The Uniqueness of the Islamic Faith
The first teaching of the Koran in terms of theological significance is that Allah is the one, true God and that he does not belong to a trinity, which in the Islamic faith, does not constitute monotheism. The text explicitly say that in its original claim about Allah, but it does contain teachings against the Christian interpretation of Jesus's person and about his alleged resurrection.
The Koran contains many moralistic teachings which are interpreted by the Muslim people to mean that each person is responsible to conduct themselves according to what has come to be called the five pillars of Islam. This is another unique feature of Islam.
The Koran constitutes the holy text for the Abrahamic religion Islam, divorcing Islam from the Judeo-Christian branch of Abrahamic religion by disagreeing with the validity of the Bible and Torah, and by disagreeing with the central tenants of those faiths and what they argue about the person of God (Arabic, Allah).
Humans should do good, not evil
Again, because of the history of Western philosophy, it is important to note that what the Koran says about good and evil is unique and different than Christian ethics. The Koran could be said to be proscriptivistic, arguing that there are behaviors that are sacred and that through the employment of those holy actions, a person can be said to be honoring Allah. This is different from the Christian ideas about the fallability of man and the redemption through Jesus. That is, a Muslim believes he is able to behave according to the teachings of Allah and Muhammad, whereas a Christian believes that only through the person of Jesus, resurrected, can anyone be 'saved.'
So, if men can do good, then they ought to. This involves behaving according to a set of religious laws and teachings, and also following ones conscious to do well. Again, this is different than the Christian belief that Christians are able to discern what is good without a law according to the promptings of a 'Holy Spirit.' They're different. Islam teaches that a man contains a conscious to prompt him to do right, and through the Muhammad's teaching, man can finally understand Allah's expectations correctly.
The sacredness of life
Again, because of flawed cultural assumptions about Islam, it seems necessary to say this: It is unethical and unscholarly to interpret the Islamic Koran outside of the Muslim interpretation of it. According to Muslim scholarship, the Koran teaches that life is beautiful and sacred and a gift from Allah, and killing another person is an offense against Allah.
However, there is a 'Just war' code offered in the Koran (A unique aspect of the text in terms of Abrahamic philosophy). This code expounds on what war is, and which types of war are approved of by Allah, and what kinds of actions are allowed during war. This is because, as mentioned, the de facto belief is that life is good and taking life away must be done with special provisions according to a rigorous system of checks.
One of the important philosophies in literary analysis is that each text needs to be understood within certain intellectual constraints depending on its nature. Because the people who belong to the Islamic faith maintains that the Koran defines Islam as a peaceful, loving religion, those who interpret the text in whatever way creates Islamic terrorism can be said to be engaged in a cultish interpretation of the text. Although for the purpose of scholarship, all interpretations of the text are interesting, it should be noted that the primary interpretation of the text, the one that defines the religion of Islam, regards the taking of innocent life as evil.
Holiness
A man can be said to be holy according to Islamic standards if he behaves according to the teachings of holiness in the Koran. This includes religious law about what each person ought to wear, what they ought to eat, and how they are to behave in society. To say that there are different religious interpretations of these teachings is an understatement, but there are common interpretations that yield the cultural identifiers that many understand to be "Muslim," such as women covering their heads, for example.
An important note about the Koran is that it does not ascribe to the Christian idea of man's inherent evilness. The Koran teaches that a man can behave according to a religious law, and that he ought to. This is an important distinction in the interpretation of the Koran, especially in a Western culture and tradition.
Sacredness of text and names
Students of the Koran who don't read Arabic will probably study the text in their language, but the text is regarded as holy in the Islamic faith in its Arabic form. There are also epithets when the names of Allah or the prophet Muhammad occur in the texts, which are often referred to as honorifics in linguistics or literary analysis. These honorifics, along with the special sacredness with which the Islamic faith regards the Koran, are indications of a certain idea of holiness that the Koran explains. There are rules in the Koran for the way its readers are to regard the sanctity of characters in the story or of the principles it expounds. For instance, you can't draw the prophet Muhammad or insult any of the prophets. To do this is to breach to unique holiness that the Koran argues for in the minds of its believers.
