Former Muslims?

[Contemporary Protestant (OP)]

Are there any former muslims here? Im getting a Quran Sunday and want some advice on how its supposed to be read

[Solitary]

There were, and might still be here. If you can make any sense out of it let me know! All I see is every other page praising Allah. Allahu  Akbar!  Solitary

[Aletheia]

If I remember correctly, the Quran requires additional books to make sense of it. There are also proclamations made on which commandments are to be followed and which are, for lack of a better word, outdated. It is a book that has been modified numerous times, very contradictory, and not particularly pleasant.

Best of luck to your reading. I was only able to read so far before I recoiled in disgust.

[Mr.Obvious]

I'm not muslim, but I heard you're supposed to read it in the original language. Otherwise, it's not the Quran.

[StupidWiz]

You must read it in Arabic or you'll get the "Quran can only be fully understood in Arabic language" argument from the Muslims.

Also, there's an additional guidebook to life called Al Hadits which is a compilation of how Muhammad. his family, friends and religious leaders at that time live their lives. Muslims assume that by following Muhammad, who is 100% guaranteed by Allah a place in Heaven, they'll have greater chance to get into Islamic Heaven as well.

Personally, I don't really give a shit anymore about Quran and Hadits. So, I can only give you this much of advice.

[Maldini]

Yup, here.

It's a book full of laughable content. I agree with Muslims that translations don't do it justice, you can't fully get how vile and dull and disgusting most of it is without knowing Arabic.

There are parts about how Muslims have to hate non-Muslims, how they should hit their women if they disobey, how they should not treat the remaining of a defeated army with violence and  only enslave and rape them. I'm sure you'll get a kick out of it.

But I think you're a christian, so it's pretty much bullshit like your holy book.

[Aletheia]

But I think you're a christian, so it's pretty much bullshit like your holy book.

The Quran is more of the action-thriller version of the bible. Just a little more gore and violence with even less plot development. It resembles Christianity, old-school style.

[robandrob1]

Are there any former muslims here? Im getting a Quran Sunday and want some advice on how its supposed to be read

It's supposed to be read with your bullshit detector firmly in the off position.  Otherwise you will ask lots of questions that Muslims don't like answering such as "Why does Allah have shins?", "Why does Allah place seals over people hearts and eyes to lead them astray and then blame them for going astray?" and  "Why does Allah think stars are in the 'lowest heaven?". 

[Contemporary Protestant (OP)]

Just read the first two chapters, it's more black and white than the bible, and I'm confused, it says I worship the same God then says I'm going to hell then says Allah will spare those who worship him

I think it's too early to comment on, but I would appreciate an explanation

Any clarification on this Maldini?

[aitm]

If you believe the bable you could very well believe this...be careful.....people who tend to believe idiotic bullshit are not exempt from other idiotic bullshit simply by believing in the previous.

[Maldini]

Just read the first two chapters, it's more black and white than the bible, and I'm confused, it says I worship the same God then says I'm going to hell then says Allah will spare those who worship him

I think it's too early to comment on, but I would appreciate an explanation

Any clarification on this Maldini?

what do you mean by chapters? Because if you meant the first two Surahs that's like 80 pages and I have not memorized it, bring me verses and I'll tell you what's the meaning.

I've not read Bible so I don't know if it's the same, but Qur'an can be pretty confusing since the narrator constantly changes form third person to first person.  The very first Sura is actually a prayer, the next one is a long lecture by allah including many issues.

[inflection2495]

Hey there, I'm a former Muslim. When it comes to the Quran, a lot of Muslims would recommend you read it with commentaries and interpretations by "scholars". In reality, these commentaries are mostly sad attempts at explaining away inconsistencies and contradictions that one might find. I recommend you google "Skeptics annotated Quran", this  website goes verse by verse, pointing out different things through a skeptics lens. As pervious posters said, you will often hear "Oh glorious Quran is only comprehensible in Arabic"...So much for being a book for all of mankind, when the creator of the universe is too busy relaying fairy tales in a language only a small population of the world speaks.

[stromboli]

Hey there, I'm a former Muslim. When it comes to the Quran, a lot of Muslims would recommend you read it with commentaries and interpretations by "scholars". In reality, these commentaries are mostly sad attempts at explaining away inconsistencies and contradictions that one might find. I recommend you google "Skeptics annotated Quran", this  website goes verse by verse, pointing out different things through a skeptics lens. As pervious posters said, you will often hear "Oh glorious Quran is only comprehensible in Arabic"...So much for being a book for all of mankind, when the creator of the universe is too busy relaying fairy tales in a language only a small population of the world speaks.

Very well said. we need more Ex-muslims on here.

[Berati]

There were, and might still be here. If you can make any sense out of it let me know! All I see is every other page praising Allah. Allahu  Akbar!  Solitary

I'm not a Muslim but I have tried to learn as much as I could about Islam after the 9/11 attacks.
My take is that like other holy books it's a set of instructions that you are not allowed to question.

Overall, the point is submission. i.e. you submit to the will of allah, and allahs will is given to you by Mohammed. Like other holy books you are expected to believe that god has to have a middle man, that god secretly whispers into this persons ears, and that you better do exactly as this person says or he and his followers will fuck you up.

Another important concept is "abrogation" If any of the holy instructions contradict each other, you are supposed to obey the later passages instead of the earlier ones. This explains why many of the later passages that are very violent hold more sway. As islam gained power Mohamed suddenly found it convenient to start insisting that those in power get to call the shots.

The Hadith (stories of Mohameds life) are also very important. All Muslims are supposed to try and behave like Mohammed since he was the perfect example. Unfortunately he often behaves like a murderous terrorist, he takes sex slaves, he has boys beheaded, he is a pedophile, etc... and this obviously leads to very poor examples of how civilized people should behave.

Let me just make it clear that we need to separate Muslims from Islam. Like Christians, most Muslims don't bother to find out what is in their own holy books. 
The largest group being victimized by islam are Muslims.

[Maldini]

The largest group being victimized by islam are Muslims.

Excellent statement.

You may not believe it, My family are not religious at all but they'll keep appearances and would still like to think of me as a Muslim despite me bashing Islam and its holy people constantly.

So at the age of 18 I thought It's time to take Islam seriously so I started reading Qur'an and that lead to me realizing it's all a hoax.

Almost all people that I knew who started reading Qur'an for empowering their faith ended up repulsed.

It's created by Muhammad, and lots of that stuff doesn't irritate Arab people because their culture at the time could easily tolerate the stuff in Qur'an, you could even argue that Qur'an did make them a better society at the time, but this is 2014 and civilization has progressed a lot since then.