Interpretation Of Bible And Koran

10 Pages 2598 Words

INTRODUCTION:

Throughout the world there are numerous religions in practice today. The most prominent of the Worlds' religions are Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Judaism and Sikhism. Each religion is discernible in its own unique way, with its various traditions, methods and places of worship, art, literature etc. In addition to that each religion has texts or scriptures which are considered to be sacred, holy and very important. Scriptures in the religious sense means the 'Word of God' as revealed in a particular book like the Bible or the Koran. Scripture can also stand for an inspired book or a source of teaching that a particular religion honors as all-important. Some scriptures have much spiritual truth in them, others have very little. Scriptures play an extremely important role in religion. It is through these scriptures and sacred texts that rituals, traditions and rules of a particular religion are passed on through centuries and from generation to generation. This paper studies the problem associated with the interpretation of the Bible and Koran in Part I and in Part II it deals with the status of women in the Bible and Koran.

PART I: INTERPRETATION OF THE KORAN AND THE BIBLE:
The method that is used to interpret the scriptures determines the results of one's theology. It is the difference in the hermeneutical (method of interpretation) approach that spawns the divisions in the realm of theology.

THE KORAN
Islam is the second most practiced religion in the world. Its teaching show many similarities with the Jewish and the Christian scriptures. Islam's basic scripture is the Koran, revealed to Prophet Mohammed (p.b.u.h) by angel Gabriel (Jibrail) who recited the verses to Mohammed, who in turn taught them to his followers who memorized them and wrote them down on leaves and scraps of paper. The Koran has 114 surahs (chapters), arranged in order of decreasing length. Several interpretations of the Koran are availa...