The Quran objectifies women

Man_of_Faith

I think Samira is criticizing the interpretation of Quran and not the Quran itself. Please do not be so hard on her. She wants to hear additional opinions and arguments on the matter and to see if Quran actually says something that disturbs her. Insulting her would rather turn her away from Islam completely. People want coherence and rationality if they are wise and this is what Samira is looking for. She grew up with Islam and it is natural that she would criticize it if she ever came to her senses as the has now.
Would it not be for much good input and my own personal advancements in interpretation I would hardly have kept adherence to Quran.
Gladly it has begin to show that Quran is just a continuous elaboration on the teachings of Jesus about assimilation with God. Very fine elaboration actually. Quran helped me understand what Jesus said and meant by his various expressions hidden in the Biblical Gospels/Injeel. Particularly this mysterious expression "I am in the Father and the Father is in me". He spoke of plain assimilation with the spirit of God in a kind of symbiotic state. How it works is becoming quite clear. But it takes grand efforts from your own part as well. Begin to kill your ego with much focus on personal desires.
I would not abandon Quran, for it is a fine narration. Some wise and assimilated prophet wrote it.
Quran has expressions in famous Jesus manner and that is 'la Elah ila Allah', with the right grammar structure and not objective focus on God but rather symbiotic assimilation with the phenomenon of God.
Have faith
Salaam

Samira1234

Hello Armanaziz,

Thank you for your comment. I appreciate different people's opinions.

Salamun Alaikum.

Samira?s primary observation about this verse is how the ?love for Passion for women? can be said to be glorified for entire mankind? Doesn?t that imply women are merely objects of passion within mankind?

It does not. Look carefully ? it is not women who are glorified/beautified, it is ?(men?s) passion for women? which is glorified. ?(men?s) passion for women? is not something exclusively men enjoy, women also enjoy or take pride in the opposite gender?s passion for them. Men take sensual pleasure in indulging in being passionate for women and women take sensual pleasure in indulging in blind passion for them from men. Thus ?men?s passion for women? is glorified as a worldly pleasure for both men and women. Once we understand that men and women both indulge in ?(men?s) passion for women? ? we can see that the verse is not objectifying any specific gender, rather categorizing ?excessive/blind passion for / from the opposite gender? as a misleading shallow worldly pursuit.

May Allah guide us all to the straight route.

Regards,
Arman

Seeing the verse only, without the war context as Novice had put earlier

314 It has been adorned for people to love the desire of women, and sons, and ornaments made from gold and silver, and trained horses, and livestock, and fields. These are the enjoyment of the world, and with God is the best abode.

The verse is talking on the desires that have been adorned for people in a one-sided way. Simply put, it is speaking on 'Naas' having beautified desires for women, sons, ornaments made from gold and silver, trained horses, livestock, and fields. And that these desires are made enjoyment for this world. Although with God, there isn't something essentially wrong with enjoying these desires in this world, but in the Hereafter we would have even better enjoyment. In verses 316-20 is the description given for people, essentially those who can have a chance for the enjoyment in the Hereafter.

It would have been okay, if the verse talked on having desire for the opposite gender only. Most of us women appreciate and have our own "beautified desires" for men as well. But then this verse clearly mentioned "Naas' and "Nisaa". Not even "Rijaal" and "Nisaa". So it is not just mentioning on women being desirable for men, instead of also the other way around, but also it is talking on women being desirable for people. Which is why I had mentioned on this verse on women being objectified in this case.

The second desire is talking on sons. Which means having sons is a beautified desire for people. If it simply mentioned children, it could have made more sense, since most people, both men and women, do like having children or being with children, although many other people don't. That is not exactly objectification by itself, although still somewhat weird in my opinion, but then it is more clear where the beautified desire for children is coming from. But then mentioning sons singularly makes it look that people are patriarchal in general and hence having sons is a matter of "pride" over having daughters, or that their physical strength and role to provide makes them more of a valuable person. Many daughters also support their parents in old age, and are many a time more nurturing to parents than sons, so it makes no sense all the more.

