Approaching the Qur'an is a major event in religious publishing. Michael Sells has captured the complexity, power and poetry of the early surahs, or chapters, of the Qur'an, the sacred scripture of Islam. Approaching the Qur'an presents brilliant translations of the short, hymmic surahs associated with the first revelations to the Prophet Muhammad. These surahs contain some of the most powerful prophetic and revelatory passages in religious history. They offer the vision of a meaningful and just life that anchors the religion of one-fifth of the world's inhabitants.

The book is enriched by inclusion of a compact disc recording of Qur'anic reciters chanting several of the early surahs, allowing readers an opportunity to hear the Quran in its original form. A timely publication that introduces the sacred book of Islam. Hailed by scholars as the best English translation of the Quran available today. Includes a 70-minute audio CD of Quran reciters. This is the book that was at the center of a national debate on teaching Islam, following its adoption for all incoming freshman at the University of North Carolina.

About the Author:
Michael Sells is professor of religion at Haverford College in Pennsylvania. Sells is the author of The Bridge Betrayed: Religion and Genocide in Bosnia (1996); Early Islamic Mysticism (1996) Mystical Languages of Unsaying (1994); and Desert Tracings. Six Classical Arabian Odes (1989).

Paperback: 224 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.68 x 8.40 x 6.92
Publisher: Amana Publications (USA)