Quran Quotes

“We took the liberty to make some enquiries concerning the ground of their pretensions to make war upon nations who had done them no injury, and observed that we considered all mankind as our friends who had done us no wrong, nor had given us any provocation.

The Ambassador [of Tripoli] answered us that it was founded on the Laws of their Prophet, that it was written in their Koran, that all nations who should not have acknowledged their authority were sinners, that it was their right and duty to make war upon them wherever they could be found, and to make slaves of all they could take as Prisoners, and that every Musselman who should be slain in battle was sure to go to Paradise.

{Letter from the commissioners, John Adams & Thomas Jefferson, to John Jay, 28 March 1786}”
― Thomas Jefferson, Letters of Thomas Jefferson

“They say that Caliph Omar, when consulted about what had to be done with the library of Alexandria, answered as follows: 'If the books of this library contain matters opposed to the Koran, they are bad and must be burned. If they contain only the doctrine of the Koran, burn them anyway, for they are superfluous.' Our learned men have cited this reasoning as the height of absurdity. However, suppose Gregory the Great was there instead of Omar and the Gospel instead of the Koran. The library would still have been burned, and that might well have been the finest moment in the life of this illustrious pontiff.”
― Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Discourse on the Sciences and Arts and Polemics

“Oh Jerusalem, the city of sorrow
A big tear wandering in the eye
Who will halt the aggression?
On you, the pearl of religions?
Who will wash your bloody walls?
Who will safeguard the Bible?
Who will rescue the Quran?
Who will save Christ,
From those who have killed Christ?
Who will save man?

يا قدسُ، يا مدينةَ الأحزان
يا دمعةً كبيرةً تجولُ في الأجفان
من يوقفُ العدوان؟
عليكِ، يا لؤلؤةَ الأديان
من يغسل الدماءَ عن حجارةِ الجدران؟
من ينقذُ الإنجيل؟
من ينقذُ القرآن؟
من ينقذُ المسيحَ ممن قتلوا المسيح؟
من ينقذُ الإنسان؟”
― Nizar Qabbani

“Jerusalem! My Love,My Town

I wept until my tears were dry
I prayed until the candles flickered
I knelt until the floor creaked
I asked about Mohammed and Christ
Oh Jerusalem, the fragrance of prophets
The shortest path between earth and sky
Oh Jerusalem, the citadel of laws
A beautiful child with fingers charred
and downcast eyes
You are the shady oasis passed by the Prophet
Your streets are melancholy
Your minarets are mourning
You, the young maiden dressed in black
Who rings the bells at the Nativity Church,
On sunday morning?
Who brings toys for the children
On Christmas eve?
Oh Jerusalem, the city of sorrow
A big tear wandering in the eye
Who will halt the aggression
On you, the pearl of religions?
Who will wash your bloody walls?
Who will safeguard the Bible?
Who will rescue the Quran?
Who will save Christ, From those who have killed Christ?
Who will save man?
Oh Jerusalem my town
Oh Jerusalem my love
Tomorrow the lemon trees will blossom
And the olive trees will rejoice
Your eyes will dance
The migrant pigeons will return
To your sacred roofs
And your children will play again
And fathers and sons will meet
On your rosy hills
My town
The town of peace and olives”
― Nizar Qabbani

“...The Qur'an cannot be translated. ...The book is here rendered almost literally and every effort has been made to choose befitting language. But the result is not the Glorious Qur'an, that inimitable symphony, the very sounds of which move men to tears and ecstasy. It is only an attempt to present the meaning of the Qur'an-and peradventure something of the charm in English. It can never take the place of the Qur'an in Arabic, nor is it meant to do so...”
― Pickthall M. Marmaduke, The Meanings of the Glorious Qur'an

“It is He Who sent down to thee, in truth, the Book (Quran), confirming what went before it; and He sent down the Law (of Moses) and the Gospel (of Jesus) before this, as a guide to mankind, and He sent down the criterion (Quran) (of judgment between right and wrong). - Holy Quran 3:3”
― Anonymous, القرآن الكريم

“When the sun shall be folded up; and when the stars shall fall; and when the mountains shall be made to pass away; and when the camels ten months gone with young shall be neglected; and when the seas shall boil; and when the souls shall be joined again to their bodies; and when the girl who hath been buried alive shall be asked for what crime she was put to death; and when the books shall be laid open; and when the heavens shall be removed; and when hell shall burn fiercely; and when paradise shall be brought near: every soul shall know what it hath wrought.”
― Anonymous, القرآن الكريم

