The French went to great lengths to cultivate class divisions in Algeria, the Belgians promoted tribal factionalism in Rwanda, and the British fostered sectarian schisms in Iraq, all in a futile attempt to minimize nationalist tendencies and stymie united calls for independence. I also thought it shameful the glancing way he wrote about Sept. 11. Because it immersed me in a religion I don't know in a compelling way, and gave me enough of a platform of information to perhaps start seeking other answers, and for that I'll overlook a lot. It did seem that Aslan's own let's say, predispositions were coming through. At university he was converted to Islam because of its visible action on behalf of a class of oppressed people. Fifth, there is an eerily sanctimonious thread in the final chapter that may be grounds for concern. When fourteen centuries ago Muhammed launched a revolution in Mecca to replace the archaic, rigid, and inequitable strictures of tribal society with a radically new vision of divine morality and social egalitarianism, he tore apart the fabric of traditional Arab society. But because every path eventually leads to the same destination, which path one takes is irrelevant., However, Saudi Arabia quickly discovered what the rest of the world would soon learn. Prophets are, above all, reformers who redefine and reinterpret the existing beliefs and practices of their communities, providing fresh sets of symbols and metaphors with which succeeding generations can describe the nature of reality., The separation of church and state of which America is so proud was established in Islam fourteen centuries ago, when it was decided that no Caliph would have religious authority over the community., In fact, the term holy war originates not with Islam but with the Christian Crusaders who first used it to give theological legitimacy to what was in reality a battle for land and trade routes. The Arabian desert was the habitation, geopolitically, of warring tribes, and religiously, of waning pluralism. The chief victors in the intero-Islamic skirmishes took shape in sharp contrast to what Muhammad had envisioned. Of course, such a process takes time. Reza Aslan's book No God but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam, first published in March 2005 by Random House, is the young Shiite intellectual's first attempt to lay the ideological foundations towards a direction of Islamic reform which is based on theological approach. It strikes me that all the various factions of Islam that developed (which Aslan over optimistically describes as conveying a wonderful cultural and spiritual diversity, conveniently ignoring the bloodshed), were all striving to arrive at what Mohammad really meant, the real Islam. (Here, as elsewhere, Aslan strays from traditional accounts in the interests of historical accuracy. GoodReads community and editorial reviews can be helpful for getting a wide range of opinions on various aspects of the book. Reviews in The Guardian display a strong grasp of the subject matter, and are able to analyze whether the book accomplished its goal. Rather, the Christian Reformation was an argument over the future of the faitha violent, bloody argument that engulfed Europe in devastation and war for more than a century., As is the case with most prophets, Muhammads birth was accompanied by signs and portents. God resembles nothing in either essence or attributes., Muhammads example must have had a lasting effect on his early followers: as Nabia Abbott has shown, throughout the first two centuries of Islam, Muslims regularly read the Torah alongside the Quran., Consider, for example, how the following verse (4:34) regarding the obligations of men toward women has been rendered into English by two different but widely read contemporafirst is from the Princeton edition, translated by Ahmed Ali; the second is from Majid Fakhrys translation, published by New York University: Fundamentalism, in all religious traditions, is impervious to suppression. You will have a direct line to ASH, for any questions you have: you will only be one email away from ASH. No God But One by Nabeel Qureshi | Book Summary About the Author (s) Nabeel Qureshi was a former Muslim who converted to Christianity at great risk to his life and relationships. And finally, when the celebrated Quranic commentator Fakhr ad-Din ar-Razi (11491209) interpreted the verse [God] created spouses for you of your own kind so that you may have peace of mind through them (3:21) as proof that women were created like animals and plants and other useful things [and not for] worship and carrying the Divine commands . But it was never meant to function as a legal code, which is precisely why scholars had to rely so heavily on extra-Quranic sources like ijma (consensus), qiyas (analogy), istislah (which refers to the common good of the people), and ijtihad (independent juristic reasoning)all of them, by definition, reliant on human judgment and historical contextin order to construct the Shariah in the first place. because the woman is weak, silly, and in one sense like a child, his commentary became (and still is) one of the most widely respected in the Muslim world. Minds are not changed merely through acquiring data or information (if that were the case it would take no effort to convince Americans that Obama is, in fact, a Christian). What are we, especially those of us who are traditional Christian believers, to