Approaching the Qur'an: The Early Revelations

Michael Sells is Professor of Religion at Haverford College where he has taught for 17 years in the areas of Islam; Comparative Religions; Islamic and Comparative mysticism, and Middle East love poetry.Sells noticed the unusual effect the recited Qur'an has on its audience, sometimes moving even those who may not be particularly religious to tears. In fact Qur'an literally means " The Recitation". Sells found that Westerners,... Read Full Review

I initialy bought this book after hearing about the controversy surrounding the University of North Carolina. I was motivated more by curiosity about what was causing the controversy. As a Muslim, I am already familiar with the suras that are translated in this book, so I did not expect to learn much.But I was pleasantly surprised. The approach that Prof. Sells has taken is refreshing in that he treats the Qur'an as literature... Read Full Review

I bought this book because of the controversy surrounding it at the University of North Carolina. I did not expect to learn much since I was raised a Muslim and have read the Quran in Arabic and English. To my surprise, Michael Sells' "Approaching the Quran" has unveiled a very differnt way of understanding it. He included so much context and history to which I was oblivious. Things that I took for granted in Arabic has become... Read Full Review

I heard Michaels Sells speak at Stanford (he's a religion professor at Haverford), and he said that when he teaches the Qur'an, his students start to get glazed eyes about halfway through the second surah (chapter). He said a colleague appraoched him and said, "Sells, I get to the second surah and I just lose it. I don't know what to make of it. What do you teach?" Prof. Sells said that the problem in translating the Qur'an... Read Full Review

Both non-Muslims and the large non-Arabic-speaking Muslim popluation for whom English is a second language can be deeply thankful for this book, in which Michael Sells literally does lead the reader to "approach" the Qur'an -- to get as close as can be in translation and without the linguistic and cultural context of a Muslim society -- first by being pointed to the mystical, early, short suras that were the first revealed... Read Full Review