mosquitoes, Pattie Maes on the "Sixth Sense" wearable tech, and "Lost" producer JJ Abrams on the allure of mystery. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and TEDTalks cover these topics as well as science, business, development and the arts. Closed captions and translated subtitles in a variety of languages are now available on TED.com, at http://www.ted.com/translate.

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News & Politics

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• Hazleton
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• Islam
• Koran
• Quran
• Qur'an
• faith
• religion
• culture

[RoRox4fmIraq]

@Mattyb88ful __as well,but Shakespeare's brilliance is lost in Arabic.The magic of his rhymes,similes,metaphors,are all somehow less effective.That's almost the same thing with the Koran. No, God doesnt prefer Arabs,God prefers those who believe.So,if you're none Arab and you're missing out on some of the linguistic beauty of the Koran,big deal.You can still read,translate and live by this amazing book and be closer to God than an Arab who shrugs.Sorry for the long comments.I hope I've helped.

[TheMohsell]

@Mattyb88ful well; it says in the Quran that each people in the world have their own prophet , and the names you have mentioned are among the only 25 prophets that were mentioned by their names in the Quran.

your question about the quran why it is in arabic has not realy a sense for if it was in an other language you would say the same . here you can say why it is not in many lanuages : like that the problem will be bigger since translation between languages causes a big loss in the meanings.

[Klank123]

Why does anyone believe anything from these stupid ass mythology stories, magic isn't real, you can't cast spells or get into magic land if you believe hard enough or kill enough infidels. Fucking cunts.

[kabdalla1]

@RoRox4fmIraq

All mankind is from Adam and Eve, an Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab nor a non-Arab has any superiority over an Arab; also a white has no superiority over black nor a black has any superiority over white except by piety and good action. Learn that every Muslim is a brother to every Muslim and that the Muslims constitute one brotherhood. Nothing shall be legitimate to a Muslim which belongs to a fellow Muslim unless ww.islamicity.co m/Mosque/lastserm.htm

[musiclover9361]

@timkaplan4 Which is exactly what I said. I said "...making a profit (not an excessive profit)..." Usury is merely the charging of excessive profit. What other way is there to make money but with money? You appear to wish to ascribe a different definition to the word 'usury'. If you read my earlier posts, you will note that I do not support usury and I was answering dxvxvx, who referred to it as a sin.

[timkaplan4]

@musiclover9361

- to see where a global economy run by usury has got us and it's not going to get any better.

[timkaplan4]

@musiclover9361

''If making a profit (not an excessive profit) is a sin, then why did the prophet Mohammed marry a successful businesswoman?''

Making a profit isn't a sin. Islam is a religion of commerce and the Prophet was known as the most trustworthy merchant before Prophet hood, and the muslims have a vast history of commerce. Trading isn't sinful, but usury is, making money out of money, turning money from a means to an end is sinful, and one only needs to look at today's economy to see-

[kmardes]

@adhipaki get a life

[08ashwag]

impressing and inspiring women

[musiclover9361]

@dxvxvx Well, if you demand a Shari'ah system of monetary control, then you must expect to give up your democracy; democracy is absolutely incompatible with Islam.To expect a 39% profit on your loan is usury (excessive interest), something which you initially abhorred. The difficulty here is how one defines 'excessive'; it is subjective and thus extremely difficult to quantify. No profit = no jobs growth.

[dxvxvx]

@musiclover9361 I demand from the government to create an institution that holds my money and does not use it. If it uses my money it gives me a share of the profit. If a 'bank' use my money to make a 40% or more profit why should I get a 3-5% share? I want all of it minus the banks fee (work) which would be 1%.

As you said: "couldn't have done without my assistance; am I not entitled to expect remuneration for my service?"

/watch?v=aW2pj109Cr8

[musiclover9361]

@dxvxvx Democracy demands no such thing; democracy is merely a system of government. Whether banks are nationalised or not, banks share their profits - with their shareholders. Who proposed to whom is irrelevant. He married her/she married him. He had no qualms about her making any profit from her business interests. What's the difference? She made a profit. She charged more than she paid for something. Is that wrong?