Abla Hasan, associate professor of Arabic language and culture, is the author of new religion book “Decoding the Egalitarianism of the Qur’an: Retrieving Lost Voices on Gender.”

The book, which was published on Nov. 15 by Lexington Books, calls for a questioning of the interpretive credibility of many inherited Qur’anic commentaries.

This volume challenges longstanding interpretative practices in reading the Qur’an and invites readers to discover afresh the riches and gender-egalitarian directness of the sacred text itself. The work retrieves for readers and scholars an oft-neglected tradition of encounter with Islam’s scripture and teaching tradition.

“Hasan’s decoding the Egalitarianism of the Qur’an is the book many readers have been waiting for,” said Jawid Mojaddedi, professor of religion at Rutgers Univeristy, in an editorial review. “Hasan, a Syrian feminist specializing in the linguistics of the Qur’an as well as Women’s Studies, succeeds in the task of arguing in an engaging and passionate way for the Qur’an’s egalitarian message.”