About this Treatise
Notes on the Quran is a three-volume treatise compiled by Z F Khan. Its purpose, in the author’s words, is twofold — first, to spotlight the Quran itself, which has been thrown into the background of our lives in the modern age; second, to spotlight the various themes of the Quran that are scattered throughout, repeated and referred to in various manners.
The work proceeds, in the author’s phrase, like “a typist taking dictation from his employer.” The compiler claims no originality — the verses, the explanations of the Salaf, the narrations of the Companions, are all transmitted faithfully and arranged so that the reader may see the unity beneath their apparent dispersal.
The Three Volumes
Volume I — Concepts & Directives. Organized into four parts — Understanding Concepts, Belief and Faith, Qualities of Believers, and Directives to Follow. Each chapter takes up one concept — Beautified Life, Burden, Forgiveness and Repentance, Knowledge and Quran, Patience and As-Salat, and so on — tracing it through the relevant verses and the words of the Prophet ﷺ and the early scholars.
Volume II — The Insightful Verses. A more focused volume that selects forty-six verses of singular weight and follows each with the author’s reflection, marked simply as INSIGHT. The arrangement follows the order of the Surahs from Al-Baqarah onward.
Volume III — The Signs of Allah. The longest and most ambitious of the three. After setting the historical context of pre-Islamic Arabia and the life of the Prophet ﷺ, it proceeds in seven parts to study the Ayat (signs) of Allah — in the working of the universe, in human history, in man’s own procreation and structure, in moral conscience, in earthly and heavenly calamities, and through the Messengers.
How to Read
The volumes need not be read in order. Each volume is self-contained, and within each volume the chapters are independent meditations. Use the navigation bar at the top to move between volumes, the search box on each volume’s table of contents to find a chapter, and the previous/next links at the foot of every chapter to read straight through.
A toggle in the corner switches between the parchment and the night themes. Both are designed for long-form reading.
May this work help all believers advance from Islam to Iman, from Iman to Ihsan.