Download or read book What the Qur an Meant written by Garry Wills and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2018-12-04 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: America’s leading religious scholar and public intellectual introduces lay readers to the Qur’an with a measured, powerful reading of the ancient text Garry Wills has spent a lifetime thinking and writing about Christianity. In What the Qur’an Meant, Wills invites readers to join him as he embarks on a timely and necessary reconsideration of the Qur’an, leading us through perplexing passages with insight and erudition. What does the Qur’an actually say about veiling women? Does it justify religious war? There was a time when ordinary Americans did not have to know much about Islam. That is no longer the case. We blundered into the longest war in our history without knowing basic facts about the Islamic civilization with which we were dealing. We are constantly fed false information about Islam—claims that it is essentially a religion of violence, that its sacred book is a handbook for terrorists. There is no way to assess these claims unless we have at least some knowledge of the Qur’an. In this book Wills, as a non-Muslim with an open mind, reads the Qur’an with sympathy but with rigor, trying to discover why other non-Muslims—such as Pope Francis—find it an inspiring book, worthy to guide people down through the centuries. There are many traditions that add to and distort and blunt the actual words of the text. What Wills does resembles the work of art restorers who clean away accumulated layers of dust to find the original meaning. He compares the Qur’an with other sacred books, the Old Testament and the New Testament, to show many parallels between them. There are also parallel difficulties of interpretation, which call for patient exploration—and which offer some thrills of discovery. What the Qur’an Meant is the opening of a conversation on one of the world’s most practiced religions.
Download or read book The Qur an and Its Readers Worldwide written by Suha Taji-Farouki and published by Qur'anic Studies. This book was released on 2015 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Today, Arabic-speaking Muslims, in whose tongue the Qur'an was revealed, make up no more than twenty per cent of the world Muslim population. This volume explores the endeavour by Muslims using diverse languages and from different regions to explain the meanings of the Qur'an. It introduces Qur'an commentaries and translations from the twentieth century to the present day, ranging across the regions of the traditional Islamic heartlands to the new loci of global Islam. Chapters examine works in Malay, Chinese, Urdu, Swahili, Persian, Arabic, Turkish, Bosnian, German, and English, each viewed in terms of the impact of modernity on the encounter with the Qur'an. This book examines defining trends in Qur'an commentary worldwide, addressing questions of authorship, message, intended readership and media of communication. It looks at the continued relevance of Qur'an commentary as an authoritative Islamic tradition in a period of growing direct individual engagement with the sacred text. It also highlights debates concerning Qur'anic meaning in translation that are pertinent for many millions of Muslims, and which look set to grow in tandem with globalisation. Situating Qur'anic commentarial texts in their cultural and national settings, the volume focuses attention on the relationship between language, culture and socio-political environment in Qur'an commentary and translation. It highlights the linkages between texts as well as the developments and debates which generated them, and to which they respond, whether associated with colonial realities, the challenges of nation building, or the search for ways to reconstruct Islamic culture in the face of new legal frameworks or societal models.
Download or read book Reading the Qur an written by Ziauddin Sardar and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017-02 with total page 430 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "First published in the United Kingdom by C. Hurst & Co. (Publishers) Ltd., 2010"--T.p. verso.
Download or read book The Story of the Qur an written by Ingrid Mattson and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2012-12-07 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This popular introduction by a well-known Islamic scholar has been updated and expanded, offering a balanced portrayal of the Qur’an and its place in historic and contemporary Muslim society. Features new sections on the Qur’an and its relationship to democracy, science, human rights, and the role of women Contains expanded sections on the Qur’an in the life cycle of Muslims, and in Islamic ethics and law Incorporates additional images and student features, including a glossary. Supported by an accompanying website (available on publication) hosting a range of additional material, including student resources, links to important websites, news stories, and more This title is also available as an eTextbook on the CourseSmart platform, as a Wiley Desktop Edition, or via your preferred eTextbook vendor; eTextbooks offer convenience, enhanced electronic functionality, and flexible pricing options – learn more at www.wiley.com/college/wileyflex
Download or read book Mecca written by Ziauddin Sardar and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2014-10-21 with total page 449 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mecca is, for many, the heart of Islam. It is the birthplace of Muhammad, the direction to which Muslims turn when they pray, and the site of pilgrimage that annually draws some three million Muslims from all corners of the world. Yet the significance of Mecca is more than purely religious. What happens in Mecca and how Muslims think about the political and cultural history of Mecca has had and continues to have a profound influence on world events to this day. In this insighful book, Ziauddin Sardar unravels the meaning and significance of Mecca. Tracing its history, from its origins as a “barren valley” in the desert to its evolution as a trading town and sudden emergence as the religious center of a world empire, Sardar examines the religious struggles and rebellions in Mecca that have significantly shaped Muslim culture. An illuminative, lyrical, and witty blend of history, reportage, and memoir, Mecca reflects all that is profound and enlightening, curious and amusing about Mecca and takes us behind the closed doors to one of the most important places in the world today.