“The Qur'an does not ask for human perfection, but rather
asks that we persevere in striving for self-improvement and that we never
become complacent or despondent about our progress.”
― Jeffrey Lang

“And He is with you wherever you may be.”
― Quran (57:4)

“Anyone who has learned the Quran and holds it lovingly in his heart will 'value his nights when people are asleep, his days when people are given to excess, his grief when people are joyful, his weeping when people laugh, his silence when people chatter and his humility when people are arrogant'. In other words every moment of life will be precious to him, and he should therefore be 'gentle', never harsh nor quarrelsome, 'nor one who makes a clamour in the market nor one who is quick to anger'.”
― Ibn Mas'ud

“There are certain verses in the Quran which convey injunctions similar to the following: 'Kill them wherever you find them.' (2:191)
Referring to such verses, there are some who attempt to give the impression that Islam is a religion of war and violence. This is total untrue. Such verses relate in a restricted sense, to those who have unilaterally attacked the Muslims. The above verse does not convey the general command of Islam. (pp. 42-43)”
― Wahiduddin Khan, The True Jihad: The Concept of Peace, Tolerance and Non Violence in Islam

“هناك كتاب، ريما على الرف يعلوه الغبار، ربما في السيارة ، او غرفة الصيوف للبركة، وربما على الصدر أو الجدار للزينة. ربما تقرؤة يومياً وتسمعه: إذ إنذلك جزء من عاداتك في استحصال الثواب.. لكنك لم تفهمه ابداً كما يجب، لذلك وصلت رلى هذا الدرك”
― أحمد خيري العمري, البوصلة القرآنية

“You claim that the evidentiary miracle is present and available, namely, the Koran. You say: 'Whoever denies it, let him produce a similar one.' Indeed, we shall produce a thousand similar, from the works of rhetoricians, eloquent speakers and valiant poets, which are more appropriately phrased and state the issues more succinctly. They convey the meaning better and their rhymed prose is in better meter. … By God what you say astonishes us! You are talking about a work which recounts ancient myths, and which at the same time is full of contradictions and does not contain any useful information or explanation. Then you say: 'Produce something like it'‽”
― Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi

“... classical Arabic, being the language of the Qur'an, has not changed at all in fourteen centuries, making the writings of the early Islamic scholars as accessible today as they were then.”
― Jim Al-Khalili

“Awakening to faith is not a one-time event, but a continuously unfolding reality. The journey of faith is not a race, but a marathon of love that each person walks at a different pace.”
― A. Helwa, Secrets of Divine Love: A Spiritual Journey into the Heart of Islam

“Each of those churches shows certain books, which they call revelation, or the Word of God. The Jews say that their Word of God was given by God to Moses face to face; the Christians say, that their Word of God came by divine inspiration; and the Turks say, that their Word of God (the Koran) was brought by an angel from heaven. Each of those churches accuses the other of unbelief; and, for my own part, I disbelieve them all.”
― Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason

“Submission, when it is submission to the truth — and when the truth is known to be both beautiful and merciful — has nothing in common with fatalism or stoicism as these terms are understood in the Western tradition, because its motivation is different. According to Fakhr ad-Din ar-RazT, one of the great commentators upon the Quran: The worship of the eyes is
weeping, the worship of the ears is listening, the worship of the tongue is praise, the worship of the hands is giving, the worship of the body is effort, the worship of the heart is fear and hope, and the worship of the spirit is surrender and satisfaction in Allah.”
― Fakhr ad-Din ar-Razi, Gai Eaton

“Arabic science throughout its golden age was inextricably linked to religion; indeed, it was driven by the need of early scholars to interpret the Qur'an.”
― Jim Al-Khalili

“আমরা আমাদের ব্যবসায় ইনভেস্ট করি টাকাপয়সা। কিন্তু আমরা খেয়াল করে দেখি না যে আমাদের জীবনও একটি ব্যবসার মতো। এতে লাভ বা ক্ষতি রয়েছে। কিন্তু এই ব্যবসার মূলধন কিন্তু টাকাপয়সা নয়। জীবনের যে ব্যবসা তাতে মূলধন হলো সময়। আমাদের প্রত্যেককে কিছু সময় পৃথিবীতে মূলধন হিসেবে দেওয়া হয়েছে। এই মূলধনকে কাজে লাগিয়ে আমাদের এ ব্যবসায় লাভবান হতে হবে।”
― Asif Shibgat Bhuiyan, সহজ কুরআন

