Fall 2004 - Jan 2006 - I first started reading this book in the Fall of 2004 after having been given the book by Rubina Tureen, a Muslim in Schuylkill County, PA. She thought that this work would shed some light on some of the confusion I felt after reading the Penguin Classics version of the Koran proper.

I stopped reading this book purely due to schedules and other projects that took my reading elsewhere (like my rhetorical study of the Intelligent Design debate), but I came back to Cleary's book as background research for another project.

Rubina felt that Cleary's was a better translation, and I agree. The verses are arranged in a more poetic configuration, which gives the text a more reflective stance. There is a lighter tone to the overall translation. The book is subtitled "The Heart of Islam - An Introductory Selection of Readings from the Qur'an", which is very apt. This is a quick read, but not in the sense of lacking substance. Rather than presenting the entire Koran, Cleary features specific selections.

The commentary at the end of this work would have been more useful if it was presented next to the verses, but it makes sense that it was added as an appendix to keep the flow of the verses. I was surprised by the rather frequent references and comparisons to Buddhist doctrine that Cleary draws here. What would be ideal is to have such a scholarly outline that comments on the entire work, much like what was done in The Bhagavad Gita As (a book that was very influential for me).

The Koran is enigmatic in many ways because it is believed to be unchanged since the oral tradition and since the original text was written down. As such, the various translations one may find - like translations of Rumi and Hafiz - probably need to be taken as a whole to really get anywhere close to the essence of the work. I would recommend this book, but would also suggest further exploration.