The Qur'an: An Introduction

This is a must read for anyone who wishes to begin to understand the beliefs and customs of this world religion. This book has gone a long way to help me understand this holy book. In these troubled times of great misunderstanding, anyone who takes the time to read it will be better off for it.

My professor uses this book as a textbook for the Quran course. As a textbook, it's great. If you want to gain in-depth knowledge on Quran, this is not the book you're looking for.

A very good overview.

Fairly one of the most concise and well-arranged and written introductory readings to the Qur'an, written a professing Muslim in western academia. Arranged in broadly twelve chapters, the author summarizes different topics and issues with regards to the Qur'anic scripture, the central book which Muslims believe to be revealed by God through Prophet Muhammad.Some topics deserve quite exclusive mentioning; the Chapter 6 on "Western Scholarship and the Qur'an" briefly summarizes, with an aid of chronology, the Western scholarship on Qur'anic studies and it's impact in early middle ages towards the present century, as well as chapter 7 on the attempt at the translations of the Qur'an, both medieval to contemporary in the modern age.Very much the introduction of the Qur'an borders between traditional presentation of the Qur'anic studies and that of contemporary modern issues, with the broad readers being non-Muslim readers in mind.In my personal opinion, I recommend reading this book together with Anna M Gade's " The Qur'an: An Introduction (Foundations of Islam) " published by Oneworld Press. The latter book compliments other information not presented in the above book with regarding the reception and culture of the Muslims, relating to their religious as well as cultural observance with regards to the Qur'an and Islamic beliefs].