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[Anya]

My Greetings to all. It is with great relief that I see that the forum is once again up and running, and is proving a wonderful place for discourse and debate. It is with great joy that I see the names of fellow travellers and enquirers back on the forum.
I had taken note in the past (when reading some of the more traditional translations of the quran, or the original arabic) that in the margins there are often notations where one is required to bow when reading a particular verse, or in some instances, were told that one is required to perform 2 units of salah when a particular verse is read.
Firstly, were these notations part of the quran (ie. is it notations that were inserted for ease of reference, or do they form an integral part of the Quran?)?
Secondly, is the interpretation that one is to bow at certain verses justified in light of Quran?
My personal view is that I do not see how it would help to bow while reading the Quran. However, I may be wrong, hence the purpose of this post.
Any assistance would be highly appreciated.
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absence of evidence is not evidence of absence - Carl Sagan

[crschatz]

Assalamu alaikum Sister Anya,

I have found absolutely no evidence that the "requirement' for prostrations during certain verses of the Qur'an is anything but a human invention. I have a Saudi produced English language translation of the Qur'an that has entire charts of "prostration places" in the Qur'an. (The Saudi translation has so many pages and footnotes quoting hadith that I think the words from hadith actually outnumber the words in the text of Qur'an itself!) Please, don't bother yourself with these human additions.

Wassalam,

[Dr. Shabbir]

Dear Anya,

Our respected Sister Courtney is quite right. Let us stay away from all human interpolations in the Book of Allah (in the side-lines and footnotes). Our clergy loves to make things difficult and complicate the simple.

Sorry, I didn't spot your question sooner.
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Wassalam,
SA