Download or read book The Qur an written by Farid Esack and published by ONEWorld Publications. This book was released on 2002 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An incisive guide from an acclaimed scholar, which surveys the social environment in which the Prophet lived, and the translation of the Qur'an into text form, as well as introducing key points of contention and major issues within Qur'an scholarship.
Download or read book I Can Read the Qur an Anywhere written by Yasmin Ibrahim and published by Kube Publishing Limited - The Islamic Foundation. This book was released on 2004 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Focuses on the importance of studying the Qur'an in Islam.
Download or read book Qur an in Conversation written by Michael Lawrence Birkel and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Qur'an is God's verbatim speech for most traditional Muslims. Qur'an in Conversation reflects how this sacred text of Islam comes into dialogue with the contemporary world through the voices of the eloquent interpreters gathered in this volume. In Qur'an in Conversation, author Michael Birkel engages North American Muslim religious leaders and academics in conversations of scriptural interpretation. Scholars, practicing imams, and younger public intellectuals wrestle with key suras of the Qur'an. Qur'an in Conversation demonstrates a wide spectrum of interpretation and diversity of approaches in reading Islam's scripture. The discussions directly address key issues in Muslim theology--good versus evil, the nature of God, and the future of Islam. Younger North American Muslims read the Qur'an in varied ways; this is analogous to the diverse ways in which Jews and Christians have interpreted their own holy books. Michael Birkel welcomes people of goodwill into a public conversation about the current role of Western Muslims in Islam. Qur'an in Conversation encourages non-specialists and Muslim scholars alike to imagine how the Qur'an will be interpreted among North American Muslims in years to come. --Omid Safi, Professor of Islamic Studies, University of North Carolina "Publishers Weekly"
Download or read book Modern Muslim Intellectuals and the Qur an written by Suha Taji-Farouki and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2006-01-26 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume examines the writings of ten Muslim intellectuals, working in the Muslim world and the West, who employ contemporary critical methods to understand the Qur'an. Their work points to a new trend in Muslim interpretation, characterised by a direct engagement with the Word of God while embracing intellectual modernity in a global context. The volume situates and evaluates their work and responses to it among Muslim and non-Muslim audiences.
Download or read book Introducing the Qur an written by John Kaltner and published by Fortress Press. This book was released on 2011 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Award-winning professor John Kaltner's new work offers a general introduction and orientation to the Qur'an. It surveys the origin, structure, contents, study, and use of Islam's sacred text. Offering selective rather than comprehensive coverage, the work allows for discussion and analysis of specific themes and issues of interest to modern readers.Following an introduction that describes and situates how the Qur'an is both studied and experienced, Kaltner's book takes up the following themes by chapterto foster a contemporary understanding and appreciation of the Qur'an: the natural environment, Muslim life, gender and sexuality, non-Muslims and the Other, jihad, war and peace, and life after death. Significant passages from the Qur'an are identified and analyzed, with a special focus on how modern scholars, both Muslim and non-Muslim, understand them. Kaltner intersperses his book with numerous photographs and textboxes to emphasize and highlight important elements of the Qur'an, its history, and itsrelevance to contemporary life" -- Publisher description.
Download or read book Major Themes of the Qur an written by Fazlur Rahman and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2009-06-15 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this introduction to the Qur'an, Fazlur Rahman unravels its complexities on themes such as God, society, revelation, and prophecy.
