As-Salamu aleikum wa rahmatullahi wa baraketuh,
I was thinking that it will be a good idea to create a topic in which everyone can put some links to useful books which might help our Muslim brothers and sisters in their study on Islam and debates with Christians and Jews alike. For this occasion, I would like to share with you some nice books which will insha'Allah help you increase your knowledge about the history of Islam, Quranic preservation, its miracles. In order to help our Muslim brothers and sister who defends Islam, I will put also here some interesting and rare books written by Christian scholars and historians about the Bible, Church history etc.
For easier searching of particular book, I will mark every added section by its own color (i.e.
GREEN COLOR topics dealing only with Quran, Islam, Muhammad pbuh etc.,
BLUE COLOR topics dealing only with Bible, Christianity, Jesus etc.
RED COLOR general topics dealing with comparative religion)
ISLAMIC TOPICS:Book #1 (English)Title of the book:
Variant of readings of the Quran: a critical study of their historical and linguistic originsAuthor: Ahmad Ali al-Imam
This fascinating and important book attempts to investigate the nature of the seven Ahruf in which the Qur’an has been revealed and the reason for the variations in readings among the Qurraa of the Quran. It studies, examines, and discusses: the revelation of the Qur’an in the seven ahruf concluding that they represent seven linguistical ways of recitation; the compilation of the Quran during the lifetime of the Prophet and the preservation of the Quran in the memories of the Companions as well as in written form, the compilation during the time of Abu Bakr, and the further compilation during the time of Uthman; the problem of naskh to demonstrate the completeness and trustworthiness of the Quran and that no verses are missing or were read and abrogated by naskh al-tilawah either with or without hukm; the Uthmanic masahif and their relation to the seven ahruf; the language of the Quran and whether it includes one, several, or all the dialects of the Arabs; the origin of the qiraat and conditions governing accepted readings; and ikhtiyar (i.e., the selection of one reading rather than another) and the rules governing the Qurraa’ who selected a reading.
Link: https://archive.org/details/VARIANTREADINGSOFTHEQURANACRITICALSTUDYOFTHEIRHISTORICALANDLINGUISTICORIGINSBook #2 (English)Title of the book:
Introduction to the principles of TafsirAuthor: Sheikh ul'Islam Ibn Taymiyyah, Muhammad Bin Salih Al-Uthaymin, translated by Ahsan Hanif
This book is one of the many written on the topic of Quranic tafseer. In it, the renowned author Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah outlines the principles employed by the scholars in understanding the verses of the Qur’an. What makes this book unique is the fact that it is combined with Shaykh Ibn Uthayman’s detailed explanation of the original text. So, the reader benefits from both the original work and the detailed explanation of the work, all in an easy to follow, smooth, accessible format.
Link: https://archive.org/details/IntroductionToThePrinciplesOfTafsirByIbnTaymiyyahBook #3 (English)Title of the book:
The Quran and the orientalistsAuthor: Muhammad Mohar Ali
The present work gives in a compact and integrated form the main orientalist assumptions and theories about the Qur’an and examines them critically. The treatment is not what some of the orientalists are prone to call “apologetic”. The Author has met them on their own grounds and have taken up their arguments and statements one by one, pointing out their faults, inconsistencies and untenability, dealing with each and every one and examining them with the facts and logic. It has been demonstrated how and where they have erred and drawn wrong conclusions. It has also been shown that in advancing their theories and assumptions they have in almost all cases distorted and misinterpreted the texts and the facts, often resorting to biased shaping of the latter and a good deal of arbitrary assumptions and surmises. The treatment is clear, concise, to the point, logical, and effective. The Qur’an and the Orientalists takes in to account the views and assumptions advanced about the Qur’an by the dozens of the orientalists of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries like William Muir, Theodor Noldeke, David Margoliouth, Arthur Jeffery, Richard Bell, Montgomery Watt, and others. These views are analyzed and discussed in three broad parts. In the first part are discussed those that constitute a direct allegation of the Prophet’s authorship of the Qur’an, particularly, his alleged borrowing from Judaeo-Christian sources, the question of his literacy and the alleged environmental influence on him in general. In the second part are dealt with those that revolve around the question of the Qur’anic wahy (revelation) and are aimed at showing that the Qur’anic revelation proceeded in some form or other from the mind and personality of the Prophet, thus supplementing the allegation of his authorship. In the third part it is discussed those that relate to the history and text of the Qur’an, particularly Noldeke’s theory about the history of the text of the Qur’an, Arthur Jeffery’s “Materials” for the history of the text of the Qur’an, the Bell-Watt theory of revision of the text of the Qur’an, the fiction of the foreign vocabulary of the Qur’an, J.A. Bellamy’s supposed copyist’s errors and proposed emendations of the Qur’an and the like, together with a survey of the orientalists’ translations of the Qur’an.
