The Qur'an - with References to the Bible

The work under review heralds the initiation of a highly welcome and significant chapter in the domain of western scholarship on the Qur’an. This joint venture by two Interfaith votaries, one Christian and the other Muslim, represents an earnest and much needed move for ‘reconciliation between all the children of Abraham.’ Perhaps for the first time, we have a work on the Qur’an which does not harp on its alleged Judaeo-Christian antecedents or brushing aside the Qur’an as a poor imitation of the Bible. It is gratifying that the work under review has been conceived and executed in the above spirit by endorsing the credentials of the Qur’an as the final divine revelation and illustrating the commonalities between the two great Scriptures. As many as 3000 Biblical quotations cited in the work bring out the common ground between the Qur’an and the Bible. It is perhaps the first attempt to approach the Qur’an as an ecumenical work which draws the believers Jews, Christians and Muslims together. In so doing, the authors understandably do not ‘emphasize the differences between Islam and other Abrahamic religions (wall-building), but rather emphasize the commonalities (bridge-building)’ (p. xiii).