make of this, or of the rest of Aslans book? Abdallah politely refused and continued to the house of Amina, where he consummated the marriage that would result in the birth of the Prophet. Entries also contain a short biography of the author. Third, Aslans account of the origin and development of Islam follows a dubious principle of secular historical practice. Aslans own account of Muhammads community indicates that non-Muslim citizens had more limited rights than the Muslims who shaped the ideals and social arrangements of their society. In reality they are one and only one thing.. That is the reader's key to this fascinating account of the origins and development of Islam. According to Aslan, Islam is experiencing an internal struggle between individualistic reform and traditional clerical authority similar to what took place during the 16th century Reformation in Christianity. Tight composition, fast pacing, authoritative tone: it's no surprise it was a bestseller. Do read the book. Inshallah. He is author of many books, includingEvil and the Evidence for God(Temple University Press, 1995), Faith, Film, and Philosophy: Big Ideas on the Big Screen(InterVarsity Press, forthcoming), andPhilosophy of Religion(Rowman and Littlefield, also forthcoming). According to the Islamic statement of witness, or shahada, "There is no god but Allah". This is a major attraction that Christianity has for me. This website generates no revenue, has no banner ads, and does not collect information to sell to third parties. He took pot shots at Christianity and Judaism, and his comments about those religions contained several inaccuracies, such as Aaron having brought the Jews to the Promised Land. Try to control it, and it will turn against you. Fourth, this methodology raises questions: Aslan is Muslim, but in what sense? Are they now going to inherit just like men who have worked to earn that money? Muhammads response to these complaints was both unsympathetic and shockingly unyielding. Muhammad also forbade a husband to touch his wifes dowry, forcing him instead to provide for his family from his own wealth. And since the doctrine of Tawhid insists on the oneness of God, the Sufis argue, then reality must also be unique. His memoir gets most exciting toward the end where he describes his escape from radical Islam, facilitated in a crucial way by the appeal of Christianity. One thing that came as a surprise to me was that Muhammad, like Jesus, did appreciate women and their contributions. a. sound-switch. In his book No God but God, Reza Aslan claims that "In all, there are said to be three hundred sixty idols housed in and around the Kaba, representing every god recognized in the Arabian Peninsula." Therefore people from all over Arabia congregated in this area to worship their gods. I witness that Muhammad is His messenger. Its history is better known and better founded. The function of the clergy in an Islamic democracy is not to rule, but to preserve and, more important, to reflect the morality of the state (265). It was fascinating to see the overlap between Islam and Judaism. . Brenna Clarke Gray, . . . It may take another generation or so for this era of anti-Muslim frenzy to be looked back upon with the same shame and derision with which the current generation views the anti-Catholic and anti-Jewish hysterics of the past. No god but God (Updated Edition) by Reza Aslan: 9780812982442 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books A fascinating, accessible introduction to Islam from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Zealot and host of Believer FINALIST FOR THE GUARDIAN. ASH is a website for cultural outreach, and to unite people who seek goodness and knowledge. The Islamic Reformation is already here. If women could no longer be considered property, men complained, not only would their wealth be drastically reduced, but their own meager inheritances would now have to be split with their sisters and daughtersmembers of the community who, they argued, did not share an equal burden with the men. Aslan explains the development of Muhammads prophetic consciousness as a series of smaller, indescribable supernatural experiences that climaxed in a final violent encounter with the divine (36). As an academic, I know how distressingly rare it is to find an writer with strong scholarly chops and an accessible writing voice. I dont want to spoil the ending by saying any more than that. Despite that, it cannot be the primary source of reference when it comes to Prophet Muhammads biography for few of the account of events are arbitrary and moot point to what I as a Muslim has been born and raised taught with. Each chapter of the book deals with a specific topic within Islam. My research suggests that many genuine progressives have been silenced or marginalized by the exploits of the rabid and the bigoted. Their voice is not yet heard at a level that convinces me of their significant influence, but let us hope their effectiveness continues behind the scenes. His concluding chapter expresses the hope that a democratic reform movement within Islam eventually will displace the radical Islamist movement, which he believes is defined by terror and at odds with the true spirit of Islam. BlogCritics reviews use emotional language to describe the feel and content of the book, relying on colorful language and an informal tone. Reality is neither emptiness nor illusion, reality is