The Qur'an
The next stop on this self-imposed journey into the unknown brought me to the holiest scripture of the Muslim world: The Qur'an (The Koran).
I will tread very carefully and respectfully with this review as it is not intended—by any means—to instigate feelings of hostility with ulterior notes of spiritual superiority to achieve a subterfuge of conversion to Christianity.
This is only an honest review after one solitary reading with as much impartiality as was possible.
Let there be no mistake. As I had mentioned before, I am a devout Christian. I attend church every Sunday, give alms weekly, donate my time through charitable works, pray countless times a day, and am in constant dialogue with whom I perceive God to be. My Lord and savior is Jesus Christ. I believe more than anything in this life that He is indeed the one and only Son of God who was born onto this earth of a Virgin and was delivered into the hands of sinners to be crucified so that the world could be saved from their own inherent sin. I believe in the Trinity of the Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit and that The Bible is the direct word of God decreed to mankind.
With the forewarned application I will attempt to describe what my erroneously pre-conceived notions of The Qur'an were, what was then dispelled after reading, and then provide a condensed opinion.
Here we go.
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It was my senior year when 9/11 happened.
Like many Caucasian's cultured with a western mind, my knowledge of The Qur'an was admittedly limited to whatever the news networks sputtered out, which, to no surprise, was nothing but a load of cherry-picked bullshit where they basically slandered what a quarter of human beings deem Holy to advance ratings through biased Xenophobia from the atrocities enacted by minute sects.
This is and was by no means perpetuated by one solitary news network, but, rather, was a universal transgression.
At Westlake High School, where there were an abundance of Middle Eastern schoolmates, there was a lingering tension that sifted over to Northeastern Ohio from the cloud of debris that had arisen from the collapse of the towers.
Paranoia was rampant and every Muslim was looked upon with eyes of suspicion.
CNN and Fox (our only go to's on television at the time) and all the raspy voiced radio commentators sounded a similar alarm: Be afraid of Muslims, very afraid.
"Stay away from malls on Halloween…you never know."
"Refuse to get on a plane if you see a turban in the line. It's your own funeral if you don't."
"Be nice, but don't trust them."
Despite these off-base and ludicrous precautions advised to us by boomers, I am proud to say that—at least, in my mind—our generation persevered and rose above the tragedy to respect one another despite our differences in faith.
Unintentionally, in 2007, I decided to upgrade from the densly populated Muslim communities of Western Cleveland and moved to the most heavily condensed area of Arabs in the United States: Detroit, Michigan. It was in Detroit that I worked alongside and dealt to a multitude of Arab's that I came to know and love very much. Some of the more closed-minded dealers lamented dealing to Arabs and considered them rude, disrespectful, cheap, and arrogant. But I vehemently disagree with this ignorant proclamation and consider the degenerate dickhead to be a rather inclusive entity that chooses to inhabit various vessels without the slightest regard for race, creed, or religion. Black, White, Indian, Hispanic, Asian, Young and Old—in my own personal experience—have all fit the bill indiscriminately of the aforementioned traits. They are not merely exclusive to those who are violating Muhammad's decree found in the Al-Ma'ida Surah at 5:90 ("You who believe, intoxicants and gambling, idolatrous practices, and [divining with] arrows are repugnant acts—Satan's doing—shun them so that you may prosper.") and getting just due for their blatant sin's. Majority of the specimens caught in the grip of problem gambling wear that wardrobe of distasteful traits like a uniform. Not just Arabs.
Despite living in Redford, which bordered Dearborn (a sample-sized replicate of any number of Middle Eastern countries, rich with tradition and culture) I barely—if at all ever—questioned my friends about their faith nor bothered to even find out more about their beliefs and what encompassed the Muslim religion.
During that time, as much as I hate to admit it, my religion was to be found in the inferior substitutes of booze and fast women. So, needless to say, I didn't spend much time cracking open The Bible nor even caring about what bedrocks other faiths were foundationally constructed upon.
It actually wasn't until most recently as last summer (2023) that I began to wonder what it would be like to actually read The Qur'an. I pondered more and more over this and as I began to buy more books I came across several copies of The Qur'an and found that, based upon size, it may not be as arduous of an undertaking as it was to read The Bible in its entirety.
