About the Translator. Muhammad Asad was a Polish-born journalist, writer, translator, and diplomat. He is also author of The Road to Mecca. Muhammad Asad's monumental translation and commentary is made available in this beautiful new edition designed by Ahmed Moustafa and includes a completely new typography, art and a complete transliteration of the Arabic text.

Muhammad Asad's translation and commentary is renown for its intellectual insight and frequent reference to classical commentaries such as Zamakhshari. Muhammad Asad, a German by descent, ranks highly among the select group of well-known 20th century converts to Islam who subsequently took up scholarship. After his conversion, he traveled widely in the Gulf region during the tumultuous 1930s and 1940s. He later settled in Pakistan upon its creation in 1947, and was Pakistan's ambassador to the United Nations during the 1960s. He died in the late 1970s. His variety of experience, in the Gulf during its still unadulterated pre-WWII Bedouin lifestyle, to his presence in the high civilization of America in the 1960s, makes him a unique gentleman to understand both the environment the Qur'an originally flourished in, as well as its relevancy to modern times.