Combining literary, theological, and historical approaches, these 12 episodes are a rich introduction to the Qur'an that clarifies and adds nuance to our understanding of it, and that offer a rare opportunity to hear this influential text recited aloud by an award-winning reciter who brings the ancient book's beautiful language to life for believers and the curious alike.
Introduction to the Qur’an
Explore the myth and mystery of the Qur'an and consider how the reality of this extraordinary religious and cultural tradition has shaped the lives of its followers for more than 1400 years.
Rated 2 out of
5
by
Robert22066 from
Listen Carefully To What's Not Being Said
To start with Lesson 1: All the lessons start with a legal disclaimer about religious recitations in a secular context, but it is never explained why this is necessary, leaving the assumption that beheadings and the attacks on Salman Rushdie and Charlie Hebdo are exactly what Islam demands.
The lecturer emphasises that everything in the Qur'an must be interpreted. In other words, the Qur'an means whatever you interpret it to mean. Why the commonly-used transliteration Koran, or even Quran without an apostrophe, is wrong if it refers to the same book, is not explained. There is almost no mention of sects, and I have no idea whether the various sects have different versions, in English or in Arabic.
Anyone who served in Afghanistan knows about the vicious subjugation of women. The number of people in the Great Courses' target market (English-speaking, as explicitly stated in Lesson 5) who know any version of Arabic must be vanishingly small. Various subtleties in translation are mentioned, and further developed throughout, especially in Lesson 3, but without much insight. Using a female to "recite" (a better translation would be "sing" or "chant") some verses is clearly pandering to an American audience.
The lecturer takes exception to "Mohammedan" but twists his logic in knots trying to explain how Mohammed was fundamental but irrelevant.
Continuing with other lessons, thoughtful analysis produces many similar questions. Course 60130, Monotheism, offers some interesting contrasts and is worth viewing as counterpoint.
Released in 2019, predating Hamas' well-financed and well-organised assault. But nothing in Lesson 11, sharia and jihad, or anywhere else, condemns the idea. The lesson can be summarised as "guns don't kill people, people kill people", but says hardly anything about the people involved- not Sunni, Shiite, Wahhabi or anyone else.
Suitable for audio and smartphones, visuals are not critical.
Two stars. Many interesting ideas worth thinking about. Recommended with the caveat be careful, as heavily spin-doctored as any political speech.
Date published: 2025-01-08
Rated 3 out of
5
by
tommyd555 from
Expected a Bit More of a Deep Dive
I understand this is an introductory course (and 12 short lectures at that!) but I really did expect more of a deeper dive into the text and stories of the Qur’an. If one has even a basic understanding of Islam/the Qur’an (for example an introduction to Islam received in say lectures 32-33 of the “Late Antiquity: Crisis and Transformation” course or lectures 19-20 of the “Cultural Literacy for Religion - Everything the Well-Educated Person Should Know” course), I suspect there will not be a lot of new learnings or “meat” to be found in this course.
For example, I came in with very limited knowledge of the actual content of the Qur’an but with an introductory background of the Islamic faith and its origins and the only new takeaways I gleaned from the first 3 lectures are:
• Muslims consider the Qur’an to be the personification of God like Jesus is to Christians; Great analogy by Professor Oliver: Mohammed is to Muslims as the Bible is to Christians: a central vehicle of the message but not always perfect
• The word “Allah” is not the name of the Islamic God but the name for “The God” in Arabic and even Christians from the Middle East call their New Testament God “Allah”
• The Surahs are broadly organized in the Qur’an by length (longest ones in the beginning and shortest ones in the end) and type (Meccan ones are towards the end and Medinan ones towards the beginning)
Lecture 4 really only adds one new takeaway: the Qur’an’s watershed assertion of Abraham and Ishmael working together to create the Kaaba in Mecca as a center of worship for the one true God (the site that would become a haven for pagan worship in Mohammed’s time), signifying the shift away from Jerusalem to Mecca as the center of worship.
Four insights in four lectures just doesn’t cut it.
I don’t want this to read as an indictment against Professor Oliver. I think some things were working against him. Namely:
1- Reading off of a teleprompter causes the course to lose quite a bit of what it could have been: it seems to “neuter” the professor in that he is not able to express his personality or emphasis certain things—to me an essential way to build a connection with the message. Plus, because it takes him a few moments to locate where the teleprompter is every few seconds, this dizzying camera movement introduces an awkward few second pause which again not only distracts from creating an engaging presentation but also wastes precious few seconds in what are already shortened lectures.
2- The professor’s discussion in the middle of the lectures are interrupted by these cuts to sub-titles on a background introducing what I guess are sub-sections of the lecture. Seeing these really added little to no value yet the interruption of the flow of discussion was annoying, a waste of space in what are already short lectures, and in some cases way too frequent. If the producer found these of use, then just put them at the bottom of the screen (like other text or definitions at times) and let the professor continue to talk!!