Link: https://archive.org/details/TheQuranAndTheOrientalistsBook #4 (English)Title of the book:
The History of The Qur'ānic Text: From Revelation to CompilationAuthor: Muhammad Mustafa al-Azami
The Qur'an reigns supreme in Muslim hearts as the most sacred of texts: a profusion of exalted ideas to rouse the mind, noble histories to stir the soul, universal truths to awaken the conscience and precise injunctions directing humanity to its own deliverance, all distilled into the melodious essence that is the Word of Allah. Through fourteen centuries Muslims have persevered in championing the text against corruption, memorising its every word and contemplating its every phrase, so that in our own times untold millions have enthusiastially committed each letter to heart. Beginning with a catalogue of ancient and contemporary attacks on the Qur'an, this expansive book provides unique insights into the holy text's immaculate preservation throughout its history, as well as exploring many of the accusations levelled against it. The reception of divine revelations, Prophet Muhammad's role in teaching and disseminating these verses, the text's compilation under his guidance and the setting of its final external shape shortly after his death, are meticulously and scientifically examinded alongside such topics as the origins of Arabic, its palaeography and orthography, the so-called Mushaf of Ibn Mas'ud, and the strict methodology employed in assembling textual fragments. By way of comparison the author investigates the histories of the Old and New Testaments, relying entirely on Judaeo-Christian sources including the Dead Sea Scrolls and uncovers a startling range of alterations that touch almost every fact of the Biblical Scriptures. Using this as a springboard for assessing Western theories regarding the Qur'an, he makes a sophisticated yet passionate case for questioning the aims of Western scholarship in continuously undermining Islam's holy book, and illustrates convincingly that such research, motivated by more than mere curiousity, has no scientific bearing on the Qur'an's integrity.
Link: https://archive.org/details/TheHistoryOfTheQuranicTextFromRevelationToCompilationByShaykhBook #5 (English)Title of the book:
The Perfect Guide to the Sciences of the Qurān, Tom 1
Author: Imam Jalal-al-Din Abd al-Rahman al-Suyuti, translated by Professor Hamid Algar, Dr. Michael Schub and Mr. Ayman Abdel Haleem
Imam Jalal-al-Din `Abd al-Rahman al-Suyuti (849--911 AH / 1445--1505 AD) was born, lived and was buried in Cairo. The ascription `al-Suyuti' is a reference to Asyut, a town in Upper Egypt from which his family hailed. Known as the `son of books' from the numerous books he studied and referred to in his works, he could equally be called the `father of books' because of the many books he produced
From his early years, al-Suyuti devoted his life to learning, reading, writing and teaching, holding notable positions in those fields in the city of Cairo at a time when it was the centre of Islamic learning par excellence. He was an outstanding scholar, second to none in the field, of Quranic Sciences (`Ulum al-Qur'an), in which he produced many well-known works. However, being the all-round scholar that he was, his contributions covered almost all the fields of Arabic, the Qur'an, the Traditions (hadith) and History. His works were of such superb quality that they earned him the respect of his generation and the generations that followed to the present day. Most important of these in the field of Quranic Sciences was his al-Itqan. The work found its way to many circles both near and far in the Islamic world. It was first published in the years 1271, 1278, 1279, 1306, 1317 and 1318 AH, in two volumes, but the translation presented here is of a publication of four volumes published in 1987 AD (1967 AD). The translation at hand is of the first volume. Al-Itqan is perhaps the most outstanding work of its kind in the field of Quranic Sciences. Exhaustive in its sources and its subjects, thoughtfully and lucidly written, the work is also well arranged. Readers will be taken by the depth, breadth, scope and mastery of the author while noting how much Muslim scholars have devoted to the study of the Qur'an and how varied and diverse were the fields in which those studies were made. A must to the specialist of Quranic Studies, the work is highly recommended to the initiate
Link: https://archive.org/details/PerfectGuideToTheSciencesOfTheQuranByImamAlSuyutiThe original work of Jalal-al-Din al-Suyuti
Title of the book:
al-Itiqan fi ulum al-QuranLink: https://archive.org/details/alitiqanfiulumal00unseBook #6 (English)Title of the book:
The Qur'an in its Historical Context (Routledge Studies in the Qur'an) Author: edited by Gabriel Said Reynolds
Providing commentary on the controversial revisionist school of Qur’anic studies, this book explores the origins, scholarship and development of the Qur'an. The collection of articles, each written by a distinguished author, treat very familiar passages of the Qur’an in an original manner, combining thorough philology, historical anthropology, and cultural history. This book addresses in a critical fashion the hottest issues in recent works on the Quran. Among other things, the contributors analyze the controversial theories of Luxenberg regarding Syriac and the Quran, and in particular his argument that the term Hur refers not to virgins but to grapes.
Link: https://archive.org/details/QuranInItsHistoricalContext.Ed.ByG.S.ReynoldsSecond part of the book
Title of the book:
New Perspectives on the Qur'an: The Qur'an in its Historical Context 2 (Routledge Studies in the Qur'an) Author: edited by Gabriel Said Reynolds
Link: https://archive.org/details/TheQuranInItsHistoricalContextI will add insha'Allah other books.
Take care, and salam
Ahmed (Poland, Warsaw)
