Explaining the language and the major themes of the Qur’an, its unique literary structure, and its alleged "inimitability", Gade highlights how it seamlessly weaves together law, narrative, description and parable. With extensive extracts, illustrations, and detailed insights into its textual history, The Qur’an: An Introduction helps those coming to the translated text for the first time and it explains the unique issues that Qur’anic translation raises.

Exploring how a huge variety of topics are dealt with in the Qur’an, from gender and conflict, to mysticism, and even ecological crisis, both students and general readers will find this an invaluable primer.The bedrock of the Islamic faith, the Qur'an is revered by Muslims as Allah's final revelation, offering divine guidance to humankind. A seamless blend of narrative, description, parable, and law, it is a moral code for over a billion people. In this comprehensive study, Anna M. Gade closely examines the sacred text to provide illuminating insights into the many different ways that it has been read and interpreted. "The Qur'an: An Introduction" supports English-language readers in their studies by equipping them with a solid foundation in the terminology and methods of traditional Qur'anic analysis. Addressing the format, style, and history of this unique work, it also critically assesses its relevance to the major issues of the day, from politics and gender to conflict and even ecological crisis. Featuring extensive extracts and a handy glossary, this is an indispensable primer for students and scholars, as well as general readers with an interest in Islam's sacred scripture.

"[Gade] introduces the reader to many authoritative approaches to the Qur'an and works in a manageable way with actual Qur'anic passages, here in the 2002 Majid Fakhry English translation, to support confidence in reading the text, enabling students to understand how Muslims approach their holy book. Works of this kind are essential to help Western readers make sense of a difficult religious text." - Library Journal