First, at least two of the essays are written by Muslims. Mere scanning of table of contents will tell you that. So the objection by one of the reviewer that none of the essay is written by a Muslim scholar is not a valid one. Second, I found that standards of scholarship is quite high in these essays. It can be quite illuminating seeing the things from others' point of view. In this book most scholars do not share the same faith as mine (I am Muslim). I learned a lot of thing which I didn't know before.



A Muslim may not be as objective in the study of Quran on its own as a non-Muslim can be. Of course there are many Westerners who didn't understand the Quran or deliberately misconstrued it. But in this collection this is not the case. It is highly recommended for Muslims as well to develop an objective appreciation of the Quran.



One point I would like to add here. In the Muslim tradition, the primary subject of the Quran is nothing but human being. Entire Quran revolves around human. You many find ayats saying: everything in this universe has conquered to human beings; God has never changed the condition of a nation, unless it tried to do so; when God intends to punish a nation, the elite class of the society get infected by moral ills.