God. Those who disobey God and His Messenger, and who try to overstep the boundaries of this [inheritance] law will be thrown into Hell, where they will dwell forever, suffering the most shameful punishment (4:14). What is important is what these stories say about our prophets, our messiahs, our kings: that theirs is a holy and eternal vocation, established by God from the moment of creation. The book details the succession of various caliphs who led the religion and skillfully veers off into side-stories about more modern developments such as the revolution in Iran, the results of. The Quran is Gods direct self-revelation to humanity. . -- who casually overturned some of Mohammad's famously moderate teachings after he died, by claiming they'd heard Mohammad say otherwise. . The narrative begins in seventh-century Arabia, where the Prophet Muhammad set out to create a society based on social egalitarianism and equality of the sexes. Aslan goes on to say that this does not mean that the religious authorities would have no influence on the state. He says that such influence can only be moral, not political. As for women you feel are averse, talk to them suasively; then leave them alone in bed (without molesting them) and go to bed with them (when they are willing). This last point bears repeating. Whether man made or heavenly sent, timeless or bound to a specific era, there's a thing or two about Islam that one can learn to appreciate. First, the historical narrative Aslan presents is engaging, informative, eminently readable, and, under close scrutiny, fairly reliable. It is here, at the end of the journey, when the individual has been stripped of his ego, that he becomes one with the Universal Spirit and achieves unity with the Divine. If there is a No god but God SparkNotes, Shmoop guide, or Cliff Notes, you can find a link to each study guide below. But this is what I call uzum, replied the Turk. I am struck by the contrast with Christianity, a historically older tradition. Aslan is clear-eyed about the challenges facing contemporary Islam and offers helpful evidence for dismantling arguments against the faith (useful if, you know, youre friends with Bill Maher or just spend a lot of time on the internet). We were woefully ignorant on the subject and needed to learn something about the religion. England continues to maintain a national church whose religious head is also the countrys sovereign and whose bishops serve in the upper house of Parliament. India was, until recently, governed by partisans of an litist theology of Hindu Awakening (Hindutva) bent on applying an implausible but enormously successful vision of true Hinduism to the state. He was not the lifelong monotheist portrayed in traditional Muslim accounts. The site is known for a sarcastic, irreverent tone and a strong conservative bent. Given sentence below refers to a numbered sentence in the passage. From this perspective, Reza Aslan retells the story of Islam. To me, this was worth reading, because Reza Aslan made the story if Islam come alive and told me so much I didn't know about Islam. This review first appeared in the Christian Research Journal, volume 30, number 3 (2007). Reza Aslan shows a snapshot of Islam from its origin to its evolution. It also seems as though Aslan naturally would hope that if this happened, it would remain a democracy. Depending on the study guide provider (SparkNotes, Shmoop, etc. It will not be considered reliable by Islamic Traditionalists, but Aslan makes a plausible case that their narrative is largely mythological. But if the intent was to present a vision of how muslims should understand their faith under the challenge of modernity, it falls way short. This is the final station along the Sufi Way. Not that I totally trusted Aslan's account. He believes that all religion is conceived, incubated, weaned, and matured almost entirely in response to sociocultural conditions. Men are in charge of women, because Allah has made some of them excel the others, and because they spend some of their wealth. It strikes me that since there are so many variant translations and editions that could be manipulated to mean anything, every group will continue to strive for what Mohammad intended by projecting their own beliefs on him. In traditional Eastern philosophy, this notion of radical unity is often called monism: the idea that all things, despite their variety, can be reduced to a single thing unified in space, time, essence, or quality. This updated edition addresses the events of the past decade, analyzing . Please see the supplementary resources provided below for other helpful content related to this book. FreeBookNotes has 2 more books by Reza Aslan, with a total of 3 study guides. Overall the book deals with the history of Islam from the perspective of the prophet, Mohammed as a social reformer fighting for equal rights for men. This became the site of Medina, the City of the Prophet. Aslan details the significance of Medina in Chapter 3, where he makes the arresting statement, Today, Medina is simultaneously the archetype of Islamic democracy and the impetus for Islamic militancy (52). Too many instances dispute my current knowledge of the prophets life. God willing., As a text, the Quran is more than the foundation of the Islamic religion; it is the source of Arabic grammar. People might make the same arguments for why pantheism isn't strictly a form of theism as they do deism. We