The Qur'an and Its Interpreters: 1 - Tapa blanda

"Dr. Ayoub's work seems to be a pioneering one but, indeed, promises to go a long way in filling a great need." -- Fazlur Rahman, The University of Chicago

"It is well organized and presented and reads smoothly. Thus it is well suited to serve as a companion reference work to the Qur'an, especially for the non-Arabic-speaking reader and scholar interested in the religious significance of the Qur'an for Muslims." -- Wilfred F. Madelung, The Oriental Institute, University of Oxford

The Qur'an and Its Interpreters introduces the Western reader to the Qur'an as Muslims have understood it.

The record of the Qur'an in the community as a force shaping the life of Muslims can be most clearly discerned through the vast literature of interpretation known as tafsir. This multivolume work is based on a large number of tafsir sources, representing all the major religious schools and stages of Muslim history for the last one thousand years. It will cover the entire Qur'an.

This first volume consists of an introduction to the science and sources of interpretation of the Qur'an and the first two surahs of the Qur'an. The treatment is comprehensive and thorough. While the work is based entirely on primary sources, this volume includes a substantial bibliography of works on the Qur'an in Western languages.

The Qur'an is the word of God as it was revealed to the prophet Muhammad, interiorized by the community, then shaped into an earthly book whose original archetype is with God. Dr. Ayoub concerns himself not with the history of the Qur'an, but with the way it was collected and fixed into an official codex, the recension of which has voiced the community's prayers and devotions, set its legal norms and moral standards, and occupied its best minds for more than thirteen hundred years.