The Study Quran from HarperOne is a historic and ground-breaking work produced by a distinguished team of Islamic Studies scholars.

Maria Dakake and Joseph Lumbard are two scholars who have helped produce the brand new translation and contributed to footnotes and essays exploring various aspects of Islam’s holy scripture.

Here is the Maxwell Institute podcast interview from the two scholars themselves as they discuss the history, themes, and teachings of the Quran and the painstaking process of producing a new translation—of attempting to render God’s word in a new tongue.

The book which has been endorsed by an A-list of Muslim-American academics such like Sheikh Hamza Yusuf who called it:

“perhaps the most important work done on the Islamic faith in the English language to date.”

I find it amazing to learn that Maria Dakake and Joseph Lumbard,  who undoubtedly are the key persons  in producing the book, are in fact converts to Islam and they both started from extensive familiarity of the Bible during their upbringing prior to their conversions.

Joseph E.B. Lumbard	Maria M. Dakake
Ph.D. and M.Phil. in Islamic Studies from Yale University, an M.A. in Religious Studies and a B.A. from the George Washington University.  Also studied Qur´an, Hadìth, Sufism, and Islamic philosophy with traditional teachers in Morocco, Egypt, Yemen, and Iran. Currently a professor at The American University of Sharjah in the Department of Arabic and Translation Studies	Ph.D. in Near Eastern Studies, Princeton University, M.A. in Near Eastern Studies, Princeton University , B.A. in Government, Cornell University. Currently chair and associate professor of Religious Studies at George Mason University in Fairfax, Viriginia, where she is also is a founding member and director of the interdisciplinary Islamic Studies program

Joseph Lumbard was born and raised in Washington D.C., He was brought up within the Episcopal Church, serving as an altar boy, his father was sunday school teacher. He was introduced to Islam when a sophomore at George Washington University. He converted to Islam a year and a half later.

I realized that everything that I had been searching for within Christianity was also available within Islam…and that I would be following the message of Jesus just as fully within the Islamic tradition (Revitalizing the Heart of Islam: An Interview with Joseph Lumbard)

Maria Dakake was born Roman Catholic and brought up with extensive familiarity with the Bible during her active  Catholic up bringing in Church services and masses. Her conversion to Islam was triggered by her reading of the Qur’an during her college years.

Recalling her first reading of the second and the longest  chapter of the Qur’an, Al – Baqara she said :

 I was really very taken and struck by it in part because it was such a sense of the immediacy of the voice of the Qur’an . When one reads or hears the Bible, with some exceptions of course, it is often a work of narrative telling story … but the Qur’an is felt like a voice calling out directly …that’s struck me it was very unusual for me and it was very compelling in all honesty..

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Categories: Quran, Recommended Reading

Tags: Joseph Lumbard, Maria Dakake, Quran, Quran commentaries, The Study Quran