If someone can try to understand my points, and perhaps try another shot at re-interpretation if possible, while being honest to the linguistics of the Quran, it would have been helpful. Otherwise people getting angry to see my criticism regarding the Quran, using ad hominem attacks, trying to subdue me or punish me in some way for speaking out would not be helpful.

Peace.

Samira1234

By the way for everyone reading, please do not think I am criticising any of you personal characters or something. The very fact that you guys decided to question Hadith and follow more of Quran only, shows your sincerity and want, to follow the straight path. Also it is apparent that many of you guys are pretty hard working, spending hours to understand the Quran, and intelligent and good people in general.

When I criticise it is usually in the context of a particular topic. If I judged anybody's personal character or appeared to do so, please forgive me for it. I admit though my personal frustration can get hold of me at times and may cause me to speak in an unwanted way.

Peace.

huruf

I think Samira is criticizing the interpretation of Quran and not the Quran itself. Please do not be so hard on her. She wants to hear additional opinions and arguments on the matter and to see if Quran actually says something that disturbs her. Insulting her would rather turn her away from Islam completely. People want coherence and rationality if they are wise and this is what Samira is looking for. She grew up with Islam and it is natural that she would criticize it if she ever came to her senses as the has now.
Would it not be for much good input and my own personal advancements in interpretation I would hardly have kept adherence to Quran.
Gladly it has begin to show that Quran is just a continuous elaboration on the teachings of Jesus about assimilation with God. Very fine elaboration actually. Quran helped me understand what Jesus said and meant by his various expressions hidden in the Biblical Gospels/Injeel. Particularly this mysterious expression "I am in the Father and the Father is in me". He spoke of plain assimilation with the spirit of God in a kind of symbiotic state. How it works is becoming quite clear. But it takes grand efforts from your own part as well. Begin to kill your ego with much focus on personal desires.
I would not abandon Quran, for it is a fine narration. Some wise and assimilated prophet wrote it.
Quran has expressions in famous Jesus manner and that is 'la Elah ila Allah', with the right grammar structure and not objective focus on God but rather symbiotic assimilation with the phenomenon of God.
Have faith
Salaam

Samira keeps ignoring what does not pander to her own self-seeking view of what the Qur'an should say in order to fit the idea she wants to spread of wuat Qur'an is and what qur'an does. She ignores what does not help that and turns meek in order to continue doing what she is doing.

Insulting her? She is insulting us all the time. And say what I think she is doing and what I think of it is not insulting. It may no be pleasant but it is not insulting.

So you have your opinion and I have mine. And I have reasons to have it. She has managed to sell you on her muslim background and how much she has suiffered with that... Good I know something about muslim backgrounds and I do not believe that is the reason for what she is doing. I know some people, particularly women, who ignore ompletely de ur'an but that does not rpevent them from talking about it as if it was their blood right to distribute shit on the Qur'an without knowledge. It is very comfortable and sel-righteous to do that.

But this Samira, I doubt very much she wants to learn anything. She would have caught up at straws of little knowledge and been joyous about if it that was true. No, what she actually seems to enjoy is to play squid and hide. Shoot lots of ink to hide behind and moves posts.

So behave as you see fit yourself, I will do as much.

Salaam

Adn again

Huruf, you were being unnecessarily rude and mean to me in your comment. I do not wish to respond to someone who would reply to me this way.

Peace.

And you are being devious with all of us and insulting all of us and the Qura'an. Somebody told you already. Would you go into the bible forum and behave the way you are doing here? Or ahindu foruma nd do as much with their religious books.

Your ferocity is schoking? How do you dare throw at me that I don't accept that ferocity as a virtue? It is not a virtue. You are not asking questions or exposing problems, you calling names and giving as facts the most humilliating things for any believer. If you don't want to be talked in a certain way, do something not to deserve it. Tehere seems to be the widespread dogma that insutling islam and Qur'aan is perfectly alright, only islam and Qur'an, not the bible no the bagavad, not anything like that, just Qur'an and Islam. and of course if those who believe in islam and Qur'an feel autraged they should shut up or they are mean and bla, bla, bla...

