نسأل الله دائما أن يبارك امتنا،ويحمي ملكتنا،ويشفي أمراضنا،ويمنحنا طقسا جميلا يوم رحلتنا. نذكر الله بأنه خلق العالم وبأننا خطاءون تعساء، وكأنما قد نسى… - Karen Armstrong

Once you gave up the nervous craving to promote yourself, denigrate others, draw attention to your unique and special qualities, and ensure that you were first in the pecking order, you experienced an immense peace.

Every single one of the major traditions — Confucianism, Buddhism, and Hinduism, as well as the monotheisms — teaches a spirituality of empathy, by means of which you relate your own suffering to that of others.

The word qur’an means “recitation.” It was not designed for private perusal, but like most scriptures, it was meant to be read aloud, and the sound was an essential part of the sense. Poetry was important in Arabia. The poet was the spokesman, social historian, and cultural authority of his tribe, and over the years the Arabs had learned how to listen to a recitation and had developed a highly sophisticated critical ear.