What the Qur'an Meant
And Why It Matters
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What the Qur'an Meant
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Narrated by:
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Robertson Dean
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By:
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Garry Wills
About this listen
America's leading religious scholar and public intellectual introduces lay listeners to the Qur'an with a measured, powerful reading of the ancient text
Garry Wills has spent a lifetime thinking and writing about Christianity. In What the Qur'an Meant, Wills invites listeners to join him as he embarks on a timely and necessary reconsideration of the Qur'an, leading us through perplexing passages with insight and erudition. What does the Qur'an actually say about veiling women? Does it justify religious war?
There was a time when ordinary Americans did not have to know much about Islam. That is no longer the case. We blundered into the longest war in our history without knowing basic facts about the Islamic civilization with which we were dealing. We are constantly fed false information about Islam - claims that it is essentially a religion of violence, that its sacred book is a handbook for terrorists. There is no way to assess these claims unless we have at least some knowledge of the Qur'an.
In this book Wills, as a non-Muslim with an open mind, reads the Qur'an with sympathy but with rigor, trying to discover why other non-Muslims - such as Pope Francis - find it an inspiring book, worthy to guide people down through the centuries. There are many traditions that add to and distort and blunt the actual words of the text. What Wills does resembles the work of art restorers who clean away accumulated layers of dust to find the original meaning. He compares the Qur'an with other sacred books, the Old Testament and the New Testament, to show many parallels between them. There are also parallel difficulties of interpretation, which call for patient exploration - and which offer some thrills of discovery. What the Qur'an Meant is the opening of a conversation on one of the world's most practiced religions.
©2017 Garry Wills (P)2017 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...
Critic reviews
"Wills has written perhaps the best introduction to the Quran that I know of: elegant, insightful, even at times joyful...his encounter with it is a pleasure to read for anyone as open to discovery as he is." (The New York Times)
“A useful and worthy interpretation that non-Muslims will find illuminating...Best-selling Wills’ stature will draw many readers.” (Booklist)
“A work of intimate and charitable interreligious dialogue.” (Publishers Weekly)
What listeners say about What the Qur'an Meant
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- rowshon uddin
- 11-11-21
Excellent
I’m Muslim. Learnt so much about my own faith. Eloquent, detailed, thorough, accurate, answers all the questions you might have about the Quran and addresses all the bad things you might have heard about Islam.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Mr. Mns Ackbarally
- 26-05-20
A useful, unbiased, inoffensive (mostly) analysis
This book was an interesting analysis of several verses in the Qur'an which have been misinterpreted by those who claim to be Muslims and those who oppose Islam (because they've witnessed the severely misguided and ignorant actions of those who claim to be Muslims!). Wills makes it clear that Muslims who try to follow the guidance in our Book have suffered persecution at the hands of those who have misinterpreted what they've heard about what is said in the Qur'an. As with any book like this, and with anything in life, if you approach it with preconceived ideas or a closed mind it will be difficult to learn anything from it. With an open mind, however, we can begin to understand a little more about the religion - Muslims too.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Dalia
- 12-03-21
big introduction to know more about Quran
Quran is the message of Allah " God" as muslim reviewer I will recommend this book it actually mentiond many of the controversial ideas about Quran and islam, what I really like about it, that it separated Quran from what really islamic countries are applying in their legeslation systems and their life, Quran is the source of truth
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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- Anonymous User
- 14-05-20
Very Perceptive
Loved the book. it fairly addresses some of the major misconceptions about Muslims and Islam from the primary source of the belivers' faith (the word of Allah). I really liked the structure of the text, and he certainly saves the best for last. I particularly liked the submissions in chapters 8 and 52.
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- Captain nemo
- 11-08-18
no words to describe my happiness
stilness and silence are expressions of my feelings. no words are needed to express my abundance that i feel when i listen this beautifull audio book. that is why i have no questions about this audio book. thank you for all your good work.
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- Mr. N. Iqbal
- 07-06-22
Wonderfully insightful and thought correcting.
Being a Muslim I have a vested interest, but I truly did enjoy the depth of knowledge, understanding and point of view from the author.
He truly applies a wealth of information and experience to this topic and world affairs. It's easy to judge from the outside when you lack true knowledge it's when look from the inside out and begin to understand the view of the other, this is when we can build bridges.
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- duncan
- 06-06-18
Doesn't come close
Doesn't come close to doing what it proports on the cover. The author spends a lot of time ranting about politics and even when he gets to the subject mater, just cherry picks. End result is a unhelpful bias apologia. I would recommend reading the Quran is self rather than this rubbish.
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3 people found this helpful