What the Qur'an Meant
And Why It Matters
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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...
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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)
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“A work of intimate and charitable interreligious dialogue.” (Publishers Weekly)
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By: Jack Miles
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A Little History of the World
- By: E. H. Gombrich
- Narrated by: Ralph Cosham
- Length: 9 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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E. H. Gombrich's world history, an international best seller now available in English for the first time, is a text dominated not by dates and facts but by the sweep of experience across the centuries, a guide to humanity's achievements, and an acute witness to its frailties.
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an enlightening book; very well read
- By A.B.Oxford on 06-03-06
By: E. H. Gombrich
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Maimonides
- The Life and World of One of Civilization's Greatest Minds
- By: Joel L. Kraemer
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 19 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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The first definitive biography of Moses Maimonides, one of the most influential intellects in all of human history, illuminates his life as a philosopher, physician, and lawgiver. Recalling such bestsellers as David McCullough's John Adams and Walter Isaacson's Einstein, Maimonides is a biography on a grand scale, brilliantly explicating one man's life against the background of his time.
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Great book. Distracting pronunciation errors.
- By Rabbi Eitan Levy on 04-06-09
By: Joel L. Kraemer
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The Misunderstood Jew
- The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus
- By: Amy Jill Levine
- Narrated by: Donna Postel
- Length: 11 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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In The Misunderstood Jew, scholar Amy-Jill Levine helps Christians and Jews understand the "Jewishness" of Jesus so that their appreciation of him deepens and a greater interfaith dialogue can take place. Levine's humor and informed truth - telling provokes honest conversation and debate about how Christians and Jews should understand Jesus, the New Testament, and each other.
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Courageous
- By Tad Davis on 07-27-17
By: Amy Jill Levine
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The Evolution of God
- By: Robert Wright
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 18 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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In this sweeping narrative, which takes us from the Stone Age to the Information Age, Robert Wright unveils an astonishing discovery: there is a hidden pattern that the great monotheistic faiths have followed as they have evolved. Through the prisms of archeology, theology, and evolutionary psychology, Wright's findings overturn basic assumptions about Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and are sure to cause controversy.
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Very heavy reading
- By Stephen on 08-07-09
By: Robert Wright
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God in the Qur'an
- God in Three Classic Scriptures
- By: Jack Miles
- Narrated by: Peter Altschuler
- Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Who is Allah? What does he ask of those who submit to his teachings? Pulitzer Prize-winner Jack Miles gives us a deeply probing, revelatory portrait of the world’s second largest, fastest-growing, and perhaps most tragically misunderstood religion. In doing so, Miles illuminates what is unique about Allah, his teachings, and his resolutely merciful temperament, and he thereby reveals that which is false, distorted, or simply absent from the popular conception of the heart of Islam.
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Comparison between the Holy Bible and Holy Qur'an
- By Recession Proof Holdings. L.L.C. (RPH) on 12-29-18
By: Jack Miles
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David Lynch
- The Man from Another Place (Icons)
- By: Dennis Lim
- Narrated by: Jeff Cummings
- Length: 6 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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At once a pop culture icon, cult figure, and film industry outsider, master filmmaker David Lynch and his work defy easy definition. Dredged from his subconscious mind, Lynch's work is primed to act on our own subconscious, combining heightened, contradictory emotions into something familiar but inscrutable. No less than his art, Lynch's life also evades simple categorization, encompassing pursuits as a musician, painter, photographer, carpenter, entrepreneur, and vocal proponent of Transcendental Meditation.
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Essential listening for Lunch fans
- By Michael P. Mesaros on 08-14-18
By: Dennis Lim
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Heretic
- By: Ayaan Hirsi Ali
- Narrated by: Ayaan Hirsi Ali
- Length: 8 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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What happened to Islamic reform? Why have al Qaeda and Boko Haram become the faces of contemporary Islam? Why has the Arab Spring devolved into a battle over sharia law? Continuing her personal journey from a deeply religious Islamic upbringing to a post at Harvard and American citizenship, the New York Times best-selling author of Infidel and Nomad crafts a powerful call for an Islamic reformation as the only way to end the current wave of global violence and repression of women.
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And They Revoked Her Honorary University Degree!
- By Russell on 04-14-15
By: Ayaan Hirsi Ali
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The Mormon Mirage
- A Former Member Looks at the Mormon Church Today
- By: Latayne C. Scott
- Narrated by: Tamara Marston
- Length: 14 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Three decades after leaving the Mormon faith, Latayne Colvett Scott looks back to her original journey out of Mormonism and the reasons why she left. Revised and updated, this third edition of The Mormon Mirage presents both a fascinating inside look at Mormonism and new and formidable evidence against its claims and teachings.
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Keep away from it. Hate-Literature.
- By Amazon Customer on 04-13-12
By: Latayne C. Scott
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Who Is This Man?
