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Next: Love, Sex & 2 1/2 Suicides (August 21, 2026)

A Los Angeles studio suggested making a version of Love, Sex and Islam that is strictly about sex and relationships, no scriptures. Love, Sex and 2 1/2 Suicides is in keeping with their suggestion.

It’s late in the day, and Farewell Posting was supposed to be my last attempt to get you interested in my scholarship, but a suggestion from people in the business of turning books into movies could not be ignored.

With lovers and would-be lovers no longer required to be an introduction to scriptures, I have added eight more stories about people who have had an impact on my life, including that of a young woman whose suicide I should have anticipated, and of a priest who saved my life and his awkward attempt to teach me what I already knew about the birds and the bees.

If you are still with us and recognise yourself in a character, I hope you will not be offended, but flattered that I still remember our time together after all these years.

As to everyone else, if a man my age reminiscing about sixty-some years of intimacies, vulgarities and sentimentalities has you gagging or recoiling at stuff you feel would have been better left unsaid… too friggin bad!

Contents

Latest:

FAREWELL POSTINGS

Excerpts where Islam is mentioned

A DIALOGUE ON THE KORAN

The world desperately needs an honest discussion about Islam, starting with an unfettered dialogue on the Koran, if we are to stop the violence done in the name of Allah and His proclaimed last and greatest spokesperson, the Prophet Muhammad. If we don't, then God help us all. This is not a new idea.

The first Muslim in space was Sultan bin Salman Al Saud of Saudi Arabia. But, it was not until the first Malaysian, Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor, was scheduled to blast into space aboard a Russian rocket in October 2007, on his way to the International Space Station, that serious questions as to how Muslims spending time in space were going to perform mandatory religious rituals, such as the five daily prayers, were answered.

One hundred and fifty Islamic scholars, scientists, and astronauts were brought together and arrived at a consensus as to what was practical and desirable under the circumstances. The Malaysian Ulema (scholars of the Faith, e.g., Islamic scholars) dared to look at the Koran in a new light, the light from a sun that rises and sets every 90 minutes.

That was a good start, but it's not enough. We have to have as profound a discussion as  as the one initiated by courageous Islamic philosophers of a bygone age.

Between the 8th and 10th century, when Islam was in its infancy, there emerged an Islamic school of thought largely influence by Plato and Aristotle and which became known as Mu’tazilism or Philosophy of Rationalism or simply Islamic Philosophy.

The motives of the translators [of Greek works in science and philosophy into Arabic] and their patrons, the ['Abbasid] caliphs, may have been partially practical; medical skill was in demand, and control over natural forces could bring power and success. There was also, however, a wide intellectual curiosity, such as is expressed in the words of al-Kindi (c. 801-66), the thinker with whom the history of Islamic philosophy virtually begins:

We should not be ashamed to acknowledge truth from whatever source it comes to us, even if it is brought to us by former generations and foreign people. For him who seeks the truth there is nothing of higher value than truth itself.

A History of the Arab People, Albert Hourani, Harvard University Press 1991, p. 76

Mu'tazilites argued that verses of the Koran should not be taken literally and that human reason was more reliable than scriptures. The leaders of the believers of the time, the most noteworthy being Caliphs al-Ma'mun, Mu'tasim Billah and Wathiq actively supported this sensible open-minded interpretation, allowing it to thrive, until dogma reasserted itself with a vengeance and revelation again smothered reason.

It is not a coincidence that much of Islam’s substantial contribution in the field of astronomy and mathematics for example, was from this period when Mu’tazilism was accepted by the Caliphate as a legitimate Islamic school of thought. How could it have been otherwise.

If a dialogue is to foster trust, non-believers must have a meaningful role which will only be possible if more of them actually get to know what is in the relatively short book. Reading my books would be a good start.

Translations of the Koran are usually called interpretations because of the claim that only the Arabic version of the Book can accurately convey the true meaning of Allah’s words. If you can’t read the Koran in the original, say the imams, you are bound to misinterpret God’s words.

11:1 [This is] a Book with Verses which are elaborately formulated and clearly expounded from the Wise, the All-Aware.

Allah is not bragging, and any good translation will render Him justice. You seldom here a Christian minister say that unless you read the Bible in the original Hebrew, Greek or Latin you will misunderstand the message. Yet, this is the argument that is made by clerics to discourage non-Muslims from reading a translation of the Koran whose message they expect children to grasp

Topics for a Conversation

QUE SERA SERA

Boreal will remain, as it says in the banner: "The best place to get acquainted with the Koran and the sayings and deeds of the Prophet Muhammad."

Bernard Payeur email