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The Gracious Qur'an - A Modern Phrased Interpretation in English, Arabic-English Parallel Edition
This contemporary, authoritative translation interprets the Quran’s meaning for the English reader with unprecedented access to the Book that is the foundational source of Islam, its civilization and its peoples, who now comprise nearly one-fourth of humanity across the breadth of all the Earth’s continents and who form a crucial, contiguous community at the middle of the world.
Twenty years in the making, The Gracious A Modern-Phrased Interpretation of Its Meanings in English is both highly reliable and powerfully expressed. Where the Arabic of the Quran swells with important implication, that intent is conveyed in this rendering with a light hand in unobtrusive brackets, every effort having been expended to make its reading august, clear, accessible, and consistent while at the same time free of poetic pretension, philosophical complication, and lifeless literalisms.
Twenty years in the making, The Gracious A Modern-Phrased Interpretation of Its Meanings in English is both highly reliable and powerfully expressed. Where the Arabic of the Quran swells with important implication, that intent is conveyed in this rendering with a light hand in unobtrusive brackets, every effort having been expended to make its reading august, clear, accessible, and consistent while at the same time free of poetic pretension, philosophical complication, and lifeless literalisms.
- GenresIslamReligionNonfiction
1360 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 2008
9 people are currently reading
181 people want to read
About the author
Ahmad Zaki Hammad
14 books24 followersProfessor Ahmad Zaki Hammad is an internationally known authority on Quran and Islamic Studies. He teaches Islamic Civilization and the Primary Disciplines of Quran Commentary, the Prophetic Traditions, and the Principles of Islamic Law at the foremost center of Islamic and Arabic learning in the Muslim world, AL-Azhar University (Faculty of Languages and Translations, Department of English). He is also a member of the Faculty of Shari’ah, Department of Juristic Studies.
He received his early Islamic and Arabic training at Al-Azhar University, Cairo, and was awarded the graduate degree of Alamiyyah from the Faculty of Theology. He holds a Ph.D, in Islamic Studies from the University of Chicago and is the author of a study of translation of Abu Hamid al-Ghazalis’s Al-Mustasfa min Ilm al-Usul, The Quintessence of the Science of the Principles of Islamic Law; and also Islamic Law: Understanding Juristic Differences, a Primer on the Science of al-Khulaf al Fiqhi in Light of the Shari ah Sources.
He lived for many years in the United States, where he founded and served in numerous national and community Islamic institutions for American Muslims.
He received his early Islamic and Arabic training at Al-Azhar University, Cairo, and was awarded the graduate degree of Alamiyyah from the Faculty of Theology. He holds a Ph.D, in Islamic Studies from the University of Chicago and is the author of a study of translation of Abu Hamid al-Ghazalis’s Al-Mustasfa min Ilm al-Usul, The Quintessence of the Science of the Principles of Islamic Law; and also Islamic Law: Understanding Juristic Differences, a Primer on the Science of al-Khulaf al Fiqhi in Light of the Shari ah Sources.
He lived for many years in the United States, where he founded and served in numerous national and community Islamic institutions for American Muslims.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 27, 2013
The first and most important thing I learned in reading and studying this text is that just a single reading, straight through, is insufficient to appropriately soak in and assess the significance of the work. I had this inkling with me throughout each surah, but the idea was especially driven home after reading the appended information after the Quran itself. Dr. Hammad's command of English is impressive, and the extra information he provided dramatically enriched and enlightened my understanding with regards to:
* Some essential historical background
* Critical analysis of a myriad of translation attempts, their successes and failings, biases and underlying themes
* The difficult and magnitude of the work involved in accurately interpreting and translating from Arabic to appropriate modern-day english phrases
* The sanctity, holiness and influence for good that the Quran can achieve once properly understood, especially in conjunction with revealed scriptures prior to its delivery ("[T]he Quran mandates belief in every Heavenly revelation that preceded it as a precondition of faith in it. One cannot professs acceptance of the Quran and reject Scriptures of old. From this category, the Quran specifically mentions the Torah of Moses, the Psalms of David, and the Evangel of Jesus. To other is eludes generally, but the principle it establishes firmly. Thus, the Quran accords the communities that formed around these revealed Books, explicitly Jews and Christians, special status, formally naming them ahl al-kitah, the People of the Scripture, deliberately distinguishing them from idol worshippers, and, thereby, exempting them from such denunciations as it pronounces upon the practitioners of paganism.", p. 1231)
I was particularly mindful of corresponding faith intersections throughout each study period, there is a lot that Islam and Mormonism have in common. I consider this new understanding and learning to be very valuable in both the respect I've gained and the ability to connect and discuss matters of each faith and the positive principles that can provide reliance in God, affirmation of his mercy and love for us, the importance of service to one another, responsibility for choices and actions along with the awaiting resurrection and assigned glory (or its absence) in the Judgement hereafter.
