I picked this book up on a bargain rack and it is definitely a good read for conscious hip hop fans and Public Enemy fans

Fight The Power, by Chuck D examined everything in the current world today from the education system right down to where he thinks our culture is headed and why. Chuck D breaks everything down in the world and examines it to the fullest. At first glance it may seem like he is a grumpy, washed up rapper but look closer and you will find so much more meaning in the words than you can possibly imagine. Like in the following quote, "Whatever you do, don't go to war for your country." Chuck D is very opinonated and set in his ways. He goes into a full chapter about why you shouldn't be in the army because it changes you forever and how you will never be the same. Therefore, he also shows how the army tricks you by coming to your school and showing all this glitz and glamor to you. People shooting big guns, driving tanks, waving the american flag which essentially is not what the army is like at all. It's very gratifying that a successful rapper has finally released a book like this. It's a great break from the mundane evening news and daily paper. And in the following quote, "There's only a few serious black roles on TV. We have to put pressure on the networks and station groups where pressure hurts." Chuck D make his book universal by showing both sides of the issue and he shows the reader what can be done to help rectify the current problems he addresses in his book Fight The Power. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes any kind of hip-hop or anyone who wants a break from their day to day life and have a great read and whats wrong with our culture and what we can do to help it.

"RAP, RACE and REALITY by Chuck D (with Yusuf Jah) is a blueprint for empowerment! Chuck, master orator and ever the visionary, offers keen observations to help this generation recognize and understand the interaction of prophets, players and pawns in our society. He offers insights into a range of diverse factors which contribute to the current state of Blackness in the world and outlines an action plan to help us combat these forces.

Chuck ties it all together in a cohesive fashion which makes knowing what we need to do plain and simple. I couldn't put it down....AND I was literally taking notes!

In other words, he shows where the power is in our society, who's got it, why we need to fight it, how to fight it and how to get it for ourselves!" True Genius.

--Walt Goodridge, President
Hip Hop Entrepreneur Association
(Walt is also author of Rap: This Game of Exposure andThis Game of Artist Management, two success tools for the Hip Hop Entrepreneur)

Peace be upon you.

I would like to share with you my understanding that out of all the translations of the Qur'an into English, Yusuf Ali's is considered the best by not only muslims at large but also those who have very carefully studied the Qur'an (in Arabic of course), and have taught it for years and years. It is taught of being the most straight forward and clear one so far.

I've also read Asad's translation. He is a smart man, no doubt and in fact initially I was very impressed by his translation due to its intellectual approach. However, later I found that he makes certain mistakes regarding the aqida (the basic belief system) e.g., denying the existence of the jinn, and at times he seems to fit the translation of the words of God to the only way he understands them.

In any case, we should keep in mind that an unveiled access to the words of God is only possible by reading the Qur'an, and not its translation (i.e, by reading it in its original Arabic).

Peace be upon you.

What I mean is, this is not a study-Qur'an, with lots of useful but often distracting footnotes. I've read much more of this Qur'an, and read it more deeply, than the Tahrike Tarsile edition by the same translator, Yusuf Ali. I'll turn to that edition when I need something explained or clarified, but for pure reading and inspiration, I will read this volume.

A few comments on the physical book itself. It was printed and bound in Pakistan, the pages are thicker than the Tahrike Tarsile edition, which makes for easier reading, and the cover, while thin, is nicely embossed, and the pages are edged in a handsome blue-green-gold marblized design. There is no index in this edition, which might have helped when I wanted to look something up, but that's why I will turn to the Tahrike Tarsile edition.

Reading this English interpretation of the Qur'an along with the book Approaching the Qur'an gives me a new respect for this holy text, and now I know why you can't ever really translate it from Arabic to another language: the SOUND of the words themselves provides much meaning.

Yusuf Ali's translation of the holy Quran is well received andaccepted by all mainstream Muslims.

In 1997 Amana published a newversion of "The Meaning of the Holy Qur'an" by AbdullahYusuf Ali...

The new edition features Arabic Madinah script facingEnglish text in a newly compiled comprehensive index with revisedcommentary. It is easy to use and I strongly recommend it for allreaders, students, laymen, and scholars.

After the constant ruckus with terrorist I decided to read the Qur'an for the simple reason that Sun Tzu taught in his Art of War writings...that we should "know our enemy," So I jumped into Abdullah Yusuf Ali's translation of the Qur'an...

