I had the great honor and privilege to take Arabic lessons from this great Muslim scholar. Dr. Busool is a brilliant academician and philologist who has written many books in Arabic, Hebrew, and English. As a teacher, he was wise, kind, ironic, fascinating, and truly informative. I felt as if I was in Harun ar Rashid's Baghdad, although Dr. Busool is no archaic throwback. Rather, he is a modern who is the product of an illustrious past with which he is utterly conversant.I also had the honor of reading almost a quarter of the Suras as he translated them in manuscript, with his countless revisions throughout the process. We used these MSS. in class and it brought great depth to our studies of the Book itself, grammar, Hadith, Classical Arabic, the meaning of religion, custom, poetry and so on.I was deeply moved and impressed with Dr. Busool's extraordinary command of English: his translation did take the previous English versions into account (Arberry, 'Ali, Pickthall, et al.), but he has aimed for something quite different. It seemed to me to be an attempt to get away from the heavy influence that the King James Bible has had on English translations of religious texts from non-Christian sources, without devolving into a crude and simplistic vernacular. A sort of third way in language, informed by awe and remove, yes, but also independent of the clunky and aloof pastiche that has become a kind of cheap shot in English vis-a-vis the sacral languages. The King James Bible is indeed beautiful, but using it as a quick template has the pitfall of reducing all translations to a somewhat arcane, phony English. The English of the King James is unique and should remain so. English is a mongrel tongue, which can be a great strength, as long as it used innovatively and not as a grandiose imitation of the source text. I feel that Dr. Busool has done this.I also must note that unlike many earlier translators, Dr. Busool has the vast corpus of Qur'anic commentaries (tafasir) at his fingertips. He utilized this great world library throughout his work, and was not confined simply to one doctrine. This is profoundly important.Disclosure: I confess that I haven't read the final book, but based on what I have read as part of our lessons together, I thought it was marvelous. Dr. Busool also consulted non-Muslims and native English speakers for continuity and sense in his work, as well as his academic colleagues in English grammar studies and so on. Of course, no English can ever contain or even hold a cracked mirror to the Qur'an's unearthly Arabic, but a translation such as this will certainly make any reader want to read the original language. Or at least listen to a Qur'an recital. And if not, then this book will offer a profound gaze into the world of Islam, a world (actually, many worlds) so different from the narrow racist mirage invented by an uninformed, zenophobic and frightened gaggle of mercenary pundits.I have read several English 'translations' of the Noble Qur'an. In my opinion as an ordinary American, this one must be the best. You will not be disappointed.