Naturally...

Naturally, the meaning of the Qur'anic text has been the subject of the profoundest meditations and discussions throughout the history of Islamic scholarship, and the author has incorporated some of this material, especially through the comments of contemporary Muslim translators and scholars; but this has been kept to a minimum so as to avoid overburdening the reader with unnecessary complexities.

Whoever is beginning to read the Qur'an in English will be able to use this work to understand how the book is not an impenetrable text but a living guide for the life of the ordinary, thinking Muslim, the key to the understanding of the Islamic view of the world and how the Muslim relates to other views of the world in our times.

The author has not, however, made any compromises in order to present his ideas, and what will strike the reader is the straightforward manner in which he has managed to com­municate his own deeply committed reflections on the Qur'an, reflections with which the reader will easily be able to sympathize.

This book will surely serve as an invaluable companion for those setting out on the stimu­lating journey to discover the message that the Qur'an extends to everyone who is prepared to listen to what it has to say. John Cooper, Cambridge 1997. Previous…