Interesting and excellent post psyah. Thanks for posting.
Its important to realise that when Islam means submission, it literally means total submission. i.e a sense of slavery to the word of God, with the key difference in that it is a'willing' form slavery and in which you are required to sell your soul completely.
However, to acquire that kinda level with an innate sense of freewill, can be deemed literally impossible for the average person to acquire in thier life time. Islam is afterall a straight and narrow (with various inlanes) paths, and noone said, it would be easy.
Islam though, or God shall i say, fully understands and accomodates by making enough room for humans to err, recognise the err, and sincerely repent. It is only when we forget the last part, we tend to go off track and continue that way.
But yeah, acquire that level of submission over time and you infact will be achieving the spiritual levels and positions similiar or closer to the levels of the great Prophets and Imams in our relationship to God, because that in essence is the true meaning of infallible...i.e. not knowingly or willingly sinning. That is the highest level us folks can set out to achieve.
There are some people in this world who have achieved something simliar, in that minor temptations mean little to them and that Islam plays a huge role in every aspect of thier life. Thier mind is set to succeed in the next life.
Secondly, yes anyone can read the Quran and yes there some things that are pretty much spelled out, but there are others that are required to be explained with in context, for the reason being that, the Quran was not revealed in one go, niether in any one situation. The ayahs were revealed at various times, many times highly significant to the situation at hand, other times not as much.
Hence your interpretation will depend on the amount of contextual knowledge you have. And with regards to that, no average joe interpretation can compare to someone whose whole life has been dedicated to the study of the meaning of the Quran. Therefore he can interpret as he wishes, but in comparison, it will be worthless.
The Quran also encourage to seek knowledge from those who have it,
'Are those who have knowledge and those who have no knowledge alike? Only the men of understanding are mindful. " (Quran, 39:9)
Hadith in general, i agree is not considered on par, for the reason being it can be attributed falsely. But when found as an authority, it is relatively on par, as 1) as it will not be contradicting to the Quran, 2) The Prophet (saw) did not speak or do anthing contradictory to Allah (swt) will. Now which is hadith belongs to that category is for the men of understanding to differentiate according to their knowledge.
Peace Ma Mooli
JazakAllah Khair for a beautiful post. There is little more to say on this topic you have also responded to Seminole so I shall refer him to your post.
Just one extra piece of information could be that Qur'an is a guidance for those who are God-Fearing already. It also states that in some parables some people are misled and only those are misled who seek discord, early in Surah Baqarah.
I have written an article outside this thread which emphasises the nature of choice - Ikhtiyar. And to be sure the greatest choice one can make is to willingly submit to another. Presenting ourselves in slavery to God is by far a greater display of freedom of choice than conforming to our carnal instincts.