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on 05-10-2002 17:47
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By Michael Sells
White Cloud Press
$21.95
220 PP.
Non-Muslim Scholar Writes Sensitive Book on the Quran
Reviewed by Khalil Abdel Alim
Michael Sells has written a very intelligent and objective treatment of the Quran, the scripture of Islam. He approaches it as literature taking into account the secular history of its revelation to Prophet Muhammad in Arabia in the sixth century.
The book focuses on the revelations revealed early in Muhammad’s 23-year career as founder and leader of the Muslim community that grew out of the deserts of Arabia to encompass much of the known world and now has more than one billion followers. The short chapters are recorded at the end of the Quran.
Sells describes these chapters as hymn-like and lyrical, condensed with vivid imagery that speak to the human condition regardless of one’s religious confession. Muslims recite these chapters in their five daily prayers.
As a Muslim - a teacher of Islam, I was reluctant to review this book. But even as one who has read the entire Quran maybe more than fifty times, I found his treatment fascinating, interesting, informative, and inspirational.
The book gained national attention when it was given as a reading assignment to incoming freshmen students for the orientation program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The Chancellor of the University reported in a speech at the National Press Club in Washington, DC that the project was an intellectual success with students benefiting from it and not at all indoctrinated into Islam.
Professor Sells’ respectful appreciation of the Quran demonstrates what the Quran says of itself, that it is a “Mercy to all people.”
He translates several of these short chapters and gives sensitive commentary on them. He also includes phonetic transliteration of some of the chapters.
He points out that mere translation of Quran into English does not give sufficient understanding of it. The form, pattern, structure, and subtleties of Arabic are so different. He explains the Divine methodology is difficult to translate.
Because of his sensitivity to these factors and his keen respect for the intent and purpose of the revelation, his translation is equal to many and superior to other translations of the Quran by Muslim scholars. Showing that Islam and the Quran are rooted in intellect and reason and not blind emotional belief. However, his view is that translation of any language is almost futile. He says that translation is never complete only an approach, thus his title.
His exposition of the themes of man’s humanity and natural righteousness would be instructive to those who seek to find anger and war in the Quran. Because Professor Sells extracts his understanding of Islam from the Quran-the only valid source of the religion and not on traditions and exegesis -his understanding of Islamic concepts including the concept of God is better than that of many Muslims. He is not the first non-Muslim scholar to manifest this type of understanding. Which shows that emotional belief can be a barrier to true knowledge and faith.
In later revelations, the Quran does instruct Prophet Muhammad on how to fight wars of self defense against those who sought to destroy his mission. But the Quran instructs him to fight only enough for self defense and if the enemy relents he should resort to peace.
Included in the book is a CD with several of the short chapters recited in Arabic illustrating the beauty and power of the Arabic Quran. There is also a very sensitive chapter on “Sound, spirit and gender in the Quran.” The book includes a glossary of Arabic/Islamic terms. The author also includes an invaluable list of multimedia sources of information on Islam.
This book gives an enhanced understanding to advanced students of Islam as well as practicing Muslims and a great introduction to the religion for those with little or no knowledge of it.
Michael Sells is a member of a growing number of scholars who are not Muslims who speak and write of Islam and its true reality. They stand as a bulwark against the ignorant racial and religious intolerance that infects so much of our world today.
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Last update : 05-10-2002 17:47
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