- The Unpredictable Impact of the Inescapable Jesus
- By: John Ortberg
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 7 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Best-selling author John Ortberg shares how Jesus' influence has swept over history and how his vision of life continues to impact humanity today. Jesus' impact on our world is highly unlikely, widely inescapable, largely unknown, and decidedly double-edged. It is unlikely in light of the severe limitations of his earthly life; it is inescapable because of the range of impact; it is unknown because history doesn't connect dots; and it is doubled-edged because his followers have wreaked so much havoc, often in his name.
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NOT narrated by John Ortberg, sadly
- By T. Harris on 08-15-12
By: John Ortberg
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Creating Christ
- How Roman Emperors Invented Christianity
- By: James S. Valliant, C. W. Fahy
- Narrated by: Chris MacDonnell
- Length: 11 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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This explosive work of history unearths clues that finally demonstrate the truth about one of the world's great religions: that it was born out of the conflict between the Romans and messianic Jews who fought a bitter war with each other during the first century. The Romans employed a tactic they routinely used to conquer and absorb other nations: they grafted their imperial rule onto the religion of the conquered.
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life is one big lie
- By Anonymous User on 12-25-19
By: James S. Valliant, and others
What listeners say about What the Qur'an Meant
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Anonymous User
- 07-25-19
Amazing book
I can’t stop listening is so interesting. Highly recommended answer so many question and doubts I had . Thank you!
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- jackmalak
- 05-24-22
Required reading for the open mind
Ignorance is not bliss. As Richard Powers wrote in The Overstory, “the greatest flaw of the human species is its overwhelming tendency to mistake agreement for truth.” Today There is a lot of agreement about the dangers of Islam but not too much truth in that perspective. Read this book and enjoy some of the sensible thoughtful aspects of the practice. The mosaic religions share a rich history and each built something unique on that foundation. Too bad we cannot celebrate these creative practices.
Thank you Garry Wills.
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- Hizzi Hezbawi
- 09-08-19
Great book for non Muslims
Great book for non Muslims to get educated about Muslims. It will help eliminate " judgments based on ignorance"
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1 person found this helpful
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- Yusuf Ruyyashi
- 02-16-19
Open minded author
Have good understanding of what is going on
Fair in delivery
Honest opinion
Open minded author
I loved the book, the author, and the narrator
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- Darwin8u
- 02-02-19
Encouraging Each Other
"We recognize ourselves in the true image of other believers, in the Qur'an or Torah. We believers encourage each other over the barriers raised by people who do not wish any of us well."
- Garry Wills, What the Qur'an Meant
Garry Wills' What the Qur'an Meant: And Why It Matters follows his format used previously in:
1. What the Gospels Meant
2. What Paul Meant
3. What Jesus Meant
It is one of the first books (I've read) that uses heavily The Study Quran: A New Translation and Commentary. As other have noted, the title is a bit misleading. Part I of the book actually looks at Why It Matters; Part II looks at What the Qur'an means.
This is not a complete exegesis of the Qur'an and isn't meant to be. It is a look at a book that is viewed as scipture by about 1/4 of the world, by a believer from another faith tradition (Catholic). Wills is trying to be fair and generous. He looks at the Qur'an using the same skills he uses with the Bible. He looks at what others have written, academic resources, and the text. He tries to distill the text from both how the faith is practiced in History and how it is practiced by extremists now and puts into context some of the most tortured verses, showing parallels from the Torah and the New Testament.
I liked his approach, his tone, and his agenda. While I'm skeptical of most faiths (often even of my own) I am drawn often to writers who can talk about religion without condesencion or without being too hot (zealous, biased) or cold (abstract, clinical). Faith and belief are powerful aspects of our humanity. We need to view others (both belivers and nonbelivers) with respect. Often, we need to use care to insure that we aren't spreading rumors and false narratives about other traditions or people. We need to follow the Golden Rule in how we define others. Define them with the same charity we would like to be defined by. I don't want my faith tradition defined by polygamists who marry underage children, and I'm certain 95 percent of Muslims would prefer to no have their traditions defined by their most extreme elements. I'm certain many Christians would prefer that their faith wasn't defined by the Duggers or Westboro baptists either.
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6 people found this helpful
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- The Agha’s
- 12-04-17
Great insight.
We have so much more in common with these people than we think. We need to take a look in the mirror before passing judgement the way we sometimes do.
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4 people found this helpful
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- CT Customer
- 01-10-18
Important book glad I read it
Liked intro and how made topic so relevant. Liked comparing and contrasting to Torah and gospel. Helped my understanding. Good reader very professorial sounding
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3 people found this helpful
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- Mark K. Fulk
- 01-02-18
Wonderful Guide
Excellent. Should be required reading for all Americans, especially those on the political right wing.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 11-29-23
Terrible
Was hoping to learn about the Koran, but spent chapters learning about the authors political views and the Iraq war. He goes on and on about political decision and politician he is clearly against. Not the book I was looking for. If you want to lear about the Koran this is not the place.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 08-17-19
Terrible
This book was supposed to talk about the Quran; however, was completely political. Little discussion of the book or its meaning. Completely misrepresented.
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2 people found this helpful