Reddit reply in r/AcademicQuran: why do so many analysts find the quran — January 17, 2025 | Ali Shukri Amin

TL;DR - The scholars you mention are approaching & experiencing the Quran in a fashion Muslims wouldn't advise.

Take ten minutes to listen to this to get a better idea:

https://youtu.be/P-H6XZvf7mM?feature=share

I'd also recommend watching Abd al-Basit recite and seeing the reaction of the audience.

I agree with some of the sentiments other people have mentioned, but I don't think they hit on the crux of the issue. The problem these analysts are having is that they are approaching the Quran with their conception of what a "book" is.

If we look at a Shakspearean play, they are read sometimes like novels. That's how they were assigned to most of us in school. However, Shakespeare's plays are meant to be performed and acted out - they are scripts.

The Qur'an is also meant to be performed. Muslims do not typically read the Quran. They recite it, even if only to themselves. Because it is meant to be an auditory-vocal experience.

The Qur'an occupies unique intersection between epic poetry, founding mythology, legal code, theological/philosophical discourse, history, and song.

Imagine if the Bible were also considered the greatest piece of literature from a stylistic perspective by most serious Western scholars and widely considered the most beautiful long-form opera.

The Bible has several books, some of which are law, others founding myth, others performative music (Hebrew psalms), some theological discourse, etc. But it's much more segmented. Western tradition also doesn't identify the Bible as an epic poem, use it as the basis of legal code, or have it as a central shared piece of music.

The Qur'an is at once all of these things without any kind of segmentation between a Prophetic story, legal code, or philosophical argument. That's all happening while also being recited in a song.

The Quran still holds supreme importance for billions of people, holding the roles of spiritual music, shared history, constitutional law, origin myths, poetry, basis of philosophical outlook, and day-to-day morals.

Muslims see the Quran like: the Odyssey, Biblical Genesis, the US Constitution, Herodotus' Histories, their greatest opera, Confucian practical wisdom, Nichomachaen ethics, and spiritual catchecisms/koans. Where a student of Western classics and literature would access 10 texts, or listen to a poem, or attend an opera, to draw from their tradition - religious Muslims invariably first return to the Quran.

It isn't supposed to be something you read cover-to-cover and are done with. Muslims recite short passages of it like Zen koans or Catholic catechisms. That the exegeses of the Quran are mindbogglingly voluminous demonstrates the amount of intellectual effort expended on understanding it (even if you think they were overanalyzing).