I realized after reading other introductory books that it is likely that Islam would not consider any English translation of the Qur'an a true indication of its original meaning. But it is close and the best we mere mortals can do. After reading this version of the Qur'an, it is clear that the whole world is to come under the purview of God or Allah! In Islamic terminology God is simply called Allah.

I also believe that the Qur'an actually charges Muslims to fight against any and all who pervert their religion from within, such as Osama Bin Laden and the terrorist of 9-11. Muslims who believe otherwise have been misdirected and mislead due to ignorance, illiteracy and oppressive leadership.

Yes, the Qur'an teaches not to trust the West but it also condemns without question the terrorist activities of Osama bin Laden. As Bernard Lewis says, "there is no precedent or authority in Islam" for 9-11.

I have been fascinated by the similarities in all religions and I am also equally distressed at the conflicts that develop between various sects, denominations and major beliefs systems in the world. They are all basically saying the same thing. It just gets said in different ways and from a slightly different perspective. Then some jerk says, "my way is the only way and all hell breaks loose."

Even though they are all trying to achieve the same thing, "oneness with, mercy from...and communion with God." No matter what a religion calls its Deity, the bottom line is that they are all referring to God. Islam and other religions are no different. Allah is God, Jehovah is God, Jesus is God, the great "I Am" is God and on and on...

In reading this version of the Qur'an as translation by Abdullah Yusuf Ali. I noticed that you wind up with religious rhetoric similar in speech to almost all other religions. Be good, do no harm, but stand up for your belief, and practice brotherly love, relief and truth in all things.

Do all that you have promised to do, and do not encroach upon another person or their property. The same basic principles exist in them all. Here are ten common founding principles:

1. GOD IS, WAS and always WILL BE
2. God had a hand in creating all things
3. God controls all things to a certain degree and sent messengers to guide and change us for the better.
4. God has rules and requires obedience
5. Human beings are unable to control their worst desires, and like water, will seek the lowest most base activities possible without God's influence
6. God judges all, the good and the bad
7. God will ultimately reward the good and punish the wicked
8. God will forgive a repentant soul, but not a lying hypocrite
9. We should remain faithful, punish deviance, and provide brotherly love, relief and truth to those who follow his teachings and/or repent.
10.To sum this all up in all religions "It is best for mankind to believe in and obey God and his messengers and do not turn away from him." All religions that seek God carry these basic tenants, all of them.

I have not found one that says you cannot have civilization, industry and modernization or that you cannot have healthy and wholesome, movies, parks and skyscrapers, freedoms, liberties and comfort.

They do say...do not become deviant, greedy or corrupt, gluttonous, decadent, murderous, materialistic, hedonistic, or licentious. In short restraint is the better path and liberal excessiveness and progressive physical self-gratification as practiced today in many quarters in the West, with their sinful nature, is evil and wrong...

An interesting and informative read, I highly recommend...

This translation is considered the most authentic by Muslim scholars. It is the one that is supported by the government of Saudi Arabia and is most widely read by English-speaking Muslims. A translation of the Qur'an can never fully transmit the meaning or reflect the beauty of the original text. But the reality is that many people who seek to understand the message of the Qur'an will not be able to learn Arabic. It should be kept in mind that though the Arabic word may have multiple meanings, only one of those meanings gets translated to English (imagine what would happen to one of Shakespeare's puns if it was traslated to Arabic). But for English-speakers, this is the best option (though Mohammad Asad's translation is also very respected). The caveat is that to truly understand the Qur'an, it is important to read not only the text itself, but to understand it in context of the time it was revealed. Though Muslims consider the Qur'an to be timeless, many passages relate specifically to events occuring in the prophet's life or in the young Muslim community.

I am, as my title says, not a Muslim. Actually, I am a Wiccan. But I find in the Qur'an, more so than in any other holy script, a call for us to care for ourselves and others equally.

Many believe that the Qur'an is the source of the hatred that some Muslims have for the West. I do not feel this is true. The text calls, not for the (lesser) ... (holy war) on the Western world, as it is currently being practiced by some misguided folks, but to cleanse one's own heart of hatred and impurity first. ...

Every passage I have read calls for love. Love of Allah, and love of your fellow man. How can people turn such a loving book into their (proclaimed) guidebook for hatred? There are things I will never understand. That, perhaps, is first amongst them.

Again I say, I am not a Muslim; I am a Witch. But nonetheless, I think, were the Qur'an practiced as the law of our land, this would be a great nation....

