95 Starting the “Koran’ project

Geert Wilders made me take the Koran from the bookshelf. The book was one of those nice compact Penguin Classics with a black ridge. It’s top was covered in a thick layer of dust and it smelled a bit musty. I was daunted. So I took to Wikipedia first and looked up Islam. I learned that the word Islam meant ‘subjection’. Koran is 'the act of recitation'. The credo of the Muslims was: ‘there is but one God and Mohammed is his Messenger.’ Over a period of 23 years God gave Mohammed a great many revelations. Mohammed had to ‘recite’ them and others had to recite them after him. It came down to 114 Surahs or chapters and every Surah was divided in a random number of 'Aya' or verses. Even before I opened the Penguin I felt a revulsion coming up I often get with sacred texts. They are all so…. Male! I wanted to put the paperback back and forget about finding out if Wilders was right. In the end I came to the conclusion that I wanted to go on. But before I could I had to change my attitude. I had to accept the credo for what it was and take it seriously whether I believed it or not. From then on there would be only one God and his messenger would be Mohammed. I was going to read through the entire Koran translation taking in 10 pages every day at breakfast starting with the introduction by the translator N.J. Dawood. For better or for worse I would open my brain to the meaning of the revelations and trust the translator for not having made a cock-up.