THE STUDY QURAN is a historic and ground-breaking work that offers:

• A new English translation of the Quran that is accurate, accessible, and reliable in how it renders this sacred text

• A wide-ranging verse-by-verse commentary that brings together the most respected and distinguished traditions of metaphysical, spiritual, theological, and legal interpretation of the Quran within Islam

• A helpful introduction to each surah that provides an overview and background of its teachings

• Essays by fifteen internationally renowned scholars on how to read and understand the Quran and its role in shaping Islamic civilization

• A beautiful two-color, two-column design that presents the sacred text and commentary in the spirit of traditional Quran manuscripts

• Maps, a time line of historical events, comprehensive indexes, and other features to aid reading

The Study Quran provides a service never before available to readers of English: a scholarly yet accessible resource where one can quickly and easily explore how Muslims have interpreted the Quran through the centuries to the present day. An invaluable resource for scholars and students of all backgrounds, and especially to Muslims who want to deepen their understanding of their own tradition, The Study Quran is a much-needed guide in a time when confusion about the Quran and Islam is so prevalent.

From the Introduction

The message of the Quran is at once sapiential and practical, legal and moral, concerned with everyday problems as well as the spiritual and intellectual life. The Sacred Text deals with every aspect of human concern, from the deepest intellectual questions and the most lofty spiritual issues to the mundane matters of ordinary life. It is at once therapeutic and didactic. It is a message of glad tidings (bishārah) and also of warning (nadhr). That is why it calls the prophets, including the Prophet of Islam, both harbingers or bearers of glad tidings (bashīr) and warners unto humanity (nadhīr). It is a guide for every conceivable aspect of human life, action, and thought and yet also a comfort for the soul of believers. As the central theophany of Islam, a theophany whose every aspect is considered sacred, the Quran is the source of all that is properly speaking Islamic. As the living Word of God, it is the ubiquitous companion of Muslims from the cradle to the grave and provides the spiritual and religious space within which they are born, breathe, live, and die.

I did not want the work to be confined or limited confessionally, ethnically, or geographically. It was to be universal and at the same time traditional, that is, expressing traditional Islamic views and therefore excluding modernistic or fundamentalist interpretations that have appeared in parts of the Islamic world during the past two centuries. I set out to produce a text that reflects how Muslims have understood the Quran during their long history and how those Muslims who remain traditional, which means most of them, do so today.

—Dr. Seyyed Hossein Nasr

The Study Quran Editorial Board

Seyyed Hossein Nasr (Editor-in-Chief), University Professor of Islamic Studies at the George Washington University, is an international authority on Islamic philosophy, mysticism, art, and science as well as comparative religion and religion and ecology. He is the author of dozens of books and hundreds of articles and the subject of a number of books, edited collections, and articles. Some of his recent publications include The Garden of Truth: The Vision and Promise of Sufism (2007), Islam’s Mystical Tradition (2007), Islam in the Modern World (2010), In Search of the Sacred (2010), and Metaphysical Penetrations (a translation of Mullā Ṣadrā’s Kitāb al-Mashāʿir, 2014).

Caner K. Dagli (General Editor), Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the College of the Holy Cross, is a specialist in Sufism, Islamic philosophy, interfaith dialogue, and Quranic studies. His publications include The Ringstones of Wisdom (an annotated translation of Ibn al-ʿArabī’s Fuṣūṣ al-ḥikam, 2004), The Oxford Encyclopedia of Science, Philosophy, and Technology in Islam(senior coeditor, 2014), and Ibn al-ʿArabī and Islamic Intellectual Culture: From Mysticism to Philosophy (2015).

Maria Massi Dakake (General Editor) is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at George Mason University, specializing in Shiism, Sufism, Islamic philosophy and theology, the Quran, interfaith dialogue, and issues related to women and the feminine in classical Islam. She is the author of The Charismatic Community: Shīʿite Identity in Early Islam (2007) and coeditor of The Routledge Companion to the Quran (forthcoming).

Joseph E. B. Lumbard (General Editor) is Assistant Professor in the Department of Arabic and Translation Studies at the American University of Sharjah and an Associate Editor for the Integrated Encyclopedia of the Qurʾān (in progress). A specialist in Quranic studies, Sufism, Islamic philosophy, comparative theology, and Islamic ecotheology, he is the editor of Islam, Fundamentalism, and the Betrayal of Tradition (2nd edition, 2010), and author of Submission, Faith, and Beauty: The Religion of Islam (2009) and Love and Remembrance: The Life and Teachings of Aḥmad al-Ghazālī (2016).

Mohammed Rustom (Assistant Editor), Associate Professor of Islamic Studies at Carleton University, specializes in Sufism, Islamic philosophy and theology, and Quranic exegesis. He is the author of The Triumph of Mercy: Philosophy and Scripture in Mullā Ṣadrā (2012) and translator of Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazzālī’s The Condemnation of Pride and Self-Admiration (2017).