Understanding the Qur'an Today

(Paperback)

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The prevailing belief among Muslims is that, because the Qur'an is the Word of God and God is eternal, it follows that His Word is also eternal. The belief is based on the postulate that the Word of God must be of the same nature as God Himself. Mahmoud Hussein refutes this by showing that it contradicts the very teachings of the Qur'an. Whereas God transcends time, His Word is inscribed within time. It is not a monologue, but a living exchange, through which God reveals to His Prophet different orders of truth, weaving together the absolute and the relative, the general and the particular, the eternal and the contingent. An international bestseller, Understanding the Qur'an today offers a new perspective on one of the world's most influential texts and adds an invaluable contribution to the debate on Islam and modernity.

Reviews

`Timely and provocative ... Knowledge of the context of revelation is indispensable to our very understanding of the Qur'an and of the wisdom behind sharia. This alone makes Hussein's work a much needed intervention, especially when dominant currents in modern and contemporary Islamic thought tend to ignore the particularity of the event in favour of the generality of the signifier.' Journal of the Society for Contemporary Thought and the Islamicate World; 'Understanding the Qur an Today, with its careful explanations and logical reasoning, is a much-needed contribution to modern Islamic philosophy.' Kalimat

Author Bio

Mahmoud Hussein is the pseudonym of Bahgat Elnadi and Adel Rifaat, French political writers of Egyptian origin. Together, they have published many successful works, including La lute de classes en Egypte and Al-Sira, le Prophete de l'islam raconte par ses compagnons.