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Rating: 
Summary: Response to reader from NY
Review: Before condemning the entire Arab world, try reading an interpretation of the Qur'an first. That might help you understand this religion a bit better. In addition, try reading something on the history of Islam and the three religions that sprang from the Middle East. I pity your ignorance, but fortunately, Amazon is here to help!
Rating: 
Summary: In defense of the "reader from nyc"
Review: I have a copy of this translation of the Quran and it is a very highy recommended read. This is certainly among the one or two worth getting. The reader from nyc is unfortunately correct. I've lived in the Middle East [Egypt, Saudi, Kuwait, Bahrain and- last year- Iraq] and have studied Islam for several years. Violence, and in varying degrees, hate are preached on many, many pages. To say the Bible has it would be correct. To say the Bible has it to the same degree as the Quran is either plain wrong or lying. There is no New Testament-like preaching of gentleness and love, unless of course it is to OTHER muslims. Christians and Jews are to be tolerated but not trusted nor treated as friends. The other reviewers have obviously NOT read the Quran but are posting out of some deep seated outrage over something they know little of. And the lot of women? Not good. I can personally attest to the maltreatment of women justified by the application of 'Quranic values'. Perhaps the reader from Scotland below who spouts off about interpretations is acquainted with Sunni and Shia schools of Quranic interpretations. Especially the schools which hold that homosexual relationships between adults and out of wedlock relationships be condemned. And in these 'interpretations' relationships between adult males and male children are allowed because they are neither adults nor women. Nice 'interpretation' of the Quran. Perhaps the reviewers below are acquainted with the burkha? Nothing is more terrible than to look into a thirteen year old mulsim girls eye's and to realize her life is in a sense over, that she is to be 'property' the rest of her life. Perhaps the reviewers attacking the 'reviewer from nyc' support the use of Quranic interpretations to stone to death victims of rape? I've read this work, and I've read several histories of the Arab people and of Islam. Nothing, I mean nothing, prepares one for the emotional and 'mental' backwardness of the sufferers one meets under its yoke. Believe what you want, it doesn't change the truth of a hate-filled text whose words of solace and consolation are only for other muslims.
Rating:
Summary: In defense of the "reader from nyc"
Review: I suppose everyone in the United States is entitled to their own opinion. The Qur'an is just like any religious text. "I suppose on some level I wanted to believe that maybe nihilism and anarchy weren't an endemic part of the religion and culture." Can we not say the same for Christianity? Or Judaism? "After 9-11 I purchased The Koran to see what Islam was about." This first passage of yours gave way for your bias. "You can pick up ANY translation of The Koran and and turn indiscriminately to practically any passage and within a minute or two you will come across a violent/angry passage that casts judgement and blame." Ditto for Christianity as well as Judaism. Didn't Jews beat Jesus up and crucify him? Well, you seem to know more than I do, right? "Guerdon" by the way means "reward." It's an English word. "Allah" means "God," just like in my language "Vajtswv" means "God." Same guy, same context, just different tongue. "The LORD then gave these further instructions to Moses: 'Tell the people of Israel to keep my Sabbath day, for the Sabbath is a sign of the covenant between me and you forever. It helps you to remember that I am the LORD, who makes you holy. Yes, keep the Sabbath day, for it is holy. Anyone who desecrates it must die; anyone who works on that day will be cut off from the community. Work six days only, but the seventh day must be a day of total rest. I repeat: Because the LORD considers it a holy day, anyone who works on the Sabbath must be put to death.'" (Exodus 31:12-15 NLT) This isn't violent? Man, I better read these books again!