Since I am new to Islam I thought by reading this book I would open myself up to the illustrious meaning of the Qur'an. But I found my self wondering what I was reading. The translation in this book was not as awe inspiring as I had hoped it would be. So I went out and purchased a more recent translation by Ali and I loved it 25 times over this one.

Asalamu Alaikum

This is the most recognized translation of the Holy Quran, from arabic to english. The translation has been done as best humanly possible without distorting the content.

The author really captures the scenario of Egypt at the time of the Revolution. A must read for all Egyptian history majors

a reassessment of 1971 population growth surve

I'm Arabic and I'm Muslim, and the verse "Therefore strike off their heads and strike off every fingertip of them." do exist in the Holy Quran in (The Accessions -in Arabic: Al Anfal-):
[8.12] "When your Lord revealed to the angels: I am with you, therefore make firm those who believe. I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Therefore strike off their heads and strike off every fingertip of them".

The verse [8.50] in Holy Quran says: "And had you seen when the angels take the souls of the disbelivers (at death), smiting their faces and their backs, and (saying): Taste the punishment of burning".

It is not "If thos couldst see, when the angels take the souls of the BELIVERS (at death), (How) they smite their faceds and their backs, (saying): "taste the penalty of the blazing fire".

And it is not "And had you seen when the angels WILL CAUSE TO DIE those who disbelieve, smiting their faces and their backs, and (saying): Taste the punishment of burning".

As the Holy Quran is the last god's book*, it covers the whole life. It covers the peace, the war, relations, worships, bidden and forbidden things, etc.

* We Muslims belive in all prophets and thier books: From the prophet Adam to prophet Mohammed, including the prophet Abraham, prophet David, prophet Jacob, prophet Moses, and the prohpet Jesus.

We Muslims condemned the attacks on september 11. As god said in the Holy Quran in (The Dinner Table -in Arabic: Al Ma'idah-):

[5.32] ".. if any one slew a person - unless it be for murder or for spreading mischief in the land - it would be as if he slew the whole people, and if any one saved a life, it would be as if he saved the life of the whole people..".

There is only one thing i can agree on with Rattemause, that is that this indeed is a fine translation of The Holy Quran. But everything else you have stated above about the translation is a lie.

Let's start from your first "Accessions"

[9.30] The Jesw call 'Uzair a son of God, and the Christians call Christ the Son of God. That is a saying from their mouth; (In this) they but imitate, what the Unbelievers of old used to say. God's curse be on them: how they are deluded away from the Truth!

Now no where in the verse does it say "Therefore strike off their heads and strike off every fingertip of them." So apparently this is lie. And for those of you who are intimaidated from "God's curse" this is not literal this means that the truth was clearly explained and people have still deviated from the right path. God will deal with them in the afterlife, this doesn't give he right to people like Usama bil Ladin to go and kill inocoent civilians

Number 2

[8.50] If thos couldst see, when the angels take the souls of the belivers (at death), (How) they smite their faceds and their backs, (saying): "taste the penalty of the blazing fire"

No where is the verse does it say "the angels will cause to die those who disbelieve". I think that what Rattemause wrote was a lie! For those of you that are intimated by "blazing fire", doesn't every Holy book promise punishment to the disbelivers. Also a stressed point in The Holy Quran is that no muslim can force their religion on anyone, they are only to inform others about the message of God, and let God deal with them in the afterlife.

If you would like to learn more about Islam, I would not recommend Sufism, because they have made a new religion out of Islam. Which is unlawful and unacceptable in Islam.

ALL MUSLIMS DO NOT SUPPORT THE ATTACKS ON SEPT. 11. Here is a point that is stressed in The Holy Quran "If you have killed one soul, it is like you have killed all of mankind"

Note: Allah is the arabic word for God, Allah is the same god the Christains and the Jews worship.

As a Muslim who has owned this book for years, given to me by Ahmed Deedat himself, I must say that Abdullah Yusuf Ali has done a marvellous job making this fine translation. However, there are a few facts that non-Arabic speakers must be very well aware of:

First of all, despite the attempt to make the translation as accurate as possible, one must be aware of the PROFOUND differences between Arabic language and the English language. Arabic is much more complex and has an unequalled myriad of gramattical and linguistic tools, and it is that that makes the Quran so powerful and moving to anyone who knows Arabic well. When the Quran is translated into English, the beauty of the language is lost, hence the title 'Meanings of the Holy Quran in English' instead of 'The Holy Quran in English'.

