Quote:
“…I would like to read the text for myself…”
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FWIW, not only is the Qur’an necessary to understand the religion of Islam, the historical words and deeds of Islam’s prophet must be studied as well - along with what is articulated by the ulema (theologian-scholars).
Yusuf Ali (Saudi-endorsed) and Mohammed Marmaduke Pickthall are outstanding English translations and are recognized by Islamic scholars as such. For online references, here are a few…
http://qb.gomen.org/QuranBrowser/
http://www.quranexplorer.com/quran/
USC has an online edition:
http://www.usc.edu/schools/college/c.../muslim/quran/
Average Muslims, much like Christians do not read their own “religious” books. For the most part, they accept what the mullahs or their parents told them about Islam without bothering to do the research for themselves. When you start reading the Qur’an and Hadith, you’ll find the text of Islam is undoubtedly the supreme manual of intimidation, vengeance, terror, violence, and a template for war against non-Muslims.
Here is a pretty decent article regarding the assessment of English translations of the Qur’an:
http://www.meforum.org/717/assessing...s-of-the-quran
For an in-depth manual of Islamic law based on the Shafi'i school of thought, this book is invaluable since there is no disagreement among some of Islam’s most notable scholars:
http://www.amazon.com/Reliance-Trave.../dp/0915957728
Good luck with you research…