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INTRODUCTION

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This writer seeks to explore the possibility of using extracts of selected surah from both versions of the English language translations of the meaning of the Quran by Muhammad Asad and Abdullah Yusuh Ali.? These extracts will be applied in a literature classroom situation.

The task of a literature teacher is to provide a text and to get the student to explore the text in order to establish an understanding of the text.? To test the students' understanding of the text, the teacher goes about making it problematic for the students to see beyond what is written.? This involves asking questions which need conclusions to be drawn and how the text differs from conventional ways of a description.

This writer attempts to take extracts of surah As-Saff and Al-Mursalat from The Message of the Quran -English language translation of the meaning of the Quran by Muhammad Asad and The Holy Quran -English language translation of the meaning of the Quran by Abdullah Yusuf Ali and use these extracts as literary texts.? Exercises for literary understanding are then devised to show how these extracts may be used in the literature classroom.

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EXERCISE 1

Verses twelve and thirteen of Surah As-Saff (A) by MA are used for the first exercise.

If you do so,? He will forgive you your sins, and in the life to come will admit you into gardens through which running waters flow, and into goodly mansions in those gardens of perpetual bliss : that will be the triumph? supreme!

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And withal, He will grant you yet another thing that you dearly love :? Succour from God in this world, and a victory soon to come :? and thereof, O Prophet, give thou a glad tiding to all who believe.

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Q1 Where would you find a description of this kind?

Q2 What do you think it is describing?

Q3 What do you think you would have to do to get what is described above?

Q4 Can you guess the meaning of the word "succour" just by reading the two???

?????? paragraphs above?

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EXERCISE 2

Verses two and three of Surah As - Saff? (A) by AYA are used for the second exercise.

O ye who believe!

Why say ye that

Which ye do not?

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Grievously hateful is it

In the sight of Allah

That ye say that

Which ye do not.

Q1? Explain in your own words what the question? means in lines 2 and 3.

Q2? Why do you think it is hateful in the sight of God that "ye say that which ye do not"?

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?EXERCISE 3

Verses seven to thirteen of Surah Al - Mursalat? (B) by MA are used for the third exercise.

Behold all that you are told to expect will surely come to pass.?

Thus, it will come to pass when the stars are effaced,

and when the sky is rent asunder,

and when the mountains are scattered like dust,

and when all the apostles are called together at a time appointed ...

For what day has the term of all this been set?

For the Day of Distinction between the true and the false!

Q1? Have you been told of this Day?

Q2? What have you been told to expect after death?

Q3 Can you guess the meanings of the words "effaced" and "asunder" just by???

????? reading the above verses?

Q4 What is the connection of these: the stars, the sky, the mountains and the?

????? apostles?

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?EXERCISE 4

Verses one to six of Surah Al-Mursalat (B) by AYA are used for the fourth exercise.

By the Winds Sent Forth

One after another

(To man's profit);

Which then blow violently

In tempestuous Gusts,

And scatter things

Far and wide;

Then separate them,

One from another,

Then spread abroad

A Reminder,

Whether of Justification

Or of Warning; -

Q1? Make your own sentences with these idioms:

a)? One after another

b)? Far and wide

c)? One from another

Q2? What do the words "sent forth" suggest in line 1 and why?