Stand up to what you do and don't play de innocent, because what you write is not precisely innocence what gives away.

As to 3.53 I have answered several times very precisely but from the very beginning you do not take any notice of most things that do not fit your campaign of burying the Honourable Qur'an in filth. That does not worry me. The Qur'an is safe and you work against yourself, nobody else is the looser.

Salaam all

huruf

Salam Huruf

That is exactly what I am trying to explain. Everything that you wrote make sense.

Verse 0314 is not a command but it is telling us the character of men.

You are really awesome. Thank you very much

Btw now we know who is the acrobat

ALLAH Bless you

Peace

Salaam, Hizbullah,

Thanks for the blessing and the understanding. I am glad that somebody is ppleased with what I wrote. Somehow I never had any trouble understanding that aya. As you say it depicts a trait of character of humans any time anywhere.

May God bless you too.

Salaam

good_logic

Peace Samira.

I can only speak for myself. You are doing more or less what I did years ago. Questioning all the injustice/nonsense/beliefs...that people are claiming to be in the word of GOD.

Please allow me to share with you the journey I started and continue on. After being frustrated by Christianity and traditional Islam and dismissing both I was leading my life as a family man with no particular religion ,just minding my own business of work and living in a society that was not religious or cared about any religion.

Let me first give you a background of my story to Qoran.

I had all sorts of mixed fortunes during my varied life up to my late forties. My interest in finding the truth started when I was working away from home. I used to commute( at weekends only) from Plymouth where I worked ,to Manchester where my family lived( some 300 miles). It was a difficult time as my family were established in Manchester and my children were happy and nearing the final years in their schools and they did not want to move location .It was during these travels, listening to the news and comments on radio stations that I started to be interested in "Islam" and Qoran. I wanted to know why does GOD want the " so called Muslims" to kill/hate/segregate...?
I decided to check Qoran for myself and see what it says. Anyway at first ,like you I had so many questions!!!! So many people trying to answer me only increased my confusion! So many translations that led me to more doubts How can this Qoran mean so many things to so many people?

The challenge then for me became a personal issue Is this book really from GOD? I will study it , surely if it is not from GOD it will be full of nonsense ,contradictions and hocus pocus?

If I can share the following ,it may help or it may not

1-Qoran was/still is unlike any other book I have come across before. It was like a magnet and a puzzle. Every times I finished a session, I may get one answer but end up with more questions.

2-Everytime I asked for answers from "others" I became more confused.

3- My doubts were growing but my interest in Qoran was also growing. Strange!

4-I made many decisions to start again from the beginning. Ignore everything from before.

5-I decided to study other religions, to find everything about them and compare.

6-At last I can see why it is taking me so long, I also have to accept I will carry on and on. Why? Because I now have solid proof that Qoran is authored by GOD.

7- I also found that I cannot rush its explanations. GOD the Teacher of Qoran explains it according to what I can bear. Qoran is a living messenger. Once we decide that we truly want to know everything about it with sincerity, GOD does the rest.

8- The effort ,hard work .perseverance and trust in GOD have to all be there . A personal relationship with GOD needs to start to develop first. GOD has to bring out our true conviction.
9- It is a long journey, a trial of our intention and aims. Why do we want to know?

10- GOD will let you know for sure. You may not have all the answers ,but when you attain certainty about GOD and HIS message, you have to accept the waiting and leave the matter to GOD.
11- One has the choice to go on this journey or not. There are no easy answers to get from others.

Sorry for the long post.
May GOD help you on you journey and bless you.
Peace

FreedomStands

Hello FreedomStands,

Thank you for your reply.

Nothing of this sort is mentioned here. And no, we women in general don't desire sons singularly. That's a materialistic concept as well, extremely patriarchal and a further blow that daughters are not as desired.