Rating:
Summary: Response to "Reader from NY"
Review: I suppose everyone in the United States is entitled to their own opinion. The Qur'an is just like any religious text. "I suppose on some level I wanted to believe that maybe nihilism and anarchy weren't an endemic part of the religion and culture." Can we not say the same for Christianity? Or Judaism? "After 9-11 I purchased The Koran to see what Islam was about." This first passage of yours gave way for your bias. "You can pick up ANY translation of The Koran and and turn indiscriminately to practically any passage and within a minute or two you will come across a violent/angry passage that casts judgement and blame." Ditto for Christianity as well as Judaism. Didn't Jews beat Jesus up and crucify him? Well, you seem to know more than I do, right? "Guerdon" by the way means "reward." It's an English word. "Allah" means "God," just like in my language "Vajtswv" means "God." Same guy, same context, just different tongue. "The LORD then gave these further instructions to Moses: 'Tell the people of Israel to keep my Sabbath day, for the Sabbath is a sign of the covenant between me and you forever. It helps you to remember that I am the LORD, who makes you holy. Yes, keep the Sabbath day, for it is holy. Anyone who desecrates it must die; anyone who works on that day will be cut off from the community. Work six days only, but the seventh day must be a day of total rest. I repeat: Because the LORD considers it a holy day, anyone who works on the Sabbath must be put to death.'" (Exodus 31:12-15 NLT) This isn't violent? Man, I better read these books again!
Rating:
Summary: Probably the most accurate translation available
Review: Pickthall's translation is clear and easy to read, eschewing the flowery language common to translations of the Koran. Furthermore, it's fairly accurate, following the Koran line by line and balancing the need to make things make sense in English with the need to hold to the actual text. Reading other translations (Arberry comes to mind), I've had the impression that the author had decided to rewrite what many consider a holy book. As a practicing Muslim, Pickthall knew better and so produced the only translation I would recommend.
Rating: 
Summary: From a former Southern Baptist
Review: Seven years ago, I converted to Islam from being a Southern Baptist. I've seen people use every religion for peace and I've seen people use every religion for violence. (not the same people, obviously.) You should know that there is no true quran, except in its Arabic version. Anything else is approximation, but Pickthall does a good job in translating.
For those of you who cannot see the wonderful message in the quran, I refer you to verses 2:6-7:
"As for the disbelievers, whether thou warn them or thou warn them not it is one for them; they believe not.
Allah hath sealed their hearing and their hearts, and on their eyes there is a covering. Theirs will be an awful doom."
Perhaps you have a covering over your eyes. If you can't understand it, it's because you've closed your heart to belief in the ONE God.
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Summary: To The Reader Below
Review: The Pickthall translation comes highly regarded by most Arab speakers. The English used is a bit archaic; what the King James version is to the bible I would say is what the Pickthall version is to the Qur'an. But it also reads quite beautifully at times and apparently is quites close to the original Arabic. The version I bought was relatively inexpensive but the drawback is that there is little in the way of notes or commentary for the Western reader.
Rating:
Summary: Ah! To be open-minded...
Review: This is actually not a bad translation of the Qur'an, but I really must recommend the version by Abdullah Yusuf Ali instead of this one. (Especially if you know Arabic; it makes a lot more sense and is much more poetic.) The truth is, Islam IS a religion of peace, but, like Christianity, it has been subjected to perversion and twisting for a wide array of very un-Islamic purposes. Also, there are a million different "flavors" of Islam... Sunni and Shi'a are just the beginning, and only the most militant sects preach the hate and rabid condemnation of gays, extramarital sex, and the basest human impulses (I would add, however, that the Bible and Torah do the exact same thing.) If there is any doubt in your mind that Islam is, at its base, a religion of peace and acceptance, read Rumi or Ibn 'Arabi. They're two Sufis with an incredibly loving message! Many of the things people condemn Islam for are not even Islamic traditions AT ALL (the wearing of the veil, FGM, honor killings, hijackings...) Those things were all adopted 200 years or more after the Prophet died, taken from Persian or Turkish or Mongolian or deep-dark-Africa tribes.
As a side note, just reading the Qur'an will NOT give you the whole picture of Islam. You must supplement that with Hadith (Sunna), Sira (the Prophet's biography), Tafsir (interpretations of the Qur'an), and real, unbiased history of the development of Islam.
(FYI, I'm not a Muslim, but I lived in the Middle East for almost 8 years and know a ton of really great Muslim Arabs.)
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