The biggest problem I have with the Qur'an is the claim that Muhammad is The Seal of the Prophets and the Qur'an is God's final and complete message.
It was excellent in the 7th century, but things have changed since then. Morality has become better as humans gained more experience and information. The Qur'an retards moral improvements because it's profoundly conservative.
This opinion is based far more on what Muslims have taught me about Islam than the Qur'an itself. Because the best English translation I've been given by Muslims was almost unreadably repetitious and stilted and I don't read 7th century Arabic.
As sung in the original language, it's quite beautiful. But that's not the same as true, or even useful.
Tom
Have you looked at this website that provides numerous translations of every verse? Maybe you can find a version that you prefer which isn't so stilted and strange seeming as whatever you were handed? A lot of what is on that website seems readable to me and not very strange or difficult to read.
IslamAwakened The website was attacked by hackers and is now back. Here is the beginning, you can click the buttons in the corner to navigate to the next verses and keep moving through from there. If you examine each verse, along with all the other great resources all provided on a single page, you may discover a translation that offers a good balance between the literal translation of each word and flowing, comprehensible English. You might not be that interested in pursuing the matter though, but someone else reading this may. The Qur'an represents one of the very largest religions present on Earth today and has a major influence on the minds and behaviors of numerous human beings, so even if one does not believe in what it says, it still may be important and useful to be familiar with its contents. The vast majority of Muslims, as far as I am aware, are actually not fluent or familiar with Classical Arabic, they can't read Arabic, and some who can recite in Arabic don't even know what they are saying exactly, so they read it in their own languages or English translations very frequently. What that means is that in a great many cases, you may be dealing with people with as much knowledge and access as any non-Arabic speaking person and are accessing the same English language resources, similar to how many people read the Bible in their own languages or English and are not familiar with the Greek or Hebrew versions. One of the things which might confuse people though is that Muslims say their daily prayers in Arabic, reciting verses from the Qur'an and other sources, but many of the people who recite these verses may only have a vague understanding of the meaning at the time of reciting such and rely on English translation to better understand what they are saying. I think it is highly likely that the English translation is not running consecutively after each word in their mind, and that they are actually reciting the prayers more like mantras or magical spells, confident that the meaning they have read is what they are communicating, but doing so in a language they do not normally speak or understand fluently.
The first verse
Ayah al-Fatihah (The Opening) 1:1 at IslamAwakened.com and the 6 after it, considered by most as the "7 oft repeated verses", are said many times throughout the Muslim worship, Salah or Salat, which some translate as "Contact Worship" or something I've seen written. The Muslims say these things in Arabic while standing with their hands or arms held together in front of their body or chest in a fashion reminiscent of Sumerian worship statues. The belief is that the worship is a kind of communication with God which is to be performed for the benefit of the worshipper at various periods of the progressing day and night to re-align and cleanse oneself both externally and internally. If you are able to do something like this, I highly recommend it, even if you do not mention any of the Muslim or Qur'anic verses or prayers, or pray to whatever you might believe in or even nothing or nature or whatever, taking time out throughout the day to sort of "re-connect" and communicate to whatever, even to oneself, can be a meditative exercise you may notices changes the way you end up interpreting and interacting for a time after, and the Muslim method doesn't let up, since it isn't long before another session comes up and one repeats the process. If you or anyone else does try something like this, please feel free to let me know how it goes, I would be very interested in finding out.
The Islamic belief can be broken down to something extremely simple, and the first point before proceeding is to establish where one stands in the vaguest sense. One may ask themselves and ponder about the following question: Do I believe in God? If the answer is Yes, then one can proceed, if the answer is No, then the very first step in being able to understand any true believing Muslim may be somewhat blocked, because a real Muslim is basically anyone who believes in God. There may be dispute as to the nature of God and God's actions or qualities in technical detail, but at its simplest, if one generally believes in God, believes God is watching them and can be communicated to, and that God is influential upon them and their lives (and I'd go as far as to say everything whatsoever and totally, but many may start to dispute when it goes that far). That makes it so good deeds are watched over and noted and rewarded, and so that prayers can be potentially answered, making their behaviors and activities not believed to be performed in vain or pointlessly.