Böcker av Mahmoud M. Ayoub

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.

Using commentaries from the classical period through the medieval and modern periods to the present, this book presents the Qur'an as Muslims have understood it and interiorized it throughout its rich exegetical history. Sources have been carefully chosen to represent all of the major schools and trends in Islamic thought.This book has been written, not primarily for scholars, but for interested western readers, for students of Islam, and for non-Arabic-speaking Muslims. For almost fourteen centuries the Qur'an has been a source of inspiration and solace and, above all, a guide along the way of life toward eternity. It is presented as such here.This work is one of several volumes, each a reference to a particular part of the Qur'an. The entire collection will comprise an encyclopedia of Qur'an commentary.

Professor Ayoub of Temple University, Pennsylvania, is one of the best known scholars of Islam in America today. He firmly believes that it is important to learn about Islam, its history, beliefs, and practices from believing Muslims. In this book, he combines his objective scholarship with the insights of an insider, to present a unique introduction to Islam as a living religion. From the starting point of his own spiritual journey, Ayoub explores all aspects of Islam: from its origins to the modern-day challenges of the world; from the Qur'an and Islamic law to the epic poetry of the Sufis; and from the spread of Islam worldwide to the present role of Islam in the US and Europe. A unique blend of personal understanding and scholarly endeavour, this digestible account will enable the reader to gain an insider's perspective on Islam and experience its significance from within.