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."