Introduction 1
About This Book 1
Conventions Used in This Book 2
Foolish Assumptions 3
How This Book Is Organized 4
Part I: Revealing the Word of God: The Book 4
Part II: Searching for the Soul of the Koran 4
Part III: Seeing the Koranic Worldview 4
Part IV: Living the Koran 5
Part V: Relating the Koran to the World 5
Part VI: The Part of Tens 5
Icons Used in This Book 5
Where to Go from Here 6
Part I: Revealing the Word of God: The Book 7
Chapter 1: Getting to Know the Koran 9
Receiving Revelation Straight from the Source 9
Guiding the Way: Prophet Muhammad 10
Discovering the Basic Messages of the Koran 11
The unity of God 11
Worship and service to God 11
Prophets to teach and guide 11
Completion of past revelations 12
Guidance to a spiritual path 12
Movement for social change 12
Accountability of deeds 13
Naming the Revelation 13
The Guidance 13
The Criterion 14
The Proof 14
The Reminder 15
The Healing 16
Hearing the Words: The Audience of the Koran 16
Knowing the Essentials about Islam and Muslims 17
The Six Pillars of Belief 17
The Five Pillars of Islam 18
Muslims: The followers of Islam 19
Chapter 2: From Revelation to Written Book 21
Revealing the Koran to Muhammad 21
The beginning of revelation 22
The stages of revelation 24
The Meccan and Medinan periods 24
Transmitting revelation to the community 26
Collecting the Koran as a Book 27
Conforming the Koran's dialects 28
The Koran in modern-day print 29
Memorizing Miracles: Preserving the Koran throughout History 31
Experiencing the Koran as Divine Art 32
Recitation 32
Calligraphy 35
Chapter 3: Mapping Out the Structure of the Book 37
Discerning the Structure of the Koran 37
Ayat 37
Surahs 38
Juz' 39
Discovering Surah Names and Themes 40
Finding Your Way through the Moral Narrative 46
Through divine signs 47
Through laws 47
Through stories of the past 48
Simplifying the Moral Narrative of Shorter Surahs 52
Chapter 4: Discovering the Language of the Koran 53
Arabic: Plain, Clear, and Eloquent 53
Digging down to the roots 54
Reading translations of the Koran 56
Literary Style in the Sacred Scripture 57
Key literary elements of the Koran 58
Clear and figurative passages 60
Hearing the Voice of the Koran 62
Chapter 5: Relating the Koran to Abrahamic Revelations 65
Previous Revelations: Between Sacred and Corrupted 65
Linking the Three Faiths: Common Experiences in the Scriptures 66
Uniting faiths with belief in One God 67
Bridging the gap between divine laws 67
Sharing the legacy of prophetic stories 69
Contrasting the Koran with Judeo-Christian Scriptures 70
Finding a worldview of history in the Scriptures 70
Reforming laws 72
Reforming religious rituals 72
Extending God's covenant to all peoples 73
Giving a new angle on prophetic stories 73
Checking the prophetic pulse of Muhammad in the lBiblical Scripture 75
Differing on Mary and the message of Jesus 76
Part II: Searching for the Soul of the Koran 79
Chapter 6: Interpreting the Koran 81
Coming to Know the Guidance 81
Having room for interpretation 82
Knowing the key terms of Koranic interpretation 82
Finding the Tasfir that fits 84
Drawing out Interpretations 85
Looking at clear and ...
