What the Qur'an Meant: And Why It Matters

by Garry Wills Narrated by Robertson Dean

Overview

America's leading religious scholar and public intellectual introduces lay readers 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 readers 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.

Editorial Reviews

The New York Times Book Review - Lesley Hazleton

…a delight…With the same sensitive eye deployed in his Pulitzer-winning Lincoln at Gettysburg, [Wills] approaches the text in the spirit of exploration, bringing fresh perspective even for those who imagine they already know it well…Where Wills's Catholicism might have limited how he reads the Quran, on the contrary, he brings it to bear in interesting ways. I can't think of anyone else who could place quotes from St. Augustine and the Quran side by side, enjoying both the unlikeliness and the aptness of the juxtaposition. Or revel in both the similarities and the disparities between the biblical and the Quranic versions of the stories of Moses, Abraham and Jesus…Wills has written perhaps the best introduction to the Quran that I know of: elegant, insightful, even at times joyful. He may not be able to make reading the Quran an easy pleasure, but his encounter with it is a pleasure to read for anyone as open to discovery as he is.

Publishers Weekly

08/14/2017
Having translated the messages of the Christian Gospels and Paul’s epistles, Wills (Why Priests?) now attempts to explain the Qur’an in plain language. Wills situates his account within the context of the “global war on terror” and provides a generous reading of the Qur’an that resists oversimplification at each turn. However, it is somewhat audacious to say this is a book about “what the Qur’an meant” when the author admits he cannot read the Qur’an in Arabic and has little background in Islamic studies. Furthermore, Catholic Christianity, the Bible, and biblical interpretation loom large throughout the text. Thus, this is best viewed as a work of intimate and charitable interreligious dialogue in practice. Insights and explanations that will most benefit a general readership often come from sources that Wills has conveniently synthesized. Relying heavily on The Study Qur’an and several other secondary sources, the book bounces between what the Qur’an actually meant (and what specific Islamic sects believe) and what Wills thinks it means. Wills addresses issues that the Qur’an is concerned with (submission to Allah, the mercy and forgiveness of Allah, worship, civil relations, marriage), but he too often focuses on the topics that matter more to suspicious Westerners than to many everyday Muslims: war, women’s rights, and violence in general. Ironically, the book could exacerbate some of the decontextualized readings of the text that it seeks to contest. (Oct.)

From the Publisher

"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

Additional Praise for Garry Wills:

“Garry Wills is not only one of the country’s most distinguished intellectuals but also one of its most provocative, bringing his learning to bear on great questions of history and contemporary politics.” —The New York Times Book Review
 
“America’s greatest public intellectual.” —Chicago Tribune
 
“Garry Wills is simultaneously one of this country’s leading public intellectuals and American Catholicism’s most formidable lay scholar. . . . What makes Wills’s contribution unique in a country whose shelves of religious books these days overflow with vitriol, bombast and treacle is his singular combination of intellectual integrity and authentically unsentimental spirituality.” —Los Angeles Times

Library Journal

09/01/2017
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Wills (What Jesus Meant) discusses the problems caused by being ignorant about Islam, addressing this issue by focusing on the substance and character of the Qur'an. Wills writes for the general reader, showing that when interpreted in its historical context, the Qur'an is shown to be a book of peace. While Muslim extremists have used this sacred work to justify violence, the same has taken place in Christianity, as when religious leaders and others used the Bible to provide support for the Crusades. The book has two parts, with the first one addressing how secular, religious, and fear-based ignorance can be costly, particularly as shown through the U.S. government's response to 9/11 and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The second part, which comprises the majority of the text, provides an introduction to the Qur'an. Topics such as Islamic prophets, zeal (Jihad), the right path (Shari'ah), commerce, and the role or women in Islam are discussed. Wills believes that a fair reading of the Qur'an helps correct false ideas about it and about Islam in general. VERDICT Recommended for those interested in gaining a basic understanding of the Qur'an. [See Prepub Alert, 4/10/17.]—John Jaeger, Arlington, TX

Kirkus Reviews

2017-08-22
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Wills (Emeritus, History/Northwestern Univ.; The Future of the Catholic Church with Pope Francis, 2015, etc.) defends the Quran in this layperson's review.Looking at the sacred text of Islam with unashamedly Western and inexpert eyes, the author finds that little of what most non-Muslims think about the book is true. In the first quarter of the book, Wills explains the impetus for studying the Quran: the West's many post-9/11 blunders in the Middle East. The author does not mince words, arguing that the conservatives in the George W. Bush administration rushed into a war with a people, culture, and religion they failed to understand. Given an age of ignorance and fear, writes Wills, "it is time for us to learn about the real Islam, beginning with its source book." The author goes on to explore various aspects of the Quran, often comparing it to the Old Testament and often pointing out popular misconceptions and quotes taken out of context in the West. While being clear that "the terrorists in modern Islam are not knowledgeable of their own religion in either profession or practice," Wills focuses not on Muslims who misread the text but on Westerners who misread it or, more to the point, never read it at all. He points out that in cases of less-than-kind passages, Christianity and Judaism have such lines of scripture of their own (such as prohibitions against apostasy). Wills goes further to note that harsh acts described by the Quran have been equaled or even surpassed in Christian history as well. Compare, he suggests, the Quranic rule about amputating a hand or foot with the realities of 16th-century tortures and executions of heretics in England. Wills has good reason to share his own reading and study of the Quran with a populace largely ignorant of its contents, but he does so in a vacuum, unattached from the many cultural expressions of this sacred text's adherents.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940169296464
Publisher:	Penguin Random House
Publication date:	10/03/2017
Edition description:	Unabridged

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Chapter 1
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Excerpted from "What the Qur'an Meant"
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Copyright © 2017 Garry Wills.
Excerpted by permission of Penguin Publishing Group.
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