The Faith Bridge

Before we begin with the text of the actual Quran, we should probably talk about faith and logic a bit, and about the interaction of both in the context of reading and understanding the Quran.  Some people believe that all religion is naïve and that every religion essentially asks human beings to suspend their capacity for critical thinking and logic and accept fantastical stories in order to feel some comfort against the knowledge of their own mortality. 

Freud, for example, argued that religion is a neurotic reaction to childish insecurities about the harshness of man’s condition.  Man is mortal, so he creates in religion the notion of an everlasting life where death cannot touch him and he can be reunited with deceased loved ones.  Life is unfair, so man creates in religion the idea of a just god who will put right the evils of the world, vindicate the oppressed and punish evil men for their treachery.  I don’t disagree that faith serves those function.  Religion does comfort people against the harshness of mortal life.  It does give hope to people who may otherwise be hopeless.  Its utility, however, does not undermine its legitimacy.

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Let's Get it Started in Here....

Let’s get some administrative items out of the way first. 

1.     I am not a scholar, and this is not an academic or scholarly endeavor.  What I intend to do with this blog is to explore a simple question: what does the Quran mean to me?  Specifically, this blog will take specific verses or themes from the Quran and comment on them.  That commentary is not intended to be, and should never be taken or understood to be, an analysis of the meaning of the Quran in some scientific, authoritative or definitive way.  I will not be compiling different scholarly exegeses and comparing them, nor will I be attempting my own comprehensive interpretive work.  My task is simpler and less ambitious.  I am merely going to comment on the Quran as I understand it, exploring the text in a way that is meaningful to me, and further exploring how that understanding interacts with my worldview.  If you disagree with my understandings or find my analysis lacking in some way, read a different blog.

2.     I am an American (born and raised), and I am Muslim.  I do not think the two concepts are contradictory.

3.     I did not

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