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    The Qur'an: A Biography
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    The Qur'an: A Biography
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    The Qur'an: A Biography
    Ebook228 pages4 hours

    The Qur'an: A Biography

    By Bruce Lawrence

    3/5

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    About this ebook

    The Qur'an: A Biography is a beautifully written and authoritative account of one of the world's most famous, and most misunderstood books.

    Few books in history are as poorly read or understood as the Qur'an. Sent down in a series of revelations to the Prophet Muhammad, it is regarded by the faithful as the unmediated word of Allah. It is revered by Muslims throughout the world, it inspires unparalleled levels of devotion, passion, fear and, sometimes, incomprehension.

    In this book, the distinguished scholar Bruce Lawrence shows precisely why the Qur'an is Islam. He describes the origins of the faith in seventh-century Arabia and looks at why the Qur'an needs to be both memorized and recited by its followers. Lawrence also discusses the book's many doubters and commentators and assesses its important influence in societies and politics today. Above all, Lawrence emphasizes that the Qur'an demands interpretation, and can only be properly understood through its history.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAtlantic Books
    Release dateOct 2, 2014
    ISBN9781782392187
    Author

    Bruce Lawrence

    Bruce Lawrence is a professor of Islamic Studies at Duke University. He is the author of the award winning Defenders of God: The Fundamentalist Revolt against the Modern World, Shattering the Myth: Islam Beyond Violence, and editor of the acclaimed Messages to the World: The Statements of Osama bin Laden. He is the author of The Qu'ran: A Biography (2006), one of The Books that Shook the World series.

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    Reviews for The Qur'an

    3/5

    33 ratings4 reviews

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    • 3/5
      I read this book to give myself some background in the history of the Koran (Qur’an) before reading it. I would never read the Koran (Qur’an) on my own, but a book discussion group I belong to selected it for reading. This book, (The Qur'an: A Biography) kept using terms and expressions that were unfamiliar to me. I was expecting a biography to explain things better and not create needless additional questions.To start off: - Who came up with the spelling of Qur’an? I thought the correct spelling was Koran, which is phonetically correct for the way it is pronounced on the audio recordings of the book. I suspect that maybe Qur’an is closer to the way it may be pronounced in Arabic. It seems to me that the English Language has enough unphonetic spellings. Why add one more?Another thing: – The book kept using the term, “A Book of Signs.” Is that a term translated from Arabic? It is not a term I’m familiar with. I thought for a while that it was an alternative way of referring to the Koran (Qur’an). But it may be an expression that can be applied to other books such as the books of Moses and the Christian Gospels. This book offers no explanation. Below are two quotations from the books showing how the expression is used.First Excerpt:Whether one hears or reads it, in Arabic or some other language, it is A Book of Signs because each of its many verses, like delicate filigree, is more than words: the Arabic word for the smallest unit of Qur'anic text means "verse", but "verse" also means "sign" or "miracle". As tangible signs, Qur'anic verses are expressive of an inexhaustible truth. They signify meaning layered within meaning, light upon light, miracle after miracle.Second Excerpt:However, not all Christians or Jews accepted the Qur'an as true or Muhammad as God's Prophet. Among the doubters was Robert of Ketton, a Christian monk, who first translated the Qur'an into Latin. His role as a hostile but engaged student of A Book of Signs deserves mention along with the parallel role of major Muslim interpreters who elaborated Qur'anic themes in new and imaginative directions. (end of quotations)Another Question I have: -- The book says that in 934 CE the seven different ways of reciting were fixed. Does this mean different text versions? Or does it mean different styles? Different languages? How are they different? This deserves further explanation. If this is referring to seven different texts, that’s a big deal for a canonical scripture. When I pick up an English translation, which of these seven versions am I getting?One thing I found interesting was that the Prophet’s sayings were not immediately recorded in written form. I had previously thought that he had dictated directly to a scribe. The timeline is as follows. The sayings came to the Prophet Muhammad via a divine mediary (the Archangel Gabriel) between 610 and 632 CE. Different people close to the Prophet Muhammad heard these revelations as he uttered them. They remembered the words and repeated them orally. After the death of the Prophet Muhammad, 'Ali, his close relative and supporter, worked with others to compile them into a written text. Then 20 years later all extant versions were arranged into one "standard" version. This version persists substantially unchanged to the present day. As mentioned earlier, in 934 CE there is an indication of “seven different ways of reciting.” So there must have been some remaining variation in the texts.The author’s words sound very respectful of the Koran (Qur’an). The following are some excerpts that show this respect:…. it is an oral book that sounds better spoken than read silently …..To hear the Qur'an recited is for Muslims unlike anything else. It is to experience the power of divine revelation as a shattering voice from the Unseen. It moves, it glides, it soars, it sings. It is in this world, yet not of it.The Qur'an is a multilayered Arabic text. Even those who hear it understand it in numerous, sometimes divergent ways, and those who cannot hear it in Arabic grasp no more than a fraction of its intended message.
    • 3/5
      This is not a biography of the history of the Quran, but rather a rambling account of Islam. I had a bit of trouble understanding it, especially the earlier chapters. I don't think I would recommend this as a basic primer on the Quran. Perhaps a more knowledgeable student of Islam would get much more out of it.
    • 3/5
      Maybe I was expecting too much but I felt this was a let down. Instead of engaging the Quran on a scholarly level or with any depth besides quoting the Quran to justify itself. It felt like an Islamic Max Lucado book.
    • 4/5
      I remember reading about this book while in Amman, Jordan in 2006. Bruce Lawrence mentions that he was assisted by Dr Ibrahim Abu Nab of Amman in the beginnings of this book. I have had it on my "reading now" shelf for years, and despite being half-way though, I started from the beginning yesterday and finished it today. I think the problem with my earlier attempt at reading the work was my lack of historical, geopolitical, and theological knowledge at the time. So this reading I found rather gripping. The book is a chronological biography of the Qur'an, and is part of a series of "Books that Shook the World". If this book is the standard for the series, then I will invest in some of the other books. What I like about Lawrence's work is that it is scholarly, contemporary, and pragmatic all at once. The fifteen chapters each present a different story about the Qur'an, in chronological order, and from various cultures and geographical locations. It might have been useful to read this book before I read Pioneers of Islamic Scholarship by Adil Salahi, and I may now revisit this work to pick up on many of the names and chronologies that I struggled with on my first reading. I do not think this is a book for beginners, although it is easy enough to read, but much would be lost without a basic understanding or a willingness to undertake background study while reading the book. While it took me a long time to read, I am glad I had put it off for so long, otherwise I would have missed a good deal from my lack of background knowledge.