HELSINKI – For the first time ever, Finnish and German radio stations announced plans to broadcast the holy book of Quran in weekly sessions, accompanied by its translation and interpretation to increase people’s knowledge of Islam.
“It’s nice to hear my translation be read aloud,” Professor Jaakko Hämeen-Anttila, who translated Quran into Finnish, told Yle’s Radio 1 channel.
“It is important that the Quran is read in its entirety, and not just select items that show that Islam is bad and violent or good and beautiful. All of the text material is served up for the listener to assess,” he added.
Hämeen-Anttila was speaking after concluding an ambitious project with Pasila district studios of the Finnish Broadcasting Company Yle to broadcast the Muslims’ holy book.
The project is a radio series in which the Quran will be read cover-to-cover in 60 half-hour-long instalments.
Each instalment will begin with a discussion between Imam Anas Hajjar, a leader of the Finnish Muslim community, Professor Hämeen-Anttila.
The discussions will explore the religious and historical context of the text to be read.
“We haven’t been at loggerheads, but Imam Anas Hajjar and I have often read the same passage and approached it from a very different point of view,” he says.
“Imam Hajjar reads practical, contemporary meanings into the text and I see it as an historic work that is tied to the time in which it was created.”
According to Hämeen-Anttila, the two men’s discussed “everything between heaven and earth” during the radio series, including the role of Satan as well as men’s behaviour instructions when in the company of women.
Meanwhile, Yle called on the most authoritative representatives of Islam in Finland to make the program and the resulting series has their approval.
“The program is an important step in understanding one another. It is an attempt to tell the story of The Koran and what it contains,” Imam Anas Hajjar said.
There are between 40,000 to 45,000 Muslims among Finland's 5.2 million population.
Germany Too
In Germany, Radio Deutschland starts in March a new series for recitation of the Holy Quran.
Coming under the title, “Quran declares”, the series starts next week on Friday, March 6, with passages from Quran on weekly basis, Germany radio director Willi Steul told Süddeutsche Zeitung.
In the four minute reports, a spokesman should first read a verse from the Quran, who will be followed with an Islamic scholar offering interpretation.
The series starts on March 6 at 9:55 clock.
Germany is believed to be home to nearly 4 million Muslims, including 220,000 in Berlin alone. Turks make up an estimated two thirds of the Muslim minority.
The Quran is a revelation from God, the creator of the worlds, so He is the original author.
There is only one Quran which is in Arabic, with many of its translations in several languages.
There could be multiple translations by different authors in the same language such as English.
The Quran was revealed to Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) through the archangel Gabriel who helped the Prophet memorize the Quran, as reported in several authentic Hadith narrations.
Yle’s Radio
