The Qur'an (Oxford World's Classics)

I’m giving 5 starts because it’s the Quran and seems to be translated well from a quick scan. I just don’t understand why it came banged up. The packaging and delivery was fine.

Wonderful modern-pros translation. I use this for an easy modern-read; YusufAli for spiritual insights; Muhammad Asad for transliteration and rational and classical opinions; and the Study Quran for a compilation of thoughts and commentary.Regarding the 2018 audio, mp3 CD version:Great clear translation and reader; audio has introductory material, but no footnotes.Having read the text-based book, I purchased the audio MP3 CD version. This is one of a few translations I recommend: the other is the 2015 Study Quran for its commentary; I myself am also partial to the older language of Pickthall.Favoring this translation, I wanted to see how an audio version is rendered. I am mostly not disappointed:It is read by an experienced reader with a British accent who also knows Arabic.The cd is divided into 117 files, one for the introduction (same as the one that appears in the text, but without the map), a separate file for each of the surahs/chapters, a brilliance audio blurb, and a xml file listing the contents. ON the cd, the chapters are marked by number and not named; the audio calls them by their number and English name only. In total, the book is on 2 CDs with 117 files, totaling about 794 megabytes. It comes in a good cd case, like one for DVDs; both CDs are side-by-side, with the second/rightmost somewhat underneath the first.Though I am happy with the text, the audio version sadly does not contain the footnotes found in the print edition; it would have been good to put them at the end of each file. But the footnotes are few in the original text. So, for the casual reader, perhaps little is lost. (I still wish they were included!) Each file does contain the introduction to the surah/chapter found in the print edition.I quite like the narrator’s voice (Ayman): male, clear, skilled, well-inflected, with a British accent, and interested in reading the contents.I recommend this audio version for anyone who wants to listen to this translation; and I recommend this translation for its clear, modern, elegantly eloquent pros.The introduction, and its audio file, address the topics of:The Life of Muhammad and the Historical Background,The Revelation of the QuranThe Compilation of the Quran,The Structure of the Quran: Suras and Ayas,Stylistic Features,Issues of InterpretationA Short History of English Translations, andThis Translation.The portions not in the audio are:A Chronology of the Quran,Select Bibliography, andthe Map of Arabia at the Time of the Revelation.The Fatiha (Opening chapter) reads in the translation as follows.1. THE OPENINGThis sura is seen to be a precise table of contents of the Quranic message. It is very important in Islamic worship, being an obligatory part of the daily prayer, repeated several times during the day.1 In the name of God, the Lord of Mercy, a the Giverb of Mercy! c 2 Praise belongs to God, Lordd of the Worlds, e 3 the Lord of Mercy, the Giver of Mercy, 4 Master of the Day of Judgement. 5 It is You we worship; it is You we ask for help. 6 Guide us to the straight path: 7 the path of those You have blessed, those who incur no angerf and who have not gone astray.The footnotes (not in the audio) are:a Most occurrences of this term rahman in the Quran are in the context of Him being mighty and majestic as well as merciful. The addition of the word ‘Lord’ here is intended to convey this aspect of the term.b This term rahim is an intensive form suggesting that the quality of giving mercy is inherent in God’s nature.c This is the only instance where this formula, present at the start of every sura but one, is counted as the first numbered verse.d The Arabic root r-b-b has connotations of caring and nurturing in addition to lordship, and this should be borne in mind wherever the term occurs and is rendered ‘lord’.e Al- alamin in Arabic means all the worlds, of mankind, angels, animals, plants, this world, the next, and so forth.f Note that the verb here is not attributed to God.Salam/peace.

