obstacles in reading the Qur'an

In addition to the language of the Qur’ān, the form of the Qur’ān is unique.
It differs somewhat from previous revelations — and not just because it is in Arabic.
When people (even Muslims) who have never read the Qur’ān in their lives, start to read it
with concentration, their first reaction is often one of surprise and even confusion.
Some people cannot seem to make sense of it at all.
This is because there are obstacles to overcome in reading the Qur’ān.
These obstacles are not difficult to overcome, but it helps to be aware of them.

In fact, there are three kinds of obstacles that prevent people from understanding the Qur’ān.
These are 	(1) obstacles in the act of reading;
 		(2) obstacles in the reader;
 	    and  	(3) obstacles in the Qur’ānic text itself.
As regards (1) obstacles in the act of reading, we should briefly consider the following:
 	(a) the Qur’ān is in Classical Arabic in the tribe of Quraysh (notwithstanding a few
well-known words of non-Arabic origin). It is not the same as colloquial or Modern Standard Arabic.
Because of its linguistic richness, it cannot be translated properly (its 'translations' are
only 'interpretations'). Qur’ānic Arabic has to be learned anew even by native Arabic speakers.
 Nevertheless, this is usually a question of a limited number of Arabic words.
 	(b) The Qur’ān was an oral revelation, set in an oral culture. Without hearing it read aloud
 according to its own rules of recitation, the reader misses not only the melody of the verses
 but also the power and resonance of the words—as well as their inner connections with each other.
 	(c) Modern education leads people to expect to read simple, short texts, which immediately
offer up all their information and which are nothing more than they appear.
Usually, these also have even simpler executive summaries of their important points.
But the Qur’ān must be read slowly and in depth, because the Author is Omniscient and so
all the different linguistic possible meanings of the words are pre-intended by the Author.
Also, it is full of symbols, similes, metaphors, allegories, hints, leads, allusions, & internal references. This is perhaps because certain truths cannot be fully conveyed by the surfaces of words alone. Moreover, it is not a short text—600 pages in most Arabic editions—and needs time and patience
to even begin to contemplate it. Indeed, most devout Muslims learn it in childhood
(anywhere between one to 10 million Muslims know the Qur’ān by heart) and
spend between 30 minutes and an hour every day of their lives reading it.
	(d) the Qur’ān is not a 'chronological' or 'linear' text. The Bible is basically a historical, chronologically arranged text. It starts with the beginning (the Book of Genesis) and goes right
through to the end of the Hebrew Prophets — notwithstanding an interlude of timeless
'wisdom books' such as the (Psalms). Then the New Testament tells the story of Jesus,
then his disciples, and it ends with the Book of Revelation, looking 'forward', as it were.
But the Qur’ān is not arranged in the order it was revealed and does not refer to events chronologically. It does not seek to tell a history—even a sacred one. Rather, it is atemporal, or at least achronological. So, it often returns to the same themes, again and again. Equally, it is not a systemic exposition of philosophy (like Plato's dialogues); nor of morality and theology (like Plotinus's Enneads); nor finally of cosmology and logic (like Aristotle's Metaphysics and his Organon). Rather, it contains different
kinds of wisdom scattered throughout; the reader has to piece them together.
	(e) The Qur’ān is an operative text, not a speculative text. Reading it is meant to be transformative and informative. It has to be approached like a student begging for knowledge, not a film critic passing judgment on a pastime. Without this attitude and intention— different from when reading a normal book—the Qur’ān does not transform, or even really, inform.
It merely confirms the reader's prejudices.

