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God is Beautiful: The Aesthetic Experience of the Quran 1st Edition

by
Navid Kermani (Author)
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Navid Kermani (Author), Tony Crawford (Translator)
3.9 out of 5 stars 10 customer reviews
ISBN-13: 978-0745651675
ISBN-10: 0745651674
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Product Details

  • Hardcover: 400 pages
  • Publisher: Polity; 1 edition (February 16, 2015)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0745651674
  • ISBN-13: 978-0745651675
  • Product Dimensions: 6.3 x 1.6 x 9.3 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #624,818 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsImportant and Captivating Insight into the Aesthetic Experience of God in Islam.
By mirasreviews HALL OF FAMETOP 500 REVIEWERVINE VOICE on July 29, 2015
Format: Hardcover Vine Customer Review of Free Product ( What's this? )
If "God Is Beautiful" sometimes reads like a text written by an academic for consumption by academics, it's because it was Navid Kermani's doctoral dissertation. Kermani is a German-Iranian novelist, Islam scholar, and sometime political commentator. This work is not new; it was originally published in 1999. But it is important. Kermani's intention is to convince the reader that "an exploration of Islam as a religion of art could be at least as fruitful as the studies that have customarily examined it as a religion of Iaw." The basis for this reasoning is Islam's doctrine of I'jaz and its implications. I'jaz asserts that the Quran is formally and aesthetically too accomplished to have been composed by a human and is inimitable, always having maintained its superiority on those counts when faced with human challengers. This is not just theoretical, as the miracle of Quranic language is Islam's only and defining miracle, and the aesthetic dimension of the text "is of central importance to the Muslim self-image" and to the faithful's experience of God.

Kermani draws on an impressive mastery of modern and classical European philosophy and Islamic literature, theology, and philology to make his point. He also incorporates a wide array of ideas from the fields of theology, linguistics, literary theory, aesthetics, philology, Islamic historiography, and relevant commentary from writers whom he admires, such as Kafka, Umberto Eco, and Octavio Paz. Sometimes the references seem a bit much, perhaps intended to impress academics, but my experience of German works of literary and cultural theory and history is that they tend to incorporate ideas from many sources in the text, even if it is meant for publication rather than a doctoral committee.Read more ›
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4.0 out of 5 starsNot for the layman, but a lifetime's work of scholarship
By Nathan Webster TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE VOICE on July 20, 2015
Format: Hardcover Vine Customer Review of Free Product ( What's this? )
This is a difficult book to review because I am not clear what I can even say about it beyond that it is a towering work of academic scholarship. If you want to use this book to inform your knowledge of the Quran, it will not take one reading, or 10 or likely 100 - this would be a resource I anticipate readers returning to dozens of times.

This is essentially a life's work of research, presented here in translation.

The best summary I could give it would be that to understand the Quran, one must first understand how it sounds, and in how it sounds is the first level of meaning to Islam's adherents. That is a vast simplification, but it's a start.

I came to this hoping for more of a layman's explanation, and this is NOT that - so it's best left to those who already have a decent level of understanding and can now delve even more deeply into Quranic study. Anything, in these days, that helps any audience understand Islam and the Quran is a good thing.
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5.0 out of 5 starsBRILLIANT, IMPRESSIVE AND A NEEDED READ IN TODAY'S CLIMATE OF ENTRENCHED FEAR AND IGNORANCE ON THE SUBJECT OF THE QURAN
By gracies mom on June 12, 2015
Format: Hardcover Vine Customer Review of Free Product ( What's this? )
It is impossible to use this kind of criteria for such a book on such a subject.
This volume is so rich so heady with substance whether discussing the poetry or the causation of poetry in the Quran that it is staggering.
For those who are ignorant of the faith of Islam this book though a difficult and challenging read is well worth the time.
It is a multi disciplined look at the core of the title as seen in and through Islam. God is beautiful and speaking with a rhythm and in Arabic
can open one to the direct experience of God.
A comparison to the effects of prayer from all the main and in extant Father God religions is presented with a knowing and prehensile grasp of the fundamental cores of those faiths.

I have to say that I am left speechless by the amount of scholarship this book entails and the beautiful way in which the disciplines of history memory, science, poetry and more are interwoven into a gigantic book that throws a much needed light on the depth and beauty of the Quran not only for non Muslims but for Muslims themselves.

I will be re-reading this book and using it as a reference for many years to come and I will be grateful for it has saved the image of God before both Muslim and Non Muslim alike, in this world now polarized by the fictions of those who use God and faith for war and hatred.

This is a brilliant intellectual overview of the mystery of faith and the only thing missing is the direct experience itself but for those who ponder such issues this is one of the finest and most approachable books on the God as experienced in and through the Quaran
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4.0 out of 5 starsInteresting and Difficult!
By Hans Castorp VINE VOICE on July 8, 2015
Format: Hardcover Vine Customer Review of Free Product ( What's this? )
The main point of this intense and super-scholarly book seems to be that it should really be read in the original Arabic. Now, many of us have no idea how to do this, not to mention the time for it. Therefore, the author, Navid Kermani uses a very wide range of philosophers, theologians, and literary specialists to analyze and reflect on the vast poet, religious, and artistic ideas that are part of the book; actually an in-depth analysis of all these factors, and probably a lot more. The book is so thick and intense, it may take a very long time to even finish it, for the typical curious but beginning reader. So I would suggest reading in small parts over a long time period. Frankly, this book will probably be the kind to be dipped into over many years, and even passed on for generations. It is a long ride, and probably different than anything most non-Arab reading Westerners have ever attempted. Challenging, super-scholarly, and maybe even an aesthetic experience.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

1.0 out of 5 starsThis one star for the translation:

For some reason the English version abridged the original about 20%.
I wonder if one is interested in the subject of the book, and he/she purchases the book with 400 pgs. Read more

Published 1 month ago by Malek
1.0 out of 5 starsAllah is not Almighty God

Allah is not God, and Islam is not a religion of Abraham. Islam is entirely pagan.
This is absolutely clear in the Qur'an, Hadith-traditional stories, and Islamic law. Read more

Published 2 months ago by Jennifer
4.0 out of 5 starsA dense, scholarly work on an aspect of Islam rarely discussed in the...

Before this book, i had no idea about the poetic style of the quran and how it informs the faith.

Published 12 months ago by Silea
5.0 out of 5 starsThis book is very informative

Navid Kermani is a German Islamic scholar who has been awarded many prizes for his works, the most recent being the “Buber-Rosenzweig Medal” in 2011. Read more

Published 12 months ago by Israel Drazin
5.0 out of 5 starsMonumental

God is Beautiful is not for faint-of-heart readers. It is a very substantial (and lengthy) work of scholarship. Read more

Published 13 months ago by Librum
5.0 out of 5 starsthe most important and fruitful summer reading you can now find

This hefty and serious tome of nearly five hundred large pages requires reading by every American above all in order for us to gain some slight perception, despite our purposeful... Read more

Published 14 months ago by Love Thy Enemy

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