Still doesn't tell me all I want to know.

What the Qur’an Meant And Why It Matters is a timely book. While I have read the Qur’an before, the main issue I had with it was the whole taking entire portions of text from the Bible and scrambling it around so it doesn’t make much sense. In this book, Garry Wills is a layperson that writes about religious matters. In this one, he admits to knowing little of the Qur’an, but growing attached to it in a different sense than with the Bible. With the stories being familiar but different at the same time, Wills came to enjoy the devotion it facilitates.

In any case, a lot of misconceptions arose due to the Terrorist Attacks made in the name of the Qur’an have led to it being called an Unholy Book, even a book worthy of being burned. This is unfortunate since it isn’t either of those things. While I can’t say I like the Qur’an I also can’t say that it deserves that sort of thing. So in any case, I saw this book in the library and became curious.

In this book, Wills mentions three types of ignorance that distort and malign our relationships with other religions: Secular Ignorance, Religious Ignorance, and Fearful Ignorance. Secular ignorance makes it so we amble into a country and think we can turn it into a Democratic Disney World. Religious ignorance pits our crusaders against their jihadists. Fearful ignorance is what makes us think that Muslims are infiltrating our Government and National Life. Given all of this nonsense going on, what better place is there to start than with the Qur’an itself? I mean, I am not a scholar of the Qur’an, and neither is Wills. He doesn’t know Arabic and neither do I, but you should at least attempt to understand rather than blindly hate something.

So Garry Wills goes on to read the Qur’an and talks about what is and what is not in this book. It is well done and informative. He talks about how misconceptions influenced what we did in Iraq and what that actually accomplished. Each chapter discusses these various ideas and what the Qur’an has to offer. It talks about how although Islam is a patriarchal religion, it still has a pretty forward thinking method of treating women and divorce and so on. There are many references to water in the Qur’an and the life-giving properties it possesses.

All in all, there are thirteen chapters in this book, each one focused on something that an ignorant person would think of Islam. I liked this book quite a bit. ( )

I reviewed this on Choice.