Inspiring Quotes
Verses, particularly soothing, imbued with love, tolerance, peace, intelligence, and spiritual elevation
The founders of this reboot of the Abrahamic saga understood one thing: the carnal and the material sell better than the spiritual. Hence a paradise far better stocked than the Christian one, where the resurrected "neither marry, nor are given in marriage" (Matthew 22:30). A tough sell. The Islamic version offers rivers of wine (47:15) and, above all, virgins:
"In both Gardens will be maidens of modest gaze, who no human or jinn has ever touched before."
Quran 55:56
The Quran gives no number: the famous 72 virgins come from a hadith, as a bonus for martyrs (Jami' at-Tirmidhi 1663). A tempting prospect, I admit, even though I personally prefer experienced women. Competition is fierce on the afterlife market, so there is no point skimping on promises. After all, no customer has ever come back for a refund.
Unlike the other Abrahamic religions, Islam does not settle for exploiting our existential anxieties: it also plays on our hormones. Those of fully fledged human beings, of course. Not those of their subordinates, women, who according to the Prophet make up the majority of the dwellers of hell (Sahih al-Bukhari 29).
Their intelligence is deficient, too, and on this point Allah and His Messenger agree. Allah requires two women to replace one male witness, in case one of them forgets (2:282), and describes them as "not commanding in disputes" (43:18). The Prophet draws the conclusion: "This is the deficiency in her intelligence" (Sahih al-Bukhari 304). And of all the trials he left behind him, none is "more severe to men than women" (Sahih al-Bukhari 5096).
I advise reading these verses in several sittings, spread over a fairly long period. Swallowing so much divine wisdom and poetry at once could be dangerous: your brain might not survive the shock.
Daring critics of Islam will object that many other striking verses deserved a place here. No doubt. But the aim is not to copy out the entire Quran: this anthology of instructions from the Creator of all things is spicy and hefty enough as it is. It will grow over time.
To save you time, I have put the key passages of each verse in bold.
The English translation of the meaning of the Quranic verses below was done by Dr. Mustafa Khattab. You can find other translations of the verses presented below at quran.com.
It should be noted that some advocates of Allah claim that all translations profoundly alter the meaning of the verses. According to several Arabic-speaking ex-Muslims, translations are generally sanitized and euphemized compared to the original Arabic version. The original version is, it seems, often darker than the translations.
Enough chatter: let's begin.
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“Surely those who reject Our signs, We will cast them into the Fire. Whenever their skin is burnt completely, We will replace it so they will constantly taste the punishment. Indeed, Allah is Almighty, All-Wise.”
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“They wish you would disbelieve as they have disbelieved, so you may all be alike. So do not take them as allies unless they emigrate in the cause of Allah. But if they turn away, then seize them and kill them wherever you find them, and do not take any of them as allies or helpers.”
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“O believers! When you rise up for prayer, wash your faces and your hands up to the elbows, wipe your heads, and wash your feet to the ankles. And if you are in a state of full impurity, then take a full bath. But if you are ill, on a journey, or have relieved yourselves, or have been intimate with your wives and cannot find water, then purify yourselves with clean earth by wiping your faces and hands. It is not Allah’s Will to burden you, but to purify you and complete His favour upon you, so perhaps you will be grateful.”
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“O believers! Take neither Jews nor Christians as guardians—they are guardians of each other. Whoever does so will be counted as one of them. Surely Allah does not guide the wrongdoing people.”
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“For those who are Jewish, We forbade every animal with undivided hoofs and the fat of oxen and sheep except what is joined to their backs or intestines or mixed with bone. In this way We rewarded them for their violations. And We are certainly truthful.”
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And remember when Lot scolded the men of his people, saying, “Do you commit a shameful deed that no man has ever done before? You lust after men instead of women! You are certainly transgressors.” But his people’s only response was to say, “Expel them from your land! They are a people who wish to remain chaste!” So We saved him and his family except his wife, who was one of the doomed. We poured upon them a rain of brimstone. See what was the end of the wicked!
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“If We had willed, We would have elevated him with Our signs, but he clung to this life—following his evil desires. His example is that of a dog: if you chase it away, it pants, and if you leave it, it still pants. This is the example of the people who deny Our signs. So narrate to them stories of the past, so perhaps they will reflect.”
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“Whoever Allah guides is truly guided. And whoever He leaves to stray, they are the true losers. Indeed, We have destined many jinn and humans for Hell. They have hearts they do not understand with, eyes they do not see with, and ears they do not hear with. They are like cattle. In fact, they are even less guided! Such people are entirely heedless.”
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“Remember, O believers, when Allah promised to give you the upper hand over either target, you wished to capture the unarmed party. But it was Allah’s Will to establish the truth by His Words and uproot the disbelievers;”
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Remember, O Prophet, when your Lord revealed to the angels, “I am with you. So make the believers stand firm. I will cast horror into the hearts of the disbelievers. So strike their necks and strike their fingertips.”
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“It was not you believers who killed them, but it was Allah Who did so. Nor was it you, O Prophet, who threw a handful of sand at the disbelievers, but it was Allah Who did so, rendering the believers a great favour. Surely Allah is All-Hearing, All-Knowing.”
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“Tell the disbelievers that if they desist, their past will be forgiven. But if they persist, then they have an example in those destroyed before them. Fight against them until there is no more persecution—and your devotion will be entirely to Allah. But if they desist, then surely Allah is All-Seeing of what they do.”
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“Indeed, the worst of all beings in the sight of Allah are those who persist in disbelief, never to have faith—”
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“Do not let those disbelievers think they are not within reach. They will have no escape.”
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“Prepare against them what you believers can of military power and cavalry to deter Allah’s enemies and your enemies as well as other enemies unknown to you but known to Allah. Whatever you spend in the cause of Allah will be paid to you in full and you will not be wronged.”
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“But once the Sacred Months have passed, kill the polytheists who violated their treaties wherever you find them, capture them, besiege them, and lie in wait for them on every way. But if they repent, perform prayers, and pay alms-tax, then set them free. Indeed, Allah is All-Forgiving, Most Merciful.”
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“So fight them and Allah will punish them at your hands, put them to shame, help you overcome them, and soothe the hearts of the believers.”
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“O believers! Do not take your parents and siblings as trusted allies if they choose disbelief over belief. And whoever of you does so, they are the true wrongdoers.”
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“Fight those who do not believe in Allah and the Last Day, nor comply with what Allah and His Messenger have forbidden, nor embrace the religion of truth from among those who were given the Scripture, until they pay the tax, willingly submitting, fully humbled.”
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The Jews say, “Ezra is the son of Allah,” while the Christians say, “The Messiah is the son of Allah.” Such are their baseless assertions, only parroting the words of earlier disbelievers. May Allah condemn them! How can they be deluded from the truth?
