My book, "The Myth of Natural Rights and Other Essays," includes the short, satirical essay,"An Open Letter to Allah." To prepare to expand that essay into a book in its own right, I've been rereading my copy of "The Holy Qur'an," generally an unrewarding exercise. However, one interesting thing I've noticed is in Surah 4, verses 36 and 37. Verse 36 ends by saying "...Allah loveth not the the arrogant, the vainglorious." Verse 37 continues the thought: "(Nor) those who are niggardly or enjoin niggardliness on others...."
But some years back, there were news stories about someone who was offended by another person's use of the word "niggardly." The offendee ignorantly regarded the word as a racial slur.
In any case, the word is now deemed offensive and is to be avoided.
And yet, there it is in my copy of "The Holy Qur'an." It's true that the English translation by Abdullah Yusuf Ali, contained in my copy of the book, was completed back in 1934. But since
Allah knows all and sees all, including the future, He must have known in advance that "niggardly" would eventually become verboten. So let's give the devil his due. Whatever else may be wrong with Allah, at least He's not PC.
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1 comment:
Sometimes Bigotry and Ignorance are synonymous.
The racial slur was not the word "niggardly", it was the word "nigger".Definition below.
Main Entry:
nig·ger
Pronunciation:
ˈni-gər
Function:
noun
Etymology:
alteration of earlier neger, from Middle French negre, from Spanish or Portuguese negro, from negro black, from Latin niger
Date:
1786
1usually offensive; see usage paragraph below : a black person
2usually offensive; see usage paragraph below : a member of any dark-skinned race
3: a member of a socially disadvantaged class of persons it's time for somebody to lead all of America's niggers…all the people who feel left out of the political process — Ron Dellums
usage Nigger in senses 1 and 2 can be found in the works of such writers of the past as Joseph Conrad, Mark Twain, and Charles Dickens, but it now ranks as perhaps the most offensive and inflammatory racial slur in English. Its use by and among blacks is not always intended or taken as offensive, but, except in sense 3, it is otherwise a word expressive of racial hatred and bigotry.
Similar in terms to "cracker" "honkey" "poor white trash" etc..
Niggardly - is greedy or stingy.
This my be a better definition.
Fabricate
fab·ri·cate
Pronunciation:
ˈfa-bri-ˌkāt
Function:
transitive verb
Inflected Form(s):
fab·ri·cat·ed; fab·ri·cat·ing
Etymology:
Middle English, from Latin fabricatus, past participle of fabricari, from fabrica
Date:
15th century
1 a: invent , create b: to make up for the purpose of deception accused of fabricating evidence
2: construct , manufacture ; specifically : to construct from diverse and usually standardized parts
— fab·ri·ca·tor
ˈfa-bri-ˌkā-tər noun
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