Sandow Birk’s work deals with contemporary life. Past themes include inner-city violence, graffiti, surfing, skateboarding, Dante, and war. He is the recipient of many awards and has exhibited extensively in the United States and abroad. Reza Aslan is an internationally acclaimed writer, producer, and scholar of religions. He is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Zealot, and editor of Tablet & Pen: Literary Landscapes from the Modern Middle East. He lives in Los Angeles, California. Iftikhar Dadi is an artist and professor in Cornell University's Department of History of Art and chair of its Department of Art. Zareena A. Grewal is a professor of American studies and religious studies at Yale University.
It's quite a panorama, this labor-intensive version of a major historical book embedded within a massive contemporary one. -- Holland Cotter - New York Times A Noah's ark of images... The reader who doesn't open American Qur'an out of devotion will be drawn to its images. Birk has created pictures to accompany classic texts for years, and these painted scenes seem like real America, circa 2015-more America than Quran...This is a book whose impact will be felt more in the debate that it generates than in the readers who spend the time that it demands. -- David D'Arcy - San Francisco Chronicle From the opening page, Birk's art stuns...in a distinctive and visually impressive style that begs for close attention. Meanwhile, the juxtaposition of words and images prompts the reader to engage deeply with the text... This masterpiece is important as an accessible and enjoyable introduction to the Qur'an for non-Muslim Americans, but even for Muslims and others familiar with the Qur'an, it bears weighty messages, inviting a reconsideration of sacred texts in the context of ordinary American lives. -- Publishers Weekly, Starred review