Because you are male? Or you numbed your conscience in favour of "faith"? Just wondering.

So something extremely weird, out of ordinary, or a plain error in the Quran is supposed to strengthen my faith? That's a dogmatic idea, which is propagated by several scholars as well, that something unusual in the religion is actually supposed to "strengthen" our faith or may even be a "miracle". I guess it is a way to confuse and sugarcoat to the masses, while keeping them essentially silent on the absurdity.

Not in this way, dude. It looks like you are taking a colourful blindfold and happily tying it over your eyes, and trying to see rainbows with it. I am just saying like I see it, that's all. Forgive my words.

So apparently you want me to take the Sunni Islam platform that is taken by the majority of Sunni Muslim women, that is to keep the faith they need to accept injustice within the Hadith, even serious injustice against women at several levels, and that they will be rewarded in the Hereafter for it. I thought we Quranists have already termed this attitude as nonsensical and even mocked at their beliefs and mindset.

You welcome. I just thought of raising it to see what others have to say about it.

In other words you are bringing God-centered morality versus man-centered morality. I have thought about it a lot, and came to the conclusion that this type of mindset of bull, which is mainly fed by cultic type religious people. These people know the only real tools we have in this world is our conscience, reasoning, and using our five senses for observance of real-world evidence. So they try to numb these tools we have. Once they are numbed, the floor beneath our feet to distinguish between right and wrong is gone, or clouded over. Now the cultic type people can take over and essentially feed us their thought and sense of morality, since they know by now people are helpless in terms of sound thinking and following their heart in what is right.

Anyway, if God is truly an unjust God, who gives weird types of moral code that rests uneasily with our conscience, reasoning and real-world evidence, and we cannot use these three tools to figure out God's nature since "God-centered morality" is different from our "man-centered" one, and this God with His narcissism calls Himself "the most compassionate" and "the most merciful", why follow such a God in the first place? This God can throw the believers in Hell and send the unbelievers in Heaven as well! This God is untrustworthy, and we cannot judge Him in any way using the only real tools we have. Hence, it is pointless to even follow such a God. I am trying to speak from a clearer conscience and sound reasoning.

By the way I am a truth seeker at this point, to figure out the truth, whatever it may be. Thanks in advance for you guys' responses.

Peace,

Samira

Thank you so much for taking the time to reply so thoroughly! I think you may have misunderstood some of my statements and their intended meanings, since I was not suggesting some mystical acceptance, but rather that allowing ourselves to think badly of Allah and the Qur'an and go fully into those extremes can help to make us realize that the reason we worship Allah is because regardless of any evil Allah may do freely, Allah is the one who we can't defeat, that Allah is the word used here to refer to the Ultimate, and that it can do whatever it wants to do, say whatever it wants to say. All the information, good and bad, all our thoughts, good and bad, are all coming ultimately from Allah who creates all information.

So I wanted you to line up the "conditions". Are your conditions that if the Qur'an says something you don't like or that isn't fully accurate in your interpretation or opinion, that the whole book should be thrown out? I was genuinely asking because I'm very curious.

Yes, it is true, not all females love sons or men, not all males love females or find them attractive nor want sons, etc. Not every statement in the Qur'an is true in every conceivable or imaginable way we can interpret it. If God says he makes the "sunrise" it doesn't mean that God makes the "sun rise" necessarily, I mean that is the kind of nitpicking that might be going on here, which is totally fine, but why do you even really care? Is the Qur'an important to you?

Why not turn the Qur'an aside if you don't care for it, if you do care for it, must everything it say be exactly as you want it to be? Must everything it say be impossible to interpret in multiple ways and all the multiple ways it can be interpreted all have to be exactly accurate as you wish?

One could even make excuses like "God that instant made that true, you were not existing for that", but honestly, I find these things petty and want to get to the real root of the issue.