(side note: the beautiful voice of the reciter that accompanies these cut-aways and pleasing music that plays in the background were the only saving graces of these unnecessary redundancies)
Add all of this up and I’m sure we have literally minutes of dead air or worthless sub-section title transitions per lecture. Not an efficient use of the little time this course offers.
One last negative: when discussing the arguments for or against a specific point of view, the professor tends to go back and forth a wee bit too many times, repeating the same points. There are many utterances of “On the other hand…” or “However...” but he tends to just repeat an argument that was already made for that side. An example is the debate over whether the Qur’an was put to paper in 25 years following Muhammad’s death per tradition or was composed over a longer period of time by combining different compositions. With every “On the other hand…” I expected something new brought to the argument but it was a slight rewording of what was already said.
The course certainly had its positive as well: there are many recitations from the Qu’ran throughout the lectures giving us a sense of the actual text of the book and themes. This was welcomed by someone like me who had little sense of the content of the book. And I was pleasantly surprised by how many recitations there are (and I’d be remiss if I didn’t state the obvious: Tahera Ahmad knocked the ball out of the park with her recitations…sadly they tailed off and were nonexistent in the second half of the course).
Another commendation is the way Professor Oliver identifies the men and women in the Qur’an that are also present in the Old Testament or New Testament (Noah, Abraham, Joseph, Moses, and Jesus to name a few) and provides examples where their stories deviate from their counterparts in the Bible. These elements were perhaps the highlight of the course, but again there was more to pull on that thread and we instead got cursory explanations/summaries.
And that brings us full circle: just not a lot of elaboration or deep content to fill out the fundamentals. I would recommend this course to the most novice of beginners who has no background in the great religion of Islam or the make-up of the Qur’an. I just can’t in good conscience posit that this will enlighten those with a general understanding of the two.
While on the topic: could the Great Courses please produce a course on the evolution of Islamic philosophical thought through the centuries (we have many Christian and Jewish ones in the catalog)? And one on what it means to be Muslim today? The latter to dispel Islamophobe and misconceptions that this is a religion of hate and radicalism while allowing us to understand the tension of orthodoxy and modernity. Thank you!
Date published: 2024-12-19
Rated 5 out of
5
by
Chiara from
Awesome!
Everything one could hope for from a short course on the Quran!
Date published: 2024-10-12
Rated 5 out of
5
by
LennyG from
Excellent examples of the Qur’an
A great listen to video book. A gift for everyone to listen
Date published: 2023-04-23
Rated 5 out of
5
by
Cat613 from
Beautiful
This program showed the Qur'an in a bery beautiful and informative way. Has me wanting to learn more about secred texts and explore similar subjects
Date published: 2023-03-15
Rated 5 out of
5
by
kim kemal from
Just the right content, very fleshed out
I've been interested in world religions for a long time. When I was director of a certificate program in network tech in the 90s, I created an in-service for my instructors to learn about Islam (from me) and other faiths that our students practiced. However, I wanted to learn more about the scripture and not just the beliefs and practices, hence this class. The instructor here picked just the right topics for a general audience to truly 'get' the faith. His calm-voiced delivery was just right for a subject that tends to agitate Americans (because of misunderstanding). The lecture on the different schools, the vigorous debates through the centuries, the fact that 'The Sharia' is a phrase that has no meaning (there are as many interpretations - wildly divergent - as there are scholars, and no one is categorically wrong) - platinum.
BTW, I decided to get this advanced ed right now because my science fiction universe has a protagonist who is a 26th century Muslim. Evolution of beliefs and practice, and how this sacred text is interpreted, but I wanted to do my best as I get inside my character's mind. Reviews of my books tell me that this instructor did a great job for me!
I recommend his scholarly approach and respectful demeanor.
Date published: 2023-01-17
Rated 5 out of
5
by
DrG1 from
Great introduction into Islam.
Introduction to the Qu'ran is an enlightening, thought provoking well presented course that gave me a new understanding of the Qur'an. It made me reflect upon what I thought I knew about the Muslim religion as well as Judaism and Christianity. I highly recommend it for those interested in the Muslim religion and its place in world history.
Congratulations to Dr. Oliver for a truly Great Course.
Date published: 2022-09-19
Rated 5 out of
5
by
gander from
Worth every minute...
This is a good summary course. Every American high school student should know at least this much about this key faith in today's world.
