Book excerpt: The Holy Qur'an is for Muslims the most reliable source for a correct understanding of the teachings of Islam and knowledge of this religion. The comprehensiveness of the Qur'an, which includes topics such as the origin of the human race, the purpose of creation, the missions of the prophets and their accounts, resurrection and afterlife, ethical teachings and norms, as well as laws and precepts governing individual and social conduct, and many other topics besides, is such as to satisfy every human being's thirst for revealed knowledge in a world bewildered by materialist worldviews.Although the Arabic Qur'an is the most widely read and recited of books throughout the Muslim world, its teaching and message are not accessible to the great majority of non-Arab Muslims except through the medium of translation. Even in languages which have competent translations of the whole Qur'an, topically arranged selections of translated verses can be most helpful as vital aids to a better understanding of Islamic teachings on various issues.In addition to works that introduce non-Muslims readers to the role of the Qur'an in the formation of Islamic culture and spirituality and those which describe its major themes, topical selections of verses and passages are also useful to make the book's contents accessible to many readers who lack the time and or motivation required to explore the Islamic scripture in its entirety. In fact, topical selections are even more essential for non-Muslims who, while curious to obtain a first hand acquaintance with its contents, often find the arrangement and style of the Qur'an to be daunting and lack the patience to navigate a text which loses in translation much of the linguistic excellence and audible beauty and resonance of the Arabic original. The present selection does not claim to be exhaustive, as the range of topics dealt with in the Qur'an, or those which may be of significant or even urgent relevance for certain readers, is much greater than can be covered in a book of modest length and scope as the present one.