I spoke of the general meaning of the verses. Every earnest and reverent student of the Qur’an, as he proceeds with his study, will find, with an inward joy difficult to describe, how this general meaning also enlarges as his own capacity for understanding increases. It is like a traveller climbing a mountain: the higher he goes, the father he sees. From a literary point of view the poet Keats has described his feeling when he discovered Chapman’s Homer :— Then felt I like some watcher of the skies When a new planet swims into his ken, Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes He stared at the Pacific, — and wall his men Looked at each other with a wild surmise, — Silent, upon a peak in Darien. One final word to my readers. Read, study, and digest the Holy Book. Read slowly, and let it sink into your heart and soul. Such study will, like virtue, be its own reward. If you find anything in this volume to criticise, please let it not spoil your enjoyment of the rest. If you write to me, quoting chapter and verse, I shall be glad to consider your criticism, but let it not vex you if I exercise my own judgment in deciding for myself. Any corrections accepted will be gratefully acknowledged. On the other hand, if there is something that specially pleases you or helps you, please do not hesitate to write to me. I have given up other interests to help you. It will be a pleasure to know that my labour has not been in vain. If you address me care of my Publisher at his Lahore address, he will always forward the letters to me. Abdullah Yusuf Ali's preface to the first edition of translation of the Holy Quran Let me explain the scope of the Notes. I have made them as short as possible consistently with the object I have in view, viz., to give to the English reader, scholar as well as general reader, a fairly complete but concise view of what I understand to the meaning of the Text. To discuss theological controversies or enter into polemical arguments I have considered outside my scope. Such discussions and arguments may be necessary and valuable, but they should find a place in separate treatises, if only out of respect of the Holy Book. Besides, such discussions leave no room for more important matters on which present-day readers desire information. In this respect our Commentators have not always been discreet. On questions of law, the Qur’an lays down general principles, these I have explained. I have avoided technical details: these will be found discussed in their proper place in my book on “Anglo-Muhammadan Law.” Nor have I devoted much space to grammatical or philosophical Notes. On these points I consider that the labours of the vast body of our learned men in the past have left little new to say now. There is usually not much controversy, and I have accepted their conclusions without setting out the reasons for them. Where it has been necessary for the understanding of the Text to refer to the particular occasion for the revelation of a particular verse, I have done so briefly, but have not allowed it to absorb a disproportionate amount of space. It will be found that every verse revealed for a particular occasion has also a general meaning. The particular occasion and the particular people concerned have passed away, but the general meaning and its application remain true for all time. What we are concerned about now, in the fourteenth century of Hijra, is: what guidance can we draw for ourselves from the message of God? A. YŪSUF ‘ALĪ. LAHORE 4th April, 1934 = 18th of the month of Pilgrimage, 1352 H. http://forums.understanding-islam.c...irst-edition-of-translation-of-the-Holy-Quran John Keats was an English Romantic poet. Born: October 31, 1795, Moorgate, City of London, United Kingdom Died: February 23, 1821, Rome, Italy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Keats Yusuf Ali Abdullah Yusuf Ali Born 14 April 1872 Bombay, British India Died 10 December 1953 (aged 81) Fulham, London, England Occupation Muslim scholar Abdullah Yusuf Ali, CBE, MA, LL.M, FRSA, FRSL (/ɑːˈliː/; Urdu: عبداللہ یوسف علی; 14 April 1872[1] – 10 December 1953) was a British-Indian barrister and scholar who wrote a number of books about Islam and whose translation of the Qur'an into English is one of the most widely known and used in the English-speaking world. A supporter of the British war effort during World War I, Ali received the CBE in 1917 for his services to that cause. He died in London in 1953. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdullah_Yusuf_Ali
There is so much to know about the actual reading of the Qur'an, just a simple cover to cover and you will know less than when you started, and what you did learn, is wrong.
I am atheist and I tried to read Quran. Booooooring! What do you so beautiful and so deep in this book that I don't see?
The Qur'an is a real project just to get through, written on a 5th grade level, goes in and out of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd person, you never know who you are talking to. No context, no storyline, bounces from one thing to another, people( Prophets) show up in different parts of the book just out of the blue. And it is not in chronological order.
