Reading the Quran: A Western Newbie’s Deep Dive
After finishing the entire Bible in a year, I decided to tackle the Quran. Why not? It's the third major leg of Abrahamic religions, with over two billion adherents and often cited as the world's fastest-growing faith. Plus, it's much shorter than the Bible.
I had a couple copies of the Clear Quran in English, which I'd requested from an Islamic outreach website. They mailed them to me for free—no questions asked and no follow-ups required.
I decided to go aggressive and read the entire thing in 30 days, following its traditional thirty divisions known as Juz’.
Initial Impressions
Boy, I had no idea what I was walking into.
I was expecting something narrative, like much of the Bible.
The Quran is different.
For a newbie Western reader, it's a circular, relentless collection of commands and warnings, mixed with Biblical and ancient Arabic cultural references. Reading it felt like trudging through the intense heat of the Arab deserts.
The closest scriptural analogy I can give is a mashup of Genesis, Leviticus, and Revelation, with brief shout-outs to the Gospels.
Historical Context and Main Messages
Here’s a quick crash course on the historical backdrop of the Quran, then a brief look at its messages. Remember, I'm an outsider trying to learn, not an authority by any stretch.
(A side note: in Islamic tradition, Muhammad is always given the honorific “Peace be upon him” when his name is mentioned. The shorthand PBUH is often used.)
Muhammad grew up as an impoverished and illiterate orphan in 7th-century Arabia. The great empires of the time—Byzantine to the northeast and Persia to the northwest—struggled to control Arabia's vast interior, with its scattered tribes and brutal deserts.
Arabia was a fractured land of warring clans and blood feuds. Think Hatfields and McCoys, but hotter, harsher, and on a tribal scale.
Arabs were mostly pagan, and the Quran accuses them of grim practices, like burying infant girls alive out of shame or desperation.
Muhammad's uncle got him a job on trading caravans that crisscrossed the desert to Africa and Syria. The woman who owned the caravans, fifteen years his senior, proposed marriage. He accepted.
Muhammad liked solitude. He often retreated to caves to reflect. One day, he returned home pale and shaking. His wife wrapped him in blankets and asked what happened. He said he'd encountered the Divine. The archangel Gabriel commanded him to view a scroll and memorize its contents.
These encounters continued for decades. Muhammad began preaching that God brings justice and mercy, and that everyone must submit. The locals weren’t impressed. Pagans mocked and harassed him. Jews and Christians resisted. Eventually, he and his followers—called Muslims, meaning "those who submit"—fled Mecca for refuge in Medina.
Here’s the twist. In Medina, Muhammad became more than a prophet—he became a political and military leader. Against the odds, his small army repelled the Meccan forces. Islam spread fast, across Arabia and then far beyond. In stunning speed, Arab rule and Islam expanded to nearly half the known world—and left a permanent religious footprint.
Understanding the Quran's Structure and Content
“Quran” means recitations or reminders. Since Muhammad couldn’t write, he recited the revelations aloud, converting people and debating opponents. (Scribes followed him to record the recitations). To this day, oral recitation is still practiced and many Muslims memorize the entire text; these people are known as Hafiz (men) or Hafiza (women). Here is an example what it sounds like - https://quran.com/reciters/19.
The Quran has 114 chapters, called Surahs. They’re roughly ordered from longest to shortest—not chronologically. Muhammad himself arranged them this way.
That arrangement makes it a tricky read because some context only comes later, and older commands are sometimes replaced by newer ones—this process is called abrogation.
I read the Clear Quran edition, which includes helpful footnotes. Without them, I would’ve been completely lost.
As mentioned earlier, the Quran is mostly a cycle of commands and warnings, peppered with Biblical allusions. Adam, Noah, Abraham, Ishmael, Moses, Jesus, and Mary all appear. Jesus is respected as a prophet, not divine. The Trinity is explicitly rejected.
Most Bible stories are referenced, not retold. Exceptions include the stories of Joseph and Moses, which get extended treatment.
Some details in those stories were different. The Quranic version of Jesus’ crucifixion claims it wasn’t really him who died—someone else took his place. That sounds a lot like the Gnostic gospels, which early Christians rejected as heretical. Another example is Jesus bringing clay birds to life as a child, also found in Gnostic texts.
That made me wonder—did Muhammad hear these stories from travelers during his caravan days? Oral tradition ruled back then. People traded stories like currency.
Major Themes
Not trying to turn this into a theology class, but here are the recurring themes:
One God, Allah (literally means “The God”). Allah has many messengers. Muhammad is the last.
Pray and prostrate five times a day. Give to charity. Make a pilgrimage to Mecca at least once. Follow the teachings of the Quran.
Believers get paradise: flowing rivers, shaded groves, beautiful attendants, and cushioned thrones.
Disbelievers get hell: boiling water, burning fire, and oozing pus.
The Day of Judgment is coming. The seas will ignite. An angel will blow a trumpet—once to end it all, again to raise the dead. Then it’s paradise or hell, forever.
Human Moments in the Quran
The Quran also doesn’t shy away from showing the constant arguments Muhammad faced. The pagans accused him of being insane, a liar, a plagiarist, even a sorcerer. Some mocked the revelations outright, saying they were just stories from the past. These criticisms—and Muhammad’s responses—come up again and again. In that sense, the Quran reads like a real-time conversation between a prophet and a hostile public. The Quran often challenges the pagans to come up with even a small fraction of something like itself, which presumably they never achieved.
It’s intense. But not without lighter or more human moments. Some revelations feel like God correcting people’s behavior around Muhammad:
Don’t ask him pointless or provocative questions (e.g. “What’s in my pocket?”) — Surah 5:101.
Don’t disturb him at home or overstay your welcome because he is too shy to tell you to leave — Surah 33:53.
Don’t ghost his sermons when something else distracts you (one time an entire crowd left him to go see an incoming caravan) — Surah 62:11.
Don’t bug him during private time, including naps — implied in Surah 24:58.
When a blind man approached sincerely, and Muhammad ignored him while debating elites, God later called Muhammad out — Surah 80:1–10.
Some of his wives tried to deceive him, and he received revelation to confront them — Surah 66:1–5.
It was amusing—and oddly grounding—to see these human foibles woven into divine thunder.
Final Thoughts
I’ve only scratched the surface here. Hopefully this reads like what it is—an honest take from a curious outsider trying to make sense of a vast and complex faith.
Should you read the Quran? Depends. It’s not a page-turner, and it’s not meant to be read like a novel—especially not cold. But it challenged me, stretched my perspective, and gave me a glimpse into a world I didn’t know.
Resources
A couple sources helped along the way:
Introducing Islam by Ziauddin Sardar. Biased, but useful for understanding the basics.
Islam: The Untold Story is a fascinating and controversial documentary about how historians struggle to piece together Islam’s early history.
That’s the gist of my deep dive into the Quran and Islam.
As-salāmu ʿalaykum wa raḥmatullāhi wa barakātuh — peace be upon you and God’s mercy and blessings.