Another factor that helped to maintain this false sense of miracle is that Muslims insist that the Quran cannot be translated to other languages. Muslims insist that all available translations are for the meaning of the Quran, and there is no alternative to reading the Quran in Arabic. So, any person interested to study the Quran has to master the Arabic language, which is not an easy language to learn. Reflecting on this, I must say that the Quran actually looks nicer and far more impressive when translated!

Then comes the psychological conditioning of all Muslims. It is a tradition that the first voice a newly born infant hears is the Allahu Akbar, poured in his/her ears immediately after the birth. From that moment onwards the brainwashing process continues day and night to the rest of this baby’s life. He/she will hear the Quran recited day and night in a special format (Tajweed) that leaves in the mind a deep sense of fear, which the mind translates into a profound respect to the word of Allah. This is made easier by the difficult language and ambiguity of most of the verses.

It is my personal view that religions rely on confusion and psychological intimidation to make their point. It is like how stage magicians impress their audience. They first set the seen carefully with the necessary background music and decor, and of course they love the darkness. They are usually dressed in dark colours, and choose a dark background. As if this is not enough, they also turn the lights off to perform their trick. Their illusions do not work if there is light. Darkness is their friend and light is their enemy. In my view, this is exactly how religions survive. Muslim clerics do not like the light. They hate science and logic while they love myths. They hate clarity and love confusion.

The Quran is written in books called Mushaf. Muslims are taught from their childhood that this book is different from all other books. Only clean people should hold it, so a menstruating woman cannot touch it. A non-Muslim should never come close to it. A clean Muslim can only hold the book with the right hand and not the left, and they kiss it as a sign of respect. These Mushafs are written in a special format different from any other book in the Arabic language. There are specially designed dictation mistakes in every single verse. That adds further to the difficulty in reading the book. It is like a puzzle book with special codes that require special skills to solve the puzzle. In every Mushaf there are few pages at the back listing the codes used to write the book. The Quran has another peculiarity among other Arabic books. It is taught to children back to front! As it happens, the short Suras are located towards the end of the book, while the longer ones are at the front. So, children start to learn the book back to front, which adds even further to that sense in their inner mind that there is something special about this book.

Muslims are pre-conditioned to believe, without question, anything and everything contained in the Quran. They are also prepared to say anything, even to lie, in order to protect the divine image of this book. Ask any Muslim, “ Do you believe that the  Quran is a language-miracle?” And the answer certainly will be, “Yes”, regardless of their level of literacy. To most Muslims, reading and understanding the Quran is a torture, but when you ask them what would they prefer to read, a good novel or the Quran? they will all answer for  the Quran. Any time you ask them, “What do you prefer to listen--a piece of nice music or the Quran?” They will answer, “Of course, the Quran”. They view that Allah is watching them through two spies on their shoulders. So they do not take the risk of speaking their minds.

The Quran has been used extensively in medicine through out the Islamic world. Will any Muslim admit that it is a useless therapy? There was a medical research in an Arabic country comparing the calming effect of the Quran compared to calming of soothing music. But how many Muslims will admit that  they find man-made music more relaxing than the Quran?

Does God need a language to communicate with humans?

Languages are means of input of information to the brain. The other means are our five senses. Languages were developed and are mainly used to facilitate communication between members of the same society who speak the same language. They are just means of transferring the information to the brain. For this purpose they have to rely on the other senses. Spoken languages rely on hearing, while a written word will rely on vision or touch. Therefore, languages are less reliable than vision or hearing or other perceptible senses. Inaccuracies of language communication can start from the beginning with pronunciations or accent difficulties, and then on the receiving end there may be hearing or understanding difficulties.

In this sense, languages do not seem to be the most effective means for delivering information to the brain. Why God should chose this primitive means to communicate with humans? Is not God capable of using more direct means to deliver his message to human brains, ready and fully explained?

The Quran is claimed to be the final call from Allah to mankind to come and join Islam. It is supposed to be an international message for all people everywhere in this world, but most people never responded to it. Today, we must admit that the majority of people never read the Quran, and the vast majority of those who read it do not understand it. So after 1400 years the message has not been delivered. Language communication did not seem to have worked. 

However, and just to be fair, one has to admit that there is one remarkable miracle about the Quran, which is how it has escaped open and free criticism for over 1400 years.  

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Mumin Salih’s e-mail address  [email protected]

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