"Believers, Jews, Christians and Sabaeans - whoever believes in God and the Last Day and does what is right -- shall be rewarded by their Lord"
September 22, 2010 8:42 PM   Subscribe

 
I'll need Glenn Beck to explain this to me.
posted by Joe Beese at 9:08 PM on September 22, 2010


The Internet Archive has digitized The John Adams Library at the Boston Public Library.

Here is a high-resolution scan of the Adam's Koran. More formats available here.
posted by rajbot at 9:08 PM on September 22, 2010 [2 favorites]


That's a hell of a disclaimer.
posted by lumensimus at 9:11 PM on September 22, 2010 [1 favorite]


Did he burn it? I bet he burned it.
posted by gern at 9:14 PM on September 22, 2010 [1 favorite]


American Qur'an - An ongoing project to hand-transcribe the entire Qur'an according to historic Islamic traditions and to illuminate the text with relevant scenes from contemporary American life.

Scroll down for the completed Surahs.
posted by gman at 9:15 PM on September 22, 2010 [3 favorites]


...take Adams copy of Koran to a t-burning couldbe party and watch them throw the husbands onto the fire to retrieve said manuscript?

like saying
Eisenhower had a copy of the Rose Annual 1952
really
screw contex
posted by clavdivs at 9:18 PM on September 22, 2010


'Washingtons' $300,000 fine incurred by a pair of very overdue library books.'
posted by clavdivs at 9:23 PM on September 22, 2010


Thanks for posting this, orthogonality. It's interesting that the Founding Fathers were taking such a measured approach to faith.
posted by nikitabot at 10:30 PM on September 22, 2010 [1 favorite]


Oh great. I only went and followed the digitised Qu'ran link. Now I can never clear my cache out again.
posted by seanyboy at 12:30 AM on September 23, 2010


So Obama is our second Muslim president?
posted by Saxon Kane at 3:51 AM on September 23, 2010 [1 favorite]


orthogonality: thank you for this.

My father chose to become an American citizen in the late 60s, in part because he thought that he had never seen another constitution that fit in so perfectly with what he considered to be the basic tenets of Islam. It's really heartening to see that the founding fathers had this as an active consideration, and that it wasn't simply coincidence.
posted by bardophile at 3:51 AM on September 23, 2010 [3 favorites]


Did he burn it? I bet he burned it.

Why not? Considering that burning is one of the respectful methods of disposing of a worn American flag.....

"The other method is to burn the flag yourself in a proper ceremony. If you are able to personally discharge your worn flag from service the ceremony that follows is the proper way.

The flag must be folded in the customary triangle fold. To do this, hold the flag parallel to the floor waist high with another person (the flag is not to touch the floor). Now fold the flag lengthwise by folding the lower half of the stripes over the stars. Fold the flag in half lengthwise again bringing the other side over to show the blue field on top. With the flag folded in quarters lengthwise, start at the bottom and make a triangular fold by bringing the folded edge of the stripes up and over to the open edge of the stripes. Then fold the triangle you have created up so the point is inward and the edge is parallel with the rest of the flag. Continue folding the flag in this manner until you reach the end. There will be some flag left over and this is to be tucked into the fold of the triangle.

With the flag folded properly you are ready to place the flag into a fire. You have to be sure that the fire is both large enough and hot enough to completely burn the flag down to ashes. With the fire ready you can now place the flag upon the fire. You can stand at attention, salute the flag, recite the Pledge of Allegiance and have a brief period of silent reflection or a moment of silence. Once the flag has been burned completely to ashes the fire should be extinguished. The ashes are now to be gathered and buried."

Burning is not, per se, the problem. The problem is why. Burning a perfectly good American flag as a sign of protest is considered deeply disrespectful by some people - and perfectly acceptable by others.

Burning the perfectly good books of L. Ron Mohammad, L. Ron Abraham, or L. Ron Jesus? YMMV.
posted by three blind mice at 4:26 AM on September 23, 2010 [1 favorite]


On burning: actually the same rule applies to the Quran as to worn American flags. Traditionally, any paper with Allah's name on it can be disposed of respectfully by burying, burning, or casting into a river or sea.

So yeah, why you're burning it is kind of the important thing.
posted by bardophile at 4:31 AM on September 23, 2010 [1 favorite]


FIGGERS IT'D BE ONE OF THEM BLEEDING HEART NEW ENGLANDER LIBERAL NAMBY-PAMBY TYPES! YOU WOULDN'T SEE A KO-RAN BELONGIN' TO ONE OF THE REAL 'MURICAN PATRIOT FOUNDING FATHERS FROM REAL 'MURICA LIKE KANSAS OR OKLAHOMA HURF DURF
posted by kcds at 5:01 AM on September 23, 2010 [3 favorites]


Isn't the Koran wonderful!
posted by Faze at 5:08 AM on September 23, 2010


Thanks for this Ortho. I continue to be amazed at the founding generation. They were obviously men and woman of their time and some deeply flawed individuals. Still as a whole their vision, foresight, and genius is still directly applicable to our current situation in so many ways.
posted by AElfwine Evenstar at 6:00 AM on September 23, 2010 [2 favorites]


Thomas Jefferson owned a Koran, too. Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to the US Congress, controversially used it in his swearing-in reinactment photo-op with Nancy Pelosi.
No books are used during the actual swearing-in ceremony; which is done en masse in the House chambers.
posted by kirkaracha at 7:58 AM on September 23, 2010 [1 favorite]


Great story. I think we've had a fundamental change in this country. 200+ years ago the intelligentsia who were curious about the world were curious, also, about religion. These days religion plays a much smaller role in American intellectual life. You don't see a lot of reading on religion in colleges, for instance. We're too busy studying science or engineering. Put a different way: 200 years ago if you picked someone interested in religion there was a good chance they were generally curious about the world, approached religion with an open mind. These days religion discussion is dominated by close minded fundamentalists. It's a shame.
posted by Nelson at 8:35 AM on September 23, 2010 [2 favorites]


so John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were secret Muslims, too, by golly!!
posted by kuppajava at 10:03 AM on September 23, 2010


While evidence is fragmentary, as many as 20 percent of African-American slaves may have come from Islamic backgrounds.

Qualify much?
posted by IndigoJones at 12:50 PM on September 23, 2010


Glad you enjoyed this, surprised no one commented on my title for this post.
posted by orthogonality at 6:01 PM on September 23, 2010


surprised no one commented on my title for this post.

Well, it seems notably exclusionary of Pagans, Animists, Buddhists, Atheists, Agnostics, Jains, Gentoos, and other folk of good will. (I suppose Sabaean covers Rastafarians?).

Actually I thought it was taking a good deal of period material and trying to force it into a modern context, often out of context. Like the subject isn't touchy enough without misusing history. At best, it gave some interesting talking points, and at worst, as I note above, some pretty damn stupid conjecture.
posted by IndigoJones at 5:51 AM on September 25, 2010


« Older I hate sewers.   |   A Special Saliva-cleaning Solution Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments