Paragons of the Qur'an

The Qur'an brings clarity through parables that the human intellect can take hold of and ponder, and this concise work of Ibn al-Qayyim takes up a number of them and explains what each is doing. It was from Allah's wisdom, the book argues, that these revealed likenesses were destined to stay rooted in the final revelation until the last day, so that people could increase in knowledge and recognise guidance through them. Ibn al-Qayyim reads each similitude as carrying an argument rather than an ornament, and attends as much to the literary precision of how it is put as to the point being made. It is an intellectual discourse and a devotional one at once, written for a reader who wants a stronger bond with the Book. A hundred and twenty-eight pages.