Using commentaries from the classical period through the medieval and modern periods to the present, this book presents the Qur'an as Muslims have understood it and interiorized it throughout its rich exegetical history. Sources have been carefully chosen to represent all of the major schools and trends in Islamic thought.

This book has been written, not primarily for scholars, but for interested western readers, for students of Islam, and for non-Arabic-speaking Muslims. For almost fourteen centuries the Qur'an has been a source of inspiration and solace and, above all, a guide along the way of life toward eternity. It is presented as such here.

This work is one of several volumes, each a reference to a particular part of the Qur'an. The entire collection will comprise an encyclopedia of Qur'an commentary.