believe in God, and in that which has been revealed to us, which is that which was revealed to Abraham and Ismail and Jacob and the tribes [of Israel], as well as that which the Lord revealed to Moses and to Jesus and to all the other Prophets. In order to speak to new generations, traditions adapt, but faith is eternal. He then returned to the men and gave them each a bunch. You will learn a lot from No God But God, especially about Islamic cultural practices and their Quaranic (or lack of Quaranic) roots. In fact, Rezas Shiite background strongly influences his writing. Language In their struggle for equal rights, Muslim feminists have consistently drawn inspiration from the legal reforms Muhammad instituted in Medina, while at the same time, Muslim traditionalists have construed those same legal reforms as grounds for maintaining the subjugation of women in Islamic society. This is an online articlefrom the Christian Research Journal. After a few generations, almost anything could be given the status of hadith if one simply claimed to trace its transmission back to Muhammad. It concludes with enthusiastic expression of hope for reform in the direction of a democratic Islamic culture, but Aslan offers little reason to believe that this is the likely outcome, to say nothing of its inevitability. His prognostication and current realities are utterly discordant. Despite these concerns, I recommend Reza Aslans book. From the Islamic perspective, however, the attacks on New York and Washington were part of an ongoing clash between those Muslims who strive to reconcile their religious values with the realities of the modern world, and those who react to modernism and reform by revertingsometimes fanaticallyto the fundamentals of their faith., God is, in other words, wholly Other: the Mysterium Tremendum, to borrow Rudolph Ottos famous phrase., The Kaba, like the Pyramids in Egypt or the Temple in Jerusalem, may have been constructed as an axis mundi, sometimes called a navel spot: a sacred space around which the whole of the universe revolves, the link between the earth and the solid dome of heaven., For the Sufi, reality is neither emptiness nor illusion; reality is God., The Spanish philosopher and physician Ibn Rushd (112698), better known as Averros in the West, pushed al-Jabbars conception of truth to its limit by proposing a two truths theory of knowledge in which religion and philosophy are placed in opposition to each other. He came upon a small federation of villages and an oasis where he wished to settle, a region called Yathrib. In many religions God is also conceived as perfect and unfathomable by humans, as all-powerful and all-knowing (omnipotent and omniscient), and as the source and ultimate ground of morality. xxxi-xxxii). To say the Shariah is divine because the Quran is divine is akin to arguing that water and wine are the same, since water is a primary ingredient in wine., While the exact changes Muhammad made to this tradition are far too complex to discuss in detail here, it is sufficient to note that women in the Ummah were, for the first time, given the right both to inherit the property of their husbands and to keep their dowries as their own personal property throughout their marriage. The book very elegantly explains this magnificent yet misunderstood faith, Islam. 626 likes, 14 comments - Holistic lifestyle + fitness (@katie.bevington) on Instagram: "I almost lost it today. Aslan says nothing about the boundaries of a legitimate, democratic Islamic state. First, a majority of Westerners think, Muslims are hereprobably to staybut as long as they mind their own business and dont disrupt my way of life, Ive got no problem with that. After all, Muslims constitute about half of 1 percent of the total U.S. population (somewhere between 5 and 6 million), there hasnt been a serious terrorist incident in the United States since 9/11, and most of our Muslim neighbors seem to have assimilated into the mainstream. It seems, based on what he does say, that the United States of America could become an Islamic state. He relies on this in his defense of the early history of Islam and of the peculiarities of Islamic tradition and the challenges of Quranic interpretation. ), it was neither widely adopted nor universally construed by the early Christian communities., Certainly the shahadah contained an important theological innovation, but that innovation was not monotheism. At the center of these developments were political machinations as well as simple practical exigencies. I am unable to say, And they are unable to hear., The concept of fasting was extraneous to the bedouin experience (it would have been absurd to voluntarily deprive oneself of food or water in a desert climate), there is no doubt that Mohammed mutated this ritual for the Jews of the Arabian Peninsula, which the Quran itself admits by declaring: Fasting is prescribed for you, just as it was prescribed for those who preceded you (2: 183). He envisions a courtyard roofed in palm leaves, with living quarters made of wood and mud lining the walls. All of a sudden, the men realized that what each of them had desired was in fact the same thing, only they did not know how to express themselves to each other. A religious state of Islamic orientation also most likely would be rife with internal struggles, since there has never been a successful attempt to establish a monolithic interpretation of the meaning and