The Qur'an: A New Translation (Abdel Haleem)

This English rendering of the meanings of the Qur'an is by Muhammad A. S. Abdel Haleem, professor of Islamic studies at SOAS, University of London, and was published by Oxford University Press in 2004. ¹ It then joined Oxford World's Classics, in a paperback of 15 June 2008 of 512 pages. ²

The publisher presents it as accurate and easy to read, free of the archaisms and alien structures of most earlier translations. ² Among its features, as the publisher describes them, dialogue addressed to the Prophet is identified to avoid confusion, paragraphing and punctuation are added to serve the meaning, and each verse number is set in small superscript so as not to interrupt the reading. ² Its introduction gives a short history of the revelation and compilation of the Qur'an, its structure and style, and considers questions of interpretation concerning militancy, intolerance and the status of women; notes explain geographical, historical and personal allusions and cross-references, and an index arranges the Qur'an's material by topic. ²

Abdel Haleem memorised the Qur'an as a child in his village in Sharqia, Egypt, studied at Al-Azhar, took his PhD at Cambridge, has taught at SOAS since 1971, and edits the Journal of Qur'anic Studies. ¹

• Oxford University Press, the book's page in Oxford World's Classics. ²
• English Wikipedia, "Muhammad A. S. Abdel Haleem". ¹