Customer Reviews

A Concordance of the Qur'an

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This is probably the most excellent resource for helping people to get to grips with the Qur'an's actual content rather than what people say it says. It is based on the English translation by A.J. Arberry, which is highly regarded both by both Muslims and Academics/Orientalists. It surprises me that this work is so little known. You won't find it generally stocked by Islamic booksellers. I should have thought it is something which every student of the Qur'an would sell his socks to buy! For obvious reasons, it does not include words like 'as', 'and', 'but', 'or', 'indeed/verily' [inna], or even 'say' [qul]. But otherwise seems entirely exhaustive.

Unfortunately the first printing backed pages 1397 and 1400, omitting pages 1398-1399. As this omission falls within the General Index (of English words), it meant that 'halt-hill (*j b l)' were missing. This was corrected in later printings, but it still constitutes a hazard for the secondhand buyer.

Additionally, although this book is clothbound, it is 'perfect' bound rather than sewn, which means that given hard wear it could easily become a looseleaf edition. Really the binding is not adequate for a book 1444 pages.

Still I recommend it!

Having a concordance of The Quran (i.e. a verse list of where every word occurs) is a must when studying The Quran. It allows you to cross-reference a meaning, and read all verses to do with a particular topic, giving you a much better understanding. For that, this book is excellent and the print quality is very good. It not only provides the verses but also a few words from each verse to show how it occurs, which is helpful. It also provides some basic grammar information for each word.
The only thing I would say is a Quran concordance is available online for free, and also Lane's Lexicon (considered the best Arabic English lexicon in the world) is also available online for free, so people may wish to use this.