View across the Outer Harbour of Stornoway

Thursday 19 July 2012

Thursday 19 July

Another day of gradually changing weather, starting grey with some showers. Oh wow, we had some rain (0.03 inches). However, we are due some serious rainfall on Sunday, when the normal weather patterns finally return, after an absence of three months.

Today is the day that the weekly papers are published, and one of them had an interesting article, about a place called Tormore in Skye. It is a farmhouse, that was once home to the factor of landowner Lord Macdonald - and an unpleasant piece of work he was to his underlings. The historical appraisal started in 1920, but my interest goes back to the decades before 1883, when Lord Napier went around Skye to investigate the condition of the crofters and cottars there (as well as in other parts of Scotland). Lord Macdonald gave up his lands in 1920, by which time his factor had long gone the way of all flesh.

I have made steady progress through the Qu'ran. The English translation of the Muslim Holy Book that I have leaves me with the strong impression that it is a follow-up to the Bible. I'm not making that up; in one of the sura's [chapters], the Prophet states that God gave Man the Torah and Man did not take heed; then, God gave Man the Gospel, and Man did not take heed; God gave Man his teachings through his Prophet, and Man still is not taking heed. Furthermore, the Qu'ran quotes the same stories that occur in the Biblical Old Testament, refers to the same prophets and the same events. Why can't we regard the Qu'ran as a Third Testament? However, after more than 1400 years of ill feeling between Christianity and Islam, I don't think there is much chance of that.