The Ha Meem chapter Block

Which are chapters 40-46. Read it in the masjid today. I think its a chapter block owing to the fact they all start with ha meem (which I have no idea what it means). However, thematically speaking. they are very diverse. Chapter 40 seems to focus on musa vs firaun. 41 about the quran in our lives. 42 about the link process of revelation and its translation into social action. 43 about adh-dhikr and its relation to the prophets. 44 is about the quran and its link to social action. 45 is about appreciation of signs and bani israil. 46 is about kitabun musa and the jinn.

I wonder if there is a process being suggested here?

QuranVsHadith speaks on issues with Translations

Interesting post in Quranology Discussions today by our new friend QuranVsHadith:  

Word of CAUTION: to my brothers and sister who rely soley on the ENGLISH Translations of the QURAN … Today someone posted a link to http://corpus.quran.com/ with a number of translations available there..I was reviewing them and found that the SAHIH INTERNATIONAL version is the MOST HADIHTERIZED version out there.. (Please avoid). …then Mohsin Khan has taken too many liberties with parentheis in his version. they are not used to explain the words rather to convey his pesonal opinions on the subject. Similary..ABERRY has taken too many literary liberties and the use of totally incorrect words in the translation.. Peace

 

I broadly agree with QVH here. However, is there any way out of this? Can we ever eliminate the subjectivity which comes with the act of translation? I can’t see how. The Quran’s truth will remain something which is disclosed in the realm of personal experience.

 

on the 100,000 “or more”

When the Quran (37.147) refers to God sending Jonah to 100,000 “or more” it seems to be in close conversation with the Bible.  This reference follows a verse (37.146) in which the Quran has God proclaim how he made a “yaqtīn” tree sprout over Jonah.  Similarly the Bible has a “castor-oil plant” (some sort of gourd, Hebrew qīqāyōn; Jonah 4:6) sprout over Jonah before it has God tell him:

“You are concerned for the castor-oil plant which has not cost you any effort and which you did not grow, which came up in a night and has perished in a night.  * So why should I not be concerned for Nineveh, the great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, to say nothing of all the animals?” (Jonah 4.10-1).

So why does the Quran speak of 100,000 or more?  The Arabic translated here as “or more” is aw yazīdūn, a phrase which matches the rhyme of verses around such such as 37.144 yub3athūn and 37.149 al-banūn.  It could be that the Quran did not want to emphasize the precise number (perhaps its audience already knew the tradition of 120,000?) and it was instead concerned with a phrase that would match the alternating rhyme ( here the rhyme goes between ūn and īn).  Wa-Allah 3alam! Gabriel