God says:
 	     “   And indeed, We have explained things in various ways in this Qur’ān, so that they may remember,
 		but      it      only      increases      them      in      aversion.   ”
 									(Qur’ān 17:41)

	As regards (2) obstacles in the reader, these come from:
	(a) The difference in time, place culture, circumstance, experience, and context between the reader and the Qur’ānic revelation.
	(b) Distraction, ‘scatteredness’, lack of concentration, wandering imagination,
interruption by bodily functions and needs, lack of patience, improper intentions, lack of openness, lack of humility, and blindness to spiritual truths, all of which lead to an inability to contemplate
the Qur’ān and an inability to meditate upon it.
Now God calls upon people to ‘contemplate’
(‘tafakkur fi’, see: 16:43-44; 59:21; 13:3; 3:190-192)
His signs (‘ayat’) in the Qur’ān and ‘meditate’ upon the Qur’ān
(‘tadabbur’, see 4:82; 23:68; 38:29; 47:24; see also 50:37).
The difference between the two is that ‘contemplation’ (‘tafakkur fi’) is active (it requires
having ‘an image in the mind’ according to Raghib al-Isfahani’s Mu’jam Mufradat Alfazh al-Qur’ān)
whereas 'meditation' (‘tadabbur’) is more passive but more profound
(‘dubur’ literally means ‘the bottom’ of something, and therefore ‘tadabbur’ means to ‘turn one's back’,
but also to ‘get to the back of something’).
Nevertheless, both can set off in the heart of the listener either a rainfall of startling
and luminous intuitions or even a kind of internal silent flash of understanding so that he or she instantly understands dozens of things at once with their multiple connections.

God says in the Qur’ān:
  “	Is he whose breast God has opened to Islam, so that he follows a light from his Lord [like he who disbelieves]?
 	So woe to those whose hearts have been hardened against the remembrance of God. Such are in manifest error.
 | 	God has revealed the most beautiful of teachings, a Scripture that is consistent and draws comparisons;
 	that causes the skins of those who fear their Lord to quiver;
 	then their skins and their hearts soften to the remembrance of God.
 		That is God's guidance, by which He guides whomever He wishes;
 			and whomever God leads astray, for him there is no guide.	” 	(Qur’ān 39:22-23)

	(c) The demands that the Qur’ān makes upon people: the Qur’ān urges not
only laws but also ethical principles and they can be quite demanding.
So, there is bound to be something in the soul that shrinks from these.
This is because the ego does not want to be told what to do or leave its
‘comfort zone’, much less to have to change its ways completely.

	Finally, as regards (3) obstacles in the Qur’ānic text itself, there are providentially a number of these and they take some getting used to. They include:
	(a) The constant shifts (in Arabic called ‘iltifat’), not only in subject but also of narrative tone.
Even the pronominal narrative voice chances: God sometimes refers to Himself as ‘He’;
sometimes as ‘I’; sometimes as 'We', and sometimes by His Divine Names.
God clearly cannot be limited or contained by pronouns or by a single point of view,
each of these shifts contains a secret and a meaning.
Sometimes the Qur’ān also shifts whom it is talking to: sometimes it is the Prophet,
sometimes it is believers, sometimes disbelievers, and sometimes everybody.
Each of these shifts draws attention to something new, in so doing it shocks the reader (or listener)
out of his or her mental habits in order to show them something about themselves.
	(b) The Qur’ān at first seems to contain a number of apparent obscurities, repetitions,
interrupted sentences, abridgments, and ellipses. These too each have certain secrets and meanings
that have to be penetrated. They force people to stop and think deeply, and that is perhaps
part of the reason they are there. They are like geodes—rocks that look plain from the outside,
but once they are cracked open, reveal a pattern of unexpected and beautiful crystals.
	(c) There are also a number of things that can seem strange and unlikely to the modern reader, such as the explicit descriptions of the afterlife, shari’ah, jihad, and ‘the heart’.
Some of them seem to reflect the context of seventh century CE Arabia (such as descriptions of the natural desert environment, tales of ancient Arabian and Biblical prophets, and even business imagery). The important thing to bear in mind is that the Qur’ān seeks to address
every possible human mentality, motif and level of education and sophistication—
not to mention every spiritually-relevant subject.
So, it contains something that speaks to every kind of person.