And who gave you the right to decide that for yourself?
Dear vitamin c, everyone's very own life experience right from the very start. Please let us go back in time and see our growth after our births. To begin with as we started growing with time we learned each and everything through our direct experiences with things on basis of trial and error. We did not know anything at all to begin with. We had no idea what our eyes were or what our ears were and so on and so forth. Gradually by seeing; hearing; smelling; tasting and touch or feeling things, we learned what is what and how it works. We tried not to use our thoughts and actions which did not work for us for solving our problems and we adopted whatever worked for us to get where we wanted to be. If anyone including you can deny this, please say so.
This is why I say we humans are born scientists ie with abilities to find out things for ourselves by interacting with real world realities or if you like things in the world we live in. This is exactly what each and every scientist does in his laboratory at a micro or by now rather at nano level. However problem is we are not capable of learning each and everything or directly as we have our limits. This is why when we cannot learn something directly we try to learn it indirectly by coming up with ideas and then trying those idea out to see if they work and solve our facing problems or not. We use indirect learning by learning from those who have already gone through certain life experiences themselves. This is why we have built schools, colleges and universities for sharing our life experiences with each other. This helps us learn things quickly instead of waiting for direct experiences with each and everything by ourselves. The purpose of learning things is always to explain to ourselves as to why we exist or how we came to exist or when we came to exist and how we can continue living the best possible way etc etc.
So no matter at what stage of our lives we are, our already learned methods are fully established beyond any questioning because on these basis we live our lives and none can deny them so they become our accepted standards. Basically we all use these scientific methods all the time anywhere and everywhere to solve problems that face us. Existence of God question is likewise a problem for humanity to solve and it can only be solved by using the scientific method. This is why I say, God made us scientists and he gave us as evidences in form of his creation to experiment with and the explanation for living our lives purposefully and happily so that we appreciate greatness and goodness of God.
By not living our lives by way of life advised by God for us to live by, we are only harming each other and as a result the whole human population is suffering terribly painfully. I have given you link to go through so that it saves me repeating these things. I have already explained all these points you are raising here and more. From all these explanations of mine you cannot fail to see that we human beings are rational creatures. This is why, if we have any revelation from God then it ought to be explained rationally and must not be taken for granted at face value. This is why miracles and magic need to be kept away from the quranic interpretations that serves no essential purpose but instead become a huge stumbling block or hindrance. Religion and secularism have nothing to do with the quran. People who claim to be scientists or philosophers or mullaans are like new born babies in front of the information the quran contains. However to reach that stage of understanding of the quran one has to reach a very high level of thinking ability.
The quran claims to be a rational book, so anyone who interprets it irrationally is contradicting the quran right from the start. Not only the quran but the very nature of oneself because I just proved beyond any reasonable doubt that we human beings are rational beings. God gave a book for rational beings to understand it properly and do as it says for the purpose stated in the book and look at what rational beings have done to the book of God. They have messed it up with their unreasonable or nonsensical explanations. Why they did that? It is because along the line they go off the track of rationality and turn irrational and stop learning things the rational way as they did right from their very start. So it is human beings who are to blame not God for their going off the track. This means God's creation is rational, his book is rational and we human beings are rational, rationality is the way to go rather than foolishness and stupidity.
Even today if people will start using rationalism, they will clearly see the quran is not a nonsense book but a book of clear guidance from God for humanity towards a great life in this very world. The quran is not given for life in hereafter but this very life in this world. Hereafter will be a reward for having struggled to establish a great human community in the kingdom of God in this world. This is why if we will not struggle according to vision God has for us, then we will only suffer in this life by hands of each other due to our own wrongdoings or crimes against each other. We humans are given the ability to chose to live as God guides us and be rewarded in this life as well as in hereafter or to go our own ways and face the consequences. This is why the quran is not a holy book of any religion but a book that shows us the right way of life to a blissful, dignified, secure but purpose based existence.
The question humanity needs to ponder upon is, why God created things and why he sent his revelations for mankind? It is because God is a living being and he has power of choice. So he decided to express himself and this is how he decided to express himself ie he created things and sent his revelations for human beings. This is why these two are called acts of God. Since he decided to express himself, he needed to create something which could appreciate him as a great being so he ended up creating human beings with ability to think, choose and do things. Since he wanted to be appreciated truly so he created human beings unbiased and that is why we are caused to be born knowing absolutely nothing at all to find out each and everything in this regard all by ourselves. This is why this world is set up in such a way so that it could serve the purpose for which God has created it and it is serving that purpose perfectly.
God gave mankind his books because he wanted to explain to them why he has created them and what they will need to do to fulfil that purpose for which God has created them as well as all the rest of the things. So now it is entirely up to mankind as a human population to respond to God and be rewarded with a great life in this word as well as in hereafter or ignore him and do as they please in this world and face the consequences. This is why the quran advises for mankind the kind of life God has chosen for them but it is people who are to struggle to bring about that kind of life for themselves in this world. The sooner the mankind will do that the sooner will end their own painful suffering by hands of each other or the more people will delay things the more they will suffer painfully by hands of each other by practicing their God given ability of choice. Because this struggle God has put humanity through is a very hard work for humanity this is why God will reward humanity with double reward ie one in this life and one in hereafter. This is the difference between the quranic way of life and the religious or secular ways of life ie both are aimless and purposeless.
