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, toJohn 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

“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

“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

“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

“Words have power, which is why Imam Ali says, “Speak only when your words are more beautiful than the silence.” After all, everything in existence sprouted from the vibration of the divinely uttered word “Be! And it is” (36:82). So remember, your tongue is like a knife; it can either kill like the sword of a samurai or save like the scalpel of a surgeon.”
― A. Helwa, Secrets of Divine Love: A Spiritual Journey into the Heart of Islam

“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

“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

“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

“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

“Defining itself is a passion for the Qur’an, whose formal name signifies the blossoming of new life. Other evocative terms it employs to describe itself include:

• Hayah: a source of life;
• Ruh: an inspired fresh breath of life;
• Shifa: a source of internal healing;
• Furqan: an intelligent being capable of discernment; • Hakim: a wise and self-aware counselor.”
― Mohamad Jebara, The Life of the Qur'an: From Eternal Roots to Enduring Legacy

“In the Qur’an’s telling, Abraham after much reflection declares himself a Hanifam-Muslima (3:67). Typically translated as “a pure Muslim,” both words were archaic Arabic terms at the time of the Qur’an’s revelation and together constituted a dynamic new identity for young Abraham. The root Hanif (cited twelve times in the Qur’an) originally described a tree precariously balanced atop eroding soil in a volatile climate, forced to constantly adjust its roots and branches—and was also used to describe traversing a perilous lava formation. The term connoted the need to constantly rebalance in order to stay safe in unstable situations: remaining true to core roots while having the courage to confront reality. In essence, a Hanif is a healthy skeptic who honestly evaluates inherited traditions.
In Abraham’s formula, the Hanif interrogates reality not as a cynic but as a healer, diagnosing injuries in order to repair them. Indeed, Muslim derived from the ancient Semitic root S-L-M, literally “to repair cracks in city walls.” As the integrity of monotheism erodes over time, repairers need to assess the damage and then get to work restoring the fractures.”
― Mohamad Jebara, The Life of the Qur'an: From Eternal Roots to Enduring Legacy

“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

“You should not be afraid of someone who has a library and reads many books; you should fear someone who has only one book; and he considers it sacred, but he has never read it.”
― Anonymous

“Don't be surprised if science discovers many other moons and earths in the universe because they were mentioned in the Qur'an more than fourteen centuries ago.”
― Kamaran Ihsan Salih

“According to the orator Dio Chrysostom, India had rivers of flowing milk and olive oil, its people lived to be over four hundred years old but stayed young and beautiful and had no disease.”
― Jerry Toner, Homer's Turk: How Classics Shaped Ideas of the East

“I used to suffer from many frustrating discomforts that almost paralyzed me, and this happened during circumambulation as well as otherwise. I turned to the recitation of The Opening and rubbed over the spot where it hurt, and it dropped like a pebble. I have experienced this a number of times. I would take a tumbler filled with the water of zamzam, recite The Opening over it many times and drink it, and find the benefit and strength that I have not seen in any remedy. The matter is in fact greater than this, but [its benefits obtain] in accordance with the strength of faith and soundness of belief, and God is the Helper.”
― Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, Ranks of the Divine Seekers A Parallel English-Arabic Text. Volume 1 (Islamic Translation)

“He is mistaken about Islam, whoever says: ''The religion of Islam is a religion of equality!’’ Rather, the religion of Islam is the religion of justice, and that combines between two equals and separates between two distinctions. Otherwise, if a person intends ''justice’’ when using the word ''equality,’’ then he will be considered correct in the meaning, but mistaken in the expression. This is why most of what is related in the Qur’an (in this matter) is a negation of equality”
― محمد صالح العثيمين