New Quran With Study Notes Attempts To Combat Extremism

 

An issue many in the world of actual research have faced is that no matter how many times we tell radicalized people the truth – that the Quran is not any more violent than the Bible – they are still unable to get the message. Many have wondered what else can we do to provide a resource against ignorance? Five Islamic Studies scholars have addressed that and have provided the answer in the form of a Quran designed as a study guide.

The idea behind this Quran may seem simplistic, but actually it is quite profound. With countless people using verses not properly understood to justify violence, this book focuses on real interpretations of the passages. According to the Amazon page, the book is:

“An accessible and accurate translation of the Quran that offers a rigorous analysis of its theological, metaphysical, historical, and geographical teachings and backgrounds, and includes extensive study notes, special introductions by experts in the field, and is edited by a top modern Islamic scholar, respected in both the West and the Islamic world.”

I encourage anyone interested in religion and the historical context of religion to check this book out. Historical context is something many in the radicalized religious community purposefully and maliciously ignore. Whether it is Christians literally ignoring all of the crazy sell your daughter into slavery stuff in the same part of the Bible as the anti-gay stuff, or the Islamic State maliciously using Muhammad’s war strategies as verses to be applied to society today. With this study Quran the authors;  Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Caner Karacay Dagli, Maria Massi Dakake , Joseph E.B. Lumbard , and Mohammed Rustom; have provided the reader with intelligent and historically true context for verses. In fact the President of Zaytuna College, Hamza Yusuf, had the following to say about the new study Quran:

“Perhaps the most important work done on the Islamic faith in the English language to date.”

I agree with Mr. Yusuf. Now average people can have a readily available resource that combats ignorance. In fact, my dream is that a study Quran like this one might end up in a required world religions course on college campuses, or even this book being a resource in a required world cultures high school course would suffice. This would help spread the truth that bigoted religious people can’t seem to get. Religion is what people make it to be. People get what they want out of Religion. Period, end of story.

Featured Image via Wikipedia, available under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.

 

Brett Banks is a native Texan majoring in Political Science. His interest in politics started when he was very young and has no end in sight. Brett is a fire breathing Progressive. As an advocate and member of the LGBTQ+ community he has aspirations to one day see equality for all. Follow him @brettbanks81 on twitter or find him on other social media.