In the quranic context worship of God is not ritualism or acts of pooja but actual beautiful works advised by the quran for humanity to bring about a beautiful human world for themselves in the kingdom of God. This is why proper understanding of the quranic text is absolutely necessary because otherwise humanity can never bring about the kind of human world the quran advises. This is why the quran is full of words like jannat and jahanam. It is because God is telling us if we will do things his way we will end up having a great life in this world but if we will do what we like then our lives will be hell by our own making.
God never says to people in the quran, fear me. Instead he tells people I am advising you what you should be doing and what you should not be doing and why. It is because if you will do things I say then you will end up having a great life but if you will not then your lives will be made hell by each other. This is why I asked you to interpret the quranic surahs and particularly taoos and tasmiya verses and why the very first surah in the quran is surah al faatihah. It is because God wants us to leave our all nonsensical ideas aside before we start reading the quran which we have been planted by our families or societies etc etc.
Think about it, what have our human societies told us about God? They told us God is very bad being ie he is cruel or tyrant or oppressor and what not. This is why taooz or aoozubillah is recited before reading the quran so that we do not entertain such ideas about God and read the quran ie God wants us to leave our such ideas about God aside. Then we read tasmiyah ie bismillah. It is supposed to bring to our attention that God is so meciful etc etc and not a tyrant etc etc. This is why all those who portray God in bad light are either ignorant and stupid or stubborn due to their haughtiness and arrogance. If people who say such terrible things about God with their mouths then they are shaitaans ie mischievous people therefor sayings of such people should not be given any importance. Now look at the world of human beings. Look at songs people write and sing thinking they are praising God but in actual fact they are throwing abuses at being of God where as in the quran God repeatedly says, all my names or attributes are beautiful ie God does not do anything bad or against his set out purpose for humanity.
Taooz also explains, when God sent his first revelation through a man called aadam most people did not believe in God properly at the time rather they like us today had developed very wrong ideas about being of God. Aadam was sent as a first messenger by God to unite humanity at the time to bring about a proper human community in the kingdom of God. This was the very first paradise that aadam brought about according to the plan he was given by God.
Tasmiyah also explains the kind of society God wanted people to bring about ie which shows how wise and great as well as good God is as a being. If we look at the meanings of words RAHMAAN and RAHEEM. They are from very same root which is about a womb or womb like thing. In a womb all is provided by God for needs of a baby in his mother's body. Likewise God has provided all things people will ever need to fulfil the purpose for which God has created them.
So you can see I am explaining the very same quranic text as you have been reading and so have been billions of others. These are reasons I do not agree with others because they have not really grasped the actual message in the quran ie due to lack of knowledge. This includes arabs and not only arabs but those educated arabs who have multiple phds under their belts from top universities in the world. They are doctors and scientists and philosophers or engineers and lawyers as well as politicians and economists and what not. You yourself are an educated person never mind others. This is why I can't recommend any translation or interpretation of the quran to you because namesake muslims have not bothered to decode the message in the quran as it ought to be decoded.
In surah fatiha, the quran declares glory of God by stating God is rabb ie sustainer of the worlds. In other words God is saying I am worthy of great praises because I created sustained all things ie he is claiming greatness by way of creation and sustenance. This is how he is introducing himself to humanity. It is the best possible introduction by God himself, provided one has wisdom to understand these things. Just three verses and things look great. This is why if humans cannot even understand the quran, how can they write a book like it? Now even you will say, How simple all this is yet how silly I was that I did not get it.
Anyway the reason as to why surah fatiha is first is because it is the key to the proper understanding of the rest of the quran. In a map when it is printed in a book form, the key is given in the first page or the front page so that people could first get the hand of key of map so that then they could understand how to use the rest of the map properly. This is why, proper understanding of the very first surah of the quran is of such vital importance.
Now you tell me, can this be wrong arrangement of the quranic text? Could anyone arrange the words like we have them arranged in the quranic text? I don't think so because I have been thinking things through thoroughly. These like are the reasons that I do not take people seriously when they talk against the quran. To understand the quranic text properly we must use the very same method that we used after birth ie trial and error method. Using that method we must try to get to know the proper context of the quranic text. We will not be able to do that till we learn about real world realities and arabic language. Not only that we also need know the mechanism involved in origin of words and their meanings. All this has been already explained in my posts. Particularly in the thread for which I gave you the link. Here I am simply repeating things, which I do not wish to do as I have more important protects to complete. So it is up to you to go through my posts or not to bother.
So if you decide to read the quran then use trial and error method ie interpret the quran one way and if that interpretation does not fit the quranic context then use other meanings of words and keep doing that till things start making sense to you and they will. As you get better at doing this things will become easier for you. Don't depend upon translations and interpretations of the quran by others but they can be helpful here and there. Going through
THIS LINK is vitally important for people if they wish to understand the quran properly.
regards and all the best.