Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 27, 1991                   TAG: 9102270486
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: HAROLD G. SUGG
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

MOST VITAL BOOK ON ISLAM: THE KORAN

Even with a war on, the situation seems not to have changed since December 1985. Then, the great student bookstore in Charlottesville did not have a copy, Anderson's downtown was out of stock - and Ram's Head in Roanoke had to work industriously to secure an adequate translation with necessary background.

Americans have already paid severe penalties for not knowing the essentials of Islam, a religion influencing more than 20 percent of the world's population. Its followers may neglect their religion when in Western surroundings, but they do not defect.

The organization of the Koran differs from that of Christian and Jewish Scripture, but it shares one characteristic: It can be quoted selectively with a purpose. It is possible to compile quotations that stress the gentle characteristics of Islam, its concern for the poor, and a seeming compatability with Christians and Jews. An excellent letter to the editor did that not long ago.

But it is also possible, with equal honesty, to add the selections that require harsh treatment of women, impose capital punishments for moral lapses, and treat Christians and Jews as something like second- and third-class citizens. There must be added the mind-boggling assumption that Mohammed in about 700 A.D. settled all questions for all time.

There is an adequate translation of the Koran by N.J. Dawood in a Penguin Classic paperback. A slightly more expensive translation, but a superior one with better index material, is by A.J. Arberry (Collier Books/Macmillan). Helpful interpretations come from books by Bertrand Lewis and Daniel Pipes. Help also cometh from such hills as the Encyclopedia Brittanica and Gibbons' famous book on the Roman Empire.

An English novelist with Third World origins, V.S. Naipaul, wrote some high-class journalism, "Among the Believers," after a journey to Islamic states. There he found that the Moslems love Western goods but hate the culture that produced the goods. I believe he wrote of the Moslem who denounced "the Great Satan" one day and flew, on the next day, to Boston for medical treatment unavailable in the Islamic world.

Trying to understand Islam and the Middle East without the Koran is like trying to understand baseball while leaving off first base; evaluating English poetry while omitting Shakespeare; or ignoring Wagner's music because you do not admire him personally. A study of the Koran is not easy, but it is necessary - and rewarding.