Then I began to read various articles penned by respected Christian and Muslim theologians with a slew of accredited initials attached to their names who all did indeed recommend reading The Qur'an.
Now, I doubt that there will ever be an official and genuine ledger that can record the amount of people on this planet who can say that they have read both The Bible and The Qur'an. But, nevertheless, it is an exclusive club that I wanted to (and am proud to now say) belong to.
In a strict comparison of catalogic reference, the version of The Bible that I read was The Nelson Study Bible which contains 66 Books (Old & New Testament combined), 1189 Chapters, and begins on Page 4 (Genesis 1:1) and ends on Page 2202 (Revelation 22:21) and took me a shade of under two years to complete. And that is by a pace of two chapters per day with accompanied study guide references included.
The version of The Qur'an that I read was The Oxford World's Classics The Qur'an: A new translation by M.A.S. Abdel Haleem (ISBN-13: 978-0-19-283193-4). The book I read has 12 introductory content chapters and then the 114 traditional Surah's (Chapters) which comprise the basic structure of The Qur'an. Which is the primordial core of what was decreed to Mohammed by Allah/God via The archangel Gabriel.
At the moment of this writing I have to admit that it is a little difficult to recollect what my knowledge was of The Qur'an before I read it (now that I am wholly cognizant of what is contained within The Qur'an after having read it) but I will try my best.
It is not much, but what I remember going into reading The Qur'an were a few scraps of the basic principles: they prayed multiple times a day to God and always respectfully on their knees and in the direction of Mecca. At least once in their lifetime they are required to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land of Mecca. They do not eat pork and fast from sunrise to sunset during Ramadan.
The misperceptions are a bit more unregimented, but before I read The Qur'an the biggest ones worth mentioning was that I thought Muslims did not believe in The Bible whatsoever and considered Christians and Jews to widely be considered the enemy, which was dispelled almost immediately in the Introduction:
"Interpretation is further complicated by the highly concise style of the Quran. A verse may contain several sentences in short, proverbial style, with pronominal references relating them to a wider context. Moreover, proverbial statements can be lifted from the text and used on their own, isolated from their context and unguided by other references in the Quran that might provide further explanation. Both non-Muslims eager to criticize Islam and some Islamic extremists have historically used this technique to justify their views. Some examples will illustrate this feature, for instance the verse ‘Slay them wherever you find them’ (2: 191),17 thus translated by Dawood and taken out of context, has been interpreted to mean that Muslims may kill non-Muslims wherever they find them. In fact the only situations where the Quran allows Muslims to fight are in selfdefence and to defend the oppressed who call for help (4: 75), but even in the latter case this is restricted to those with whom the Muslims do not have treaty obligations (8: 72). The pronoun ‘them’ here refers to the words ‘those who attack you’ at the beginning of the previous verse. Thus the Prophet and his followers are here being allowed to fight the Meccans who attack them. The Quran makes many general statements but it is abundantly clear from the grammar and the context of this statement that this is not one of them. ‘Wherever you find them’ or ‘come up against them’ is similarly misunderstood. As exegetes and commentators explain, the Muslims were anxious that if their enemies attacked them in Mecca, which was and is a sanctuary (in which no Muslim is allowed to fight, or kill even an animal or plant), and they retaliated and killed, they would be breaking the law. The Quran simply reassured the Muslims that they could defend themselves when attacked, even if they killed their attackers, whether within the sanctuary or outside it. However, the six verses that concern war (2: 190–5) contain many restrictions and are couched in restraining language that appeals strongly to the Muslims’ conscience. In six verses we find four prohibitions; seven restrictions (one ‘until’, four ‘if’, two ‘who fight you’); as well as such cautions as ‘in God’s cause’, ‘be mindful of God’, ‘God does not love those who overstep the limits’, ‘He is with those who are mindful of Him’, loves ‘those who do good’, and ‘God is most forgiving and merciful’. The prevalent message of the Quran is one of peace and tolerance but it allows self-defence. Equally misinterpreted and taken out of context is what has become labelled as ‘the sword verse’ (9: 5) although the word ‘sword’ does not appear in the Quran: ‘When the [four] forbidden months are over, wherever you find the polytheists, kill them, seize them, besiege