They knew us before we began to walk upright. Shamans called them guardians, mythmakers called them tricksters, pagans called them gods, churchmen called them demons, folklorists called them shape-shifters. They’ve obligingly taken any role we’ve assigned them, and, while needing nothing from us, have accepted whatever we thought was their due – love, hate, fear, worship, condemnation, neglect, oblivion. Even in modern times, when their existence is doubted or denied, they continue to extend invitations to those who would travel a different road, a road not found on any of our cultural maps. But now, perceiving us as a threat to life itself, they issue their invitations with a dark purpose of their own. In this dazzling metaphysical thriller, four who put themselves in the hands of these all-but-forgotten Others venture across a sinister American landscape hidden from normal view, finding their way to interlocking destinies of death, terror, transcendental rapture, and shattering enlightenment.

The Quran is the sacred text of Islam. For Muslims, it is the word of the one God. The Quran was revealed to the last prophet Muḥammad (محمد) from the year 610 until his death in 632 by the angel Gabriel (جبريل). According to the Quran, Allah is the author of all the sacred books of the three monotheistic religions that are Islam, Christianity, and Judaism. He thus revealed the Gospel to the penultimate prophet Jesus and the Torah to the prophet Moses. Thus we read in verse 3 of Surah 3: "It is He Who has sent down the Book (the Quran) to you (Muhammad) with truth, confirming what came before it. And he sent down the Taurat (Torah) and the Injeel (Gospel)." However, Islam considers that with the exception of the Quran, all holy books have been falsified by man. Verse 75 of Surah 2 goes in this direction: "Well, do you hope [Moslems] that such people [the Jews] will share the faith with you? while a group of them; after hearing and understanding the word of Allah, falsified it knowingly. " This present work is an English translation of the meaning of the verses of the Qur'an by Abdullah Yusuf Ali.