Reading the Qur'an was actually what soured my impression of Islam. Part of it was luck (I happened to turn to a lot of the more violent passages first, like the "slay them wherever you find them" and the passage, and the part of "The Women" where it tells men who fear disobedience from their wives to "scourge them". Then I flipped to the end of the book and read the passage: "you to your religion, and me to my religion" and thought that Muhammad just might have been a little schizo.
I've also heard most translations are quite bad. I find many recitations of the Qur'an very beautiful, just aesthetically. It's really great when someone is doing it with emotion. But I found the translations not to be poetic at all, and to actually be very insipid and repetitive. The first one I read was Yusuf Ali, which is inelegant and inserts a bunch of footnotes into the text that ruin the flow (as well as often being quite incendiary). He translated "clot of blood" as "germ cell", which I thought was just a pathetic attempt to make it sound scientific. I like Arberry and Pickethall much better.
The coolest thing about the Qur'an was the titles of the Surahs. "The Star", "The Spider", "The Moon", "The Dawn", "The Morning Light", "The Cleaving Asunder"...I thought I was in for a treat, as if I were about to hear how Muhammed thought the law of God manifested itself in all the manifestations in the universe (like he was going to reflect on a colony of ants, and how this was a metaphor for some greater "theological truth"). This misconception actually inspired me to write a few Surahs of my own (nontheistic versions). Instead I got a repetitive fire and brimstone sermon that had somehow got out of hand:
"Believe! You will go to paradise! There are rivers! And trees! And virgins! Those who do not believe are fools! No matter what you say, they will not believe! Their punishment will be grievous indeed! The fire will be unending! It shall be lit with the skins of the disbelievers! There will be unending suffering! But if they say sorry, it's okay. Because I am most merciful, you know..."
OK, so it's a bit of a paraphrase, but I really don't think that's an inaccurate summary.
But as for Islamic Architecture and Arabic Calligraphy ... <3 !
I've also heard most translations are quite bad. I find many recitations of the Qur'an very beautiful, just aesthetically. It's really great when someone is doing it with emotion. But I found the translations not to be poetic at all, and to actually be very insipid and repetitive. The first one I read was Yusuf Ali, which is inelegant and inserts a bunch of footnotes into the text that ruin the flow (as well as often being quite incendiary). He translated "clot of blood" as "germ cell", which I thought was just a pathetic attempt to make it sound scientific. I like Arberry and Pickethall much better.
The coolest thing about the Qur'an was the titles of the Surahs. "The Star", "The Spider", "The Moon", "The Dawn", "The Morning Light", "The Cleaving Asunder"...I thought I was in for a treat, as if I were about to hear how Muhammed thought the law of God manifested itself in all the manifestations in the universe (like he was going to reflect on a colony of ants, and how this was a metaphor for some greater "theological truth"). This misconception actually inspired me to write a few Surahs of my own (nontheistic versions). Instead I got a repetitive fire and brimstone sermon that had somehow got out of hand:
"Believe! You will go to paradise! There are rivers! And trees! And virgins! Those who do not believe are fools! No matter what you say, they will not believe! Their punishment will be grievous indeed! The fire will be unending! It shall be lit with the skins of the disbelievers! There will be unending suffering! But if they say sorry, it's okay. Because I am most merciful, you know..."
OK, so it's a bit of a paraphrase, but I really don't think that's an inaccurate summary.
But as for Islamic Architecture and Arabic Calligraphy ... <3 !
