The Study Quran: A New Translation and Commentary

The Study Quran is a new English translation of the meanings of the Qur'an with extensive commentary, published in 2015 by HarperOne in the United States in 2,048 pages, with Seyyed Hossein Nasr as editor-in-chief. ^{1 2}

Nasr led the work as editor-in-chief, with Caner K. Dagli, Maria Massi Dakake and Joseph E. B. Lumbard as general editors and Mohammed Rustom as assistant editor. ¹ Before signing the contract Nasr set the condition that the team be Muslims, and he chose them from among his former students. ² The work took ten years; donors including King Abdullah II of Jordan and the El-Hibri Foundation paid the salaries of three translators during six years of sabbaticals from their universities. ²

Nasr's aim was an accurate, unbiased translation understandable to English-speaking Muslims, scholars and general readers. ² On many pages the commentary takes more space than the verses; according to Nasr it brings Sunni and Shia commentators together for the first time, and the editors took particular care to explain the context of the verses that speak of fighting. ² The book also includes essays on Qur'anic themes. ¹

The first run was 10,000 copies, and HarperOne printed 13,000 more before publication on the strength of pre-orders; the book sold at $60. ² Muslim American academics endorsed it, and Hamza Yusuf called it perhaps the most important work on Islam in English to date. ² Shadi Hamid of the Brookings Institution was sceptical of expecting it to change much against extremism; Joseph Lumbard reported criticism from some Muslims that it was "too Sufi"; and Imam Suhaib Webb said it was designed to help Muslims encounter their souls rather than to counter extremism. ²

The book has Wikipedia articles in Arabic, English, Persian and Hindi. ¹

• Daniel Burke, "Could this Quran curb extremism?", CNN, 27 November 2015. ²
• English Wikipedia, "The Study Quran", revision 1356389862. ¹