Sacred Language: Understanding Islam Through Revelations, Prayers, and Dreams

A grand tour of some of the most influential thinkers and enduring practices of Islam, exploring ideas about language that continue to shape scholarship, life, and art.

While Islam is almost as varied as its nearly two billion adherents, most Muslims embrace the truth of divine revelation and the Quran as God’s word. This belief in a “speaking God,” one who communicates sublime words to humans, has left its mark everywhere on the Muslim world, including in its philosophies, arts, and cultura...