>>724124
I’ve read it. It’s very different from the Bible for a lot of reasons
First off, the Bible is largely in a chronological order both narratively and historically. Meaning generally, if one Bible book comes before another, it’s because the first one was written earlier, and it also generally takes place earlier in the story. Obviously there are some exceptions, like how Job is first mentioned in Genesis but his story doesn’t come until after all the history books, and the book of Job is considered a very early Biblical work, but for the most part it holds true. You could get a full story by starting with Genesis and reading through to Revelation.
By contrast, the Quran is not arranged in a linear order (it doesn’t start with creation, work its way up through the prophets, and end at the last judgement like The Bible does), and they’re also not arranged in order written (or “revealed”). The arrangement is mostly arbitrary, as the Quran is a completely different kind of book from the Bible.
The Quran has no linear narrative, and stories are mostly told for the purpose of making some point. For example, a passage of the Quran might go something like this
>Allah is one, there is no other alongside him
>And people rejected Abraham, who told them to turn from idols, who was asked to sacrifice his son, who built the Kaaba
>And Allah sent Moses, who preached this to them, and gave them the Torah, but they rejected him, and worshipped a golden calf
>And Jesus Son of Mary told them to worship one God, but they disbelieved and turned not from their idols
That’s not a real passage, that’s just a pastiche so you can get an idea of the feel of it.
Outside of teaching passages like that, there’s a ton of direct commandments directed at the reader. Often, they start off with “O you who believe…” and you’ll read a ton of passages like that.
So there’s the teaching passages with story, direct commands (which sometimes lead into stories), and then there’s parts that are just listing off attributes of God, Heaven, Hell, and angels.
That’s a basic summation of its contents.
The Quran is largely a giant prayer book. You’re supposed to memorize sections of it in Arabic, and recite them as prayers at Islamic services. Most of the Bible is prose, but the Quran is a giant Arabic poem. Arabic poetry doesn’t translate well to any western language, so in English it’s very dry. I got one of those “read the Quran in 30 days” things (the Quran can be split into 30 parts called a “juz”) and forced my way through it.
Some other notes:
It actually doesn’t mention Muhammad that much. He barely factors in. The main focus is Abraham and Jesus
There’s a lot of times where the stories are referenced so briefly you won’t really understand it without just looking it up. I knew enough about the Bible to understand most, but all the references to stuff that happened in the life of Muhammad were just incomprehensible
The Quran has a ton of repetition. There were a few times where I would check back to see if I was rereading passages. I really don’t think there’s a single passage only said once in the Quran and not repeated
It actually does have a few prophets outside of the Bible. A lot of people think the Quran is like a “sequel” to the Bible, and Muslims accept every prophet in the Old Testament+ Jesus and Muhammad, but they actually don’t. The Quran never mentions Isaiah, Jeremiah, or Daniel, and it adds this prophet named “Hud” who preached in “the sandy plains.”