Understanding The Qur'an: A Contemporary Approach

A best seller in Arabic, this book presents a fresh view of Islam, a contemporary understanding of the Qur'an in the light of modern science and philosophy. The book is an invitation to thinking: it seeks to query rather than answer, to stimulate rather than satisfy, and, in its peculiar way, to open up new possibilities for approaching religion in a scientific age. It is bold in its challenge to the separation of religion from modem science.

Dr. Mostafa Mahmoud is by far the leading writer and television speaker on science and religion in the Arab world. His influence is great and his following is immense. He represents 'the spirit of the age' and to understand him is to understand a central current of thought in our part of the world and the way of life that is being formed by that thought.

Professor M.M. Enani, University of Cairo.

Dr. Mostafa Mahmoud, a physician by training, started his literary career as a liberal intellectual in the late 1950's and early 1960's when his weekly articles, Midnight Journals, on science and philosophy, attracted large sections of the reading public in the Arab world. His articles reflected the variety of the points of view adopted and the open mind with which he approached all questions of science and human thought. As a successful author who churned out novel after novel, play after play, he relished the controversies that most of them aroused. He has authored over ninety books on a variety of topics many of which have been translated into several languages.

He is also the Founder and Chairman of the Board of Mahmoud Mosque Society, the largest charity organization in Egypt. The Society runs Mahmoud's Mosque, four specialized hospitals in Cairo, a museum of geology and astronomy, provides social support to 4,000 families, and manages a food bank that helps thousands of needy family in the neighborhoods of greater Cairo metropolitan area.