Day 7 & 8

I’m now well over half-way done reading the Qur’an. It feels like a good point to take stock of this experiment. I’m glad I lumped two days of reading together because I’m finding my interaction with the text is much different than the Bible. I’m trying to be respectful of the text while acknowledging struggles with it. If every sacred text had an immediate connection, I guess we’d all be religiously muddled — and maybe a lucky few would navigate all those competing cosmologies. Don’t get me wrong, I at once affirm that all religions can be a path to goodness and divinity, but I also affirm distinct and often irreconcilable differences. We’re foolish to think otherwise.

I find myself wondering about the book itself. This is, as it reminds us several times, a heavenly and perfect book. Yet I know it took a couple decades to compile in Muhammad’s life. It began orally. But I think I’m wondering about how it impacts people. That’s beyond the scope of reading it, but it’s still there. I know how the Bible impacts me as someone who comes out of that culture. But how does the Qur’an impact muslims? Are there those who don’t like it? Do others feel a warm and secure sense of home upon hearing its words? I’m also mindful I wouldn’t go right up to a muslim friend (hey there!) and ask them this in the middle of Ramadan. But, still, I’m curious. How and why people believe is the most interesting thing in the world to me. This is just another piece of that.

As always, the Qur’an comes alive, for me, when there’s fleshed out stories and reflections on nature. I loved the story of the Cave and the words of Moses here. There’s a lot of repetition, but that familiar ebb and flow of verses makes the unique stories stand out.

Things I Noticed in the Text

1. Surah 18:9-26, A great story about young people who want to leave their town due to its sinfulness, so God has them fall asleep — as if dead — in a cave for hundreds of years. How often have you wanted to fall asleep and awaken in another time period?
2. Surah 19:22-36, A beautiful account of the birth of Jesus. Mary takes the spotlight here. I’ve used these verses on Christmas Eve before to illustrate that the birth of Jesus is a story told far and wide.
3. Surah 20:25-35, Moses offers an interesting little prayer here: “My Lord! Open for me my heart. And make easy for me my mission. And release the knot from my tongue, so they understand my words. And appoint for me a minister from my family: Aaron, my brother. Affirm, by him, my strength. And make him a partner in my mission, such that together, we may exalt You much; and together, we may remember You much. Ever, indeed, have You seen all that is within us.” Moses was known for his stutter, a common theme in any retelling of his life.
4. Surah 21:91, Remember how Mary had the spotlight in the birth narrative? She’s listed as a prophet here, which is a huge and welcome change from the Christian scriptures.
5. Surah 22:26,29, Accounts of how the sacred house of Abraham is at Mecca and the directive to circle it during the hajj pilgrimage.
6. Surah 24:35, Here we are, more beautiful verses about nature. This time it’s about the light of God: “The likeness of His light is as a niche wherein is a lamp, the lamp in a glass, the glass as if it were a brilliant star, kindled from a blessed tree, an olive — neither eastern or western — whose oil would nearly shine out even if no fire touches it. Light upon light!”
7. Surah 25:61, And again, more nature verses: “Blessed be the One who set high in the heaven constellations; and set therein as sun as a torch and a luminous moon.”

This post is part of a larger series where I read the entire Qur’an in ~21 days. Take a look at the original post for more info, as well as links to other reflections on this journey.