The important question here is what are your conditions? What does the Qur'an mean to you, why is it important? Why would this verse disturb your sense of peace? Is your religion so fragile that something like this would make you feel that you are faltering? In that case I encourage you (and this is not meant to be rude or mocking, but to literally strengthen your resolve) to reject the Qur'an outright, and reject God too, to go full force into the deepest and darkest thoughts, and you may come out of it with a deeper understanding, that a Muslim is a Muslim because God can't be defeated, so we have no option but surrender.

So take from everything what is best, and eschew what you might not understand or what you might interpret as wrong or misleading or useless to you or harmful.

All the world is Allah's world, and all the words are from Allah, be they misleading or truthful, it is Allah who guides people or makes them wander.

My conditions for the Qur'an? My conditions for the Qur'an are that it says enough of what I want it to say and promotes the message that I already believe in, which is that there is only the Ultimate who has all power over all information (including power over us entirely), and can not be defeated. If it said otherwise, I would put it aside because it would not correspond with my beliefs or conditions, it wouldn't matter to me if it even did come from some "God" that claimed to have partners, I would fight against it, because such a concept is weak, even if it were somehow "true", I believe only in the Ultimate, and the Qur'an confirms my own beliefs and is a useful tool for promoting these beliefs (possibly the most useful due to its strong anti-shirk, anti-partners, Ultimate only stance).

I worship the Ultimate because I can't harm or defeat the Ultimate, there is no option but surrender, willingly or unwillingly. Its a fight I can't win any other way, there is no other action to take but to seek benefit from the Ultimate and hope to avoid harm from the Ultimate.

I believe in the Qur'an because it says what I want it to say mostly, if it didn't say what I wanted it to say, I'd not use it, it wouldn't be useful to me very much.

What the Qur'an might say that I don't want it to say, I try to make it say what I want it to say, and if I can't do that, I might try to justify it, and if that is even wrong, I might just ignore those parts or not put them into practice in the way I interpret them, because Ultimately, this is a discussion between me and God, a matter that might be brought up later, so if I want to give my child a certain amount of money for whatever reason, I think that I'm free to do that, while Allah has given prescriptions about stuff and there are reasons also for that, but I also don't really care always and think there is definite freedom and other circumstances and Allah knows best and Allah is the one that one should be careful of and directly be dealing with.

Do you view yourself as a "Qur'anist"? Why make this into a faction. I happen to like the Qur'an and follow it, because the religion it presents is generally the same as my religion, and anything which is in accordance to my religion, is acceptable and usable for me.

Allah can give guidance through any book or words or people or things or signs, and Allah can give a thing which has things we might like and things we might dislike, and Allah can give us a book that has things in it we hate or which he has made disgusting for us, and Allah can give us a book which has some good guidance and other bad guidance. Allah can make all these things. Allah has given us the beautiful Qur'an. " Give, then, this glad tiding to My servants, who listen to all that is said, and follow the best of it it is they whom God has graced with His guidance, and it is they who are endowed with insight!" - 3917-18

Follow the best of it, Allah will judge the matter, and may or may not answer your questions. Allah can turn you into a disbeliever, or strengthen you in Islam

226
Lo! Allah disdaineth not to coin the similitude even of a gnat. Those who believe know that it is the truth from their Lord; but those who disbelieve say What doth Allah wish (to teach) by such a similitude? He misleadeth many thereby, and He guideth many thereby; and He misleadeth thereby only miscreants;

I say embrace the Dark Side, that embracing the Dark Side may be a necessary step in your development, just as I embrace all those thoughts and examine them carefully to know firmly why I am doing this, why I am following this strategy. By "Dark Side" I mean allowing yourself to question and come up with the worst possible case scenarios and examining why those mean anything to you at all.

My religion is Surrender (Islam), I am an iconoclast, one who performs the Jihad, an idol-slayer (idolatry of the mind), Allah is the foe who can not be outdone, who can not be defeated, who can not even be harmed, who has power over all things, who controls me and everything, after smashing all the idols, all the concerns, all the political stances, we find behind it all is what is like Nothing, that is Allah only, SubhanAllah (Subhan meaning void, like nothing, not made of information while making all information).

