A non-Muslim reviews the Qur’an…

With the permission of the author Ashmath I post here his recent article on the Quran. His is a moving story of a spiritual seeker who is not constrained by his Western upbringing and culture but has ranged far and wide in search of the Truth. He is not (yet!) a Muslim…  

I’m just a guy who feels called by God. I’ve tried finding Him all over the place. I thought I found Him in Catholicism, but I’ve discovered many problems with Christian theology and scripture. A few years ago I did the unthinkable – I investigated Islam’s claims. I’m still investigating Islam and reading the Quran. This blog is intended as a record of my investigations and as a means to share the often surprising things I’m finding out.

Mission Accomplished: Read the Qur’an

Today I completed reading the Qur’an. This being the case, I thought I’d share some of my impressions of it in this post. I do this mainly for those who have not yet read it, as Muslims undoubtedly know much more about what I have read than I myself do. If you are not Muslim, I would very much recommend that you read the Qur’an for yourself and form your own impression of it – you will likely by surprised.

The Qur’an is a book not really much like any other which I have read. It’s also not what I expected. I had expected the book to be much more like the Bible – to be more narrative in nature, with a chronological tale to tell, with history and doctrine pretty clearly outlined. The fact that it’s not like this was my biggest hurdle to get over.

The Qur’an is much more like a series of sermons full of exhortations to faithfulness and moral behavior. It consists of a series of 114 chapters, or suras, each of which has a major theme but is not limited to that theme. And rather than being arranged chronologically, the suras of the Qur’an are arranged according to their length in the original Arabic. It was most useful to me to remember the entire time that I was reading it that the Qur’an was a verbal revelation given to the Prophet Muhammad by the Angel Gabriel and which Muhammad passed on to others verbally. Each sura therefore retains the nature of a spoken sermon, which will serve to give it a different “flavor” than other types of literature which you’re most likely used to reading.

As M.A.S. Abdel Haleem says in the Introduction to his excellent translation,

The Qur’an has its own style. It may be useful to readers to mention some of the important features of this style. The reader should not expect the Qur’an to be arranged chronologically or by subject matter. The Qur’an may present, in the same sura, material about the unity and grace of God, regulations and laws, stories of earlier prophets and nations and the lessons that can be drawn from these, and descriptions of rewards and punishments on the Day of Judgement. This stylistic feature serves to reinforce the message, to persuade and to dissuade.

As Haleem also says, “the Qur’an is above all a book of guidance.” Keep these facts in mind as you read.

Another helpful thing to keep in mind is the fact that Arabic is a very different language from English, and I have never yet read a translation of the Qur’an which read entirely like literature which originated in the English language. I have encountered translations which vary in how easy they are to read, but every translation I have encountered thus far reads like a translation. Accept this the same way you would accept a fascinating lecture from a holy sage with accented English and you’ll be fine.

Moving on from stylistic matters to content, I have to say that the biggest surprise to me was how similar it was to the Bible. Though very different in style from the Bible, it is remarkably similar in content. Missing was the barbarity which I had so ignorantly expected to find within the pages of the Qur’an – all the calls for the beheadings of Jews, the forced conversion of others to Islam, or the divinely-sanctioned honor killings of daughters who happened to glance at boys – all missing from the Qur’an.

It would be false to say that things like the cutting off of the hands of thieves are missing from the Qur’an, but it would also be dishonest to fail to admit that the Bible calls for the killing of disobedient children as well as the killing of those who seek to convert you away from the faith of the Bible. (More about that here.) So, no pots calling kettles black on my watch.

My earlier posts on this blog make no secret of the issues I have with the Bible and with Christian doctrine. As I’ve tried to make clear in this post, the Qur’an is by its nature quite different in focus and aim than the Bible. As a result, the Qur’an is able to maintain a clearer focus without getting lost in trying to retell history, collect a nation’s sacred poetry, give detailed creation stories, provide remedies for leprosy, etc.

I certainly found reading the Qur’an to be challenging, but more importantly I also found that it challenged my preconceptions and left me pleasantly surprised. To be completely honest, I did find the Qur’an to be repetitive and dull at times, much as the Bible is. But I also found it to be edifying. I truly regret not being able to read it in the original Arabic, because it seems clear that it is a treasure and a masterpiece of world literature and it seems clear that I am missing out on much of that beauty by only being able to read it in translation.

Translations I made use of:

• The Qur’an (Oxford World’s Classics)by M.A.S. Abdel Haleem
• Noble Qur’an, The English Translation of the Meanings and Commentaryby Dr. Muhammad Taqi-ud-Din Al-Hilali and Dr. Muhammad Muhsin Khan
• The Message of the Qur’anby Muhammad Asad
• A Journey through the Holy Qur’anby Yahiya Emerick
• Towards Understanding the Qur’an (Pocket Size)by  Syed Abul Ala Maududi
• The Holy Qur’an with English Translation and Commentary (English and Arabic Edition) by Maulana Muhammad Ali