them, ambush them’. The hostility and ‘bitter enmity’ of the polytheists and their fitna (persecution: 2: 193; 8: 39) of the Muslims during the time of the Prophet became so great that the disbelievers were determined to convert the Muslims back to paganism or finish them off: ‘They will not stop fighting you [believers] until they make you revoke your faith, if they can’ (2: 217). It was these hardened polytheists in Arabia, who would accept nothing other than the expulsion of the Muslims or their reversion to paganism, and who repeatedly broke their treaties, that the Muslims were ordered to treat in the same way––either to expel them or to accept nothing from them except Islam. But, even then, the Prophet and the Muslims were not simply to pounce on such enemies, reciprocating by breaking the treaty themselves: an ultimatum was issued, giving the enemy notice that, after the four sacred months mentioned in 9: 5 above, the Muslims would wage war on them. Yet the main clause of the sentence––‘kill the polytheists’––is singled out by some non-Muslims as representing the Islamic attitude to war; even some Muslims take this view and allege that this verse abrogated many other verses, including ‘There is no compulsion in religion’ (2: 256) and even, according to one solitary extremist, ‘God is forgiving and merciful’. This far-fetched interpretation isolates and decontextualizes a small part of a sentence and of a passage, 9: 1–15, which gives many reasons for the order to fight such polytheists: they continually broke their agreements and aided others against the Muslims, they started hostilities against the Muslims, barred others from becoming Muslims, expelled them from the Holy Mosque and even from their own homes. At least eight times the passage mentions the misdeeds of these people against the Muslims. Moreover, consistent with restrictions on war elsewhere in the Quran, the immediate context of this ‘sword verse’ exempts such polytheists as do not break their agreements and who keep the peace with the Muslims (9: 7); it orders that those enemies seeking safe conduct should be protected and delivered to the place of safety they seek (9: 6). The whole of this context to verse 5, with all its restrictions, is ignored by those who simply isolate one part of a sentence to build on it their theory of war and violence in Islam. One further cause for misinterpretation is the lack of awareness of the different meanings of a given term in different contexts (see below, ‘This Translation: Identifying Aspects of Meaning’). Thus, for example, in Dawood’s translation: ‘He that chooses a religion other than Islam, it will not be accepted of him and in the world to come, he will be one of the lost’ (3: 85),19 it has to be borne in mind that the word islam in the Arabic of the Quran means complete devotion/submission to God, unmixed with worship of any other. All earlier prophets are thus described by the Quran as muslim. Those who read this word islam in the sense of the religion of the Prophet Muhammad will set up a barrier, illegitimately based on this verse, between Islam and other monotheistic religions. The Quran clearly defines its relationship with earlier scriptures by saying: ‘He has sent the Scripture down to you [Prophet] with the Truth, confirming what went before: He sent down the Torah and the Gospel earlier as a guide for people’ (3: 3–4). Indeed it urges the Christians and the Jews to practise their religion (5: 68, 45, 47). They are given the honorific title of ‘People of the Book’, and the Quran appeals to what is common between them: ‘Say, “People of the Book, let us arrive at a statement that is common to us all: we worship God alone, we ascribe no partner to Him, and none of us takes others beside God as lords”’ (3: 64). The Quran forbids arguing with the People of the Book except in the best way and urges the Muslims to say: ‘We believe in what was revealed to us and in what was revealed to you; our God and your God are one [and the same]’ (29: 46). God addresses Muslims, Jews, and Christians with the following: ‘We have assigned a law and a path to each of you. If God had so willed, He would have made you one community, but He wanted to test you through that which He has given you, so race to do good: you will all return to God and He will make clear to you the matters you differed about’ (5: 48). The Quran allows Muslims to eat the food of the People of the Book and marry their women (5: 5). These are explicit statements which Muslims involved in interfaith dialogue rely upon."
-M.A.S. Abdel Haleem xxiii-xxv
In case you didn't feel like reading that whole transcript, I will boil down what was emphasized by the author with as basic simplistics as I can. The Qur'an does allow for retaliation against non-believers, but it was written in the context of defense against Meccan paganists that had repeatedly broken established treaties against Muslims, and not meant to be clipped and misappropriated to feed ones bloodlust and be exhonerated for senseless barbarism.