PP: The Qur'an (Koran) is understood by Muslims to be conveyed spiritually to the Prophet Muhammad by the angel Gabriel on behalf of Allah - i.e. directly to him and him alone by a one and only God. It was written 600 years after the life of Jesus, several hundred after the assembly of the Christian Bible, and claims to support many of the same ideals as "the people of (that) book". However, the Qur'an denies the existence of the Trinity (i.e. the singular unity of God, the Holy Spirit and Jesus). Thus, like Judaism, Islam recognizes both Mohammed and Jesus as one of many prophets. The Qur'an was reportedly gradually revealed or transmitted by Gabriel to Mohammed over two decades while he was laying the foundations for the Islamic faith and government in Mecca. He then migrated to Medina where he established what became, after just a few generations the vast Arabian or Islamic (aka Muslim) colonial Empire in Medina, Saudi Arabia.PP: At its peak, the Arabian Empire was geographically larger than its pantheon worshipping Greek and Roman predecessors and its immediate Islamic successor, the Ottoman Empire. Its colonies spanned the Middle East, parts southern Europe and northern Africa, and huge portions of India, Asia, and Indonesia from the 600's to 1300's A.D. In sum, the Arabian or original Muslim Empire was, in its historical context, an amazingly prosperous, technologically advanced, and socially tolerant civilization. It must be recalled that political power and civil control exercised during these and prior eras were barbaric in nature.PP: It is vital to realize that Islam, both as it is described in the Qur'an and practiced in many Muslim dominated nations, might most accurately be described as a religion that functions as a political instrument to regulate populations. That instrument is used by despots and/or clerical oligarchies to manage a centralized political economy, prescribe social customs, and dictate civil law, for which justifications are found in the Qur'an by its most "respected interpreters" and in examples reportedly provided by Mohammad while he lived and by several of his contemporary observers.PP: The Qur'an is hard reading for those unfamiliar with Islam's historic context and traditions. Unlike the Bible, the Qur'an does not represent the accumulated writings and wisdom of hundreds of sages over thousands of years. It is the product of a single "messenger" or prophet. Regardless of how its religious dimensions are labeled or described, like early Catholicism, the modern Islamic faiths serve as vehicles for the centralized governing and civilian control. In other words, while various Muslims apply its content differently, the "separation of church and state" - of civil and religious life - is not one of its basic principles. The political, economic, social, and political are melded into a worldview in which the Islamic religion functions to some extent as a means of civic enforcement.PP: Islam is overwhelmingly based on the personality of Mohammed as the exclusive transmitter of Allah's or God's will (i.e. versus the specific "messages from Allah" found in the Qur'an). Most of all, to some extent like most of today's Christian faiths, Islam is based on a long history of interpretations by various Muslim clerics, called Sunna (Hadith and Sira). The Qur'an itself contains a considerable quantity of repetitious confusing contradictions. For example, in one place it will praise Jesus's teachings (thus many Western philosophies and ideologies) and advocate religious toleration. But elsewhere the Qur'an, again like the teachings of many Christian denominations today, condemns Christians (thus all other religions) as misguided apostates of the only true faith (i.e. one that might most accurately be described as "Mohammedism"); as sinners destined to eternal hell.PP: Elsewhere, the Qur'an repeatedly expresses social and religious toleration, but in even more it advocates the use of the force of civil law and warfare to establish and maintain the Islamic faith within populations and internationally. Finally, like the Old Testament, Mohammed also describes civilian punishments and social structures (esp. the differing roles of the sexes) that were common worldwide up to the era in which the Qur'an was written - practices that are still employed to some extent in many Islamic countries and advocated by most of its modern "rightwing" extremists. However, such practices were long-ago rejected by Christians, then by secular intellectuals, and now universally considered cruel and unacceptable throughout the West. The contemporary perpetuation of Islam's belief in religiously-motivated domestic and international aggression and that the Qur'an - as it has historically been and continues to contemporarily be interpreted by a hierarchy clerics to applied in every domain of human existence are central to the divisiveness and violence separating it followers from the parts of the world derived from Christianity. And those well-intentioned nonviolent Christian's evangelists who are advocating and globally propagating the idea that they possess is the only "true" religion are adding fuel to the global tensions.

I was satisfied with this translation that came with clear explanations of the parts of the book, the prayers, the prophets, and more. Each sura is translated well and not overly detailed to where your attention is diverted. I also appreciate how there is no biased opinion in there too.

Best transliteration of the Quran I’ve read so far. It’s an easy read with footnotes to understand things and full explanations.

This was my first time through the Qur’an and beyond the content which really taught me a lot about Islamic beliefs, traditions, thought and theology, the narration was superb. Very engaging and pleasant to the ear. I can’t comment on the translation other than it was easy to understand. I would definitely recommend this to those who are interested in hearing the Qur’an.

Awesome writing and explanation. The only thing I would add is the translation of the names of the Sura in Arabic as to easy the linkage.