So it is good to be fighting for equal rights for females and all kinds of nice things for humanity out of mercy and compassion and justice and righteousness, but at the end of the day (and the beginning of the day) it comes to one thing, nothing at all matters, nothing is necessarily even "true" (as in lasting) other than The Ultimate, and the Ultimate makes all information, destroys it, exchanges it, transforms it, animates it, and can make one thing true one moment, and another thing true another moment, just like Allah turned the piece of wood into a snake, and snake into a piece of wood, what is true? Allah only is True (as in lasting), but there is No Other Eternal Truth. "Nothing is True, Everything is Permissable (to achieve the goal)" Allah is the one who is like nothing, and the goal is paradise (lasting pleasure).

It is easy to become non-individuated and "return to Allah", simply by killing oneself (which one can not truly do unless Allah wills it and makes it successfully occur), and we will be returned to a state of non-information (which is entirely skipped, since we can only experience information and can't experience non-information which is Allah, who showed this to Musa also by making the mountain completely obliterated and Musa going unconscious, which is also "non-information", same as a dreamless sleep, all these things are connected to "returning to Allah" who is in a sense "like Death" which is non-information, no information is experienced by someone who is truly "dead" and Allah is not made of information so can not be experienced in that essential form but only through the medium of information can we experience anything. Allah is likewise, the "life" of all things, literally animating all reality.

Why I bring these things up is because I think it would be best if our minds contemplated these sorts of things rather than petty seeming issues like this verse.

It may not seem petty to you of course, but either you make a big deal out of it and spin it as being dehumanizing to women or ignore it or spin it in some other way, it depends on what your goal is. If your goal is to throw away the Qur'an, I believe everyone with such an inclination should absolutely by all means throw it aside or give it to someone else. In my case, the Qur'an is a tool, like lamp, that can be used to shine light upon the Truth which is the Ultimate, it has many useful things for that, so I would keep it for that reason, even if it had a single verse in it that said the worst possible thing imaginable, I would still use what is useful out of it.

So please, engage with me, talk with me, I would like to discover more about your particular religion (or Deen) and your qualms.

Samira1234

So you have your opinion and I have mine. And I have reasons to have it. She has managed to sell you on her muslim background and how much she has suiffered with that... Good I know something about muslim backgrounds and I do not believe that is the reason for what she is doing. I know some people, particularly women, who ignore ompletely de ur'an but that does not rpevent them from talking about it as if it was their blood right to distribute shit on the Qur'an without knowledge. It is very comfortable and sel-righteous to do that.

Huruf, you do not even know me properly, yet you are writing long sentences on what you think are my intentions, how you think I am selling people regarding my muslim background, etc. And what do you think is the reason I am doing what I am doing? I have a humanistic vision, and I set out on this journey to see how this religion can fulfil that vision and actually give light to darkness in the world. I did find several universal and very progressive teachings. But I am also actively finding worldly/fleshly/non-spiritual attitude for some other things, and some very patriarchal manner of speaking. Also I found some minor grammatical, language and logical errors. So now I would be blamed heavily for finding these, and be heavily name-called as well?

Somebody told you already. Would you go into the bible forum and behave the way you are doing here? Or ahindu foruma nd do as much with their religious books.

You should have mentioned also Sunni forums. And whether I would do the same regarding their religious books among secondary sources, which they hold as gold; it is just as disrespectful as well. I am very much sure a person criticizing the Hadith books in a Sunni forum would get very similar attacks from people like huruf.

The Quran is the book I have been told to follow, and Islam is my religion. With that perspective I mainly speak on it however I see fit. I admit though I may have been more straightforward than what would have been required of me. But then, I also am frustrated to an extent, and don't see how more sugar-coating would solve the problem.