“Remaining for a moment with the question of legality and illegality: United Nations Security Council Resolution 1368, unanimously passed, explicitly recognized the right of the United States to self-defense and further called upon all member states 'to bring to justice the perpetrators, organizers and sponsors of the terrorist attacks. It added that 'those responsible for aiding, supporting or harboring the perpetrators, organizers and sponsors of those acts will be held accountable.' In a speech the following month, the United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan publicly acknowledged the right of self-defense as a legitimate basis for military action. The SEAL unit dispatched by President Obama to Abbottabad was large enough to allow for the contingency of bin-Laden's capture and detention. The naïve statement that he was 'unarmed' when shot is only loosely compatible with the fact that he was housed in a military garrison town, had a loaded automatic weapon in the room with him, could well have been wearing a suicide vest, had stated repeatedly that he would never be taken alive, was the commander of one of the most violent organizations in history, and had declared himself at war with the United States. It perhaps says something that not even the most casuistic apologist for al-Qaeda has ever even attempted to justify any of its 'operations' in terms that could be covered by any known law, with the possible exception of some sanguinary verses of the Koran.”
― Christopher Hitchens, The Enemy

“So we have to internalize a very powerful reality that Allah has given us. We treasure all of our relationships so long as, they are something that is building us towards the akhirah (the afterlife). So I want to leave you with this picture, what Allah has in His possession is better.”
― Nouman Ali Khan, Revive Your Heart: Putting Life in Perspective

“و حيثما تلا الانسان القرآن , أحس بذلك الايقاع الداخلي في سياقه , يبرز بروزا واضحا في السور القصار و مواضع التصوير و التشخيص بصفة عامة , و يتوارى قليلا أو كثيرا في السور الطوال , و لكنه على كل حال ملحوظ دائما في بناء النظم القرآني .”
― سيد قطب, التصوير الفني في القرآن

“The Quran departs from Tanakh and the Bible in both format and literary structure. It is a single volume composed of what might be described as oral poetry that embeds snippets of stories, parables, liturgies, and laws. The text is broken into 114 suras (conventionally called "chapters") that are generally arranged in descending order of length. Each now bears a number (adopted from Western practice) and a name added later by Muslims.”
― Charles L Cohen, The Abrahamic Religions: A Very Short Introduction

“The Quran's most prominent message might be summarized as the imperative to believe in one God, God's messengers, books, and angels, and the Day of Judgment.”
― Charles L Cohen, The Abrahamic Religions: A Very Short Introduction

“Through its self-presentation and subsequent Muslim reflection, the Quran has achieved a higher status in Islam than either Tanakh in Judaism or the Bible in Christianity. It calls itself "noble" and "hidden," Allah's "Revelation" that only "the purified" may touch (Qur. 56.77–80). These statements gird the widely held tenet that it is "uncreated"—that it existed eternally with God before being disclosed in historical time—and they guide its treatment.”
― Charles L Cohen, The Abrahamic Religions: A Very Short Introduction

“I swear by the passage of time, that man is surely in a state of loss”
― Quran Kareem

“For these reasons it is clear that any translation of the Quran must be led by scholars with a profound understanding of the theological context of the Quran, as well as a native understanding of Arabic, but also considerable training in the meaning of the Classical Arabic particular to the Quran. These three things enable a scholar to truly understand the Quran, and a profound understanding is the first step towards a good translation.”
― Dr. Mustafa Khattab, The Clear Quran : A Thematic English Translation : English Only

“In essence, all themes (of the Quran) have a common denominator: one’s relationship with their Creator and the rest of His creation.”
― Dr. Mustafa Khattab, The Clear Quran : A Thematic English Translation : English Only

“The author of this profound book is nowhere to be found on the cover; rather He reveals Himself on every page, speaking with authority, offering compelling proofs, giving commandments to prophets, believers, and all of humanity.”
― Dr. Mustafa Khattab, The Clear Quran : A Thematic English Translation : English Only

“Now if the teaching of Moses is inspired and Deuteronomy 13 and 18 tell you that future revelations must be judged according to previous revelation, and if the alleged future revelation of the Quran conflicts with the previous revelation of Moses, who has to go?
By their own logic who has to go? The Qur'an has to go. Those who advocate the worldview of the Qur'an are not able to live according to their own worldview, there's this inconsistency”
― Greg L. Bahnsen