significance of Islamic beliefs and practices (265). That year, 622 C.E., will forever be known as Year 1 A.H. (After Hijra); and the oasis that for centuries had been called Yathrib will henceforth be celebrated as Medinat an-Nabi: The City of the Prophet, or more simply, Medina., The Shiah believe that salvation requires the intercession of Muhammad, his son-in-law Ali, his grandsons Hasan and Husayn, and the rest of the Prophets legitimate successors, the Imams, who not only serve as humanitys intercessors on the Last Days, but who further function as the eternal executors (wali) of the divine Revelation., The word Imam has multiple connotations. However, in their earliest stages, the hadith were muddled and totally unregulated, making their authentication almost impossible. Copyright FreeBookNotes.com 2014-2023. He doubts the authenticity of the traditional narrative and says only that, we can reasonably conclude that Muhammed was a Meccan and an orphan; that he worked for his uncles caravan from a young age; that this caravan made frequent trips throughout the region and would have encountered Christian, Zoroastrian, and Jewish tribes, all of whom were deeply involved in Arab society; and finally, that he must have been familiar with the religion and ideology of Hanifism, which pervaded Mecca and which very likely set the stage for Muhammeds own movement. Who were the Hypsistarians: Inner life requires attention to the world, How to be happy: Happiness is a choice, not a genetic factor, Believe in yourself: keep pushing, every answer is inside you, Words of wisdom: Epicurus letter on happiness, Temple Mount: the Sacreds space and location for the encounter of realities, In Praise of Folly (Erasmus of Rotterdam), Epiphany: meaning and what people actually celebrate, Who is Satan: Why (sadly) it is important to know the Devil, Eid al-Adha: The remembrance in Islam of Abrahams faith, Sufism: what it is, and who the Sufis really are, Mohammed meaning of Seal of the Prophets, Timeline of Important milestones in Islamic history. The Islamic Reformation is already here. Counter it with cruelty, and it gains adherents. This book really took the top of my head off. Your Spirit mixed with my Spirit little by little, he wrote of God in his Diwan, by turns, through reunions and abandons. All four craved food, but the Persian wanted to spend the coin on angur; the Turk, on uzum; the Arab, on inab; and the Greek, on stafil. We are all living in it. God presented three conditions and signs. This is an online-exclusive from theChristian Research Journal. His strategy is to document the history of Islam, describe inner tensions within that historical context, and relate the resulting picture to current conditions, in a manner that is neither reckless nor misleading. The person who brought the conversation together began the discussion by saying atheism doesn't imply nihilism and that she was becoming rather impatient with those who imply such a thing, wagging her finger at theists, saying her life without God has been very happyvery happy, indeed. As the quintessential colonialist, Cromer had no interest in the plight of Muslim women; the veil was, for him, an icon of the backwardness of Islam, and the most visible justification for Europes civilizing mission in the Middle East., Grateful for their generosity, Muhammad orders the land to be leveled, the graves dug up, and the palm trees cut down for timber to build a modest home. Of politics and history it is a good introduction for the non-muslim. He is the copy of God, in the words of al-Arabis greatest disciple, Abdul Karim al-Jili: he is the mirror in which the divine attributes are perfectly reflected; the medium through which God is made manifest., More than a thousand years before Christ, Zarathustra preached the existence of a heaven and a hell, the idea of a bodily resurrection, the promise of a universal savior who would one day be miraculously born to a young maiden, and the expectation of a final cosmic battle that would take place at the end of time between the angelic forces of good and the demonic forces of evil., It is a shame that this word, myth, which originally signified nothing more than stories of the supernatural, has come to be regarded as synonymous with falsehood, when in fact myths are always true. Desert was the habitation, geopolitically, of warring tribes, and it gains adherents the center of these were... 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Goodness and knowledge i also thought it shameful the glancing way he about! Have a direct line to ASH, for any questions you have: you will have a direct to., like Jesus, did appreciate women and their contributions from his own wealth SparkNotes, Shmoop etc! In the Christian Research Journal, volume 30, number 3 ( 2007 ),. Response to sociocultural conditions the supplementary resources provided below for other helpful content to. Happened, it would remain a democracy historical practice wifes dowry, forcing him instead to provide for his from. Also be unique influence on the study guide provider ( SparkNotes, Shmoop, etc informative, readable. Influence on the oneness of God, the historical narrative Aslan presents is engaging,,! Prophets life returned to the men and gave them each a bunch statement... Surprise to me was that Muhammad, like Jesus, did appreciate women and their contributions topic within.... 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