Integrated Encyclopedia of the Qurʾān (IEQ) Second Volume Launch

Conceived as an authoritative scholarly work based on fourteen centuries of Islamic scholarship, the Integrated Encyclopedia of the Qurʾān (IEQ) is the first English language reference work on the Qurʾān based entirely on primary sources. Held to a high standard of academic rigor, IEQ draws on a wide range of traditional Muslim sources, including exegeses, Hadith collections and commentaries, classical lexicons, biographical dictionaries, universal histories, works of jurisprudence, Prophetic biographies, and treatises on spiritual and moral psychology--some of which have never before been presented in any encyclopedic work in a Western language. IEQ integrates source material at several levels: its conceptual structure presents an integrated view of the overall message of the Qur’an; it incorporates and integrates various strands of Islamic scholarly tradition on the Divine text; and it presents a cohesive, cross-referenced text that is at once contemporary and classical.

The Centre for Islamic Knowledge had the honor of hosting Dr. Muzaffar Iqbal (General Editor, Integrated Encyclopedia of the Qurʾān and Journal of Islamic Sciences) for the launch of the second volume of the Integrated Encyclopedia of the Qurʾān.

Esteemed attendees included Dr. Abdalla Idris Ali (Imam & Senior Religious Advisor, ISNA Canada), Dr. Mohammad Iqbal al-Nadwi (Chairman, Canadian Council of Imams & Fiqh Majlis of Canada; Resident Scholar, CIK), Imam Refaat Mohammed (President, Canadian Council of Imams; Resident Scholar, Anatolia Islamic Centre), Dr. Katherine Bullock (Lecturer, University of Toronto Mississauga; Director of Research, Tessellate Institute), Dr. Khurram Khan (Associate Professor, McMaster University; Board Member, Muslim Association of Canada), Dr. Nazir Khan (President Emeritus, Yaqeen Institute Canada; Associate Professor, McMaster University), Dr. Rizwan Tahir (Assistant Professor, McMaster University; Islamic Finance Program Director, CIK), Dr. Muhammad Jaseemuddin (Professor, Toronto Metropolitan University), Zahid Naeem (Founder & President, LQ Mississauga) and others.

/

“The Integrated Encyclopedia of the Qurʾān is the most beneficial project of our time. Its goal is to convey the authentic message of the Noble Qurʾān to contemporary readers by tapping into the Book of Allah, the Sunnah of His Messenger (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), and by following the path of the traditional scholarship laid out by the righteous forebears.”

Imam Yousef Abu Sneineh

Imam and Khatīb
/
Masjid Al-Aqsa

/

“The people undertaking the Integrated Encyclopedia of the Qurʾān are poised in the middle of a great venture, not just for defense of our religion and our beliefs but an absolving of ourselves from the debt that is placed upon all scholars to combat misinformation and spread the truth about Islam. They work with limited resources, reliant on Allah’s guidance and eager only for His mercy, and they deserve nothing less than our full support by pen, by money, by word and deed.”

(Late) Muhammad Mustafa Al-Azami

Professor Emeritus
/
King Saud University

/

“It is indeed a superb piece of work, excellently conceived and scrupulously executed, a vast and authoritative compendium of scholarship on the Qurʾān. All the contributors deserve to be congratulated on their labors. Having myself contributed to a number of encyclopedias over the years, I know of the vast amount of effort required to produce deceptively brief summations of complex topics.”

Hamid Algar

Professor Emeritus of Persian and Islamic Studies
/
University of California, Berkeley

/

“At a time when secular and epistemologically racist Anglo-European approaches to the Qurʾān seek to determine the horizon of Qurʾānic studies by brazenly ignoring over a thousand years of the Islamic intellectual tradition’s reflections on its own scripture, the presence of the Integrated Encyclopedia of the Qurʾān (IEQ) could not be more essential.”