Download or read book Reading the Qur an in the Twenty First Century written by Abdullah Saeed and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-12-04 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reading the Qur’an in the Twenty-First Century considers the development of Qur’anic interpretation and highlights modern debates around new approaches to interpretation. It explores how Muslims from various theological, legal, socio-political and philosophical backgrounds think about the meaning and relevance of the Qur’an, and how their ideas apply in the contemporary world. The book: reflects on one of the most dominant approaches to interpretation in the pre-modern period, textualism, and the reaction to that in Muslim feminist readings of the Qur’an today. covers issues such as identifying the hierarchical nature of Qur’anic values, the criteria for the use of hadith in interpretation, fluidity of meaning and ways of ensuring a degree of stability in interpretation. examines key Qur'anic passages and compares pre-modern and modern interpretations to show the evolving nature of interpretation. Examples discussed include: the authority of men over women, the death of Jesus, shura and democracy, and riba and interest. Abdullah Saeed provides a practical guide for interpretation and presents the principal ideas of a contextualist approach, which situates the original message of the Qur’an in its wider social, political, cultural, economic and intellectual context. He advocates a more flexible method of interpretation that gives due recognition to earlier interpretations of the Qur’an while also being aware of changing conditions and the need to approach the Qur’an afresh today.
Download or read book A Qur nic Apocalypse written by Michel Cuypers and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The present volume closes a trilogy devoted to the exegesis of the Qurʾan analyzed according to the principles of Semitic rhetoric, a method of textual analysis developed in the field of biblical studies. It studies the shortest sūrahs of the Qur'an, which are traditionally dated to the beginnings of the preaching of Muḥammad in Mecca. The reference to the initial vision of Muḥammad in Sūrah 81, the point of departure for his career as Prophet, provides the starting point of the study of this group of sūrahs. The analysis shows that the redactors who assembled the textual fragments of the Qur'an into a book were guided by precise intentions. In the end, it is these intentions that the rhetorical analysis of the text enables us to discover and better understand.
Download or read book God in the Qur an written by Jack Miles and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2018-11-13 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Who is Allah? What does He ask of those who submit to His teachings? Pulitzer Prize-winner Jacke Miles gives us a deeply probing, revelatory portrait of the world’s second largest, fastest-growing and perhaps most tragically misunderstood religion. In doing so, Miles illuminates what is unique about Allah, His teachings, and His resolutely merciful temperament, and he thereby reveals that which is false, distorted, or simply absent from the popular conception of the heart of Islam. So, too, does Miles uncover the spiritual and scriptural continuity of the Islamic tradition with those of Judaism and Christianity, and the deep affinities among the three by setting passages from the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament, and the Qur’an side by side. In the spirit of his two previous books, God and Christ, and with his characteristic sensitivity, perspicacity and prodigious command of the subject, Miles calls for us all to read another’s scriptures with the same understanding and accommodating eye that we turn upon our own.
Download or read book The Generous Qur an written by Usama Dakdok and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 396 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An Accurate, Modern English Translation of the Qur'an, Islam's Holiest Book.
Download or read book The Qur an and the Bible written by Gabriel Said Reynolds and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2018-01-01 with total page 1029 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "While the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament are understood to be related texts, the sacred scripture of Islam, the third Abrahamic faith, has generally been considered separately. Noted religious scholar Gabriel Said Reynolds draws on centuries of Qur'anic and Biblical studies to offer rigorous and revelatory commentary on how these holy books are intrinsically connected."--Dust jacket.
Download or read book Qur an of the Oppressed written by Shadaab Rahemtulla and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study analyses the commentaries of four Muslim intellectuals who have turned to scripture as a liberating text to confront an array of problems, from patriarchy, racism, and empire to poverty and interreligious communal violence. Shadaab Rahemtulla considers the exegeses of the South African Farid Esack (b. 1956), the Indian Asghar Ali Engineer (1939-2013), the African American Amina Wadud (b. 1952), and the Pakistani-American Asma Barlas (b. 1950). The authors considered all proritise the Qur'an over the hadith. Rahemtulla considers this an essential move for a Muslim liberation theology and concludes with proposals with a new construal of what a politically radical Islam might mean, sharply differentitated from Islamism. This work provides a rich analysis of the thought-ways of specific Muslim intellectuals, it substantiates a broadly framed school of thought. Rahemtulla draws out their specific and general importance without displaying an uncritical sympathy. He sheds light on the impact of modern exegetical commentary which is more self-conciously concerned with historical context and present realities. In a mutally reinforcing way, this work thus illuminates both the role of agency and heremnetucal approaches in Modern Islamic thought.