Second, the translation allows for some misunderstandings that the anti-Muslims use to justify their prejudices against Islam.
So it must be pointed out that in the Arabic language, you must read all the verses for a sentence to make sense, and this does not necessarily come through in English, thus allowing for those misunderstandings. An example is a reviewer on this site who took the verse "And slay them wherever you catch them... " to try and say that Islam is violent. If you read the verse before it and the ones after it, you will find that this is purely self defense. The verses say " Fight in the cause of God THOSE WHO FIGHT YOU, but DO NOT TRANSGRESS LIMITS (as in killing civilians), For God loveth not transgressors. And Slay them Wherever ye catch them, ..... BUT IF THEY CEASE, GOD IS OFT-FORGIVING, MOST MERCIFUL. And fight them UNTIL THERE IS NO MORE TUMULT OR OPPRESSION ..... BUT IF THEY CEASE, LET THERE BE NO HOSTILITY EXCEPT TO THOSE WHO PRACTICE OPPRESSION (i.e. forgive them).
Such misunderstandings can be overcome by reading all the verses in a sura in order to understand the meaning, and also reading the helpful footnotes. If something is unclear, consult a Muslim.

Third, always consult a Muslim on passages that you may not understand, or have any trouble with. A 'regular' Muslim who practices the Quran everyday of his life would know much better than an armchair intellectual who read 3 books about Islam and became a self-proclaimed expert in the field of Islamic studies. In general, a Muslim would know much more about her or his own religion than a non-Muslim, so try to read books written by Muslims.

Fourth, and most importantly, for the non-Muslims reading the text, a very important piece of advice: read the Quran OBJECTIVELY, or dont bother reading it. Some people read the Quran to try and justify and hatered/misconception that they may have. If you read the Quran with this mindset, you might as well save yourself the trouble, and continue to believe whatever it is that you desparately want to believe. Otherwise, I am sure that you will have a lot to gain from reading the meanings of the Quran.

I was looking for a book that would teach me VBscript. (I have some programming experience.) Though I learned quite a bit from this book, many explanations needed to be more complete and left me to figure them out by experimenting. Not a good reference - no index of commands (most, but not all, are covered in general index in back).

The book doesn't cover any of the added features of VBScript v2 and above. The book covers the VBScript that came out with Internet Explorer 3.0. Although the VBScript 1.0 features that are covered are covered well, the many added functions added in VBScript v2 are missing, such as constants, private and public variables, automatic string joining and splitting into arrays, and much more. The features not covered work in Internet Explorer v4.0+ and Outlook 98 (which come with VBScript v3.0+)

I thought this was a pretty good introduction to VBScript. It had several good examples and explanations. It was a lot more practical and informative than most of the other books I looked at.

The seller was kind enough to notify me that this older translation was out-of-stock and no more were expected.

Apparently every translation from Arabic to English is at the mercy of the translater so each version is different.

Owing to the current political situation, I had been looking for an older translation in an attempt to learn more about the beliefs of Islam. Apparently, there is a companion book, "The Surah" which expands on the life and thoughts of Mohammed; but I have been unable to find it.

The Yusuf Ali translation of the meanings of the Qur'an is the most widely used and accepted among Muslims who speak English. Each chapter is called a "sura." The text of Y. Ali's translation hasn't changed since it was originally published in the earlier part of the 20th century. Tarhike Tarsile, Kazi, Amana, and others have published the Y. Ali and all of them are available through Amazon.com

Explanations of the Qur'an are called "tafsir" (tafseer), and the sayings of the Prophet (peace be upon him) are called the "Hadith," and collected in various volumes known collectively as the "Sunnah."

There is a reason why people remember those James Bond movies with Sean Connery and forget the ones with Roger Moore. Follow-up to the World Bank's "East Asian Miracle" study, "Rethinking the East Asian Miracle" is an uneven conference volume. Despite its publication in 2001, none of the papers deal centrally with the Asian financial crisis. In several instances (Ito's overview, McKinnon on international monetary arrangement, Urata on FDI), authors simply go through the motions, rehashing their well-known positions on issues without adding any new insight. Woo on corporate governance is long on jargon and short on substance. The only paper that really presents new results is Lawrence and Weinstein on Japanese industrial policy, though Pack's dissection of the growth accounting debate as it relates to Asia is very informative. Some of the other papers (Okazaki on Japanese industrial policy, Perkins on corruption in China and Vietnam, Jomo on SE Asian capitalism) while not presenting new research per se, at least offer some interesting ideas.