Even those who dispute the Quran do not question that it is in its original form. This enables one to travel back in time to take a closer look at the Prophet Muhammad, who is amongst the most towering personalities in history. This book avails that priceless chance to reconstruct his life based on evidence as well preserved as the Quran. It also explores the Quran’s message on issues ranging from justice and women to the treatment of other religions, to see if the disconnect between certain Islamic practices and the modern world is based on misreading of the Quran. Among other topics, the book assesses the claims that the Quran is a scientific miracle, contains no inconsistencies, and is a masterpiece of literature, and also discusses the controversial incident of the “Satanic” verses in light of disclosures in the Quran. The effort is to gain a holistic understanding of possibly the most influential book of all time. The author has chosen to write under a penname, Seeker of the Truth, but remains optimistic of disclosing his identity in the future. He does not doubt that a vast majority of Muslims would allow him to express the views noted in this book, which are founded on the Quran. “Sedq uses many different translations of the Quran to present the material as clearly and sensibly as possible. ... Bottom line: This is an intriguing, engaging look at a religion still misunderstood by many in the West. ... It is bound to provoke heated debate.” –Blueink Review “A searching look at the teachings of the Quran. ... Sedq takes up several common assertions about the Quran and subjects them to a scholarly, thorough, and often refreshingly cant-free contemporary analysis that takes modern social norms and literary scholarship into account. ... Sedq offers an interpretative look at the Quran that curious minds of all faiths will find fascinating.” –Kirkus Reviews What’s the most interesting or important book to come out recently about the Islamic world? “The Quran Speaks by Bahis Sedq: a hugely important book by a scholar of Islam who is, to my mind, the most sophisticated of all the dissidents in the Muslim world. He could be the Muslim Luther, if there were only a way to keep him safe.” –Ayaan Hirsi Ali in The New York Times

AN INDEPENDENT BEST BOOKS ON RELIGION 2014 PICK Few things provoke controversy in the modern world like the religion brought by Prophet Muhammad. Modern media are replete with alarm over jihad, underage marriage and the threat of amputation or stoning under Shariah law. Sometimes rumor, sometimes based on fact and often misunderstood, the tenets of Islamic law and dogma were not set in the religion’s founding moments. They were developed, like in other world religions, over centuries by the clerical class of Muslim scholars. Misquoting Muhammad takes the reader back in time through Islamic civilization and traces how and why such controversies developed, offering an inside view into how key and controversial aspects of Islam took shape. From the protests of the Arab Spring to Istanbul at the fall of the Ottoman Empire, and from the ochre red walls of Delhi’s great mosques to the trade routes of the Indian Ocean world, Misquoting Muhammad lays out how Muslim intellectuals have sought to balance reason and revelation, weigh science and religion, and negotiate the eternal truths of scripture amid shifting values.

60 GREAT LESSONS FROM ISLAM The Quran Speaks to You presents the main ideas which form the pillars of Islam. In 60 Quranic passages, the author shows you how the religion reveals the way to lead a dignified life. Each passage is accompanied by an explanation to help understand the message easily on topics such as • success and happiness • importance of sharing your wealth • relationships • equality of men and women • treating fellow human beings well • the Islamic way of life As societies change to include people from various backgrounds, it is good to know more about different faiths and practices and find similarities among religions to better appreciate each other. This book is a step in that direction. Clearing up wrong ideas about the Quran and Islam, starting from the roots, the author outlines Islamic rules for behaviour and the benefits earned for the afterlife for good deeds, to provide an understanding of the core concepts of Islam.

