In the days of ignorance, I read a great deal—ancient and modern philosophy, science, economics, politics, and the like. I had absorbed into my mind an entire library on these subjects. But when I opened my eyes and read the Qur’an, by God I felt that everything I had read before was worthless—only then did I grasp the very root of knowledge.
Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche, Marx, and all the great thinkers of the world now appear to me like children. I feel pity for them—poor souls who spent their whole lives trying to untie certain knots and wrote massive books on issues they still could not resolve, while this Book settled them in just one or two sentences. My true benefactor is only this Book. It transformed me completely—made a human being out of an animal; brought me out of darkness into light; placed in my hands such a lamp that, whichever matter of life I look upon, the reality becomes as clearly visible as though there were no veil over it. In English, a key that opens every lock is called a “master key.” So for me, this Noble Qur’an is the Master Key: whichever lock among the problems of life I apply it to, it opens. My tongue is incapable of expressing gratitude to the God who granted this Book.