So like, yes and no.

The people I know that understand and are the most intimate with the Quran are all Pakistani. My buddy Ahmed doesn't know a lick of Arabic outside of learning enough to read the Quran.

You can gain 100% complete understanding of the Quran if you read it in English, in my opinion. I say this because my English is better than my Arabic, so that's how I read it.

But Arabic has a poetic flow to it that you just don't get in English. Reading Surat Al-Fatimah in English does not make my mom cry, but reading it in Arabic does. The flow of reading a Quranic verse is so ingrained in Muslim culture that it's considered a skill to be learned. I forget what the exact word for it is, but it's there. It's not so much the meaning as it is the passion of the words themselves. The closest comparison I can compare it to is a hymm. You're not reading the Quran, as far as I like to think, you're singing it.

I don't know how to explain it! But I'm not making it up, for real. I wouldn't want to dissuade someone from reading the Quran in English if that's the only language they know, but I am firm of the belief that the emotional impact you get from it just won't be the same.

Shit, I hope any of that made sense.