Date published: 2022-08-08
Overview
About
Martyn Oliver is a Senior Professorial Lecturer at American University, where he also serves as the director of the Undergraduate Religious Studies and Arab World Studies programs. He received his B.A. in Religion from the University of Puget Sound and his Ph.D. in Religion and Literature from Boston University. In 2015, he was the recipient of a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
As a scholar of religion and Islam, Dr. Oliver has published widely in both academic and popular publications. He is recognized for his expertise on Islam in American culture, and he has had speaking engagements with the U.S. Department of State and the Defense Intelligence Agency. Dr. Oliver has also made media appearance on CBS and NPR. From 2009 to 2013, he served as the president of the American Religion and Literature Society.
Trailer
01: Finding a Path into the Qur’an
Why study the Qur’an? Dr. Martyn Oliver explores the myth and mystery of the Qur’an, including the origins of this most central of Islamic texts, God’s perfect word as revealed by Muhammad. For believers, the Qur’an and its divinity are certain, but for the scholar, the text is not so neatly defined.
30 min
02: 7th-Century Mecca: Religion and Oral Tradition
Ancient Mecca and its surroundings, into which the Qur’an was born, was a place founded economically and socially upon a diverse range of customs, traditions, and peoples. Examine the religious history of the region and the ways in which this cosmopolitan city undoubtedly influenced the messages of the Qur’an.
23 min
03: The Qur’an Becomes a “Book”
Muhammad, like most of the people in 7th-century Mecca, was illiterate. What challenges of interpretation for modern scholars are presented by translation from oral tradition to written text, and again from that text into other languages? Was anything lost (or added) in translation between the death of Muhammad and the first canonized text of the Qur’an two hundred years later? Perhaps.
36 min
04: From Mecca to Medina: The Revelation Transforms
Learn how the Meccan verses are both radical and evangelical—an economic and cultural threat to Mecca, but also statements of a powerful ideology defining Allah as sole creator and ultimate judge. Later verses of Medina focus, as did Muhammad, on the development of an enduring and cohesive community of diverse peoples, eventually uniting much of the Arabian Peninsula. In these origins of the revelation is where the history of Islam is born.
25 min
05: God and Tawhid: Divine Nature in the Qur’an
What does the Qur’an tell us about God? Cultures throughout human history have speculated about the essence of the divine. As we move into the content of the Qur’an itself, we explore the nature of an experiential God, who is both the narrator and central focus of this revelation to Muhammad.
36 min
06: The Qur’anic Creation Story
Origin myths provide insight into the values of a people. While the Qur’an lacks a traditional “in the beginning” narrative, it reveals a number of stories about the first humans and divine creation. Learn here about Satan’s fall from grace, his arrogant disobedience of God’s command, and his promise to lure humans into the selfsame fall.
27 min
07: Judgment Day and the End Times: Yawm ad-Din
Did Dante Alighieri model his Divine Comedy after the Qur’anic descriptions of heaven and hell? In this lecture, we will delve into the regional history; the co-existing theologies; and finally, the actual Qur’anic depictions of both a beautiful garden of endless, sensual bliss and, for the less deserving, a fiery pit of eternal torment.
25 min
08: Abraham, Moses, and Qur’anic Faith
In both Christian and Jewish traditions, Moses and Abraham are held as prophets and ideal examples of faith. In this lecture, discover how these Biblical characters appear in the Qur’an in ways that cement Muhammad’s role as prophet, and Mecca’s place as the geographic center of Islam.
28 min
09: Prophethood in the Qur’an: Jesus and Others
We will learn that numerous other Biblical figures also appear in the Qur’an, including Jesus, Mary, Noah, and Joseph (of Genesis). Each account has parallels to the stories presented in the Christian and Jewish traditions, but the Qur’anic versions emphasize the oneness and exclusive divinity of God.
27 min
10: From the Qur’an to Islam: Creating a Practice
How did the Five Pillars of Islam grow from deep roots in the Qur’an? How might the words and deeds of the Prophet provide insight for believers? Finally, what role does this struggle to understand, from the Arabic word ijtihad, play in the ritual practices that define Islam? Delve into each pillar and its Qur’anic origins, as well as the substantial interpretive history of Islam.
29 min
11: Sharia and Jihad: The Qur’an as Legal Text
The untranslated words sharia and jihad might best be understood as “searching for God’s will” and the “universal struggle for justice,” rather than the simplistic, and thus fundamentally inaccurate, concepts of judicial law and holy war. Consider the complex meaning of each term, and how it is further explicated through a rich history of fatwa, or legal opinion.
26 min
12: Qur’anic Philosophy, Theology, and Mysticism
The final lecture in this outstanding series reflects on the extensive philosophical, theological, and mystical underpinnings of Qur’anic study. Dr. Oliver speaks powerfully about the role of personal struggle to live according to God’s will—a struggle that shapes the religious life of individual Muslims and Islamic communities alike around the world.
40 min
