Found this book interesting read as a gay non-Muslim man. I read the translation by Tarif Khalidi who made it easy read for someone unfamiliar with the Qur'an and was respectful enough to have zero opinions. Thought the most fascinating parts were about Jesus and his mother Mary and how important they are to the Islamic faith. I'm also now interested to understanding what jinn are in Qur'an since they were mentioned quite frequently; not sure if there is a good Jewish and/or Christian comparison though. I do understand most western ideas of "genies" in media are not very accurate. Overall, I would recommend anyone to read this book to understand the second largest religion in the world and understand they are diverse people with vast differences and for the most part want the same as any Abrahamic believer. ( )

This is the third English translation of the Qur'an that I have read (along with those by AJ Arberry and Ahmed Ali) and I can say that this is the one that I would whole-heartedly recommend to a first-time reader.

Verse numbers are not included; this choice seems to have those first-time readers in mind, especially those with a literary bent. It is, however, an inconvenience for the serious student of the text. The text is not annotated per se but does include a helpful glossary of terms & names.

More importantly it captures and conveys the poetic aspects of the text, allowing the repetitive elements to better succeed outside of their original Arabic context.

Khalidi says that his intention was to allow modern readers "to come face to face with the Qur'anic text unencumbered by any commentary, as were its earliest listeners"; to the extent that it is possible, he seems to have accomplished this.

This edition seems set to supplant the older, much criticized though top-selling Dawood translation (1956) as the preferred Penguin edition, just as the Abdel Haleem translation (2004) has trumped the Arberry (1955) for Oxford. In both cases the newer translations have been given the more accurate/contemporary spelling "Qur'an", replacing the older English "Koran" with its Orientalist associations.

There remains the fact that for a contemporary non-Muslim reader the Qur'an is anything but a self-explanatory text, but Khalidi has helped the reader considerably with an excellent summary note on "Further Reading." ( )