Customer Reviews

Understanding the Qur'an: Themes and Styles (London Qur'an Studies Series)

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I have read several introductory and semi-advanced books on Islam, before and after becoming a Muslim myself. This book definitely rates as one of the best. I have read "The Vision of Islam" (by Murata & Chittick), "Approaching the Quran" (by Sells), and "What Everyone Should Know About Islam and Muslims (by Haneef) among others, and this books stands out as the best. It puts to rest a lot of Western stereotypes about the Quran, especially about the Islamic concepts of War, Women, and Marriage. But the best and most unique parts of the book deal with the style of the Quran in Arabic, its expert use of future, past, and present tense, and the change in person (first, second, third) that is such a beautiful feature of the Quran. The book also compares the stories of Adam, Eve, and Joseph in the Quran and Bible in a most intelligent and sensitive way. I definitely recommend this book as it is also refreshing to read an introductory book on the Quran written by a Muslim.

If you ever talk about the Quran and do not know of its historical or literary context as well as the theosophy upon which it is based then obviously you have become one of the many to make an uneducated remark on it. Of course this comment would strike you as offensive or odd and I use it simply to get your attention.

The reason is that the Quran is unlike any other holy book in its textual form. There are several considerations prior to someone going to a shop and just grabbing the first translation they see. Its best one reads an introductory book explaining it in the light of Islam. Abdel Haleem is one of the more recent, yet renowned scholars in the west in explaining the Quran (in English). His works are accessible for all ages and for all people, it is highly inclusive and yet still does a great deal of justice to Islam, its Holy Book and its followers.

This book explains the Quran in the light of the scholarly, historical and practical paradigms. Giving an idea of the compilation, style and applications of the holy book with respect to Muslims.

I think this is one of the very few books out there that actually give an accurate and precise idea about the Quran and therefore the most important aspect and defining agent of Islam.
It is one of the best works and it can also be accepted as one of the finer introductory books about Islam. I deem it very good as even veteran Muslims may learn quite a lot about the text and it may also put the Qur'an in a new light for them.

No sane individual claims to know all of the Qur'an or understand all of it. There aspects of it which are apparent and others that are highly esoteric. Regardless, this is just the Arabic side of things, when one encounters a "translation" of it then they find a much censored and generalized text from the original Arabic. It is important that a person graps the ideas pointed out in this book as they are essential in the intellectual development towards understand Islam.
This is an essential text before anyone imparts on the journey of understanding Islam. The Qura'n is such a complex text that even in the Arab world people require commentaries upon to understand the inner workings of the Holy Book. This is generally due to the fact that each verse may have a different context from the verse which preceded it. A big mistake made by most translaters is that they approach each Surah or chapter of the Qura'n in themes and this infact does not do justice to it.

Haleem is quick to point out that all "translations" are infact just translations of the Qura'ns meanings or what is thought to be its meanings. It isnt that the Qur'an is incoherent, its rather the opposite. When people read it they understand (homogenously) the key ideas and commands it gives to Muslims; however there are other verses that tend to be much more esoteric.

Since it is regarded and widely accepted as the Word of God to the final Prophet, it comes with a heavy responsiblity in translating it. To do it justice translaters should read all historical commentaries on the verses which make the verses more apparent and clearer from the light of the Prophet himself or further commentary by the Angel which revealed the book in the first place.

Only avid scholars will go to the extent of learning the classical language of Arabic to study the Qura'n in its proper linguistic context after all the Qur'an itself states "this is a book revealed in Arabic so that you may understand" in surah Zukruf.

This book takes in most considerations into account when commenting on the Qur'an. It does not generalize and infact is very well written so it is accessible for all ages. The book itself is by a highly respect author who himself states the losses of the current translations and also does a retrospective commentary on previous translations. I suggest this book to one and all and i find that it is essential for anyone who wants to have a contextual idea of the Quran.

MUSLIM OR NON-MUSLIM, YOU WILL LEARN ABOUT THE TRUE BEAUTY OF ISLAM BY READING THIS BOOK. IT CLEARS UP SEVERAL STEROTYPES AND MISINFORMATION DUE TO TRANSLATION ERRORS, MISINTERPRETATION, PREJUDICE ETC. IF YOU WANT TO LEARN ABOUT THE REAL ISLAM, AND ABOUT THE ONE, ETERNAL, EVER-LIVING GOD, AND HIS WORDS AS FOUND IN THE HOLY QURAN, YOU MUST READ THIS BOOK.IT CLEARS UP COMMON STEROTYPES AND PREPARES YOU MENTALLY TO REALLY LEARN ABOUT TRUE ISLAM.

Muhammad Abdel Haleem has written a book on the Qur'an for Western audiences, or at least an audience familiar with Christian themes. Haleem includes whole chapters that compare the Qur'anic Adam and Eve or Joseph to their Biblical counterparts. The work may not fully intend to be one of apologetic intent for the Muslim faith but it does read that way.

An additional theological bias is found in the chapter discussing Allah's 'face'. Those who study Islam will know that the subject of Allah's features gives rise to questions of Allah's oneness (tawhid). Haleem describes both the Mu'tazilite camp and the Ash'arite camp and clearly puts his foot down in favor of the latter.

The general layout of the book explores a different Qur'anic theme per chapter: water, marriage and divorce, war and violence, tolerance etc. It would appear again, that the themes were chosen to be of acute interest to critics of Islam.

Haleem has a couple chapters dedicated to the style of the Qur'an and how best to study it in contrast to other scriptures like the Bible. The book is well written and has many Qur'anic verses with clear explanations of each within the context of the theme for the chapter. It's a good place to start but is not very balanced theologically (within the schools of Islam) nor is it neutral religiously as a whole.

But then again, when it comes to matters of faith, it makes sense that an author would write about their convictions. These are Muhammad Abdel Haleem's convictions.

This makes for a very smooth read, highly comprehensible. It is similar in some ways to the work of Bart Ehrman who primarily looks at the New Testament, although Haleem definitely writes from the perspective of a believing Muslim. There are several chapters that focus on particular themes (such as Water, Marriage, or War in the Koran) and then discusses how they are described in the text and how it may be best interpreted in the context of text itself and time in which was originally presented. One nice feature is that the author sometimes uses parallel texts, including the hadith, to look for the other contexts the word is used when it might be unclear or translated many ways. This is an important feature I think, because it suggests the most likely way that word or phrase would have been interpreted/understood by the listeners.

Overall, it is an interesting read, although probably not a great stand alone text for studying Islam. It seems to be a good accompaniment to reading a translation of the Koran into English, including Haleem's excellent and very modern version.

I agree with the reviewer "The Critic" Death to Rushdie!!! Hummmmmm....do we cut off his head or his hands? Oh...cutting off hands is for thieves..thats right. What is the koranic penalty for blashphemy? OH I REMEMBER - DEATH!!! But the question is...do we behead him or blow him up? Hummmm...decisions decisions. Wellll....I guess we could cut off his head...much cheaper that way.

Peace unto you my brother