The Quran is quite clear about the position of Jesus as an inspirational leader, I interpreted the Quran's message of Him as the final prophet of a dispensation. In this particular translation, he's termed the Evangel. Also, He is a crucial element of the final judgement (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_in...).
I look forward to learning more about Islam in the future and appreciate Dr. Hammad's significant work in bringing about this translation and documenting the additional appendices.
"[T]he Arabic of the Quran must be systematically taught and commonly learned at a certain level of awareness. Original, native, language-specific commentaries are all that can or will suffice the deep-rooted mortal thirst to drink in the nectar of divine truth, to know and grow into the Textbook of Heaven's guidance in terms that contextualize the Quranic experience in authentic conceptions that bear it accurately, transport its message clearly, and transfer the import of its meaning with impact. For it is only in this way that one's personal and communal encounter with the Quran can come to resonate in one's own circumstance with something of the Prophetic event of the Quran itself in the first instance", p. 1221
"The best a master translator can do is to transfer the Quran's meanings in accordance with the utmost of his or her knowledge, efforts and skill. Then the difference that shall remain between the revealed and the reported shall be, as we have said already, equivalent to that of the Eternal Originator and the passing translator He originated.", p .1239
* Some essential historical background
* Critical analysis of a myriad of translation attempts, their successes and failings, biases and underlying themes
* The difficult and magnitude of the work involved in accurately interpreting and translating from Arabic to appropriate modern-day english phrases
* The sanctity, holiness and influence for good that the Quran can achieve once properly understood, especially in conjunction with revealed scriptures prior to its delivery ("[T]he Quran mandates belief in every Heavenly revelation that preceded it as a precondition of faith in it. One cannot professs acceptance of the Quran and reject Scriptures of old. From this category, the Quran specifically mentions the Torah of Moses, the Psalms of David, and the Evangel of Jesus. To other is eludes generally, but the principle it establishes firmly. Thus, the Quran accords the communities that formed around these revealed Books, explicitly Jews and Christians, special status, formally naming them ahl al-kitah, the People of the Scripture, deliberately distinguishing them from idol worshippers, and, thereby, exempting them from such denunciations as it pronounces upon the practitioners of paganism.", p. 1231)
I was particularly mindful of corresponding faith intersections throughout each study period, there is a lot that Islam and Mormonism have in common. I consider this new understanding and learning to be very valuable in both the respect I've gained and the ability to connect and discuss matters of each faith and the positive principles that can provide reliance in God, affirmation of his mercy and love for us, the importance of service to one another, responsibility for choices and actions along with the awaiting resurrection and assigned glory (or its absence) in the Judgement hereafter.
The Quran is quite clear about the position of Jesus as an inspirational leader, I interpreted the Quran's message of Him as the final prophet of a dispensation. In this particular translation, he's termed the Evangel. Also, He is a crucial element of the final judgement (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_in...).
I look forward to learning more about Islam in the future and appreciate Dr. Hammad's significant work in bringing about this translation and documenting the additional appendices.
"[T]he Arabic of the Quran must be systematically taught and commonly learned at a certain level of awareness. Original, native, language-specific commentaries are all that can or will suffice the deep-rooted mortal thirst to drink in the nectar of divine truth, to know and grow into the Textbook of Heaven's guidance in terms that contextualize the Quranic experience in authentic conceptions that bear it accurately, transport its message clearly, and transfer the import of its meaning with impact. For it is only in this way that one's personal and communal encounter with the Quran can come to resonate in one's own circumstance with something of the Prophetic event of the Quran itself in the first instance", p. 1221
"The best a master translator can do is to transfer the Quran's meanings in accordance with the utmost of his or her knowledge, efforts and skill. Then the difference that shall remain between the revealed and the reported shall be, as we have said already, equivalent to that of the Eternal Originator and the passing translator He originated.", p .1239
May 31, 2020
This is going to be an on-going read. I appreciate the easy reading of the translation.
February 5, 2016
Must read for all!
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews