ISLAMIC EPAPER

Christian Snouck Hurgonje (1857-1936) is the founder of contemporary Islamic studies in the Netherlands, and believed that racial and religious diversity can go hand in hand with peaceful coexistence. His life was filled with still-relevant ideological controversies and revolutionary statements. He traveled to study the Hajj in 1885/1302H on a scholarship from the Dutch government. A report in Muslimmatters explains that Hurgronje, once in Mecca, embraced Islam according to some and was spying according to others  and was known as Abdul Ghaffaar. There he took photographs and made various sound recordings. In this recording of the Qur'an, Surah Duha is being recited using Thomas Edison's newly-invented wax cylinders. He stayed for five months, documenting the run-up to Hajj, but although he had intended to stay for the pilgrimage, he was forced to leave after unfounded accusations of his involvement in an attempt to steal a historical artifact' by the French govern...

For centuries it was believed that Christopher Columbus was the first man from the Old continent to cross the Atlantic to the New World, but new evidence from a research team from the University of Rhode Island suggests Muslim seafarers might just be the first people to have settled on the shores of America, a possibility that could rewrite history as we know it. The discovery completely took the researchers by surprise admits professor Evan Yuriesco, in charge of the research team. “We were expecting to find traces of prehistoric Native American settlements, as we have in the area for the past decades. We were not prepared to find 9th century clay pots containing ancient manuscripts written in the Arabic language” he explains. The team of researchers fell upon what could be the mass tomb of 9th century seafarers. The four skeletons that have been found on the site are in a state of advanced decomposition which could make DNA testing impossible, warns the exp...

In 2008, Sayeed Najmul Hasan Chishti from India took the world record for creating the  largest handwritten Quran . Then in 2009, the record was being eyed by a teenager writing for 12 hours a day to produce a Quran 3,000 meters (about 1,000 ft) long. If she finished, no one noticed because the world record was taken in 2011 by a Quran in Russia. Weighing 1,763 pounds, this massive book was encrusted in gold and silver and a smattering of precious stones. After all that effort, it probably hurt when the new world’s largest Quran was unveiled in Afghanistan a couple of months later. Clearly, the quest to have the world’s largest is hard-fought, and a lot of people are putting a lot of effort into claiming it (someone should probably tell them about the 18-meter (60 ft) Quran that is part of a building in South Sumatra). There are a lot of large Qurans, is what we’re saying.