Tyler Wright, B.A. Political Science & History, University of Central Florida (2013)Updated Mar 3 · Upvoted by Amy Neebling
I have read the Quran multiple times and continue to read and study it to this day. I was a strong atheist when I started, but now I can’t seem to put it down.
I think something important to note here is that the Quran isn’t a book you can just read through and understand. The first time I read the Quran, I started with Chapter 1 Al Fatihah and read it cover to cover. It didn’t make any sense to me. I did wonder a lot how and why Muslims believed it, mostly because I didn’t understand the history and context behind the stories. I found it interesting, but I didn’t really get anything out of it.
The second time I read it, each time I didn’t understand a verse I looked up an explanation and I even read a lot of it with a commentary. I started watching videos of Muslims (Hamza and others) debating people in London’s Speakers Corner and even listening to sermons by Omar Suleiman, Joshua Evans, Nouman Ali Khan, and others to help me understand more of what I was reading.
I was impressed. When I studied and reflected on what I was reading (which the Quran also says to do) I understood a lot more of what is being said.
For example: The first Chapter of the Quran is called Al Fatihah.
If you read it with no understanding of it’s significance then you just read right through it. “Ok! Finished Chapter 1!” Just like I did the first time. After doing some research I learned that this chapter is actually a prayer, and one of the most recited chapters of the Quran. When I read it as a prayer it took on a whole new meaning for me. Edit: I saw it as a guide of how to pray and it gave me an understanding of what kind of respect Muslims give to the Creator and what our relationship to the Creator is.
The same thing has continued to happen the more I have read and studied different passages of the Quran. The chapters of The Cave, The Night Journey, Luqman and many others have taken on totally different meanings now that I have studied them. The wisdom and guidance the Quran offers has even opened me up to believing in a Creator.
Even though I still don’t know if I believe everything that is talked about in the Quran, it still offers an extremely pious and respectable way of life for those who follow its guidance. People who are only citing specific verses out of context don’t seem to have reflected on the meaning of the Quran or on the guidance it seems to offer those who are open to it.
A spiritual Ishmaelite 