"How flexible the Qur'an is, at least in minds that are not fundamentally inflexible."

I love her! some gems from this talk:

"Part of the problem I think, is that we imagine the Qur'an can be read as we usually read a book, as though we can curl up w/ it on this rainy afternoon with a bowl of popcorn within reach. As though God -and the Quran is entirely in the voice of God speaking to Muhammad(pbuh)- were just another author on the best-seller list."

on translations of the Qur'an

"the more you add, the more seems to go missing. the arabic has an incantatory, almost hypnotic quality that begs to be heard rather than read. felt more than analyzed. It wants to be chanted out loud, to sound its music on the ear, and on the tongue. So the Quran in english is sort of a shadow of itself." Sometimes I want to just read the translation, but honestly, reading the arabic aloud in addition to the translation has a soothing effect all on it's own. She continues to state that all over the Qur'an Allah (swt) has said that patience is rewarded, and thus, if we are not native arabic speakers, we should still keep at it with our translations.

What sets the Quran apart? It includes women:

"For Muslim men and women, for believing men and women, for devout men and women, for true men and women, for men and women who are patient and constant, for men and women who humble themselves, for men and women who give in charity, for men and women who fast, for men and women who guard their chastity, and for men and women who engage much in Allah’s praise, for them has Allah prepared forgiveness and great reward." (33:35)

I especially LOVE the last part about hoors. Hearing the whole swelling bosoms bit always gave me an uneasy feeling, because in a sense it seemed as if there was some sort of preference game going on here, however, we are all Allah (swt)'s creation and as Brother Ali says "these are God's fingerprints!" I like how she explained that we will be a new creation in paradise and recreated in a form uknown to us. and none of this 72 bs.

This motivated me to try harder in understanding the Qur'an, because the more I learn about it, the more subhan'Allah moments I have - and those moments can't be matched by anything else.

Peace.