I produce short videos based on the contents of the book ’49:49′.
Available in the shop in printed form and as e-book. This short videos are published on social media too (TikTok, YouTube. See LINKTREE in the footer).
This 19th video is based on the section ‘The more concrete part of the Quran & those five pillars’ in the introduction of part II of the book. Page 59-64.
It follows the section ‘The less concrete part of the Quran’.
In this introduction I am concerned with the great importance of the fact that the Quran consists of a mixture of precision and vagueness that is as strange as it is disturbing.
I had already given an impetus for this summarising division in my first
book (in Dutch; available in the webshop too).
I began my study of the Quran with a focus on behaviours that the book recommended, commanded, or forbade the followers of Mohammed;
As anyone would do who was unencumbered by fear or misplaced respect.
During the first fifteen minutes of reading the book, I was struck by the large number of unpleasant, threatening, and unloving verses.
Loveless is still an understatement when you read about a god who seems to relish the fate of being misled by him, right from Sura 2—a fate that is described later in sadistic terms: The disbelievers burn in hell and from time to time they grow new skin so the torture can continue.
My first surprise, however, was not that abundance of unpleasantness, but the strikingly small number of verses that actually prescribed orforbade concrete behaviour for the followers.
Unambiguous verses are really exceptional.