Rival 'communities of the faithful' are not in the habit of reading each other's books, and when they do so, it is often to find fault and disparage. This attitude, so common a generation ago, is today giving way to mutual tolerance and an interest in 'dialogue'. However, we are still at the stage of being content with a superficial reading of each other's scriptures.
First published in 1978, Qur'an and Bible attempts to delve deeper, to solve some persistent puzzles, and to explore the common culture from which the Holy Books spring. Hebrew and Arabic, the original languages of the Bible and Qur'an are of the same linguistic family. Hence Arabic is a useful instrument with which to probe for the meaning of ancient Hebrew expressions and ideas as found in the Old Testament, and which continue to pose problems for translators and commentators. It is not merely a matter of one language elucidating another, but, more profoundly, of the light a language with a long unbroken tradition can throw on the desert culture shared by both the ancient Hebrews and the ancient Arabians.