Exploring the Qur’an Context and Impact By M.A.S. Abdel Haleem (London: I.B. Tauris, 2017. 288 pages.)

Abstract

Exploring the Qur’an: Context and Impact is a highly perceptive, technical
study of the Qur’anic text that seeks to exonerate the Qur’an from claims
of extremism, intolerance, or incoherence. This is accomplished through
contextualizing the content and highlighting the impact of the Qur’anic
message as applied throughout history. The underlying premise of its approach
is that a perceptive and faithful reading of the Qur’an will result
in the Qur’an exonerating itself through consistency in its own messages,
rhetorical devices, and norms. In essence, it is a specific way of applying
tafsīr al-Qur’ān bil-Qur’ān (explanation of the Qur’an by the Qur’an). This
book is unique in the field of Qur’anic coherence in that it presents a consistent
method of interpretation that is applied to a diverse range of Qur’anic
subjects, not simply a study of the Qur’an’s structure nor primarily of its
Arabic. It builds on previous efforts, such as Mustansir Mir’s summary of
Hamid al-Din ‘Abd al-Hamid al-Farahi’s work on Qur’anic oaths, Majmū‘ati-
Tafsīr-i-Farāhī, yet advances its own distinctive premise. The book has
three sections, each consisting of several chapters, five of which are original
to this book. This does not detract from the cohesiveness of the book. Abdel
Haleem’s technical yet accessible style pervades throughout and consistency
in his chosen axioms of interpretation tie the book’s parts together ...