And, in the case of Christians and Jews. Those who follow both the Torah and The Bible are not held in contempt, but rather are regarded honorifcally as "The People of The Book."
After these blatant misconceptions were dispelled from the outset I settled into what is known as The Qur'an and managed to finish it in under two weeks.
Unlike The Bible, which I thoroughly read and studied as the blueprint of my life, I breezed through The Qur'an with a thorough digestion of the words, but not with the aim of devout memorization as I tried my best to do with The Bible.
The Qur'an at its bare bones cliff notes explanation is a series of 114 Surah's, or, Chapters, which were decreed to the Prophet Muhammad via The archangel Gabriel over a series of 23 years, beginning at age 40 when he was visited in a cave by the Archangel Gabriel and provided instruction which he then recited, and works as a supersession to The Bible, or, an extra book that takes place after the New Testament concludes.
I suppose another dispelled misperception was who I thought Muslims regarded Muhammad to be. I thought that Muhammad was their version of Jesus. But this turned out not to be the case at all. Muhammad, as I was surprised to find out, was simply known as "The Messenger", a holy conduit like Moses, and this fact is routinely emphasized throughout The Qur'an, even to the point that he is given disciplined instructions for numerous mistakes.
What was most surprising to me was the numerous references to The Bible and the saints within.
Moses, Noah, Abraham, Solomon, and even Jesus are mentioned numerous times in the Surrah's and always in a respectful light.
The Surah's can be a bit repetitive and even redundant or superfluous at points (depending on who is reading of course), but I also find that this is consistent with a lot of my personal prayers, so I don't really take issue with that. Some of the more common repetitions are [off the cuff paraphrasing here]: "God is all merciful, all forgiving." "God is the creator of all that is in the Heavens and all that is on the Earth." "God knows what is in your Heart. He see's all that you do."
The Surah's are spoken to Muhammad in pluralized form and contain various commandments that are similar in nature to the vast majority of those which are written in The Bible. The few variances that I found were that Muslims are forbidden to eat pork [but there is an allowance provided if the straights are dire]. Women are instructed to cover themselves from head to toe out of respect for their husbands. Prayers are always to be twice a day and in the direction of Mecca. Violence under the umbrella of self-defense is permitted. When a husband or wife is unfaithful they are allowed to be slapped. And there are a few more rules pertaining to divorce or marriage to slaves that I don't remember at the moment.
Muslims believe in Jesus, but not in the sense that Christians do, and regard him as a righteous saint that was taken up to God, but that he is to be respected and not worshipped as the Son of God, and that that alone is reserved only for God himself, and nobody else.
Rather than continue on a dissertation of the differences between holy books, I can honestly say that those who read The Qur'an and adhere to the vast amount of core principles in their life would be much better off. Now, obviously my preference will always lean towards The Bible and Jesus Christ. But if you can't find it in you to believe that Jesus Christ willfully died on the cross as a means for us to be saved, but instead feel a greater alignment within your intuitive gut that tells you Muhammad was visited several times within his life by Gabriel as a means of instructing the world by God himself as to how they should go about their lives to please him, than more power to you. I've only been around since 1984, so I can't attest to being there for either instance in history. And that is where our faith comes into play.
To each their own.
*One final note.*
I truly believe that if all people took a small amount of time out of their day and dedicated it to reading both The Bible and The Qur'an the world would be in much better shape. There is a wealth of knowledge contained within both books that is more than adequate to point anyone wishing for an upgrade of their spiritual self in the right direction. My heart belongs to Jesus, but that Muhammad fellow isn't such a bad guy either, and both lived their lives with utmost dedication to the father. Believe in one over the other (or neither), the choice is ultimately yours. And disagree whichever way you choose with one another, as disagreements can actually lead to a very healthy thread of dialogue, but do so with the abundance of knowledge that comes from firsthand examinations backed up by genuine opinions and feelings rather than regurgitating some convoluted ideological rubbish of a clueless influencer/newscaster, which only serves to recidivate hostile emotions aroused by a lack of profundity. The more that people take the effort to uncover the mysteries contained within these wonderful books the more that our falsely laden misconceptions will begin to dissolve and an amazing dialogue can be exchanged in its place with people we never thought we'd be able to relate to.
Grade: A-
Verdict: Read