Tehere seems to be the widespread dogma that insutling islam and Qur'aan is perfectly alright, only islam and Qur'an, not the bible no the bagavad, not anything like that, just Qur'an and Islam. and of course if those who believe in islam and Qur'an feel autraged they should shut up or they are mean and bla, bla, bla...

The bible got more attacks than any other religious book. There are detailed books on it I have found on Amazon regarding the Bible, which have been bestsellers too, and lengthy videos as well. All other religious books have been criticised on, scrutinized, and spoken unbiasedly upon. Many muslims seeing their own book as the best don't find it necessarily wrong in seeing criticism regarding other books, since several may not even consider them as much holy. But once their own book is criticized they may go berserk, and feel as though they are the only ones being repeatedly attacked. I suggest you do a simple google search on other religions and their books, and see they have already been talked about openly.

An example Jesus have already been mocked and ridiculed at, and even made derogatory cartoons and spoken about as such as well. But then one single cartoon of Muhammad in the public caused Muslims to go berserk, demanding punishment of the cartoonists, going on protests, and even killing people in the process. And complaining on being the only ones whose religion is attacked or ridiculed on. That may be sectarian Muslims, but even some Quranists can have similar vision.

Stand up to what you do and don't play de innocent, because what you write is not precisely innocence what gives away.

I am not trying to play innocent, as you say. Unless you don't want me to be polite or something.

Huruf, I am sorry once more if my posts were offensive to you. But then also I would say, if you really find them intolerable I really suggest you to stay away from commenting, or even reading my posts. That would be better for everybody involved.

Peace,

Samira

FreedomStands

The Qur'an gives a clear indication that the society of the Arabs was patriarchal, and at that time it was very common for people to even kill their daughters (burying them alive or leaving them out to die as babies) and preferring sons. This is something that is discussed in the Qur'an and a fuss is made in it about that. Infanticide was practiced in many parts of the world, and generally it was the daughters who were killed in preference to the sons. The Qur'an speaks out against this practice.

The Qur'an is for the most part addressing the male patriarchal audience, though the verse certainly can be understood in other ways, but I find no necessity to do that.

Would you prefer that the Qur'an, which is supposedly the "word of God" be written exactly as you would like? Then why not write a book that is perfectly to your liking?

What do imagine God to be, and what words are not the "word of God" who creates all information. How is God not compassionate, when all compassion in existence comes from God, where God could have made you a being of pure suffering but didn't, who is also seeing through your own eyes and has all the information, thus knowing your experiences exactly as they are, "as you" in a sense, since you are just information and all your experiences are just information and God encompasses all of that, including the experience of "being you" and whatever other information exists.

The Qur'an mostly addresses a male audience it seems, though what it says can be useful to both females and males, it is also useful because many people already believe in it so can be used to control their behaviors by studying it and making it say things that you want them to believe, like being good and kind and whatever else.

God is the Lord of Evil, the Master of Good, the source of all happiness, sadness, and all experiences and thoughts and creeds and technologies and evil deeds and good deeds and whatever else. It is not what you might imagine, because what you might imagine, if you imagine anything, is likely not God, since God is literally like nothing, as in not made of information, but is what produces all information Ultimately.

So if you don't like that idea, then you are free to make your own religion, and I encourage you even to do so, it might be good, if you can make it good and useful for people.

My religion is surrender. Not mindless surrender, but mindful surrender. I do not have any "faith" as in "blind faith" and God can not be "trusted" if you take "trust" to mean "not fearing, feeling totally safe with and not afraid, who will do whatever you want and you will always be experiencing pleasure". No, God is to be feared, is the Destroyer, the Harmer, the Killer, the Judge and Judgment (the Doom).

God is the one who creates fish to live the life of fish, and God is the one who creates evildoers to be exactly as evildoers and to live in hell as the fish live in the sea or as the good might live in paradise, these are all creations of God that God can freely make happen, God is the only true Free Will, God's will is whatever we do is God's will, nothing happens that isn't Ultimately God's doing, God's creation of information.

faruk