Jafar, it's true that the Qur'an uses fear and pleasure in its text. But in my experience, a lot of books do that, including the New Testament.

There is a component in the Qur'an that makes it psychologically effective. I think it maybe has to do with the emotion called "regret". Overall, the Qur'an is filled with plausible after-life scenarios that trigger this. Whoever wrote the Qur'an mastered this form of visualization of regret (i.e. "If only you only knew!" and "This world is temporary and you're going to regret investing in it."). It exceeds main exposition of describing hell. You actually feel as if you're in a courtroom of sorts since its judging your current actions in real time. Like I said, I'm speaking about this APART from making a value statement on the Qur'ans nature. Whether it is peace or violent is another discussion I think. I'm just probing its effectiveness.

Peace guys,

This is a topic of the Qur'an that has always intrigued me. I've read a fair share amount of holy books (New Testament, the Bhagavad Gita, the Torah, Mormon Bible, etc). But in the end, I feel a bit disconnected from the exposition. They don't really try to communicate with the reader 11. DON'T GET ME WRONG, they all contain good messages, but I'm talking about the visceral emotion of the text.

But when I open the Qur'an, I instantly feel my soul is being attacked. I wonder if you guys noticed this? It's almost maniacal in a way.

For example, when the Qur'an brings up a point of belief, it will NEVER stop there. It usually probes you with rhetorical questions to challenge the anti-belief and then immediately brings up the afterlife to contrast the conclusion of believing or not believing. And then it goes further...it actually recreates discussions in the afterlife that a believer or disbeliever would have. These are often depicted with the disbeliever experiencing immense regret as he gets thrown in hell. Another example is when you try to rationalize away a line. The Qur'an will often take your rationalization and say "Really? Nice try. But you can't escape the TRUE meaning." I especially remember the part where the Qur'an says that people who argue with the quran feel as if they are their chest is "tightening". I'm scared to admit that I feel this at times.

I mean, putting aside whether you think the Qur'an is a peaceful, violent, or helpful book. I just believe this book masterfully attacks your psychology in every way possible. This book was made either by God (who understands his creation's weak points) or a psychological savant. Do you guys feel the same way? Or maybe I'm looking at it wrong?