Even those who dispute the Quran do not question that it is in its original form, untouched by time. Considering, then, that many of the events relating to the period of its revelation are documented in the Quran, this enables one to travel back in time and take a closer look at the Prophet Muhammad, who is amongst the most towering personalities in history. It is this priceless offering, the chance to discover and reconstruct Muhammad based on evidence as irrefutable as the Quran, that this book pursues. The Quran is not just about Muhammad, however. It also spells out the fundamentals of Islam, regarding which there is growing global interest as well as ongoing debate between the moderate and fundamentalist camps. This book assesses the competing claims by the two schools regarding religious tolerance and women's rights in the Quran, and then engages both on a more fundamental question. The author was raised in the liberal tradition of Islam. He therefore found it difficult to come to terms, as do most moderate Muslims, with how a message of absolute peace and forgiveness could be so distorted by the militant fundamentalists. It was to counter views associated with the less tolerant schools of thought that he was first drawn into reading and understanding the Quran. This book is the outcome. It is, however, meant to let the Quran speak more generally and not just on issues that divide the moderates and the fundamentalists. The author has chosen for the present to write under a penname, Seeker of the Truth, but remains optimistic of disclosing his identity in the future. He also does not doubt that a vast majority of Muslims would allow him the license to express the views noted in this book, which of course are founded on the Quran.

The Quran, unquestionably, is among the most influential books of all time. With more than 1.5 billion adherents, it is also the most widely read. What draws special attention, however, is the claim that it is the word of Allah. This invites scrutiny to confirm that the Quran matches Allah's other creation in magnificence. When seen in this perspective, it comes as a surprise that the Quran's message is not well understood, which is hard to dispute considering the myriad competing factions in Islam, all of whom cannot (at once) be right in their understanding of the message. Is that because the Quran is in a language unfamiliar to most readers? Not quite, as these differences exist among Arab Muslims, too. Besides, there are consistent translations in almost every language, which makes it difficult to blame the translations for the differences in interpretation. The reason why Quran's message is not understood with uniformity has to do with its unusual compilation, which took place after the death of the Prophet Muhammad. The Quran is not arranged chronologically. The first verses that were revealed were placed in Chapter 96, for instance. The Quran is also not arranged by subject. Different themes tend to intermingle in the same chapter, while discussion on any one topic may get distributed among different chapters. It is the peculiar arrangement of the Quran that makes it difficult for the reader and creates room for competing (at times, diametrically opposed) interpretations. The Quran Speaks seeks to overcome this difficulty and to uncover the true message of the Quran by adopting two simple techniques. The first is to organize the discussion by subject. For instance, Chapter 3 reconstructs the life of the Prophet Muhammad based on the numerous disclosures made in the Quran itself, which are scattered throughout the text. The picture that emerges is markedly different from what is generally believed, but this emergent picture is difficult to dispute, based on the Quran as it is. Similarly, the chapter on women facilitates understanding of the Quran's message on this topic by bringing together the relevant verses. By letting the Quran speak directly on diverse subjects and, where necessary, through pointing out the context and sequence in which the relevant verses were revealed, The Quran Speaks makes the message of the Quran more easily accessible to readers. The other technique the book employs is use of four highly recognized English translations of the Quran regarding all verses discussed. The translations are carefully chosen to represent the conservative as well as the liberal interpretations of the Quran. The thought behind this approach is that when all translators agree, we can be confident of capturing the Quran's intended message. On the rare occasion when the translators disagree, the book discusses these disagreements. Relying thus on four authentic translations, The Quran Speaks provides the pathway to uncovering the true message of the Quran. In the process, it assesses the claim that the Quran is a scientific miracle, contains no inconsistencies, and is a masterpiece of literature, while also evaluating the controversial incident of the "Satanic" verses. The book should be of interest to anyone who believes in the Quran and would like clearer visibility of its message. The book should also appeal to those who do not adhere to the Quran's message but are looking for a closer look at the religion that is poised to play a critical role in shaping the world ahead. The Quran Speaks provides the platform for a holistic and constructive dialogue on the Quran, including the question whether it is the word of Allah.

Two major events occurred in the early centuries of Islam that determined its historical and spiritual development in the centuries that followed: the formation of the sacred scriptures, namely the Qur'an and the Hadith, and the chronic violence that surrounded the succession of the Prophet, manifesting in repression, revolution, massacre, and civil war. This is the first book to evaluate the writing of Islam's major scriptural sources within the context of these bloody, brutal conflicts. Conducting a philological and historical study of little-known though significant ancient texts, Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi rebuilds a Shi'ite understanding of Islam's early history and the genesis of its holy scriptures. At the same time, he proposes a fresh interpretative framework and a new data set for theorizing the early history of Islam, isolating the contradictions between Shi'ite and Sunni sources and their contribution to the tensions that rile these groups today.